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Verizon and Novatel launching USB720 Rev A modem tomorrow
Again, Verizon isn't really all about the surprises today, with an inconspicuous Rev A launch, and now the release of this USB720 Rev A modem from Novatel more or less right on target, but there ain't nothing wrong with that. Sure, they're playing catch-up to Sprint on this front as well, but everybody's gotta start somewhere, and Verizon has picked tomorrow to start handing out these USB modem dongles. And by "handing out" we of course mean charging $150 to people who sign up for a new two-year customer agreement, and $200 to the one-year types. Plus you'll need to pick up an unlimited data plan for all those gigabytes you'll be pulling, which will run you $60 a month on top of an existing $40 voice plan, or $80 a month all by its lonesome. Not cheap by a long shot, but just think of all those neat things Verizon wants you to do with that bandwidth, like blaze through torrents, make p2p Skype calls, share your connection with friends and email your mom! The modem will be available immediately on line and in B2B channels, to be followed by a retail launch on the 20th.
Verizon's USB720 EV-DO Rev A dongle plays catch-up to Sprint
Sprint's been pushing its Novatel U720 Rev A USB modem for a couple months now, but we suppose it's not too terribly late for Verizon to join in with its own rebadged unit, the USB720. Not a lot of surprises here, the two units are fairly identical, straight down to the USB y-cable to boost reception. Verizon does win some points for including Mac support out of the box, whereas Sprint just got that a couple of weeks ago, but the $130 post-rebate pricetag (Sprint's U720 goes for $50 after rebate) isn't helping the USB720 out, especially considering those hefty Verizon data rates. Of course, none of this is official yet -- we're going off of what look to be leaked internal documents -- so perhaps Verizon will loosen up a bit on the pricetag before it starts selling these for reals. Purported launch dates are February 1st for B2B, and February 15th for retail.
Hands-on with Sprint's 1H '07 roadmap?
Authenticity is tough to verify here, but what we've heard from an inside source here regarding Sprint Nextel's launch estimates for the first half of the new year -- including some devices that have already hit the streets -- seems totally plausible, if not probable. Samsung's been tapped to provide three: the m300 "Vivace," m510 "Fantasy" (apparently a minor update to the m500), and -- most interestingly -- the m620 "Flipper," which we've now heard from multiple sources will be a CDMA version of the nifty F300 Ultra Music Edition, scheduled to launch with Sprint on April 1. Sanyo brings a total of five to the party, two of which have already launched: the 3200, 7000, 7050, Katana II (hopefully sporting EV-DO this time), and M1. Sierra Wireless and Novatel will team up to bring three more data devices to market, the 595U, 597E, and Express (the XV620, we're guessing?). Moto's on the hook for three devices, the Q (wow, we haven't heard it called "Franklin" in ages) and a pair of iDEN / CDMA hybrids, the ic502 and ic902. Rounding out the offerings will be the 6800 -- an HTC Titan variant -- and the previously-unmentioned Palm Sherlock (a CDMA version of the 680 or 750, we'd wager). Not a bad lineup considering this all theoretically goes down in the first six months of the year, eh?[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Novatel planning another Rev. A product for Verizon
It looks like The Network has more tricks up their sleeves; too bad one of those wouldn't be launching their hi-speed data network, however beggars can't be choosers. Enter in the latest addition to Verizon's expanding lineup of Rev. A Aircards, the Novatel MCD3000. It supports speeds up to 3.1 mbps through its small flip up antenna, USB 2.0, and is backwards compatible with Rev. 0. The manufacture states that it supports Vista, XP, 2000 and Mac OS X, so the bases are covered from the operating system standpoint. One of our favorite tipsters, HTC Kid, says it's going to be available in the very near future -- so stay tuned for pricing details and launch date!
Novatel U720 Rev A USB modem now on sale
Remember that Novatel U720 Rev A USB modem for Sprint that we told you about in late October? Well Ross, an eagle-eyed reader, pointed out that the U720 is now in stock for $50 after the usual assortment of instant savings and rebates and what not. Still, as sexy as this is for the Windows folks, where's the love for the Mac users among us? Sprint, we fully expect to see some drivers comin' down the pike, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Novatel's U720 Rev A USB modem gets official for Sprint
It's all good that Sprint's Rev A network is starting to light up, but what good are hundreds of glorious downstream kilobits per second without the requisite hardware to match? Don't get us wrong -- PC Cards are all good, but we all know that a certain segment of the populace requires something a little... shall we say, different. Mercifully, Sprint has also officially announced the U720 USB modem from Novatel Wireless today that we saw breeze through the FCC not long ago. The device offers the same hot Rev A speeds as its larger, flatter stablemates, but plugs into any ol' USB port if you're willing to part with $250 (or $50 on a two year contract after rebates) starting in early November.
