Finally, those of us who have laptops that use PCMCIA express technology as their only wireless card format can breath a sigh of relief. Verizon has released its Novatel manufactured express card with hopes that EV-DO will become the next big wireless technology. (EV-DO is a wireless technology that is transmitted from cellphone towers along with most cellphone signals.)

Currently, I am using a Kyocera KR1 router accompanied by a regular Kyocera wireless card instead of an express card, but I am very tempted to buy this because of its smaller size and faster potential speeds. Many people were forced to seek out hard-to-find alternate solutions when they realized that there was a nearly complete lack of options for express card solutions in the mainstream marketplace.

This release brings the total number of available express cards to three: one from Dell, one from Novatel and one from Verizon. Sprint claims to have one on the way too, but no release date has been set at this time.

It allows computer users who subscribe to a service plan from Verizon or Sprint (currently the only two EV-DO providers) to access the Internet at near broadband speeds. The PCMCIA express standard, which is considerably faster and more efficient than the older PCMCIA standard (the standard that has become ubiquitous in today's laptops), is the standard that will eventually become most common.

With the coming increase in efficiency and throughput on the network that will come as a result of the process of updating the infrastructure into compliance with the Revision A standard, providers like Sprint and Verizon are claiming that they will be able to offer top download speeds over 3Mbps using their EV-DO network under the newer rev A standard. Now that Verizon is starting to embrace this new technology, let's hope they'll remove the artificial caps that limit speeds and stop terminating the contracts of customers who like to do more than just surf!