• lemmy_user_838586@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This is a thing, but its not very popular outside of corporate machines as I would guess most people don’t want to pay for an extra phone data plan specifically for their laptop, and the manufacturers want to cut costs for their laptops. It usually isn’t available to normal consumer line laptops though, like I said, its mostly only supported on business line laptops.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_WAN

    https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832669623539.html

    https://www.parts-people.com/blog/2012/10/17/dell-latitude-e6420-wireless-wwan-card-removal-and-installation/

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Yeah, most people don’t really need it because most people have Wi-Fi at home and most people use their laptops at home. Business users may actually need to use them on the go and potentially in places with no Wi-Fi. But even most business laptops only get used at the office, at home, or maybe on a train (those also tend to have Wi-Fi).

      So it’s optional for business laptops and not even available for most consumer laptops because if a business can save 20 euros per device on a thousand devices every 3 years, they absolutely are gonna take that option and a lot of home users are already buying 200-300 euro laptops that are basically good for nothing. They ain’t gonna pay extra. Unless it’s a gaming laptop, but those are tethered to the wall at home 90% of the time too.

      Really, the only people who really need it are those who have to go work in the field somewhere sometimes.

    • toofpic@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      In Denmark, you can buy an additional “data sim” with the same number for your tablet or car. I don’t have it and never checked if you can just call but you can definitely use telegram or whatsapp for audio/videocalls