Novatel Wireless' MiFi Is Cool

San Diego based Novatel Wireless makes my favorite 3G USB modem, the 950. Today they unveiled a very cool new product called MiFi. It's really a product line and is a take off of Cradlepoint, but with a big difference.

Novatel has already established distribution with the mobile GSM and CDMA operators around the world. Cradlepoint was hoping for that with a planned acquisition by Sierra Wireless some months back, but that deal fell apart.

Basically the MiFi creates what Novatel is calling a "personal cloud" of mobile broadband access.

Whose the market? Study groups from schools, families on vacation, or road warriors who need more than one device connected to the 'Net without paying for multiple access accounts. This is where data limits on Mobile Broadband start to fall into play and where monitoring of usage is key to not end up with a huge bill.

All you do is put a data SIM in the device, and use the Novatel software an you're off and running. Speaking of SIMs I found this company EmbeddedWorks which offers global data SIMs at a fair price. Today they lack 3G but that's coming they claim.