Verizon UMW190 USB World Modem [Global Connectivity, Dual-Band CDMA/Tri-Band UMTS/HSPA, Quad-Band GSM]

For those of us that travel around the world frequently, there is one thing upon which we can always count; the inevitable problems that come with roaming with your cell phone or smartphone. It would seem that the communications world has come a long way with the increasingly large number of global phones that are capable of roaming about on various international networks. There is, however, one segment of this wireless networking realm that has been conspicuously absent and that’s the USB modem. Their popularity for intra-country use is without dispute but their ability to move internationally has been a bit of a concern. The latest USB modem from Verizon, the UMW190, is hoping to change all that. It offers true global connectivity and promises to give the user 3G access just about everywhere they may roam.

The Verizon UMW190 USB Global Modem operates on dual-band CDMA/Tri-Band UMTS/HSPA and quad-band GSM, which should just about have you covered everywhere you’d want to go. That’s not to say that you should expect to be able to update your Twitter account from Outer Mongolia or post your latest wet t-shirt shots to FaceBook from the Australian Outback, but I think if you happen to be in either of those situations you just might have more pressing issues to which to tend.

Verizon has stated that the modem will be in its stores later this month and will retail for $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year agreement. There’s always a catch, isn’t there? Anyway, other features of the modem include a pre-installed sim card, a sliding cover, compatibility with Windows, and a visual status indicator. A USB extension cable is also included with the modem.