Nova media has unveiled iCON 711, a new 3G surfstick for Mac OS X made by the Belgium company Option. The modem supports fast download speeds with up to 21.1 Mbit/s.

The iCON 711 is neither SIM locked nor netlocked and can be used within most networks around the globe, according to Jan Fuellemann of Nova media. It features a MicroSD card slot compatible to SDHC cards with up to 32GB memory and an external antenna connector.

The iCON 711 comes with launch2net Premium, a 3G connection manager for Mac OS X. The software features a SMS text message manager, statistics, and the ability to share a 3G connection with other Macs and devices. launch2net Premium includes connection settings for most mobile network providers. For cross-platform usage, the iCON 711 includes a connection manager for Windows operating systems alredy stored on the device.

On the technical side the iCON 711 is working in the 900/2100 MHz frequency ranges for 3G connections and supports HSPA+ with download speeds up to 21.1 Mbit/s and upload speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/s. 2G EDGE and GPRS connections are supported in the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequency ranges with up to 215 kbit/s download speeds and up to 200 kbit/s upload speeds. Antenna diversity is supported on all bands.

The iCON 711 is available today from nova media at http://www.novamedia.de for approximately US$160. It requires an Intel Mac running OS X 10.5.8 or higher.