WWAN card for the new 420/520 Thinkpads

[pkincy]

I notice all we see available so far is WWAN upgradeable.  Any idea what will be available preinstalled  and when it will appear as an option on the site?

The site (under the T420s specs) lists 4 WWAN minicards.  Are they specific to a carrier or should we worry about the "best" one?

And it appears that they are available at retail for considerable less than the $125 Lenovo will charge.  Worth installing it yourself or are the savings too small to justify the trouble.

TIA,

Perry

[Vince69]

Hello mate,

According to the hardware maintenance manual there is 2 wwan modem you can install on the T420 and T520.

The Qualcomm gobi 3000 FRU 60Y3257 and the Ericsson F5521gw FRU 60Y3277.

Like the older Tseries some are locked and some are not. The FRUs mentioned above are unlocked.

[ExcursionPSD]

As mentioned, there are four WWAN Minicards that are planned to be available for installation in the new Thinkpads:

Gobi™ 3000 Sierra Wireless EV-DO/HSPA WWAN Minicard

Ericsson HSPA+ WWAN Minicard (F5521gw)

LeadCore TD-SCDMA WWAN Minicard (LC5730D)

Huawei EV-DO WWAN Minicard (EM660)

As you can see, they support different cellular protocols, just like the different cellular carriers do:

EV-DO

HSPA

HSPA+

TD-SCDMA

[Ken]

A little more detail:

US carriers: Gobi™ 3000 Sierra MC8355 Wireless EV-DO/HSPA WWAN Minicard

    - this card is dual mode supporting EVDO and HSPA for Verizon/Sprint/ATT. Only ATT needs a SIM so if you oder this card you'll get an ATT SIM.

3G for all non-US countries: Ericsson HSPA+ WWAN Minicard (F5521gw)

Specific card for China Mobile: LeadCore TD-SCDMA WWAN Minicard (LC5730D)

Specific card for China Telecom: Huawei EV-DO WWAN Minicard (EM660)

[chx]

I would worry about the possibility to upgrade later if ordered without a WWAN card. What about the SIM card holder? GSM networks need one. Also,wWill the antenna cables be there?

[Vince69]

If you order you laptop wwan ready, everything is inside, you just need to add a modem. The antenna will be installed as well as the sim card holder.

[pkincy]

Thank you, Ken.

I use Verizon and currently have a Sierra M5720 in my T61 so it appears that the Gobi is the answer. However I also have a Verizon MiFi 2200 that I may use if I am forced to choose between the Rapid Drive (rumored to be an 80GB SSD piggybacked on the trad HDD) and the WWAN card. Again rumor has it they share the same space.

Hopefully we will have a bit more information when the Optimus machines are available on Tuesday

[billbolton Community Moderator]

FWIW, in terms of maximum 3G throughput the Ericsson F5521gw supports operation at up to 21MBps in HSDPA mode, while the Gobi 3000 supports up to 14Mbps in HSDPA mode.

Right now this probably makes little difference to most 3G users, but in some markets it will (for instance Australia has reasonable 21Mbps HSPDA metro area coverage right now from at least one 3G service provider).

 Cheers,

Bill

[JDay]

---

ExcursionPSD wrote:

As mentioned, there are four WWAN Minicards that are planned to be available for installation in the new Thinkpads:

Gobi™ 3000 Sierra Wireless EV-DO/HSPA WWAN Minicard

Ericsson HSPA+ WWAN Minicard (F5521gw)

LeadCore TD-SCDMA WWAN Minicard (LC5730D)

Huawei EV-DO WWAN Minicard (EM660)

As you can see, they support different cellular protocols, just like the different cellular carriers do:

EV-DO

HSPA

HSPA+

TD-SCDMA

---

The press release for the Gobi 3000 says it supports CDMA2000/UMTS/EV-DO/HSPA+.

http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2011/02/14/qualcomm-announces-commercial-availability-gobi-300...

"The Gobi 3000 reference design is based on Qualcomm’s MDM6200™ and MDM6600™ chipsets, both of which can provide support for HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps. The MDM6600 also supports CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B. For more information about Gobi technology, please visit www.gobianywhere.com"

[huberth]

If I have a W520 without the WWAN card, will it be a plug-and-play installation to upgrade to the Gobi 3000? 
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/wireless-wan/p-0a36185.shtml 

Are the wires for antenna and SIM card provided?

(I need it to have worldwide GPS. I do not plan to buy a GSM service)