An announcement has come on the teaming of Lenovo and Vodafone in the United Kingdom to offer mobile broadband which will be built-in to the laptop to save users needing to purchase a separate 3G datacard, and without adding extra cost to the model.
The Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks in Lenovo’s T and X Series and on all Lenovo’s new upcoming SL Series notebooks will all sport the new 3G connectivity option. This will be on a “30 day free” trial from Vodafone and once the trial is over the user can opt to continue with the Vodafone 3G service or simply stop using it.
These laptops come pre-installed and ready to go while the user only need supply name and address rather than hand over credit card details. Lenovo had used Ericsson’s built-in modules for the mobile broadband offering and they say the module will be customer replaceable if technology advances.
Vodafone believes the majority of laptops will use built-in modules with a year, and state customers who connect outside the UK will not be ripped off with high roaming charges.
A Vodafone spokesman said: “It will cost £8.50 a day for unlimited data around Europe, USA, Japan and some other key countries like Hong Kong.”
Source – pocket-lint
Over the next couple of months broadband providers will face new competition. Companies are on their way and will be available on some of the biggest names. Currently T-Mobile, Vodafone and Three have announced their tariffs with Orange rumored to follow suit by the start of next year (2008).