As EV-DO and HSDPA service gets more broadly deployed, sharing that service with your pals via a Wi-Fi router is getting more popular. That's much to the chagrin of companies like Verizon Wireless, who send out warning letters should you be a little too generous with your bandwidth. "Broadband access is designed for individual customers," recently noted Brenda Raney, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman. "When customers use unauthorized devices to share the service, they are in violation of their service agreements."

Customers and hardware vendors aren't listening.

Early 3G routers like the $600 Junxion Box were expensive, and not exactly feature-rich for the price, supporting only 802.11b. Slowly cheaper and more robust products began to emerge, like the $200 Kyocera KR-1, though that router only worked with Sprint & Verizon EV-DO. Perhaps the most interesting choice was the pyramid shaped $400 Top Global 3G Phoebus, which supported all sorts of 3G (and 2.5G) flavors.

Now, if the CTIA show in Vegas this week is any indication, the market is about to be flooded.

Motorola is on the cusp of releasing the NC800 3G Wi-Fi router, according to data that sprung up this week on the FCC website. Linksys today unveiled the WRT54G3G-NA, their own entry into the 3G Wi-Fi router market, as did a company by the name of Axesstel .

With the flood of new routers expect a symmetrical flood of new complaints from wireless providers, who will likely crack down on such sharing. It should remind users of 2002, when cable providers engaged in neighborhood flyovers (AT&T broadband called it "broadband bootlegging") and sent out nasty-grams to stop the evil menace that was Wi-Fi.