Avis thinks they’ve rented me a car. Sure, on the outside it looks like a standard-fare, late-model Pontiac Grand Am. But in actuality, it’s my very own personal rolling WiFi hot spot: no wires, no weird antennas, no voodoo witchcraft. As long as I’m within 100 feet of this candy-apple-red vehicle, connecting and surfing the net is easier than drifting into a power slide on wet pavement.

The device that transforms this humdrum domestic into a shining example of go-anywhere, do-anything internet is the Autonet Mobile WiFi router. Currently available only through Avis for $11 per day, the paperback-sized gadget plugs directly into an AC power adapter. Once a security ID number is punched in, the router blazes to life and delivers encrypted WiFi within a 100-foot radius. Suddenly, actions unheard of in an automobile are possible: surfing the internet, syncing GPS or just looking for directions on an iPhone.

Once behind the wheel of the Pontiac, I plug the Autonet into the cigarette lighter and within seconds (seconds, not minutes) my PC picks up a full WiFi signal. In a blink I’m checking gmail, and not long after that I download directions to my hotel. Then I look at my watch. The entire process, from initial plug-in to receiving route info, is done in under a minute. I can’t match this performance – even with my iPhone. But the best part? Well, I haven’t even arrived at the best part yet.

The sweetest bonus that the little black box has in store for me occurs when I roll into my hotel. What? Ten bucks a day for internet service? I don’t think so. I head to my room, unpack the router and, using the supplied AC power cord, turn my boudoir into a firewalled hot spot voluptuary.

But how is true mobile WiFi possible? Autonet has made it happen through a unique wireless internet service that interfaces with preexisting 3-G and 2.5-G (EVDO, 1xRTT) cellular data networks that cover 95 percent of the United States. High-speed access ranges from 600 to 800 Kbps while integrated WEP encryption, MAC address restriction and WAN port restriction offers Zen-inducing amounts of security. True, it’s not as fast as a direct cable or DSL connection but the company’s proprietary technology works transparently while a car is in motion, seamlessly stitching together signals from one cell tower to the next.

And because of this tower-to-tower hand-off feature, Autonet is able to stomp all over its main competitor: broadband wireless cards. Even the best Sprint EVDO card is incapable of jumping on Verizon’s network if it can’t find a signal. But that’s not a problem for Autonet. As a result of nondenominational network agreements (with both Sprint and Verizon) the router will simply connect to the tower with the strongest EVDO broadband signal, regardless of carrier.

Oh yeah, the other big problem with broadband cards? No sharing allowed! You can only connect one laptop to the net at a time. Not so with the Autonet, which leverages the high-speed cellular service as a router that can be easily tapped into by multiple users. Isn’t sharing awesome?

Autonet Mobile CEO Sterling Pratz sure thinks so. He envisions a world where individual hot spots are as common as cellphones and also serve to revolutionize the way we perceive mobile entertainment: "Autonet Mobile is focused on the personal hot spot as an in-car entertainment solution, replacing in-car DVD systems that lets five to six users simultaneously access the net from any WiFi enabled device – including iPhones."

Starting next month, Pratz’s vision will take its next step when Autonet hardware and services is offered at Toyota dealerships in Northern California. Not long after that, other (unnamed) car brands and dealerships will begin to offer Autonet Mobile.

To make in-car WiFi entertainment work, Autonet devices include localized flash memory storage. Alrighty, so how much memory, Sterling? "We don’t have a defined number in terms of capacity," Pratz says. "We expect a range of holding between five to ten movies or flash games, music, TV shows and so on.”

Service plans for Autonet Mobile installs are expected to be roughly $80 to $100 per month for unlimited service. Sound a bit steep? Yes. But also remember current mobile broadband services cost about the same – and lock you into contracts and carriers.

It may be that 2008 will be remembered as the year of the portable personal hot spot. Screw Starbucks. You won’t need to loiter in hotel lobbies like some sort of WiFi addicted hobo, squandering for a few kernels of data. No, because of pioneers like Autonet, you may just be able to get online wherever you want, anytime you want, regardless of whether the carriers like it or not.