[Berryman]

This makes sense, and is good news for travellers.

The U.S. has a cell data standards problem that Qualcomm aims to bridge for business travelers who want mobile broadband around the U.S. and around the world. The three 3G (third-generation) cell carriers in the U.S. use two different standards. AT&T backs the GSM-evolved UMTS and HSPA; Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel use EVDO, which comes out of Qualcomm's labs as an evolution of CDMA. (T-Mobile has no 3G service deployed yet, but it's coming soon, and will be GSM-flavored.)

Qualcomm's Gobi system is hardware that can reconfigure itself through software control to switch between EVDO and UMTS/HSPA. This makes Gobi a great piece of technology for a traveler who subscribes to either flavor in the U.S., and travels regularly outside its borders; as well as for laptop makers who can build Gobi in and let customers decide which U.S. network to choose.The missing pieces for the Gobi picture announced last October were which carriers would support the technology, and which laptop makers would incorporate it.

On April 1, Qualcomm announced that the five largest laptop makers, including HP, Dell, and Lenovo, would support the technology (a few had previously been announced), while T-Mobile and verizon Wireless had certified the use of their modem. Further carriers and makers are on the way.

The first laptops featuring Gobi will appear in second quarter 2008.Gobi overcomes a critical problem with purchasing a laptop with integrated mobile broadband: having to choose and stick with a specific flavor for the lifetime of the laptop. With Gobi, a buyer can sign up for AT&T and later switch to Verizon, or be a Sprint Nextel customer and travel to France, moving over to UMTS/HSPA for use there.International roaming fees are a still a huge issue, of course, but the capability to use most fast networks in the world is clearly worth it for many travelers. I'd like to refer you to read more about Gobi at Qualcomm's site, but the company has been on the losing end of a number of court decisions and trade commission orders in the last year. Qualcomm is moving full steam ahead with Gobi, but on its Web pages related to the technology--exclusive of press releases--the firm notes, "Out of an abundance of caution, due to the December 31st, 2007 injunction ordered against certain Qualcomm products, Qualcomm has temporarily removed certain web content until it can be reviewed and modified if necessary to ensure compliance with the injunction." The injunction

Source: Laptop Makers Go for Single Adapter, Both 3G Cell Standards - Yahoo! News