Broadband wireless access is essential for placing those last minute bids on NameJet.

[Editor's note: this is the first in a new series on Domain Name Wire that features non-domain gear -- both hardware and software -- that's helpful to domainers. We've added a "Domainer Gear" category so you can see all of the articles in this series as they're published.]

I’m currently in a taxi in Chicago on my way to 2008 GeoDomain Expo. One of the biggest pains of traveling is connectivity, including finding safe (and hopefully free) wifi connections. But I don’t have to deal with that anymore now that I use mobile broadband service from Sprint. I can connect to the internet at fast speeds almost wherever I am — even in this taxi cab.

If you haven’t tried mobile broadband yet, now may be the time. I think in a few years people won’t give a damn about wifi hotspots; we’ll all connect via our mobile network.

My laptop came pre-installed with a Sprint modem. It works just like wifi, except you don’t have to find a hotspot (it goes through the cellular network) and it’s much more secure than hooking up to “coffee-shop-wifi” network. I generally get 1 MB downstream connections and 300-500k upstream.

At $60 a month, mobile broadband isn’t cheap but the cost is easy to justify. For example, I figure I paid for my monthly access in just a week when I was at the TRAFFIC show in Orlando a couple months ago. Access in the conference center was free, but in-room internet cost $10 a day. I really wanted to go back to my room to work on stories, so I would have ended up paying $10 each day to connect (and felt guilty about it). If you travel more than a few days a month, the money you save on hotel broadband easily justifies the cost of this service.

But it’s the convenience and productivity improvements that really sells mobile broadband. When I show up 15 minutes early to a meeting in town I just open up my laptop and connect. That’s 15 minutes I would have spent pecking at my Treo’s keyboard. Or worse, doing nothing. When my flight home from the Orlando TRAFFIC show was delayed, I just opened up my laptop and started working.

When it comes to domaining, an always-on connection is even more important. Just ask Lonnie.