Mobile Broadband To Come Built-in To Laptops

[engine]

Mobile Broadband To Come Bult-in [news.bbc.co.uk] To Laptops

Phone firms, chip makers and PC manufacturers are uniting to push mobile broadband on laptop computers.

The alliance will build wireless modules into laptops to make it much easier to use the gadgets on future high-speed services.

Laptops with the wireless chips built-in will bear a service mark which shows they will work with the third and fourth generation wireless technology.

The branded laptops should be on shop shelves in 91 nations by Christmas.

[Seb7]

Been giving away laptops for free if you sign up for 18month mobile broadband.

and, they dont sell laptops without wireless built-in for sometime now.

So, its natural progression on that I suppose.

[edited by: Seb7 at 12:10 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2008]

[vincevincevince]

Sounds fine provided they don't:

Require a mobile provider contract to be taken out at purchase

Lock the hardware to certain mobile providers

Do either of those and I will never buy one, ever.

[piatkow]

A assume that this means actually inserting the SIM in the laptop itself rather than using a dongle. As Seb7 says a WiFi card is standard these days.

I had to do a lot of arithmetic to decide if I wanted expensive mobile broadband with a "free" laptop or if I should buy my own and have a cheap, capped, connection for when I would use it away from home.

[inbound]

Mobile broadband (in the UK at least) isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

When it works, it's great - but if you are out of 3G reception (say on a train heading through countryside) you often find you're also out of GPRS reception too - aargh! Had that situation the last time I was on a train - a fortnight ago and was webless for around an hour... I nearly broke out into a cold sweat. I looked into the networks before signing up and they all have big holes in them (99.9%+ of the population coverage does not translate to 99.9% of land mass...).

Having said that, I'd not be without it now - but don't rely on it.

[stajer]

I have had a dell laptop for about a year that has cingular/att 3g built into it, along with a standard wifi card. It is really a nice feature that allows high speed internet access basically where ever I have cell coverage. Perfect for when there is no free or trustworthy wifi. It even roams - I have used it outside the US.

[SEOMike]

I have a little Sony laptop that has a sprint card built in. I really like having it but am not thrilled that I have only one choice unless I want to stick in a USB modem. I took a 10 hour car trip over the summer and had 3G pretty much the entire time. It did go off of 3G a couple times and was REALLY slow.

was webless for around an hour... I nearly broke out into a cold sweat

Sounds like you need a vacation :)

[ergophobe]

>>on a train heading through countryside

Yeah, but it's easier than wiring those remote locations I bet (not even counting the moving train). I think if we're ever to see true synchronous broadband (i.e. not satellite, which is challenging anyway given limited view of the souther sky) in our home, this is how we'll get it. So even though I can't really use it, I see this as good news. It means that when they finally add a cell to serve our area, it's just that much more likely to be able to provide broadband.

Perhaps this step is one of those little tipping points (I hope so anyway).

[engine]

>but if you are out of 3G reception

Yeah, I really know what you mean. My provider has the best coverage, but, it still it terribly slow outside of the metropolis.

I hate being locked in to one provider, and that would put me off completely.

[tangor]

For several clients I set up their new laptops. Most are wifi ready. Almost routinely we disable that and go for broadband cards for security reasons.

Like the idea, just curious as to the long term implementation!

[piatkow]

I haven't tried but I assume that changing mobile providers is just a matter of swapping the SIM or using a different dongle. Much easier than changing providers on a fixed line. Pity about the quality of signal in so many places.