Mobile broadband has become a godsend within the past couple of years, from the slow days of GPRS, to the latest in EVDO and EDGE wireless technologies. The latest mobile broadband modems have been particularly interesting. Today, I take a look at the Sprint Novatel U720 USB Mobile Broadband modem.

Starting off, this isn’t any dongle; it’s huge for a dongle, seriously folks. Plugged into my MacBook (we’ll get into this later), I was worried that someone could just knock it straight out of the USB port, since it sticks out just over 3 inches from the side, but alas, it held up fine. The U720 also comes with a USB Y-adapter in case your notebook doesn’t provide enough power to the device. I was a bit bugged by the fact that it blocked the 2nd USB port on my MacBook, you may not have the same problem, but the Y-adapter helps solve this problem.

Getting to the point, EVDO is the fastest mobile broadband technology, providing up to 900kbps (kilobytes per second) down, and up to 400kbps up. I got an average of 700+ kbps down, and around 350kbps up, not the fastest, but it’s a heck of a lot better than dial-up.

Installing the card was seamless on Windows XP, just pop in the installation CD, and get going. On OS X there are hacked drivers available, which I won’t get into, but let’s just say, Google?

Overall, the Novatel U720 from Sprint is excellent, and is a great alternative for areas not accessible by DSL or cable internet. It’s quite pricey though, at around $60-70 a month for the service depending on your plan. The device runs for about $49.99 at the time of writing with mail-in rebate.

Pros

• Fast, broadband-like speeds.
• Easy installation.

Cons

• May block up other USB ports.
• Plans for mobile broadband may be pricey.

Final Verdict
5 out of 5 stars.

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