Check it data fans, AT&T just announced a pair of new HSUPA LaptopConnect cards from Option. The GT Ultra goes type II PCMCIA while the GT Ultra Express is, you guessed it, destined for ExpressCard34 slots. Both cards are tri-band UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100MHz and quad-band GPRS/EDGE capable for BroadbandConnect speeds of about 600Kbps to 1.4Mbps on the way down or 500Kbps to 800Kbps back up the tubes. Those bands should get your suit connected in some 140 countries spanning the US, Europe, Japan and Korea. The cards are Mac and PC compatible and will set you back $50 0$ (for a limited time starting tomorrow) plus a two year contract of at least $60 per month. After you mail-in the appropriate rebate forms of course... which you'll probably forget to do.

Wouldn't it be pretty awesome to have the launch dates for, like, all of AT&T's most anticipated devices on one convenient 440 x 330 image? Well, that's not quite what we have here -- the Sony Ericsson K850 is nowhere to be found, for one -- but this is a solid start. It sounds like that SMT5700 (codename "Bulldog," how cool is that?) that we've been anticipating for nearly a year now will finally get outed on February 5 alongside the Vu. We still don't know whether AT&T's MediaFLO network will launch at the same time, and we've heard rumors that there will be a second Vu without MediaFLO support, so we could be seeing that here but we're really not sure. Despite the missing K850, Sony Ericsson's still putting up a reasonably strong showing here with a pink W580i launching this week and the 3G Z750 in grey, pink, and purple on March 11. In addition to the Vu, LG will be offering the CU720 Shine in red on January 22 and in black (ooh, that might look hot!) on February 28. Option's HSUPA data cards are now targeted for January 24, and last -- and probably least -- the Motorola V3xx outstays its welcome by making an encore appearance in "lavender" on the 22nd of this month.

[Thanks, Kal]

First generation 3G USB modems were monstrous, unsightly bricks, but like everything else in modern electronics, the wonders of miniaturization are starting to take effect. Option's joining the party with its iCON 225, a 63 x 26 x 13mm stick that Option says responds "to the growing market demand for very small yet high-performance wireless solutions" -- in other words, yeah, we like 'em tiny. HSUPA sadly doesn't make the cut here, but the iCON 225 does include support for a mighty 7.2Mbps of downstream data when hooked up to an HSDPA network that supports such blazingly fast speeds. The modem's already shipping to carriers, so look for it to start showing up in retail channels very shortly.

[Via Electronista]

Like pretty much everything else in life, carriers' launch dates tend to slip, sometimes to the extreme (oh, come on, you can't tell us you've never procrastinated to the point where you couldn't make a due date!). To that end, we've gotten an updated look at AT&T's expected drop dates, and it seems like the wait has gotten a little longer for a few of the more anticipated handsets in the pipe. Some devices like the red version of the Nokia 6555 have slipped a couple weeks, while others -- the lowly Samsung A127 comes to mind -- have actually moved up. The Pantech Duo has also been pushed out from October 9 to the 30th, possibly to give the just-launched Tilt a little breathing room in the spotlight. Click on for the full list!

[Thanks, Kal-El]

Update: A second source is telling us that the Duo is still tracking for shipment "on or about" the 9th. Of course, the proof is in the pudding -- but either way, at least we'll be getting our Duo on before the month's out.

We've just been tipped on a fresh roadmap for AT&T's fall launches, and goodness, there's a little something for everyone in here! Note that these are order dates, subject to change -- not necessarily in-store dates -- so your mileage may vary trying to grab these devices on the dates you see here. First up, LG rolls out the CG180 and CU515 "Chiwoo" on October 2. Nokia adds another color for the 6555 on October 11, red, which we think will suite it quite nicely. Speaking of new colors, Sony Ericsson brings a black version of the W580i on October 9. The Pantech Duo -- a device we suspect many folks are getting fired up over -- should hit on the same day. From Motorola, the Q9 Global becomes orderable just a few days from now, September 25, alongside the Tilt from HTC. UTStarcom outs the AMOI-sourced 5700 on October 9, giving folks a low cost (albeit non-3G) Windows Mobile option. RIM gets busy with the Curve 8310 on October 4, effectively sunsetting the original 8300 by adding GPS into the mix. On the data modem side, Sierra and Option will both be contributing HSUPA devices in October. Let's hear it for speedy uploads! Follow the break for the full roadmap.

[Thanks, Superman]

Some of us are still clamoring for mere 1.8Mbps HSDPA -- complete with a pedestrian 384kbps on the upstream side -- to go live in our neck of the woods, but that's not stopping Vodafone from rolling deep (way deep) in Germany. Voda has gone live in Bavaria with an Option GlobeTrotter Express HSUPA card, "customized to the exacting requirements of the operator" and offered at retail as the "Mobile Connect Card Express UMTS Broadband." The ExpressCard/34 offers a Cardbus adapter in box, firmware upgradeability, download speeds as high as 7.2Mbps, and a staggering (albeit theoretical) 1.45Mbps upstream. Mobile web server, anyone?

