T400/T500 WWAN Mobile Broadband options

[WojtekJ]

Hi!
I plan to buy a new laptop for my relative and decided that T400/T500 with integrated graphics should be enough for him.
I thought I'll ask you some questions before - maybe you know correct answers ...

I buy a customized laptop on Lenovo website in USA, but it'll be shipped to Poland and my relative will use it there.
He'll not use AT&T or Verizon (cause they don't operate in Poland) - instead he'll put in his sim card given by one of the local mobile broadband providers.

There are two different possibilities :

a) I buy "Mobile Broadband upgradable" laptop, then buy some WWAN card without brand-lock in Europe (so it could use all European frequencies without any doubts).
As far as I know, I should look for some 'Lenovo whitelisted' cards, cause any other can cause problems (I don't want to flash new laptop on warranty with Zender's BIOS, it's a potential source of problems ).
This variant has some positive sides (no lock, correct frequencies), but has some negative sides too (higher price, and I can't be sure that the new WWAN card will work with T400 or T500 cause of the 'white list').

b) I buy a laptop with "AT&T" or "Verizon" WWAN card, try to unlock the card (cause they are operator-locked) and hope that they will work in Europe without limited speeds and frequencies.
There are some positive sides (no problems with 'whitelist', lower price) and negative sides (maybe problems with European frequencies - I'll have to check it, operator lock and additional cost of quiting it).

My questions:

1) Does Lenovo give any sim card slot in the first option (Mobile Broadband upgradable) ?
They state that "Mobile Broadband Upgradable systems have antennas built into the display and can be upgraded at a later time" - but I can't find any information about the sim card slot.
That's very important information for me.

2) I know that WWAN cards sold by Lenovo are brand-locked and I'd have to unlock the chosen one.
Maybe you have some idea how to do it?
I've never done it before and I'm not sure if I should write e-mail to AT&T or Verizon and just ask them for the unlocking code?
From what I've read comes out that it's possible to unlock the card using special code generated on some paid websites - but of course the 'free solution' would be better for me.

3) I was looking for some details about cards offered by Lenovo and have found just two mobile broadband cards in "Lenovo Accessories & upgrades":
"AT&T 3G BroadBand Option" (43R9152)" and "Verizon Wireless UNDP BroadBand Option" (43R9151).
Are they the same as "Integrated AT&T Mobile Broadband (Ericsson 3G with GPS)" and "Integrated Verizon Mobile Broadband (Gobi 1000 3G with GPS)" from the configurator?
I'm mainly interested in exact names of models that are being sold with customized T400 or T500 (for example "Ericson F3507G" or "Sierra MC8775") - I have to check if that specific cards work in all frequencies that the owner will use in Europe (in USA some of them are different).

4) Are there any important differences between "Integrated AT&T Mobile Broadband (Ericsson 3G with GPS)" and "Integrated Verizon Mobile Broadband (Gobi 1000 3G with GPS)", that are worth to be mentioned?

Any comments are welcome.

Thanks in advance for reply!

[nxman]

AT&T Cards are unlocked i have 2 ThinkPads a T500 + X301 both i got from the states and have AT&T and bot are working fine in Kuwait with all operators i even used them in UK & Germany

[bill bolton]

I know that WWAN cards sold by Lenovo are brand-locked

The Ericsson F3507g card is not locked.

Note that this card DOES NOT work for W-CDMA based 3G services on the 900MHz band.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[WojtekJ]

Thanks a lot for your answers, it helped me a lot!

I had no idea that the AT&T cards are not locked - I've seen many threads about WWAN cards in Lenovo, but I believe they were all related to old cards, sold by Lenovo in the past. That are good news.

I've been reading about W-CDMA 900 (thanks for that information), and it's still rarely used in Europe - so lack of this frequency won't be so important.
Maybe somebody will need that in the future, so I write it down - in Poland mobile providers use at this moment (2009-09-05 , 2009/05/09):
Orange - GSM 900, GSM 1800, UMTS 2100, NMT 450
Plus - GSM 900, GSM 1800, UMTS 2100
Play - UMTS 2100, GSM 900
Era - GSM 900, GSM 1800, UMTS 2100.
Additional note in polish, explaining future plans of Plus: here ( and cached by google here ).

To be sure - AT&T sold now by Lenovo is Ericson F3507G?

Anybody knows if Lenovo gives sim slot in customized models "Mobile broadband upgradable" ?