HP courts mobile operators for 3G-ready laptops

US electronics giant Hewlett Packard (HP) is reported to be looking to sign up local mobile operators such as Smart Communications and Globe Telecom to support its plans to embed wireless broadband products in its notebooks. According to local newspaper The Inquirer, HP is ‘in discussions with telcos but this is very preliminary and nothing is final yet’. Some of the US firm’s new laptops already have embedded support for 3.5G High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology which simply requires the user to insert a mobile SIM into the laptop itself – rather than rely on the external devices currently used by Filipino cellcos.