Ask Lemmy

My old Thinkpads and even my first iPad had SIM slots. I kinda miss that as it’d be much more handy now. LTE and the precursors were painful to use at the time.

Those used to be things in the early 2000's; cellular cards with sims that went into a PCI slot. Surely they still exist?

That is absolutely an option, you can spec out multiple laptops with cellular radios. It isn't standard because it costs extra and most people aren't going to pay an additional bill for another cell line. Typically they're more common to enterprise environments with people out in the field a lot.

Hotspots are probably still the more common option though, at least in my experience.

They are. Skype, Signal, Telegram, whatever other million chat apps. The only thing stopping you using the big cell networks is the telcos stopping it to sell their access, and phones. And some of them may allow it for a fee, but I don't care enough to find out.

You would need a massive pocket

There are different cellular networks and frequencies in different places so computer manufacturers can't pick one module and expect it to work everywhere. If you're paying for service, you'll want to get the most out of it by having a modem that's up to date and maximally compatible with the network. So it makes sense to get a plugin device or a WiFi mobile hotspot from your carrier. A WiFi mobile hotspot can additionally be used with other devices.

Also mobile network hardware updates at a decent pace so it's nice to be able to update those single purpose devices at their own pace independent of your laptop upgrade.

And then carrier and FCC certification are an extra hassle for laptop makers.

Because most places you'd use it already has free WiFi (home, office, train, coffee shop, etc), and everywhere else you can just tether from the phone, so there's no point paying a separate bill just for the laptop.

But you can still get a laptop with lte, it's an option if you need it. My x1 yoga has a sim slot. Or you can get a usb dongle.

Because most people don't need it.

Because it costs extra for little benefit. LTE was a choice for my notebook. I just set my phone to wifi tether, saved me $200.

Edit: or did you mean being able to make calls from your computer? I looked into this a while ago, since digitized call processing is just VOIP on a large scale. In my country at least, the providers only sell whole packages of numbers, usually to companies where you can rent one for use with your run-of-the-mill VOIP software. Of course it's nonetheless thightly regulated, because of regional and limited numbers and against abuse.

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/

There are loads of laptops with mobile data. For calling its the phone company stopping it

1. PC with phone capability: this is already very much a thing.

2. Desktop OS + mobile formfactor: this can be done, but I'm not sure how it's any different from what we have right now, especially if you use Android.

There are laptops that come with LTE chips... they're just not popular. You're right though, there is the increasing mentality of "always online" that some people just expect to have. I'm not one of them but I can see why the technical argument could be made. Broadband home routers are starting to show up with support for this already and so it's only a matter of time. As another commenter said, it will drive up the price for artificially no reason...

If you choose to pack a portable monitor+kb+dock combo, you can use your phone as a computer instead with Dex or similar. Seems more practical to me in 2025.

Because not all use cases call for it.

If you are working in a city with wifi everywhere you don't need a LTE module.

If you are a mobile worker like a field tech thn it makes more sense to have an LTE module.

At the ISP I worked at we did that. Office monkeys has laptops with no LTE while us field engineers did have LTE modules.

I was gifted a 4g router for my birthday or Christmas or something. It was the better solution for me because one plan gets me internet access on however many devices I attach to it where I would otherwise need a sim card for every tablet and laptop I use.

Regulation. Where I'm at, a device capable of making phone calls, must allow emergency calls by any user. Data is all you can get

If you were using your laptop as your only communication device, you'd need it switched on all the time you were awake. Not convenient.

I've got a little netbook from ages ago that takes a 3G SIM, I used it occasionally as phones didn't really do tethering back then, no real need now I can tether.

Because it doesn't fit in my pocket.

Pretty sure Linux supports eSims and some older laptops support Sim cards, you can add one to your PC as well. Personally I just use secure ways of communicating but it would def be useful when your traveling.

1. Voice calls via POTS isn't a big thing via laptop. Most calls like this are now via apps. Hell, I despise using POTS any more, my phone SIM doesn't even do voice, all calls are VOIP now via a service that interconnects with POTS.

2. You can use a SIM dongle for laptops without a built-in modem. Though business class laptops have a cell modem as an option

There's just little call for circuit-based voice calls any more. Those connections are more sensitive to network issues, and I'd bet most voice calls are some form of VOIP anyway. If you really need circuit-based calling, you can still do it over IP using a service like jmp.chat