I was recently in Chicago for a short vacation and took the leap and went without taking my laptop. This was a big step for me, as I’m usually chained to my laptop whenever I leave home, and it was all thanks to the emergence of mobile broadband. I’m an AT&T customer with a shiny new iPhone so I was able to leverage the power of my phone and the broadband network connection to do everything I am used to doing on my laptop with my mobile instead.

With high speed mobile broadband I was able to check my mail, look up directions and even get a little bit of work done while walking the streets of Chicago. I was able to keep up with my favorite team’s scores (even some play-by-play) as we hopped from restaurant to restaurant and to the various tourist attractions around town.

This would have never been possible with my old cell phone. I would have had to carry around with me paper maps and notes or, even worse, had to look like a lost tourist and ask the locals for directions everywhere. Having access to broadband was also a huge money saver. I didn’t have to pay for Internet access in our snooty downtown hotel or pay for cabs to destinations I found out were within walking distance.