Sprint Nextel proudly announced its latest offering, the EV-DO Revision A network cards for laptops. Promising to increase average download speeds to 450 kilobits per second to 850kbps and upload speeds to between 300 kbps and 400 kbps, the new Novatel Wireless S720 Mobile Broadband cards definitely has more boost than its current version, which provides downloads between 400kbps and 700kbps with upload speeds of about 50kbps to 70kbps.

Sold through Sprint business sales channels, as well as online, for $249.99, the offer comes with a two-year subscriber contract, which can be availed by users for about $99.99 with a two-year subscriber agreement. Currently, service plans for the card range from $39.99 per month for 40 megabytes to $79.99 per month for unlimited data usage. With the two-year service contract, customers can get the unlimited data package for $59.99 per month.

Hopefully, Sprint will do their upgrades soon on their network to EV-DO Revision A Network. Without the upgrades, this speedier wireless laptop cards will be all for naught.

Novatel Wireless, a company known best at QJ.NET for providing wireless cards, has apparently branched off into developing complete fixed/wireless convergence solutions for both wired and wireless Internet service providers. Recently announced by Novatel Wireless was the development of the Ovation(tm) MCD 3000, a 3.5G multimedia application console that works with current EV-DO networks and is upgradable along the same evolutionary path.

"As we see operators worldwide begin to combine standards for fixed and mobile service on the network side, we are executing on our vision for fixed mobile convergence, by deploying innovative devices that allow operators to offer more services and ultimately give end users control over bandwidth resources," said Peter Leparulo, CEO of Novatel Wireless. "The Ovation MCD3000 will allow North American operators to benefit from 3.5G spectrum efficiency, while delivering advanced multimedia streaming services."

The first generation in the MCD 3000 North American family will come in a modern compact shape the size of a cell phone. It is aimed squarely at the businesses sector; giving small business owners a suitable alternative to wired broadband. Download speeds will burst up to 3.1Mbps and uplink speeds max out at 1.8Mbps; making it faster than most DSL connections, and comparable to cable.

The wider selection of consoles that make up the Novatel Ovation family are a "portfolio of desktop and portable consoles integrated with wide area wireless technology to provide broadband communications and the delivery of multimedia applications."

The Ovation hardware is all powered by Novatel's Conversa(tm) suite of software that offers "wireless broadband Internet access, advanced networking, and intelligent routing depending on quality of service and cost, multimedia application support, advanced security firewalls and protocol flexibility." If only we could get Novatel to offer a solution for home users that would allow us to eliminate the need for separate (wired) Cable TV, Internet and phone connections and the service providers that come with them.