Lenovo WWAN (Gobi 2000) for Windows 8
Wednesday, June 18. 2014
This is a part 2 of my Lenovo on Windows 8 series. See the part about energy management.
After installing Windows 8 there was a mobile broadband device, but funnily enough it was locked to Verizon Wireless. What Verizon? I live in Finland! There is no Verizon to the next 8000 km. On status the Verizon displays as unnamed. However, on my Windows 7 it did use it with a pre-paid SIM-card and it did work properly. See:
To fix this I went to check ThinkVantage Technologies downloads @ Lenovo, but for Windows 8 there is no Access Connections, or anything even remotely usable. Next I checked Windows 8 instructions Use mobile broadband to connect to the Internet @ Microsoft, but this information is relevant or usable only if the broadband modem is not locked to the goddam Verizon.
The exact modem make and model can be found out:
In Thinkpad L512 it is a Qualcomm Gobi 2000. Searching for information revealed Qualcomm Gobi 2000 page @ thinkwiki, a page dedicated to documenting Thinkpads running Linux. It has information in it about various firmwares for that modem. Searching for the firmware information turned out to be very successful, there is lot of good information at Gobi 2000 on Windows 8 (Thinkpad) and Gobi 2000 WAN Unlock Solution - tested & works new Z win7 64bit Pro.
The key to success is a Sony Vaio utility called OneClick Internet.
Update Feb 2021:
Given deprecation of Vaio models and Windows 7 and 8, the tool is not available anymore. I think https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/downloads/Z0003894 might be it, but as I don't own suitable hardware anymore, I cannot verify.
Obsoleted setup instructions:
Download one from this link. Before running the Installer.exe, please change the config.ini as instructed. Out of the box the setting is:
[WebToGo-Project]
InstallSilent=1
Better:
InstallSilent=0
Now run the Installer.exe and install the app. Run it, and:
Click settings at the bottom, then:
Hey presto! A drop-list of all firmwares available. Just select the one you want. My choice is obviously UMTS, which translates into the regular 2G/3G. What's even better is that this application has a SMS-utility in it. You can actually send and receive text messages with it. Something that is completely missing from Windows 8.1.
As a result, the Networks (click on the Internet connection on system tray to open the display to the right side of the screen) will look like this:
Nice! Exactly what I was looking for.
The bad thing about this is, that Thinkpad L512 has a really bad antenna. 
Any USB-stick will have a better one. The obvious good thing is, that Windows 8.1 gains one piece of much required functionality Lenovo chose to drop.
