i thought we were poor but man.
i'm from romania and we have a wap unlimited data plan for 3.5E/month through an apn that provides full html content not just wap sites.
it can be used by handset only but hey, i used about 600MB last month with my e61i. that's about 0.6 eurocents/MB.
they do fcuk us up with voice, however.
cheers.

" Here in lovely Australia, we pay around 30c per meg"
If you want to get ripped off on data try Canada.
No data plan? 5c KB (yes KB)
Got a plan? 12MB for $10 + 1c per KB over.
http://www.fido.ca/portal/en/domore/3g_mobile_internet.shtml#three

Currently, it is not economical to provide broadband over mobile (3G or otherwise). Therefore, the carriers charge a premium.

At some point, most of the internet will be accessed through mobile phone. Didn't the inquirer run an article saying that in Japan, computers were for old men, and everyone else accessed the internet through phones?

If mobile carriers get a ton of people signing up for a mobile web platform, they'll have to offer a fixed rate "unlimited" data plan. If not, there will be a peasant uprising.

Hopefully, the carriers get a clue before the punters drift off to some other platform.

Given the speed and cost of data transfer this puppy an't gonna bark

Here in lovely Australia, we pay around 30c per meg for data delivered over our wonderful WAP or GPRS (ha, if you are lucky).

Thanks to our wonderful national phone provider (Telstra, http://tellthetruthtelstra.com.au) we are getting a bastardized version of 2.5G that will be (kinda) nation wide, with data costs not much better than the ones above and... completely incompatible system to any 3G phone on the market.

Just a rant, yes, but what use is a torrent client when you will pay several thousand a month for the data :/