nova media has unveiled the iCON XY (http://www.novamedia.de/en/icon-xy.html), a 3G USB surfstick made by the Belgium company Option. The HSPA modem reaches download and upload speeds up to 7.2Mbps and 5.76Mbps.

The surfstick sports a swivel USB connector and a micro-SD slot compatible to SDHC cards with up to 32GB memory. The iCON XY isn’t IM locked and can be used in any 3G network running on 900 or 2100 MHz and on any EDGE/GPRS network running on 850, 900, 1800 or 1900 MHz.

“The real benefit of the iCON XY is the ability to use it with prepaid SIM cards all around the world.” says Jan Fuellemann, PR spokesperson at nova media. “Using a prepaid SIM card abroad can save hundreds of Euros otherwise spend for data roaming costs.”

The iCON XY features a self-installing connection manger, “uCAN Connect” software from Option. It’s compatible with all Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.4.11 and higher. It offers a SMS text message manager, a statistic manager for online time and data volume and additional features like the ability to quit an Internet connection when a time or data limit has been reached.

The iCON XY is available today from nova media at for Euro 100 (approximately US$136).