Thinkpads Forum

A question for my own curiosity. I just have a simple prepaid phone used at most a few minutes a month. So it's silly for me to have a monthly plan, and consequently I don't have a data plan as it would be an add-on to a talk plan that I'd never be able to financially justify.

One of my Thinkpads has the WWAN antenna, and I have the WWAN disabled in Windows' device manager as I have no use for it.

But I'm not sure how I would use it in the first place. It would seem to be useless without a SIM, because there would be nothing to associate a particular phone number with the laptop. It would seem to be equally useless if a smartphone were tethered to the Thinkpad, because the phone has the connection and the antenna, so there'd be nothing for the Thinkpad to do for communication.

I guess I'm babbling here, but clearly I'm missing the Big Picture. How does one make use of WWAN built into a Thinkpad?

Art

let's say one of my service techs was out on a hot tub call and he had to replace a circuit board. now there's no internet and the customer isn't home and he needs the procedure to program the board. so, with wwan, i can email him the procedure while we're talking on the phone and i can talk him through it with him looking at the procedure on his laptop. now if he's talking to me on the phone then he can't really use his smart phone to tether to the internet and talk to me at the same time. i guess that if you had to be online almost anywhere then wwan will work almost anywhere. i use older laptops that don't have internal wwan, but we use att data usb cards on monthly plans in order to connect almost anywhere. wherever the phone works, the cards work.

I see - so the "missing link" that I didn't understand is that you need one additional USB gismo to hold the Sim - correct? There's no way for the whole ball of wax to be magically inside the Thinkpad.

Someone just showed me a T-Mobile "WebConnect" USB dongle that's a wireless antenna and enough circuitry to hold a SIM. Guess that's no better or no worse than the inbuilt WWAN antenna in the Thinkpad, as in either case there's the need to plug something into a USB port.

Think I get the Big Picture now. Thanks.

Art

You don't need a USB card or dongle if you have a data plan . There is a SIM holder in the Thinkpad if it's WWAN ready. Look in the battery compartment. If it didn't come with the full WWAN feature, you'll need a card as well.

Harryc wrote:You don't need a USB card or dongle if you have a data plan ..

Why??? I'm missing something again. The data plan seems independent of the hardware necessary to take advantage of it.

There is a SIM holder in the Thinkpad if it's WWAN ready. Look in the battery compartment. If it didn't come with the full WWAN feature, you'll need a card as well

Oh? Is that the CMOS battery compartment or the power-the-computer battery compartment? This is a T60p, if it matters.

All I am saying is if you have a data plan you get a SIM card from the carrier (or take it out of your phone). There is a SIM card slot in the main (not CMOS) battery compartment. If it is missing then your T60P is not fully WWAN ready. You'll need the SIM holder and most likely a WWAN card.

Harryc wrote:There is a SIM card slot in the main (not CMOS) battery compartment.

Jesus H...!

I'd never noticed the tiny slot right by the sticker with the MAC address. (Who would?) Looks like there are some electrical contacts in there, so I am quite astounded.

Ya' learn something every day. Now if "they" had cheap data-only plans...or do they?

Art

You'll have to shop around, but I think they start in the $35 p/month and up range. You can also pay as you go by the day.

Harryc wrote:You'll have to shop around, but I think they start in the $35 p/month and up range. You can also pay as you go by the day.

How nice - I was on the East Coast this summer to visit relatives, and could barely steal an extremely weak unsecured wireless signal a few hours a day with the Thinkpad positioned just right in one particular location in one room. I'd surely pay by-the-day or by-the-week for circumstances like this.

I'm trying to see if there isn't already a SIM in the T60p. I bought it used. I can't seem to make the SIM from my cellular phone (just because it's the only one I have) lodge into the slot, and there might be something there already. I was about to start looking through the HMM and user documentation to see how to remove the SIM, if in fact it is there to remove. Do you happen to know if, if it were present, it would stick far enough out into the battery compartment to be "grabbable" with tweezers? Whatever is there isn't even close to being flush, so I don't know if it's a SIM or just the guts of the Thinkpad.

Art

Hmmm, there should be a pull tab to remove a SIM card if there's one in there. Might be yellow or blue...I forget the color on a T60.

Harryc wrote:Hmmm, there should be a pull tab to remove a SIM card if there's one in there. Might be yellow or blue...I forget the color on a T60.

Well, at the risk of dragging a thread out to a boring degree to everyone else:

The slot, at the middle of the battery compartment, seems much wider than my SIM, but not wide enough to put it in sideways. There's also a much narrower slot, about the right width, at the extreme left (viewer's perspective) of the battery compartment, which has the same general look to it.

I can't find any documentation on the Lenovo site to discuss insertion or removal of the SIM, and the HMM only talks about it as a FRU disassembly subject.

Again, this is totally academic right now, but I'm more confused than before given the two slots of differing size. I assume the bigger slot isn't a camera card reader like on the front surface of my T61.

Art

You can get a general idea of it's location by looking at page 106 here -
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 844_04.pdf

Harryc wrote:You can get a general idea of it's location by looking at page 106 h

I'd stared at the HMM, but now think it's referring to the center slot. I wonder if someone had removed the actual part that grips the SIM, as it's clearly freely movable in there when pushed in almost all the way., and there's no sign of any pull-tab mechanism.

I can see a complete tear-down in my future to see what's there and what the other slot might be.

This is a very strange machine, as 2007-94U is supposed to be 1600x1200, when in fact mine is unquestionably
SXGA+ 1400x1050 as it was advertised. Who knows what else had been done to it before I purchased it?!

Guess we've beaten the topic to death, so thanks for all the info and insight.

Art

Just from your description is sounds like the internal SIM slot/mechanism is missing.

ArtShapiro wrote:I wonder if someone had removed the actual part that grips the SIM, as it's clearly freely movable in there when pushed in almost all the way., and there's no sign of any pull-tab mechanism.

AFAIK all ThinkPad *6* models have the SIM card slot in the body moulding but not all planar boards have the "reader" behind the slot. 3G WWAN services were just starting out as a commercial technology when those machines were introduced, so not all models were in any way 3G WWAN ready.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Does "No WWAN Supported" mean that there's no WWAN antenna nor SIM holder, but I can still use mobile broadband if I have a data card or usb modem? Or is data card not supported either, and if so can I still use usb wireless modem?

hakkyo wrote:Does "No WWAN Supported" mean that there's no WWAN antenna nor SIM holder

I think that if there's the bulge on the right side of the lid (as mine does) then the antenna is present. In my case there is a hardware device - WWAN modem or the like, I don't have the unit here in the office today - that shows up in Device Manager.

Art

I can't verify if the antenna is present or not, as I don't have the laptop yet. But if it says "No WWAN Supported", can I still connect with a mobile broadband with an usb modem or data card?

Yes, of course.
USB modems or ExpressCard modems contain everything they need.