While the supported hardware Wiki is a good start it also seems to be a dead end for me. There are no guarantees that any of the devices will work without glitches and I can't have watchdogs, daily resets and workarounds or my customers will laugh at me when they discover that I have built a patchwork quilt.

I want to deploy several hundred 3G gateways in fringe areas where a decent outdoor enclosure, good antennae and POE up a 10m tower will get my clients decent access to the internet for VOIP and casual email/browsing. They will typically use 1 to 2 Gbytes per month in this scenario. Their cell phones are working if they stand on their dining room table and remain motionless while they talk but needless to say they can't take incoming calls because their phone is never in 'just the right spot'. And of course tethering is difficult to say the least if you have to hang your laptop from the ceiling.

I have tested the 912 (love the horsepower) with a Huawei 397B on Bell Canada and it works well but the Huawei is a USB dongle. That just won't cut it for an outdoor location plus I need a 3G antennae for extra gain.

I am thinking about evaluating a Sierra MC77xx of some sort but if others have had good luck with ZTE, Novatel or any other manufacturers then I would be happy to know.

I look forward to comments from all you guru's out there. Thanks.

I would suggest to go for Sierra MC77xx cards, you can ask or look up in the forum how well they are performing. If you use the latest firmware on them they are working ok.