Novatel gets their XU870 HSDPA ExpressCard out the door
They laughed when you bought that fancy new laptop with an ExpressCard slot, they scoffed when you "gave into the man" and signed up for Cingular, and they've been waving that PCMCIA EV-DO card of theirs in your face for what seems like an eternity now, but your vindication is finally nigh! Novatel just announced that their Merlin XU870 HSDPA ExpressCard, the first of its kind, is now shipping. The card can manage HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE and GPRS, both here and abroad, and while it currently tops off at 3.6Mbps, a forthcoming software update will bump that to 7.2Mbps once the carriers are ready. Apparently this thing has already started to ship to leading carriers in Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand, and while we're not exactly sure when you'll be able to grab this thing off the shelf of your neighborhood electronics shop in the States, the XU870 is official, legit, "shipping," and all that good stuff, so we're going have a party all the same. Who's bringing the chips? [Via laptoping]
Novatel breaking out their Rev A EV-DO products in Q3 '06
Good news for EV-DO junkies out there looking for a USB and/or Rev A fix: Novatel's lineup of Rev A products are now official, and are coming to an OEM or carrier near you this fall (we're thinking Sprint would be a fairly safe guess under the "carrier" category). The lineup includes that MCD3000 USB modem we saw hit the FCC the other day as the U720, which is apparently "about the size of a small cell phone," the Merlin M720 PC card -- which is already out for Sprint as the S720 -- and the Expedite E720 PCI Express Mini card. The latter is for laptop manufacturers to pop into their own products, so we probably won't see a retail release, and an ExpressCard version is notably absent. The good news is that all three of these pack EV-DO Rev A for 3.1Mbps speeds, along with the traditional GPS support, Rev 0 and CDMA compatibilities. According to Novatel, they're "currently ramping shipments at major carrier or OEM customers," and like we said, those S720 cards are already out, so these really should be right around the corner.[Via Laptoping]
FCC find: Novatel U720 USB EV-DO modem for Sprint
Although there have been inklings in the past that Sprint was working on a USB EV-DO modem with Novatel Wireless, recent FCC approval documents have confirmed its existence and given us a first glimpse at what the modem actually looks like. In comparison to its peers, the U720 is visually appealing, although the single shot of the device doesn't provide a very good idea of its size thanks to the USB port being out of sight. Not that the style of the modem matters: we know people (read: MacBook owners) that would kill to see a USB EV-DO modem come to the States -- it's probably a good thing that the FCC approved the device then, eh?
Sprint first US carrier with EV-DO Rev A hardware
Their EV-DO Revision A network might not be ready for prime time until Q4 at the earliest, but no one can fault Sprint for not having modems in the pipeline when they do eventually flip the switch. The just-launched S720 from Novatel Wireless offers glorious downstream speeds of up to 850Kbps in a PC Card form factor -- sad news for MacBook Pro users needing an ExpressCard, but we have to believe Sprint will have you guys covered before too terribly long. Look for the S720 at your friendly local Sprint retailer for $99.99 on a 2-year contract, though without much live Rev A infrastructure, there's no rush to upgrade from your trusty Rev 0 equipment just yet.[Via phoneArena]
Novatel XU870 HSDPA ExpressCard previewed
Lucky Sascha Segan over at PC Magazine managed to get his hands on one of those new XU870 HSDPA ExpressCards from Novatel and put it through its paces on the Cingular BroadbandConnect network in New York City. Turns out that sexy combination of ExpressCard/34 and HSDPA will make all your dreams come true, and Sascha seemed plenty impressed with performance. The card bested Novatel's own U730 HSDPA PC Card in 15 out of 16 downloads, averaging between 736Kbps and 1.06Mbps, with three transfers managing to break the 1Mbps mark. Since Cingular caps upload speeds at 128Kbps, both cards were identical there, but the XU870 managed to keep an HSDPA signal in two tests where the U730 and LG CU500 phone had to settle for EDGE coverage. Other little details were nice as well, such as an easy to remove SIM card for swapping with your phone, a nice little fold-up antenna, multi-color LED light signal indicator, and a port for adding an external antenna to boost reception even more. With UMTS, HSDPA and EDGE compatibility, along with operation in the 850, 900, 1800, 1900 and 2100MHz bands, this thing will be plenty functional at home or abroad. All we're lacking is an official release from a certain #1 US carrier.
