Lenovo ThinkPad Table

Lenovo's refreshing its ThinkPad Tablet with the Qualcomm Gobi 3000 chipset, which will allow it to connect via 3G to the carrier of your choice. The Gobi 3000 packs in a wide variety of EV-DO and GSM / HSPA bands on the same chip, so finding a network shouldn't be an issue regardless of your carrier of choice. Of course, while all the major US carriers are supported, you'll be at the mercy of whatever service options those carriers offer — fortunately, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all offer some form of contract-free tablet data.

Not surprisingly, Lenovo's touting the benefits of this new connectivity to the Enterprise market, noting that IT departments can now buy one type of tablet, deploy it around the world, and generally not have to worry about regional carrier compatibility. The tablet itself appears to be unchanged from the version introduced in August, with an NVIDA Tegra 2 processor, 10.1-inch screen, handwriting support, and a host of pre-installed business apps. While a carrier-agnostic tablet is great to see, it's disappointing that it isn't including the just-announced Gobi 4000 chipset instead, which adds LTE to the already-robust connectivity options. Lenovo's not yet saying how much the updated ThinkPad Tablet will set you back, but the non-3G versions range from $499 to $669. We'll find out the 3G premium when it goes on sale later this month

Lenovo and Qualcomm have just announced that the ThinkPad Tablet will now offer Qualcomm’s Gobi 3000 technology, allowing it to use one mobile platform throughout the world.

Lenovo ThinkPadThe ThinkPad will be the first Android tablet to feature the technology, which eliminates the need to change hardware to support different carriers or mobile connectivity standards from region to region. Gobi 3000 allows users to connect to any major US carrier and stay connected with global roaming support.

The two companies announced the advancement this morning, claiming that the technology will make the wireless experience for business users much more flexible.

“With Gobi, Enterprise IT departments have the flexibility to purchase 3G-enabled tablets, deploy to offices around the world, then allow each region to provision on an as-needed basis to their preferred carrier,” said Fram Akiki, senior director of product management for Qualcomm, in a statement.

Currently Qualcomm’s Gobi 3000 technology is the only multiband embedded connectivity solution to support connectivity on all major U.S. carriers, as well as global roaming on EVDO and HSPA networks. The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet equipped with Gobi 3000 will be available starting this month

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