I recently became even more connected to the Web with the use of a wireless card connected to Verizon’s EVDO service.

I must admit, I was skeptical of this service, given the overall state of the regular North American cellular voice network. Voice quality continues to be sub-par, regardless of the network provider, so why should I trust them to deliver a data service (regardless of the technology on which it’s based) that really excels?

Well, it works. And it works really well. I’ve used the wireless card in my home office, while a passenger in the car for several hours at a time in urban and rural areas, and out in the middle of a lake. My expectation was that the response time would be slower than my business-grade broadband circuit, but it was on par with the exception of a few remote areas where access was available—albeit slow.

I have no artificial barriers anymore for when I can access the Web, check and respond to e-mail (using a keypad that actually allows full use of all fingers!), or chat with colleagues. (To the family, that’s another story. Although my teenage daughters were wide-eyed about the possibility of surfing Myspace while en-route to our weekend trip, the reality of mom working the entire ride threw cold water on their plans!)

The real issue for me is whether I even need a broadband line for work anymore. When I’m not on the road, I work from a home office. Do we need to pay $40 for my business-grade DSL plus another $50 for my EVDO service each month? Probably not!

We have been projecting for a few years broadband wireless services eventually would replace landline services in certain applications. That time finally has come.

Obviously, EVDO service won’t replace a broadband access line in a branch office where multiple people work. But for those individuals who work from home or in a one-person office and also travel, this option makes sense. When we conducted our internal cost analysis at Nemertes, we made a compelling business case for the wireless cards (which were free, incidentally) and the associated service simply by eliminating the airport and hotel broadband access fees we had been racking up. Add on top of that the ability to eliminate the DSL, cable, or other landline access, and the payback period becomes even more compelling—almost immediate, in fact!

Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. Click  here for the newsletter archive.