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by swiley 3008 days ago
I know many thinkpads have an empty bay with a minipci connector that you can put modems in which do just that.

I don't know why things like that aren't popular, I guess it looks "ugly?"

3 comments

I have an X270 with an LTE card.

I've also helped set up a 3rd and 4th-gen X1 Carbon with an LTE card for a friend.

I know Dell also offers LTE antennas in some of their higher-end Latitude laptops.

Many Thinkpads have LTE modems from the factory, with a SIM tray on the side. It is not even just a Thinkpad thing, many manufacturers of enterprise laptops ship plenty of devices with SIM card slots. I've had HPs and Dells come with GSM modems since 3G was a shiny new thing. It is not that its ugly, it is probably not something most consumers have demanded, so they haven't bothered including. Or, the OEMs use it as a differentiator from their consumer tier devices to their enterprise devices.
Because a tiny portion of people would use it. Who wants to pay an extra monthly cost on their machine? The only people who would really do this are ones where it is covered by work.
> Who wants to pay an extra monthly cost on their machine?

It's not an extra cost when you get a twin-SIM for your regular subscription. You obviously have to pay extra to have the modem though.

Source: Owner of Thinkpad Carbon X1 with built in 4G-moden and twin-SIM from my cellular provider.

Do you mean the monthly cost of the data? I would totally do this, it's a few dollars to add on to my verizon plan, and something I already pay for for my hotspot.