Qualcomm said the Always Connected PC category – powered by its Snapdragon processors – “continues to grow in momentum”, as additional operators and retailers state their support.

The chip giant has been pushing the Always Connected PC concept – which sees computers sold with integrated Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity – especially hard since its Snapdragon Summit in December 2017.

Powered by Snapdragon chips but running a full version of Microsoft’s Windows platform, the devices are also said to offer long battery lives to support nomadic users.

With vendors Asus, HP and Lenovo on board, the challenge is in delivering seamless services to users, which means the need for operator support as well. While Qualcomm named partners, these companies have not so far revealed the commercial proposition their backing brings.

New operators backing the project are China Mobile, Transatel (a France-based embedded connectivity specialist), Deutsche Telekom (covering Germany only), Cubic Telecom (a Republic of Ireland-based connectivity provider), Telefonica (Spain), Swisscom, and T-Mobile US and AT&T (US).

The operators join China Telecom, TIM (covering Italy), EE (UK), and Sprint and Verizon (US), which had already been named.

Also announced were a series of retail partners: Amazon (US), JD.com (China), Unieuro (Italy), Boulanger and Fnac (France), Asus Stores, BT Shop, John Lewis and PC World (UK), and Microsoft Stores in Australia, UK and US.

Some of the operator partners also plan to offer Always Connected PCs in-store.