There’s a lot of excitement around the MiFi ‘personal hotspot’ at the moment. In the mobile computing community at least, nearly everyone wants to get hands-on, test, and probably buy one too.

Phone Arena have got hold of the Verizon MiFi 2200 and have posted some pics and speed test results. Forget the speed test results because your mileage will vary wildly depending on where you are and who’s sharing the tower with you. Fingers crossed that it’s not someone with another MiFi! It’s rated for EVDO Rev 0 which means it supports the latest 2Mb/s+ theoretical download rates. The more interesting test would have been a battery life test but Phone Arena don’t mention any test figures.  I’m guessing that Phone Arena have put up a quick first impressions test and will follow up with a more detailed article. They have confirmed, however, that the device can be used via USB. It’s supposed to charge via USB too but again, no word on that from the Phone Arena team.

As we found in CeBIT, it just works! “We found connecting to the Verizon MiFi 2200 very straight forward, and was up and running in only a few minutes inch What more can you say except, HSDPA flavor please!

There are more images in the article.

Update: Keep an eye on SlashGear. Apparently they’ve got one coming in today!

Prediction: The MiFi will be mobile gadget of the year for many many people. With it’s ability to bundle 5 non-3G devices via Wifi over one 3G connection, its tiny size, reasonable battery life, USB charging/use, built-in web server and very easy operation, it really adds a lot of value to the kit bag and puts a stop to multi-contract situations like this. Sure, built-in 3G can be better quality and the fact that it’s another gadget to carry may annoy some but the advantages, especially if you already have Wifi devices that you want to mobilise, make this one desirable mobile gadget. Which is why we gave it the Best of CeBIT 09 award at MeetMobility.

I’m not sure how carriers are going to like it though. On one hand you gain some customers but on the other hand you risk losing contracts as they become shared which is probably why Verizon are launching it with very expensive data rates. $15 for a day pass. $40 per month for 250MB and $60 per month for 5GB although the following per-MB cost is only 5c which isn’t bad) Cost (we assume with the plans) is $150 but there’s a $50 mail-in rebate.

In Europe, you’ll get a much better deal. The Mifi will launch through third party resellers at an estimated 200 Euros but it will be unlocked and will allow you to slot your own providers SIM in giving you the choice of the best deals. In many countries you can get 30 days of 3G on a pay as you go plan for under 20 Euros. A day pass, under 2 Euro.

There’s no doubt that the MiFi will sell like hotcakes and is likely to affect the sales of 3G USB dongles. Also expect to see every coffee shop, bar and supermarket dropping these in place which could kill the European paid-for hotspot model overnight. T-Mobile Germany will have a lot of calculating to do on this one. Increased data per 3G channel, shared 3G contracts and loss of Wifi hotspot revenues could be significant. On the other hand, T-Mobile have a chance to put these out for free with a captive server inside that promotes their own content. Free 3G, paid-for TV, opt-in ad injections? It could be a few years before they work out a successful model but i’m sure you’ll see these being given away to households as a content gateway. Is the Mifi the future set top box?

One thing to watch out for though rogue hotspots. The Mifi has a server inside which I assume is going to be hacked very soon. Public-data farming is going to happen very quickly with these battery powered gadgets around. First targets tech expo’s.

Verizon’s MiFi will be available on May 17th.

We’re expecting to have final EU pricing and an HSDPA version for review very soon. In the meantime, you can check out a video we made when we tested the Mifi at CeBIT 09. Also check out a glowing report from the New York Times.

We’ve been waiting for this ever since we got a whisper from a reseller that it was being developed and the reason is that it could be a significant product for many carriers and a great product for mobile computing types.  The Mifi handheld 3G router is battery powered and allows you to connect to a mobile 3G connection and then share that out via WiFi.

The press release has some interesting content. Take this for example: “an intelligent, open platform capable of hosting advanced software applications and flexible enough to address the continued evolution of mobile broadband.”  According to our sources, that means it will be able to host landing pages, implement filtering and even tailored solutions like per-mac bandwidth capping. If Nortel have though about this they will have provided the ability for business users to implement simple charging via a gateway.

If well controlled, it will be a great new product for carriers but if it’s sold unlocked with an open SIM slot, there could be all sorts of problems for carriers. Loading an unlimited 3G connection with 10’s of users is going to be a killer for the already loaded 3G backhauls.

The built in battery is good for four hours of use and it’s scheduled for release in Q1 2009.

Press release

Via JKOnTheRun