DailyTech - Novatel Announces Merlin XU870 3G ExpressCard

Submit News

Hardware Novatel Announces Merlin XU870 3G ExpressCard
Brandon Hill (Blog) - June 22, 2006 10:48 AM

13 comment(s) - last by rcc.. on Jun 23 at 4:19 PM

3.6Mbps data downloads, software upgradeable to 7.2Mbps

We first announced back in April that Novatel had begun sampling EV-DO and HSPDA ExpressCards for notebook computers. A number of notebooks from Lenovo, Dell and other manufacturers have been incorporating integrated 3G solutions for quite some time now, but for those out there lacking that option (and have a free ExpressCard slot) Novatel's latest solutions should come in handy.

Novatel today announced its Merlin XU870 tri-band ExpressCard which supports HSDPA/UMTS and quad-band EDGE/GPRS. The product will allow for worldwide roaming and will initially offer 3.6Mbps data speeds and is software upgradeable to 7.2Mbps when the service is available.

"The Merlin XU870 ExpressCard is our second external ExpressCard/34 solution for notebook platforms that either contain both PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots or only ExpressCard slots. By delivering our pre-commercial Merlin XU870 HSDPA ExpressCards for North American and European markets, ahead of schedule, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to leading the way in ExpressCard mobile broadband development," said Peter Leparulo, CEO of Novatel Wireless, in the Novatel press release.

The Merlin XU870 ExpressCard will be available in the third quarter. Pricing hasn't yet been announced, but watch this space for details. And for those wondering about EV-DO, Novatel also recently received compliance approval for its Merlin XV620 which supports 2.4Mbps EV-DO and is backwards compatible with CDMA technology.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

3.6 mbps?

By Goty on 6/22/2006 11:47:24 AM , Rating: 2

Man, that's faster than my landline connection here!

RE: 3.6 mbps?

By beemercer on 6/22/2006 11:58:29 AM , Rating: 3

unfortuantely thats 36 times faster than my landline

Parent

RE: 3.6 mbps?

By Hare on 6/22/2006 12:48:27 PM , Rating: 2

You obviously have a pretty slow landline... 8mb-24mb here (ADSL2+).

Parent

RE: 3.6 mbps?

By beemercer on 6/22/2006 1:53:13 PM , Rating: 3

I have DSL, but something is wrong with it; it only downloads at 100kpbs

Parent

Case-sensitive...

By Puddleglum on 6/22/2006 2:10:32 PM , Rating: 2

100kb/s = killa-bits per second (100kb/s / 8 bits per byte = 12.5 KB/s)
100KB/s = killa-bytes per second

I hope you meant 100KB/s.

Parent

RE: Case-sensitive...

By rcc on 6/23/2006 4:19:16 PM , Rating: 2

>>100kb/s = killa-bits per second (100kb/s / 8 bits per >>byte = 12.5 KB/s)
>>100KB/s = killa-bytes per second

>>I hope you meant 100KB/s.

Or 100kB/s? Unless you were talking degrees Kelvin.

and it's kilo.

Parent

RE: 3.6 mbps?

By Goty on 6/22/2006 1:56:12 PM , Rating: 2

Running ADSL here, too, and I pay for 6mpbs, but I rarely get that much.

Parent

RE: 3.6 mbps?

By ksherman on 6/22/2006 2:37:34 PM , Rating: 2

sad... I have 6MBps Cable and regularly download at a little over 600KBs

Parent

I'm guessing...

By DigitalFreak on 6/22/2006 12:01:25 PM , Rating: 2

latency will still suck.

RE: I'm guessing...

By freakyshiat on 6/22/2006 12:29:10 PM , Rating: 2

yeah latency will suck, until evdo rev a comes out, which should be a little better. Dont know about umts/hsdpa

Parent

And the price?

By dice1111 on 6/22/2006 12:29:49 PM , Rating: 2

I'm sure the price for the service will be completely unreasonable. Any data plan currently offered through the telco's in my area would break me, and they are slow. We need a lot more wireless compition going on. Hopefully this will spur the much needed price drops.