Mobile Broadband (WWAN)?

I need some help here, this past August I bought a fully decked out T61P including the Integrated Mobile Broadband (WWAN) antennas. I have been traveling a lot lately and wouldn’t mind purchasing a wireless plan for mobile internet but here is the problem. I don’t know much about the Integrated Mobile Broadband (WWAN) system. I understand that the internet is accessed over the cell network and a service from a provider is needed. What I don’t understand is what hardware is required. I know I have the integrated antennas, but what else do I need? Do I need to get a USB adapter? Does it somehow use the internal antenna?

Long story long , I am looking at getting wireless from Verizon and am not sure what I need to get and as I am sure you all will understand that Verizon is not a whole lot of help.

Something else that I have been curious about is what is this?


Above location is under battery.

My guess is that it is a place for a sim car for AT&T’s mobile internet?

Thanks for any input/support, I am a bit lost/confused here.

 

That slot is for a SIM card. You can buy a Mobile Broadband Activated SIM ($60 per month), or if you only need it occasionally get a GSM smartphone with an Internet tethering plan and just pull the SIM from your phone when you want to use the laptop WWAN.

You will need a mini-PCI card if you want to use the internal antennas. You most likely have to buy this from Lenovo. My x200 Tablet uses an Ericsson F3507G. After you get this card you will need to install it under the keyboard and attach the antenna leads. It should then work fine (as long as you have an activated SIM above the battery.

The other option is a USB or ExpressCard from a WWAN provider. These are usually inexpensive (often free) as long as you sign a 2 year service contract. These are easy enough to use and have the advantage of transfering the card between computers. However, an external card is something else to carry around/lose, and I think they get worse signal strength (speed) and use slightly more power (less battery life) than an internal solution.

 

I have a T500 with AT&T internal card installed. I'd like to hear more about "a GSM smartphone with an Internet tethering plan" option, please. As I need an Internet connection for occasional trips, I don't want to sign a two-year contract if I can avoid it.

A detailed guideline on how to go about purchasing exact equipment, tethering plan, ec., would be greatly appreiated!

 

Any GSM smartphone with Internet service (Blackberry Bold, iPhone, Nokia N95, etc.) should work for this.

It will work without a tethering plan, but it is generally against your terms of service, and your provider could cancel your contract and charge you an ETF if they catch you (this shouldn't be a problem if you just use it for email and web browsing, but if you start downloading torrents or running an FTP they will probably figure it out).

Tethering plans tend to cost more than basic Internet access on a smartphone (e.g. $30 for personal internet, $45 for business Internet [exchange support], and $60 for internet w/ tethering on AT&T). However, this is the only way to guarantee you are not in violation of your contract by putting your SIM in your laptop.

If you already have one of these phones you shouldn't need to sign a new contract, but if you are buying a new phone you almost certainly will. Until recently you could get prepaid mobile internet on AT&T's GoPhone, but they ended this process in November. Conversely, I think most other countries do offer prepaid WWAN/Internet Phone SIM cards without a contract.

 

I currently tether my X200 with my Moto q 9c via bluetooth with verizon. Verizon does not use sim cards so I am not exactly sure how purchasing WWAN from them would go. However if you are using it only periodically like me you can get a phone as jon said and use the internet through that. Just note that verizon hid the internet sharing application on my phone in the windows directory...you might either have to find that or get some 3rd party software.

 

I appreciate the input so far but I am looking to do a completely internal WWAN solution. I popped the keyboard off and found the antennas (I think) and where the WWAN card would go (I think). I'll call Lenovo tomorrow and see what they can answer for me.

In the meantime maybe you folks can answer a couple internal questions for me.

What are these?

Reference:


1 - WWAN antennas I assume




2 - Got me?




3 - WWAN card slot I think



If the above are indeed the WWAN antennas and WWAN card slot why are they so far apart?

 

Section #1 where the WWAN wires are is also the slot. If you look to the left side of that section there is a socket where the card slides into it. The two screws on the right side are used to secure the card when you plug it in. I just installed the AT&T card into my T500 last week. You need to get the AT&T card from Lenovo (or Lenovo reseller) if you want to use the internal card.

When you get the card, it will come with install instructions and software.

 

Well I'll be ed, took a second look and there the slot is, I thought that it was the back to one of the external connections. I tried calling Lenovo and Verizon again and had no luck, other then Verizon trying to get me to buy a USB wireless adapter. I did find this which I believe is what I need. When you say that got the card from AT&T do you mean the actual WWAN card or the SIM card? Either way my experience is going to be somewhat different because I am going to be using Verizon.

Thanks again for the help, as I said before Lenovo, Verizon, and Google have not been kind to my inquiries .

 

I just acquired some new knowledge, after I purchase the WWAN card like the one I linked above I will contact Verizon give them the ESN # on the card and activate it that way. This pretty much sums up my questions thus far. Thanks to all that had input so far, it is much appreciated .

 

You must purchase the WWAN module from Lenovo! Others (like the one from Dell you are referring to in your previous post) won't work in your ThinkPad. The reason is that although the Mini PCI-E interface is standardized, the BIOS of your notebook contains a list of approved Mini PCI-E cards (so called whitelist), which are basically all the options that Lenovo offers for custom configured machines and in preconfigured models. During startup the BIOS of your notebook will check Device IDs of all connected Mini PCI-E cards against the whitelist and in case it founds an unknown Device ID, the system will refuse to boot. At this point, please note that Lenovo branded modules (for instance an Intel WiFi 4965AGN module delivered with a Thinkpad) will have different Device IDs compared to generic modules (i.e. an Intel 4965AGN module bought as an OEM part in an online shop)! Do bear this in mind to avoid an unpleasant surprise and disappointment.

For the sake of completeness... there is a way around this, although definitely not recommended for someone inexperienced. You would need to either hack the BIOS of your ThinkPad or modify the Device ID of the WWAN card. If you search for "Thinkpad WWAN whitelist", you'll certainly be able to acquire more information regarding this matter. Anyway, the easisest solution in my opinion is to simply buy the necessary part from Lenovo.

 

1. For the "FRU" listed parts, it will have no prob to install on your laptop. But you have to refer to the hardware compatibility list firstly, diff model supports diff parts.

2. Sometimes, you can buy same parts without FRU from ebay or somewhere. although it will not work out of box, you can download modded bios to bypass the restriction. there're websites provide those modded bios (for research purpos only as always)

Tell me about how to setup the WWAN with a current ATT sim card? I've got a blackberry(enterprise exchange server), but I just cannot make it work with my 3507g wwan equiped T400.

 

kevintown,
I myself wouldn't want that arrangement. I'm a computer woman and I know I wanted to stay on the net all day.
-Renee

 

Not sure if this helps, but I don't think the bottom left mini PCIe slot has a BIOS lock on it. I use it to run non Lenovo WLAN cards in it, but never tried a WWAN card in it.