Novatel Wireless
The company that pioneered the mobile-hotspot revolution with its MiFi is teaming up with Sprint Nextel's
If you've never seen a MiFi, it's a pocket-sized hotspot that can provide online connectivity for up to five products at a time. Novatel seemed to be doing brisk business with these puppies through Sprint and Verizon
Shares of Novatel were slammed in November, after the company warned of flat sequential MiFi growth as a result of initial overstocks on the device by distributors.
Things have only gotten worse this year. Sierra Wireless
The competitive landscape is what makes next week's rollout so compelling. Virgin Mobile has carved a niche in the prepaid market, which works for teens, penny-pinchers, and infrequent wireless customers.
Virgin Mobile's MiFi offers the same chunky $60-per-month data plan for 5 gigabytes of data available through Sprint and Verizon Wireless, but it's also available in smaller morsels. Users can pay $10 for 100 megs that expire in 10 days or pay just $20 for a month of 300 megs of data. There are no contracts, which is great -- though it does mean that buyers won't be subsidized as they fork over $150 for the mobile hotspot.
Now that AT&T
Novatel isn't out of the woods, naturally. As more smartphones embrace tethering -- including tomorrow's debut of Apple's
It's not much, but it's the best news out of the Novatel camp this year.
Do you have a mobile broadband subscription? What are you using, and what do you think about the MiFi? Share your opinions in the comments box below.