As a user and supporter of EV-DO, I have watched with great anticipation as the technology has moved slowly towards maturity over the past few years.

With Verizon and Sprint signed on as EV-DO supporters and both companies well on their way to completing nationwide EV-DO networks of their own, the question is no longer if EV-DO will be the most widespread wireless broadband technology in the US, but if there will be any other technologies coming to compete with, complement or replace EV-DO any time soon?

The most recent sign that EV-DO has come of age is the USB modem released by Franklin that will bring Internet connectivity to a while new class of devices.

Tablet PCs, lightweight laptops, some PDAs, and many of the recently released UPMCs and other ultra tiny portables that run XP, but yet are too small to sport PCMCIA slots or other wireless equipment, are being given the unexpected opportunity to get online using their USB ports.

Known as the CDU 550 USB modem, this tiny device will only be available for use on the Sprint wireless network. The package comes complete with the modem itself, a carrying case, Y-shaped USB cable, an owners manual, and a Windows setup CD. Once you get your CDU 550 in hand, you'll need to do an ESN swap to move your active Sprint wireless account from your EV-DO wireless card to the new modem. The new USB modem works with all Macs (with a few caveats), but it cannot be used to create a network using the Kyocera KR1 EV-DO router under its current firmware.

Then all you have to do is use the Sprint connection manager (included on the setup CD) to activate your account and tweak your settings. The average speeds for an EV-DO network are from 500Kbps to 800Kbps when downloading and 80Kbps to 180Kbps in the other direction. I would imagine that the lack of an external antenna port on the tiny modem could potentially limit its speed a bit, but since it is the only available EV-DO option for Sprint customers with machines that have express slots alone, I guess they won't mind.