3GSM Asia: Notebooks get mobile broadband

High speed mobile broadband will soon become a standard feature of notebook PCs, offering connectivity and roaming across global mobile networks.

At the 3GSM World Congress Asia in Singapore Monday, the GSM Association (GSMA) published guidelines prescribing a common approach for PC manufacturers to fully integrate HSDPA 3G functionality into their product ranges.

The news follows an announcement form the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, at which the GSMA and chip vendor Intel led an industry wide initiative to facilitate and drive the adoption of mobile broadband in notebooks.

“As the roll-out of HSDPA accelerates rapidly across the world, 3G broadband enabled notebooks with embedded, seamless connectivity will give customers the opportunity to enjoy the many benefits of a multi-communications device with global mobility and secure authentication,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA.

Participants in the initiative include leading mobile operators Cingular Wireless, O2, Orange, TeliaSonera, TIM, T-Mobile and Vodafone as well as major notebook manufacturers and software vendors Check Point, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Gemalto, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Option Wireless, Novatel Wireless, Qualcomm, Sierra Wireless, Sony and Sony Ericsson.

With GSM networks deployed ubiquitously worldwide, notebook users will also be able to experience 3G speeds while roaming across the 123 commercial WCDMA mobile networks live in 55 countries. 3G networks across 40 countries are HSDPA-enabled, while a total of 121 networks have committed to deploying HSDPA.

The guidelines announced yesterday cover the essential elements of 3G integration into notebooks from the functionality and features to security aspects, compliance and testing. The guidelines also address the issue of the physical location of the 3G modem and the SIM that will enable automatic connection to global mobile networks so as to ensure that PC manufacturers can quickly and easily incorporate these capabilities in their offerings to customers around the world, with a single, common approach.