3Com has launched a new modem card designed to ease the problems faced by travellers in getting online anywhere in the world. The company says the Megahertz 56K GSM modem card for Windows 95/98 PC notebook users allows access to e-mail, the Internet, intranets, corporate local area networks (LANs) and faxing facilities through a V.90 landline connection. The new card has been approved and licensed by Nokia and it will provide wireless connections with Nokia 3100, 8110, 8110i and 8148 GSM phones.

The Winmodem PC card architecture transfers up to 35 per cent of the modem's workload to the notebook's central processing unit (CPU), while only using 4 per cent more of the CPU's power. This results in better use of the notebook's high-speed processor and memory for maximised performance.