Dell's EV-DO ExpressCard coming this week
ExpressCard-equipped laptop owners who have been patiently waiting to add cellular broadband to their rigs have finally been rewarded in the form of Dell's Wireless 5700 card, which will reportedly be available by the end of the week. Using Verizon's high-speed EV-DO network, the card -- which is a rebranded version of Novatel's Merlin XV620 -- offers theoretical speeds of up to 2.4Mbps, but in reality you should see somewhere between 500Kbps and 1Mbps -- still fast enough for most of your mobile browsing, gaming, and VoIP needs. Unfortunately for the Apple faithful, while the card will work in any Windows laptop with the proper slot, MacBook Pros won't be able to take advantage of 3G until the proper drivers are released. The Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile Broadband ExpressCard will sell for $179 -- which includes one free month of EV-DO service -- but after you get hooked, you'll have to shell out either $80 per month or $60 if you have a voice plan.Update: Great news for Macheads. It seems that the just-released 10.4.7 update to OS X includes the necessary drivers to support this device, so start breaking out those credit cards, MacBook Pro owners.
Novatel's XU870 HSDPA ExpressCard
It's not exactly a mystery as to which US carrier would be interested in picking up an HSDPA ExpressCard, but now that we're finally starting to see these 3G devices announced (by Novatel, anyway), our appetites are whetted and we're sitting on our hands awaiting carrier announcements. Novatel's Merlin XU870, when snagged by Cingular (or T-Mobile Europe, or Vodafone, etc.) will serve as your basic tri-band HSDPA / UMTS / EDGE / GPRS device capable of 3.6mbps speeds out of the box, and future upgradeable to 7.2mbps (via software update as new HSDPA revisions roll out). In other words, please get us a few of these immediately, thanks.
Novatel's EV-DO Merlin XV620 ExpressCard gets PCMCIA approval
Novatel's announced that their EV-DO-rocking Merlin XV620 Wireless ExpressCard has gotten approved by the PCMCIA trade association, making it the first EV-DO ExpressCard on the market -- albeit a bit later than the rumored May launch. Still, the news should please users with a laptop that has an ExpressCard/34 slot but no built-in 3G support, who can now take advantage of the speedy, although somewhat pricey EV-DO network, getting data speeds up to 2.4 Mbps. Now, one of the biggest markets for the card would seem to be MacBook Pro users, but according to Novatel's website the XV620 only supports Windows XP and 2000. Which means Mac users will either have to forego their precious OS for the unfamiliar waters of Windows via Boot Camp or wait who knows how long for Novatel to release some native Mac drivers.
Novatel X620 EV-DO ExpressCard gets real
If you've got a snazzy new laptop that includes an ExpressCard slot but no legacy PCMCIA slots, you've probably been suffering a little for your commitment to the cutting edge: there are still far more cards available that meet the old standard than the new one, especially for things like wireless communication (which, let's face it, is the main reason to still have one of these slots, unless you use it to stash extra cash). Fortunately, that shortage is rapidly being remedied, and Gearlog managed to score a hot little number: a prototype of Novatel's X620 EV-DO ExpressCard. The card, for use with Verizon's EV-DO network, should work with any Windows laptop -- and to prove it, Gearlog hooked one up to a MacBookPro running Boot Camp. Novatel expects Apple to ship Mac drivers soon as well, so if you've picked up a MacBook Pro and want a native way to cruise on down the highway, you shouldn't have to wait all that long.
Novatel EV-DO ExpressCard next month?
We've still yet to hear of any solid 3G ExpressCard device releases as yet (we were kind of hoping CTIA would have yielded at least one or two), but Om seems to have the scoop on a Novatel EV-DO ExpressCard 34 launch for May -- whose most obvious application right now is, of course in Apple MacBook Pros. Granted, we wouldn't be in this predicament if Apple had just followed through with internal integrated 3G like so many other laptop manufacturers, but hey, you've got what we've got, and we'll takes what we can gets. There's no way of knowing, however, when the cards will hit the market with Sprint or Verizon even if Novatel launches their card in May, so stay tuned. [Via TUAW, image via EVDOinfo]
