Bob and Mabel gave me a new Gateway NetBook (THANK YOU!) model LT2044u.  Teresa Boardman convinced us this netbook is a good choice because of the eight hour battery life.

This netbook is great!  I love it!  But there was an issue while setting up the AT&T Lightning USB Connect card.

I am posting this information, to save anyone else with the same issue some grief  (This all took place December 23, all is fine now):

Although Los Angeles is a Big City, good wifi hotspots are not always available.  So I bought an AT&T USB air connect card.  Should be simple, right?  Plug it in, go online. It didn't work.
 
Spent about 2  hours on the phone with AT&T.  The rep had me uninstall and reinstall the AT&T communication software a couple times.  She had me take out the SIM card and try it in a cell phone.  She had me plug the air card into a different computer, where it worked fine.  Wouldn't work with the netbook.  Nothing.

The AT&T rep set up a conference call to Gateway tech support.  As you know, Gateway's first level support center is based in India.  The first Gateway rep worked down her script screen to asking about the communication switch in the front of the keyboard case.  She was clueless when I told her that the switch slides only to the right, and then it moves back when I release it.  I finally hung up to find out what I could online.

After finding some diagrams of the netbook's communication switch online, and exchanging emails with Teresa, I called Gateway tech support back. 

This time, the Gateway rep in India told me the netbook did not have G3 wireless capability.
 
Somewhere around 5:30 PM I finally put up the $59 to talk with the U.S. based Answers-by-Gateway and spoke with a young woman, Laura, who ACTUALLY knew what she was talking about. 

She was a little shocked to learn that the support rep in India had said that the LT2044u did not have G3 capability.

She had me plug the network into a hardwired broadband connection, so she could access my machine with shared connection software.
 
We kinda poked around together until she realized that the driver for the air card included with the air card was not functioning with the starter version of Windows 7 installed on the netbook.  Solution:  Poking around the card manufacturer's (Sierra's) web site until we located a compatible driver.
 
7:00PM:  Netbook and air card finally working sweetly together.
 
I would like to call AT&T back and tell the solution for the benefit of other customers.  I figure that would be useless.  And I think the off-shore support centers that most of these big companies like Gateway employ probably do more harm than good.  I could have broken that little communication switch trying to force it to move further to the left. 

And if I would have listened to the second guy in India, I would have probably decided to send the poor little netbook back.  :-)

All is fine now.  All's well that ends well.