MiFi: 3G and WiFi
Partial to HSDPA over EV-DO and interested in the Novatel Wireless MiFi device announced last month? Have no fear, the FCC is here! Engadget Mobile noticed our wireless wizards at work in testing a GSM variant of the MiFi. There’s no official news on such a product, but it was bound to happen so details should be outed soon.
In case you forgot what the MiFi is: it’s a combination 3G radio and WiFi hotspot mobile device with a credit-card sized footprint. The MiFi runs on batteries for around four hours and provides a 3G signal you can share with anyone within range of the WiFi signal it broadcasts.
When the product was announced, Novatel Wireless said we’d see the MiFi in the first half of 2009, so it shouldn’t be long now before we see more details. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this start out around $150 to $200 with a data-plan commitment. Remember, unlike other hardware solutions, you don’t add a 3G card to the MiFi; it provides that functionality for you.
Sounds like it would be great if you had hsdpa coverage. I like the ideal of not having a dongle sticking out of a device and being able to use any device that has wifi to get connected.
Could you elaborate on the last sentence?
Dongle as in 3g usb modem. The Mifi is able to setup a wireless acess point therby negating the use of a dongle.
Many Symbian s60v3 (Joikuspot) and WinMobile 6.1 (WMWifiRouter) phones can share their data connection over WiFi with other devices, turning the phone into a wireless internet hotspot. Might be better than a standalone device that can do nothing else.
Sorry, I meant the last sentence of the original post. If I do not put the sim card into the device (or hook a USB dongle to it) than how will it receive my 3G connection that it broadcasts over wifi?
Levi, you would buy this device in lieu of an HSDPA or EV-DO adapter for your computer. The HSDPA version likely needs a SIM card. It is a standalone 3G device that you don’t physically attach to a computer. Instead, it connects to a 3G network and shares the signal over WiFi. Hope that helps!