Dulaney adds that the price of 3G is still high for most enterprise budgets and that carriers have been somewhat misleading, quoting theoretical 3G speeds in unloaded cells and conveniently limiting their quotes to downstream performance when upstream is typically much slower. And he cautions that notebook-embedded 3G undoubtedly means trouble switching carriers and added expense when carriers upgrade.

Julie Ask, research director at Jupiter Research, agrees. “3G is great for the few frequently traveling white-collar executives who can convince IT the cost is justified.” She places 3G enterprise percentage uptake somewhere in the “low single digits” but adds that 3G is generally a more reliable connection than Wi-Fi. “Wi-Fi typically has too much interference, and [it’s] on and off. 3G is a closed network.”

As you might expect, the carriers, which have invested billions in their 3G networks, are more bullish. “What we’re seeing with mobile broadband is the development of the real-time business that really does operate in real time,” says David Deady, product manager at Sprint, adding that IT decision makers understand 3G benefits and are leading the charge. “We did some research and found that 20 percent of businesses and 28 percent of large enterprises are committed to going forward with mobile broadband,” Deady says.

Carriers point to a host of specialized apps -- such as law enforcement, insurance adjusters processing claims and sending back digital photos of car wrecks from the field, or realtors allowing customers to browse the Multiple Listing Service as they drive together from site to site -- that can benefit from 3G’s mobility and high bandwidth. Not to mention sales force automation and fleet administration. Deady spoke of a bank setting up an ATM at a street fair using wireless broadband and new suburban stores and small offices using 3G for an immediate shared fixed broadband connection, rather than waiting weeks for a wired connection.

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“We’re seeing considerable growth in all categories,” says Claude Mitchell, director of marketing for the enterprise segment at Verizon Wireless. Mitchell sees 3G being used primarily for Web searching and accessing corporate e-mail remotely and believes a lot of companies are pushing out their sales and field force automation and other enterprise applications to recently offered Windows Mobile 3G-enabled Treo 700w and UTStarcom XV6700 smartphones. The question is, Which of these applications really require the bandwidth that 3G offers?

Is 3G for me?

Frequent travelers are the most obvious enterprise customers for 3G. True, opting for a monthly Wi-Fi hot spot plan is much cheaper, typically just $30 per month, with a one-year contract. But a Wi-Fi subscription assumes the road warrior will have easy access to a hotel or coffee shop with that service -- or will be willing and able to navigate the complicated, frequently expensive roaming schemes of rival Wi-Fi providers.

According to a Gartner study published last fall, the fragmented nature of Wi-Fi access is clearly an impediment: Less than a quarter of all business travelers used Wi-Fi hotspots while traveling. The primary reasons for this were log-on hassles and cost -- or uncertainty about cost options. Perhaps the greatest advantage of 3G is the simplicity of a single, transparent log-on from anywhere within the sphere of coverage.