I would not say that the notebook is free, quoted price is $70 per month c/w notebook, but stand alone price is $39.95 per month for 5gigs.

Coverage wise, Tel$tra is very good whilst Optu$ is not too far behind. Vodafone hasnt updated their coverage maps in ages

Telstra and Optus (not sure about vodafone) both have 3G coverage in almost all country towns, of course once you get more than a few k's from a town you have no mobile reception at all, 3G or otherwise.

I am writing this from my 3G wireless connection in a town of 10k people ~3hrs from the nearest major city.

The state of BB here sucks, you pay for caps not speed and companies like Telstra extort $$ by charging ridiculous amonts per mb and offer stupidly low allowances of 2gb upwards on dsl & 3g. 3g coverage however is getting bigger and bigger and companies such as 3 and virgin are doing well to get decent speeds AND caps to rural areas and it works well so far.