Digi Offers to Bridge Cellular and Wi-Fi

Digi's Wi-Point 3G combines a PC card-based 3G cellular router with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, building a broadband network bridge almost anywhere.

Minnesota’s Digi International has introduced its Wi-Point 3G, a three-in-one network router that combined Wi-Fi and Ethernet capabilities with a PC card-based, 3G cellular router. With the Wi-Point 3G, users can set up secure, high-speed ad-hoc networks with Internet access from a wide range of locations.

“The Digi Wi-Point 3G allows remote sites and devices to wirelessly connect to the Internet or securely integrate into a corporate network—even if that remote device happens to be driving down the highway,” said Digi’s senior VP of global sales and marketing Larry Kraft, in a statement. “It is ideal for applications such as temporary networks, remote Wi-Fi hotspots, mobile/transportation deployments, disaster recovery, security and more.”

The Wi-Point 3G combined standard 802.11b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking with 100Base-T Ethernet and cellular network access by was of a carrier-supplied PC card. The router offers enterprise-class features like IPsec VPN, WPA2 encryption, and an integrated firewall, with easy configuration via a Web browser connected via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The Wi-Point 3G supports (and auto-detects) more than 40 cellular PC data cards (including PCMCIA and, and an adapter, PCI Express cards), and even offers GPS support with qualified PC cards and the capability to failover to dialup modem usage. The Wi-Point 3G is intended to offer drop-in networking to devices that may be difficult to access or which don’t have any sort of access to wired connections; ambitious folks no doubt would find all sorts of use for such a device in the field, setting up ad-hoc networks where cellular data access is available, but no Wi-Fi or wired connections are within reach.

The Wi-Point 3G is available now at a suggested price of $485.