Vodafone "Mobile Broadband Hotspot" announced

MiFi solution coming soon

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10 September 2009 9:54 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Vodafone has announced the launch of the Vodafone "Mobile Broadband Hotspot", which will let users share their laptop's mobile broadband connection with up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Vodafone says the credit-card sized device "enables customers to connect quickly and easily to any device that supports the Wi-Fi standard, then connect to the internet using Vodafone's mobile broadband connectivity".

With the ability to get MP3 players, digital cameras and gaming consoles online within a 10-metre radius of a connected laptop, the device boasts one touch to power on and an internal battery that provides up to 4-hours of active use on a single charge.

Speeds-wise, depending on coverage, the Novatel-made device delivers up to 7.2Mbps on the downlink and 5.7Mbps on the uplink and offers expandable memory for up to 16GB via microSD.

The Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot will be initially available in Germany, Romania and Spain. We will keep you posted with a UK launch, in the meantime, 3's "MiFi" solution is due to launch in the UK later this month.