Far cheaper is to buy local pre-paid phone cards (the sort you get in a UK newsagents) and to use local internet shops for email/web-browsing. The cost of receiving and making intl calls is high in most if not all the countries you mention, and even a Blackberry may not work in all of them. Take a near-disposable phone with £25 credit on it for emergencies. Sign up with one of the blogging sites to save sending the same info to 101 different people.
That's what AA junior did this time last year, and it worked fine for her (itinerary was Beijing, HK, Singapore, Borneo, Sydney, Cairns, NZ, Fiji, SF and then home)