[Via Slashphone]

It's refreshing to see high tech wizardry with Apple flavor hitting the shelves; if you have a hankering for travel and need fast connectivity no matter where you go, the GlobeTrotter Express 7.2 Ready has you covered. This Mac-compatible ExpressCard will bring triple band HSDPA / UMTS -- up to 7.2 Mbps -- and quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE to your Book, and thanks to the "Zero-CD" feature, drivers and software are auto-magically installed from the card's memory on first use (no worries, Windows users, you are covered here as well). The simple "launch2net" software provides instant detection and configuration of 300 network providers around the globe, meaning less time spent fiddling with APNs and passwords and more time online -- we know your provider's support team and accounting depts. will love this feature. The Nova Media site shows this as pre-order right now for roughly $400 US, but it should start shipping in early May.

[Via Macworld]

Rogers Wireless seems to be on a bit of a binge of late with HSDPA devices, and with a fledgling 3G network in the cards, that's just fine with us. Announced today is the Option GT MAX "7.2 Ready" data card; as you may have guessed, the "7.2 Ready" refers to the card's ability to be upgraded from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps when the network supports it. The GT MAX card features quad band GSM / GPRS / EDGE, triple band HSDPA / UMTS, and an interesting butterfly-style fold away antenna that saves you having to pop the card out when not in use. Thanks to Option's "Advanced Radio Technology" (ART) with receive diversity and equalization to help improve both signal reception and reduce interference, the card is apparently garnering 50 percent greater throughput speeds in field trials. Pick it up for $149 CDN on a three-year contract.

[Via PR Newswire]

If AT&T plans to roll deep with 7.2Mbps HSDPA this year, we reckon they need some equipment on store shelves, so FCC approval of Option's GlobeTrotter Express 7.2 certainly bodes well. Besides tri-band UMTS / HSDPA and quadband GPRS / EDGE, the card features a nifty zero-CD installation feature that copies drivers directly from the card itself. No word on release -- or whether AT&T will even carry it, for that matter -- but we're guessing we can find a few MacBook Pro users out there who are about ready to raid the FCC's offices and swipe this thing today.

If the promise of 3.6Mbps downstream data (eventually, anyway) on the wings of Cingular's HSDPA network gets you out of bed every morning, but the AirCard 875's bulbous antenna is enough to make you want to cry, just feast your eyes on this little number. Option's Globetrotter GT MAX is the latest (and only second) data card to hit Cingular with support for the higher HSDPA data rate, while still preserving a veritable who's who of backward compatibility (GPRS, EDGE, and plain ol' UMTS) on four GSM and three WCDMA bands. Unlike the aforementioned AirCard from Sierra Wireless, the Globetrotter has a nifty little retractable antenna that'll likely be a hit with road warriors weary of removing modems from their slots when trying to pack the PC away. Look for the Globetrotter GT MAX to be available today from Cingular for a nice, round $49.99 after rebate on a two year agreement.

[Via PHONE Magazine]

Nipping at the heels of Novatel's similarly-styled XU870, Belgium's Option Wireless Technology has announced its GlobeTrotter EXPRESS 7.2. As the name implies, the ExpressCard promises 7.2Mbps downstream on the wings of your carrier's HSDPA airwaves -- if said carrier supports such blazingly fast speeds, of course, and as of right now 3.6 is as good as it gets. For what it's worth, the XU870 currently tops out at 3.6Mbps with a software upgrade to 7.2 slated for down the road, so the GlobeTrotter takes the strictly-theoretical speed crown in the meantime (and if the GlobeTrotter were actually shipping right now like the XU870 is, that'd be even cooler). Thanks to a nifty little feature Option calls "Zero CD," drivers for the card are embedded in the card itself, meaning that no separate driver installation is necessary when you shove this puppy into your lappie of choice. No word on availability yet, but with support for triband HSDPA and quadband EDGE, we wouldn't be surprised to see this one take the whole world by storm.

[Via 3G.co.uk, thanks Bram]

We think 3G is great, we really do. Be it EV-DO, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, the long-forgotten EV-DV... it's all good in our books. But if there's one thing that we don't like, it's adding yet another band into the mix. Yes, we understand that GSM 900 is already well-established across much of the world, and it only makes sense for Belgium's Option to be working with networks to develop UMTS 900 hardware for overlays -- but still, someone has to put their foot down and stop the madness before we're all stuck waiting for phones with six-band radios. (Whew, we feel a little better now.) Anyhoo, it looks like Option has hooked up with Finland's Elisa to successfully place the world's first UMTS 900 call and demonstrate simultaneous voice / data services. The test has also caught the interest of Nokia -- possibly on account of Elisa hanging out in their backyard, which looks at UMTS 900 as a way to fast-track wireless broadband to Finland's rural areas. No word on when the requisite hardware might be in production, but between this and the newly-coined 1700 band, our heads are spinning just a bit.

They can't claim to be the first to rock HSUPA outright, but Belgian outfit Option appears to be the first to hit up the 3G+ tech via an honest-to-goodness data card. As a reminder, HSUPA is the de facto successor to HSDPA in the GSM family tree, leaving the plenty-fast HSDPA downlink speeds be to concentrate on boosting the uplink; it's capable of topping out at a whopping 5.7Mbps up, compared to HSDPA's measly 384kbps. Of course, those crazy upload times do us no good without somethin' we can plug into our lappies; that's where Option comes into the equation, demonstrating a prototype card using Qualcomm's MSM7200 chipset in a variety of real-life scenarios (including a car traveling at 50 km/h), managing a respectable 1.3Mbps up and 2.7Mbps down. Now that testing is in full swing, Option says we can expect commercial HSUPA products from their camp in the first half of 2007.