Although we're sure some of you are dead set on using one carrier, Qualcomm is making sure the indecisive (or well-traveled) ones out there are covered, too. The firm's Gobi chip promises to play nice with both EV-DO
and HSPA (but not WiMAX) networks, which should mean that a number of laptops will soon boast multi-carrier WWAN support right out of the box. The introduction of the two-faced device gives users the ability to switch operators or choose the one with the best coverage in a given area without having to lug around two laptops or laptop-connect cards. You'll also appreciate the fact that these things are actually immediately available, and according to Qualcomm, they should appear in various lappies in mid-2008.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NuShrike @ Oct 24th 2007 4:18PM
The Qualcomm MSM 7200 (in most of current HTC devices now) can do this already with the proper transceiver.
Tech Untangled @ Oct 24th 2007 6:25PM
One cannot simply switch operators or choose the one with the best coverage to do this efficiently, one would need subscriptions to multiple carriers (i.e. pay access fees to multiple service providers). This also depends on the WWAN access software having the ability to maintain multiple profiles - we will have to wait and see whether laptops will have this capability.
With a subscription to just one carrier, one cannot simply choose another carrier with better coverage, even if there's a roaming agreement between the two carriers because your preferred roaming list will dictate that you use your carrier over the roaming carrier, even if the roaming coverage is better.
See related stuff at http://techuntangled.com