I've been wondering what to do about internet for my lap top on the road. Last week I bought a new phone with WiFi hotspot (it has Android - whatever that is!) and voila! It has worked. I can now use it as my modem and I'm back 'on line' wherever I go (I hope). It has to have 3G Blue tick capabilities. Phone only $99 and we just put hubby's old phone SIM card into it. So far so good. Saved buying a WiFi broadband etc.
NR, make sure that you understand the cost of "data downloads" every time you check the internet you are downloading.
The cost of data on a phone can lead to a huge amount of money quickly.
We use a Telstra Elite dongle, prepaid with 10Gb of data to be used over a period of 12 months for $150, cheap way of staying in control of the budget and NextG, 3G coverage.
Initial cost of the Telstra Elite is $99 with preloaded 5Gb to be used over a period on 90 days.
I agree with Landfall. We spent the last 12 months 50klms out of Julia Creek and had excellent use of internet at nightfall and used a small antenna attached. We also paid $150 and used around anything from 4-20 cents a day - extremely good value for the downloading I did. cheers Terry
From the opposite perspective I have a current allowance on my android mobile phone of 1gb per month for cost of $10.00 per month through Telstra which equates to twelve Gb per year for $120.00 and an extra Gb would cost $10.00 per month. Telstra also gives a warning sms when you reach 80% of monthly quota and extra cost for excess usage is quite cheap.
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this month at home I have gone over my 20gb limit first time in ages that I have gone over, so if anybody has any spare gb to GIVE to me please let me know it's no use hacking into my neighbour's computer as he is only on dialup, I keep telling him to upgrade but he will not listen
When on the road I go to that place where they store a load of books (liburay) and it's connection is free, when we are real bush I have a rest from the internet.
I just renewed my Telstra dongle and got an extra $20 credit added so well worth it from what we had prior, but yes, if you download much it will cost you. Reading forums and mail does not use up much. regards Jimsiron
Lots of good info since I posted (I've been away). We are now away and I'm happily on line with my mobile phone. The plan has 1GB data included each month with over $400 of phone calls. So I'm not paying any extra for using my internet. The phone shows on the front screen what % of data has been used and how many days left to use the rest so I'm hoping all is well. I used it for 1/2 hr the other night and only used 1%. So I could use 3% every night and not go over. I'm only using it for emails, banking and this forum so I shouldn't go over. I don't download films or music.
From the opposite perspective I have a current allowance on my android mobile phone of 1gb per month for cost of $10.00 per month through Telstra which equates to twelve Gb per year for $120.00 and an extra Gb would cost $10.00 per month. Telstra also gives a warning sms when you reach 80% of monthly quota and extra cost for excess usage is quite cheap.
it's no use hacking into my neighbour's computer as he is only on dialup, I keep telling him to upgrade but he will not listen 
