Novatel is the maker of some of the most common USB modems and other devices that you will find at many carriers around the country. The latest offering from Novatel is being called the smallest dual carrier HSPA+ USB modem on the market. The small device supports two carrier networks and was unveiled this week in Spain.

The modem is called the Ovation MC545 and showed an OTA download speed of 40.5Mbps in demonstrations in Spain. The device is based on 3GPP Release 8 Standards and has a peak max download speed of 42Mbps and upload speed of 5.7Mbps.

Many mobile pros and road warriors have used USB broadband modems before. Typically they are large, ugly devices that hang from your sleek notebook’s USB port like a giant tumor. A tumor you can’t treat so long as you want to have Internet access.

Sprint and Sierra Wireless announced the nation’s smallest USB broadband modem called the Compass 597 USB modem. How small is the modem you cry; how about 1.2” x 2.4” x 0.4” or about 70% smaller than the AirCard 595U. Those dimensions make the modem roughly the size of a typical flash drive.