Henry wrote "I'm just a dumb old f#rt but my recommendation would be to use the existing infrastructure.

Get a really low price tablet and hook into the free wifi provided at coffee shops on most High Streets. That way you have no technology problems and don't have anything of value to be stolen"

That is one option, but I need more consistency and guaranteed availability even when away from wifi locations.

Eg when travelling in a taxi, driving in a hire car or at the aircraft in the middle of the ramp at an airport away from any form of wifi.

Globalgig sounded almost too good to be true. Last time I looked, the prices weren't available. Now they are. The cheapest offer is £20 a month for 1GB on a 12-month contract. If you cancel early, you pay the missing months anyway.

My UK Giffgaff Gigabag is £7.50 for 1GB a month and I can cancel at any time.
When I was in Italy last year I paid €10 for a SIM with 1GB, valid for (I think) 3 months.
In Germany, Blau.de offer 1GB a month for €9.90 or 3GB for €14.90.

Apart from the convenience of not needing to swap SIM, I don't see a lot of benefit in the Globalgig option unless there's a need for it to work in several different countries in quick succession.

Some good leads here - thanks indeed. I have trouble converting rates between Gb and Mb, so I have put them into a spreadsheet and found the rate per Gb, and charted them. All rates are in $AUS, and I converted rates as required.

Note that the scale is necessarily logarithmic (because some international roaming charges are obscenely high), and this makes them look more comparable. However the true difference between the various providers is enormous. The cheapest by far is the fixed line ADSL2 connection in Australia which is $0.66 per Gb. The most expensive is Telstra Australia international roaming which is $3,000 per Gb.

http://profemery.info/broadband.jpg

OverRun,

I feel sorry for you aussies.... you don't get much of a deal on either fixed or mobile broadband !