Sprint's been pushing its Novatel U720 Rev A USB modem for a couple months now, but we suppose it's not too terribly late for Verizon to join in with its own rebadged unit, the USB720. Not a lot of surprises here, the two units are fairly identical, straight down to the USB y-cable to boost reception. Verizon does win some points for including Mac support out of the box, whereas Sprint just got that a couple of weeks ago, but the $130 post-rebate pricetag (Sprint's U720 goes for $50 after rebate) isn't helping the USB720 out, especially considering those hefty Verizon data rates. Of course, none of this is official yet -- we're going off of what look to be leaked internal documents -- so perhaps Verizon will loosen up a bit on the pricetag before it starts selling these for reals. Purported launch dates are February 1st for B2B, and February 15th for retail.

Remember that Novatel U720 Rev A USB modem for Sprint that we told you about in late October? Well Ross, an eagle-eyed reader, pointed out that the U720 is now in stock for $50 after the usual assortment of instant savings and rebates and what not. Still, as sexy as this is for the Windows folks, where's the love for the Mac users among us? Sprint, we fully expect to see some drivers comin' down the pike, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Although there have been inklings in the past that Sprint was working on a USB EV-DO modem with Novatel Wireless, recent FCC approval documents have confirmed its existence and given us a first glimpse at what the modem actually looks like. In comparison to its peers, the U720 is visually appealing, although the single shot of the device doesn't provide a very good idea of its size thanks to the USB port being out of sight. Not that the style of the modem matters: we know people (read: MacBook owners) that would kill to see a USB EV-DO modem come to the States -- it's probably a good thing that the FCC approved the device then, eh?