As mobility continues to dominate the broadband industry — because of the unprecedented combination of productivity and convenience it enables — developers are in an endless race to bring new products to market that take advantage of the latest available technologies.

 

Novatel Wireless (News - Alert), for one, has developed its latest product, the Ovation MC727 wireless card, what it says is the world’s smallest EV-DO Rev. A USB modem. Not to be outdone by the other, both Sprint (News - Alert) (U727) and Verizon (USB727) are now offering the new broadband wireless device to its customers looking to take advantage of their new EV-DO Rev. A networks, which offer significant enhancements over the older EV-DO networks in terms of transmission capabilities. 

 

EV-DO Rev. A networks provide average download speeds from 600 kbps to 1.4 Mbps (with peak speeds of 3.1 Mbps) and upload speeds from 350 to 500 Kbps (with peak speeds of 1.8 Mbps). This effectively means uses can download a 1MB email attachment in about eight seconds, and upload the same file in 13 seconds — a noticeable improvement over legacy wireless broadband networks. The Ovation U727, however, is backwards compatible with EV-DO Rev. 0 and 1XRTT technologies, to ensure connectivity in areas where Sprint and Verizon (News - Alert) have net yet built our their upgraded networks.

 

Notably, in addition to its wireless broadband connectivity, the new modem also incorporates an integrated microSD data card slot. With this feature, users can store and transfer as much as 4GB of data, images, music, or video — the limitation is due to the maximum capacity of current microSD cards, but rest assured, that, too, is likely to increase soon. With the added memory card functionality, users need not worry about losing a USB port in order to gain wireless broadband connectivity.

 

The Ovation 727 is not only the smallest device of its kind, but it has been designed with durability in mind, which is critical for mobile users. It also includes an integrated dual
band diversity antennae system with flip-up antennae for maximum performance and enhanced reception. Novatel has optimized the device for both the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network and the Verizon Wireless EV-DO Rev. A network.