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Locating a hotspot can now be as simple as reaching into your computer bag and connecting your mobile phone to a personal, wireless router. Boise, Idaho-based Cradlepoint, Inc has created the Personal Hotspot (PHS300), which broadcasts a private and instant WiFi signal when connected to a mobile phone. The combination gives your laptop, iPod Touch, WiFi camera, or any WiFi-enabled device, a direct connection to cyberspace through the cellular handset. The data download speeds can be as fast as a DSL modem, largely as a result of the bandwidth being built into today’s ‘3G’ cellular phones. So for bursts of usage, (up to two hours of battery time), it beats searching for locations with free WiFi and avoids the hassle of logging-in to costly WiFi at hotels or coffee shop hotspots. Now there’s no reason to go without internet access in areas where WiFi is non-existent - one need only a cellular signal.
The PHS 300 solves an annoying problem quickly and simply. “We unleash broadband from your cellular phone,” says Gary Oliverio, VP of Marketing, Cradlepoint Co-Founder, and MIT alum. “It’s pretty common knowledge that a lot of these high-end cell phones can be tethered to a laptop to be used as a modem, but it sometimes requires complicated software installs and awkward cabling that is nowhere near as simple as WiFi. We do the same thing that the software is doing, but we’ve put that function into an appliance. The user need only connect the handset to our personal router and then the laptop is interacting with the WiFi signal that it generates.”
Cradlepoint’s Personal Hotspot WiFi router is compatible with a number of handsets, and the list is available on their website http://www.cradlepoint.com. In addition to handsets, the Personal Hotpot also drives the large number of USB modems that are sold by the three largest cellular carriers.
The signal generated by the personal router is not only readily accessible but highly portable. It can bring WiFi anywhere, including to the cab ride from the airport. In fact with the PHS300, a car service could sell WiFi in the car just by offering a secure login to a passenger.
The secure login presented by the PHS300 is also an advantage over standard router solutions such as public WiFi access. The owner doesn’t have to share access on a public signal and they can give rights to use to the signal selected users by handing out a password, and then changing it as often as they wish. Another advantage to the use of a personal hotspot is that it can be less expensive than a carrier’s air card option.
Data plans in conjunction with voice plans for the cell phone are available from carriers and average about 40 dollars extra a month. Air card plans are generally about 60 dollars a month.
The PHS 300 has another advantage as WiFi-enabled devices are becoming more and more common. Oliverio tells a tale of photojournalists from news to sports beats for example, who carry camera equipment with WiFi attachments. He said that at the recent State-of-the-Union Address, one news bureau was able scoop the Associated Press wire by 30 minutes when the photographer uploaded images directly from the press area rather than waiting to upload from a laptop. With the combination of a cell phone, the Personal Hotspot WiFi router and his camera’s WiFi transmitter, the photographer was a hero to his publication that day. “We have worked directly with high-end camera manufacturers and early adopters to ensure that end-to-end compatibility was simple and straightforward,” adds Oliverio.
But the PHS300 is just one of Cradlepoint’s products compatible with a cellular signal. The company has also developed small and medium-sized enterprise wireless routers that include both a wired Ethernet connection as well as cellular. Using the new 802.11 Draft ‘n’ standard, these routers deliver ten times the speed and four times the range of most other cellular routers on the market. What’s better is that if there is a planned (or unplanned) outage of the wired DSL or cable connection, the routers can automatically switch to the cellular back up.
From a consumer retail level, however, the PHS 300 is really the most exciting product from Cradlepoint, as it not only provides a great resource for the proliferation of WiFi, but it also elevates the handset to another level of usability in the consumer market. It is their embedded software technology called WiPipeTM that helps make the connection better, faster, and easier while opening the door to numerous other applications that have yet to be conceived.