I have a Option and a Huawei and they work like a dream my buddy has a Novatel and is battling I loaned him my Option for a bit and they was a marked difference seems the Novatels are just not set up right.
Option card is far more stable than the Novatel U740. U740 still does not have the correct fireware, so does not even indicate what service you are using eg 3G or HSDPA.