Fujitsu Siemens joins mobile broadband push

Fujitsu Siemens Computers has become a member of the Mobile Broadband Initiative, whose goal is to push built-in support for mobile broadband using HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) in laptops.

The initiative was first announced in September, and will use a logo, which looks like a stylized cloud or bird, to signal that a laptop comes with built-in support for mobile broadband. The push is also backed by a US$1 billion marketing budget, to be spent in the next year.

The Mobile Broadband service logo will be used on the entire professional notebook range from Fujitsu Siemens, which comes equipped with the integrated support HSDPA needed to qualify, according a statement from the company.

Other participating companies are a mixture of operators, laptop and chip manufacturers, including 3, Asus, Dell, Ericsson, Lenovo, Microsoft, Orange, Qualcomm, Telefónica Europe, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Toshiba and Vodafone.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Toshiba and ECS are close to releasing the logo, while Lenovo and Dell planning to release it in the first quarter of 2009, according to a statement from Ton Brand, project director at the GSM Association, which manages the initiative.

If a laptop bears the new logo, it supports at least 3.6M bps (bits per second) on paper and 1M bps in real-world capacity. The technical specification states that 3.6M bps is required, and that 7.2M bps is recommended, but the logo will always look the same, according to the GSM Association.

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