Dell Computer Corporation has long been on the Wi-Fi bandwagon, offering a line of TrueMobile Wireless products and making 802.11b miniPCI cards an option in its laptops — the antenna has been built in.
Now the company has announced Wi-Fi will be standard equipment on its Latitude notebooks. The first two computers to have Wi-Fi as a matter of course will be the Latitude C400 and X200 ultra portables. Both are now available in the United States and next month will ship in Europe and Japan. Each will have built in 802.11b-based network capability.
Such products can still be purchased to order without Wi-Fi if needed.
Dell expects that all its Latitude notebook lines will have built in Wi-Fi in the near future.
To promote use of the Wi-Fi connection and increase awareness of public access hotspots, Dell has a deal with Wayport so that Dell Latitude laptop owners can get 30 days of free access and discounted Wayport memberships. Wayport runs hotspots (both wireless and wired) in many airports and hotels around the United States.