Novatel Wireless Releases HSDPA ExpressCard

Novatel Wireless announced that it has begun shipping its Merlin XU870 ExpressCard to HSDPA and UMTS carriers worldwide. The Merlin XU870 ExpressCard can operate on both North American and European HSDPA networks and is the first commercially available HSDPA ExpressCard.

"With the introduction of the Merlin XU870 ExpressCard, we now have ExpressCards for both EV-DO and HSDPA networks, serving a fast-growing and unserved market of laptop models that incorporate only ExpressCard slots or both PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots," stated Rob Hadley, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing of Novatel Wireless.

The Merlin XU870 ExpressCard can be used with 34 and 54 size slots and is a tri-band HSDPA/UMTS and quad-band EDGE/GPRS product that allows for worldwide roaming between HSDPA networks in North America and Europe. The Merlin XU870 ExpressCard has been initially configured for 3.6 Mbps data speeds and when mobile operators start providing 7.2 Mbps service, a software utility will be used to upgrade the card and boost its speed to 7.2 Mbps.

Initial shipments of the XU870 ExpressCard began in the third quarter of 2006 to carriers in several countries, including Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand.