As the title says, our village currently has no internet. The local wireless phone provider, being on the bleeding edge of technology, last week enabled their new 3G EVDO Rev. A network. I'd like to use it to bring internet to our village - first, in the form of a small internet cafe, but possibly a wifi co-op in the future. I'll post the questions I have to this thread to pick the brains of you geniuses.

The only modem my provider offers is a Novatel Ovation mc760. If it were just me that would be maintaining this, I'd plug it in to a small linux box and set up a Squid proxy. However, I'm not going to be here forever (or even more than another year or two) so I'd like something more simple.

I'm looking at Cradlepoint (or similar) routers where I can just plug the modem in and have a simple broadband router setup. They seem to have at least 13 of these at various price points that are compatible with my modem. Can anyone offer any input on which I should choose and why? Are the more expensive ones really worth hundreds more than the cheap one? Other ideas that are as simple? We're on a shoestring budget, but I want to make sure I buy the right thing, rather than having to purchase something else in 6 months when I find out I got the wrong one.

That's my first question. More as I get them...