Query about WiWAN in VGNSZ460N/C

Hi all

I want to pruchase sony SZ series notebook, VGNSZ460N/C, with inbuilt Wireless WAN (Wide Area NEtwork). its coming with 30 day free trial of Cingular Wireless National EDGE Network.

I intend to buy this laptop in USA and take it back to my home in india where i will use it. My question is that will i be able to use WAN with some other service provider in india. Or is it only designed to work with cingular.

Basically, will this laptop have the basic hardware to catch WAN of other service provider & do we have option of removing cingular specific software???

Pls advice

Best Regards

 

I have read something that the WWAN card is locked to a specific provider.

But, some guy here on the forum recently wrote about this a few days ago. he has spoken to Sony which where supposed to try get hold of a unlocking code/software.

If you look around you will find it. I think that guy stated South Africa in the post, so search for that and you'll find it. If you get some more info, don't hesitate to post. Quite alot of people would like to know this, I presume.

 

Hi there

Yes - the WWAN module is locked to Cingular.

I was the guy that posted about this (and yes, I am in South Africa )

I called Sony again today and got ahold of someone who knew about the unlocking procedure. They gave me the unlock code straight away (relatively speaking - I gave them my IMEI number and waited a few minutes for them to get back to me) and I've finally managed to unlock my WWAN module (on Vista!).

Unfortunately, unlocking it doesn't really mean much if you can't get it to work (i.e. I can't get it to work!). I think it may have something to do with the fact that in SA we use different GSM frequencies to the ones that are used in the States. Other people might have different luck - I've tried everything: using the Cingular software (creating a separate profile with my provider's settings), using Windows dial-up networking to dial *99# (with and without a special modem initialisation string), etc. Windows just tells me it failed to connect (though it always gets to the "Registering..." message which comes after the "Verifying username and password") and the Cingular software itself just tells me "Searching for Network" (it does find a signal, I get 3-4 bars, but it just tells me after a few minutes that it could not find the network). I know it's not my SIM card / account with my provider, because I have used GPRS / EDGE / 3G for years now (it's definitely enabled!)

Anyway, I went off topic there a little bit, but the bottom line is that yes you can unlock the module, but whether it will work outside of the States is a whole different matter. Having been through it, I would not count on it. If it doesn't work, you can always remove the WWAN antenna (it's easy to do, and you can replace it if you ever need to) and disable the WWAN module onboard using the SmartWi software (to save battery).

 

that 30 day free trial is only if you open an account and start service with them for atleast a year.