As speeds increase and prices drop on Wireless WAN service plans, WWAN is becoming more and more popular for business travelers and remote locations for internet connectivity. With a simple USB or PCMCIA card stuck in your laptop, you can pretty much connect from anywhere you can get cell service, and the bandwidth available on these wireless plans is about what you'd expect from an entry level DSL connection. Which means sooner or later you might think to yourself, "boy it sure would be nice to be able to share this big pipe with more users than just my laptop". Maybe you've got a small remote branch office that can't get regular broadband access, or you travel with a group of users who all want to get online.


CradlePoint is a company that specializes in WWAN router solutions. Although they were just recently acquired by Sierra Wireless, they are still selling product as CradlePoint for the time being. They have several WWAN routers available, ranging from the cigarette-pack sized CTR350 up to the "larger" MBR1000. Each model offers different interfaces and capabilities depending upon your needs. The one we will be looking at today is the PHS300, or Personal Hot Spot, travel router.

Join me as I take a closer look at the CradlePoint PHS300.