We had T-Mobile offering the Eee PC, too, but more as a giveaway in addition to the actual hardware you got (the USB HSDPA-modem), which was, AFAIK, locked to their network. (I'm not completely sure about that last bit.)

Whats new here is you don't get just a modem, you get the whole computer with HSDPA access, you get it for free (contract is €25/month) and you're not locked to the network. I think not being restricted on the hardware side is pretty cool.