We have two news to report — one bad and then the good one. First the bad news — the first HSUPA device approved by the FCC is not some high-end smartphone, rather it’s a data card. To be more specific it’s the Option Wireless’ GlobeTrotter EXPRESS HSUPA.
The good news is that as soon as one of the major carriers in the States enables High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), there will be a card ready to hit the market — meaning you will have full-blown broadband on your laptop wherever you are (actually wherever proper base stations are).
Anyway, the GlobeTrotter EXPRESS HSUPA is slim-line ExpressCard, compatible with the 34 mm expansion slots you’ve probably seen on the latest laptops. The card supports triple-band HSPA and UMTS, and is designed to achieve peak HSDPA download speeds of 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA upload rates approaching 2 Mbps. Backward compatibility ensures HSDPA connections at lower data rates of 3.6 Mbps and 1.8 Mbps with upload speeds up to 384 Kbps, as well as tri-band UMTS connections at 384 Kbps and quad-band EDGE and GPRS for worldwide connectivity.
Yes, this is THE card that will make you fully mobile on a GSM network (AT&T/T-Mobile), although the proper unlimited data plan is more than suggested…