Laptop SIM card slot not recognized

Question

My laptop, Lenovo T520 has a Sim Card Slot that can be revealed when removing the battery. I have a 3G USB dongle with a SIM card that works fine, however I would like to take advantage of the built-in SIM slot.

Unfortunately when booting up the laptop with the SIM card inserted into the SIM slot it seems like Ubuntu does not recognize the slot itself as my Network Manager makes no mention of a Mobile Broadband connection.

Has anybody worked with and resolved something like this in Ubuntu? I've trawled the net a bit for both Ubuntu and *nix solutions but not much comes up.

Not sure what output would be helpful but here is my lsusb

    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
    Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
    Bus 001 Device 003: ID 147e:2016 Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor
    Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0480:a004 Toshiba America Info. Systems, Inc. 
    Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b217 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
    Bus 002 Device 003: ID 17ef:1003 Lenovo Integrated Smart Card Reader

Solution 1

Did you pay for the WWAN upgrade when you bought your laptop?

If not, the SIM card simply isn't connected to anything - it's an optional extra (the presence of the slot doesn't indicate the WWAN card is present).

Solution 2

It is possible that the WWAN is disabled in BIOS check BIOS and make sure the feature is turned on. i know this thread is four years old and you probably dont have a sim card that size anymore but i do and im trying to see if i can get mine to work.

Comments

[kingmilo]

I'll get in touch with the supplier but all signs point to there being one - thanks.

[kingmilo]

@Caesium - you were right on the money, the slot looks legit but it's an optional extra, confirmed by supplier for Lenovo T520 - thanks.

[Arne]

is there a way to find out weather the slot is a dummy slot or not? bacause I have a slot, too. But I bought my laptop used and I have no official specification of the features.

[kingmilo]

@Arne , use lsusb and look for something like this: Bus 002 Device 027: ID 0bdb:1911 Ericsson Business Mobile Networks BV You will notice from my original post that was missing from lsusb before I actually bought and installed the mobile adapter.

[eigenfield]

I think my old ThinkPad T440 do not have a WWAN card. So that's a relief for me. I got stupid and inserted an incompatible misfit sim card tray into my T440 slot. It went into interlocked and i could not pull it out. I tried to pull it out very stupid of me and these tiny gold innards went out came with the tray. It's an old Thinkpad T440 with no WWAN card (lsusb) so is why I came here to great extent searching this truth for myself. My T440 is still running strong with NixOS inside. https://ibb.co/rbTXjCn, https://ibb.co/yNt75LZ, https://ibb.co/xmr3GSf