Telcos, IT companies unite to promote mobile broadband

A group of 16 leading telecoms and IT companies is uniting to promote mobile broadband in a marketing initiative worth more than $1 billion over the next year under the auspices of the GSM Association. The companies -- which include Vodafone, Microsoft and Asustek -- aim to make it simpler for consumers to identify laptops that have built-in access to the Internet via high-speed, next-generation HSPA and LTE networks. The partners will label laptop computers that meet their standards for mobile broadband access with a new service mark that identifies laptops ready for mobile broadband connection "out of the box." Many in the telecoms and computer industries believe that most people in the world will have their first and perhaps only experience of the Internet via a mobile device.