z61t WWAN upgrade?

[ngeisse]

I purchased a z61t 9440-D9U. since then i have purchased a verizon wireless broadband account. i don't like having to carry the PC card with me, and i don't like how it sticks out from the side. is there a way to upgrade my machine to have the integrated WWAN? i don't mind the little antenna that sticks out of the side

[rek]

It can potentially quite a difficult (and expensive) retrofit.. not only does it involve getting the mini-PCI card and antenna blob + cabling, you may also need a new screen bezel.

If Verizon is a provider that uses a SIM card you may be out of luck before you even start, depending on whether or not your laptop has the SIM card reader in it. (At least on the X60s, they are soldered to the motherboard)

I'm not 100% sure of all this, as it's been a long while since I looked through the Z61 series hardware maintenance manual; this is downloadble from Lenovo's support site and goes into exact detail regarding which parts are needed for a WWAN antenna installation, and an exploded view of the various assemblies.