After several months of Telstra ringing me and literally begging me to dice the old faithful CDMA for a new Next G, I finally relented when they said the magic word - 'FREE'.
They gave me a LG TU500 3G with all the usual stuff (bluetooth, camera, video, MP3 / MP4) which also comes with a connection kit (USB or Bluetooth) for the PC / laptop, all gratis on my existing $30/mth plan.
So far it has worked quite well; signal has ben good wherever the CDMA was good, and in some cases better. In places where I can't connect my laptop to th wireless broadband system, I can connect via bluetooth and dialup through 3G. It can also get all the extra services previously mentioned (Wx, mail, browser etc) but I can't be bothered rooting around with it.
There is also an expansion port to allow another 1GB card for serious MP3 / MP4 affectionados - the thing plugs straight in to most contemporary headsets.
All in all - pretty good.
