Review by dagg 
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 300 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Rio Linda,Sacramento,CA
 Contract price not specified.
 "Connectivity just about anywhere you go"
 "low connection speeds in some areas"
 "worth it if you travel between places a lot"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I was issued the novatel u720 (USB version) for sprint broadband by my employer, so the monetary questions are moot for me. from the time I downloaded the software from sprints website (I did not use the included software) to the time I was up and connected was a total of about 10 minutes.
The equipment comes in two flavors, either PCMCIA or USB. for those that are looking to use this on both their home computer and their laptop, I would suggest the USB.
Obviously, the IP addressing on these are all DHCP and I cant really imagine any reason that someone would need a static IP on this service. Speeds are going to greatly vary depending on where you use it at and I have not really had much time to try some of the more unusual things that one would try on this type of connection yet such as online gaming or VoIP (although I loaned it to a friend of mine while we were driving down the road and he was playing WOW on it with surprisingly little problems)
As far as using the service, I have had opportunity to use the service in several cities under a variety of situations. This is a strong performer that has a variety of uses for people in various lines of work. Field installers, on site techs, sales reps and managers who have to travel a lot will find this device very useful and in some cases a life saver.
Case in point, my cable connection is currently down as I am writing this. The bandwidth test that I just ran gave me results of ~768/150 and in other areas I have gotten as much as 1.5 down with less latency than one would expect (don't be surprised though that the first hop can be as high as 80ms when you run a trace to anything but Google is currently at 148ms).
(update!)
I have moved to the u727 since I wrote this, the service is still just the same... an overall winner. The places where I am not getting EVDO have become fewer and i have had the opportunity to do some more things with it.
I recently took a trip to San Fransisco with some family members. I was not driving so I thought it would be a good time to break out the laptop and see how this thing handled connectivity while traveling. I dropped my connection only once when I went into a tunnel. from the central valley to San Fransisco, i had a solid connection that varied in speed, but it was always there. I was able to do a bit of gaming on it just to see how it held up and it did keep me connected although I did suffer from a bit of lag.
(end update!)
Overall, I would suggest that anyone who has a need for connectivity at the drop of a hat wherever they are should get one... or better yet... get your boss to get you one!
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