Australia Travel - Internet Access - 3G works better than WiFi

Travelling in Australia 31 Dec 2013 to 13 Jan 2014.  I found WiFi facilities were expensive and often not working well. What worked well for me was a "Telstra" Australian SIM card for my cellphone.  AUD $30 bundled with a 1 month prepay package including 500Meg of data. I worked out how to connect my laptop to the cellphone so the laptop could feed off that 500Meg.  Internet was then all go for me and at a good speed.  I did take the precaution of switching "Windows Update" from automatic to manual to keep that usage under control.  Telstra had coverage in most of the places I went, including some remote areas.  The only place I was without coverage was the very remote "King's Canyon" west of Alice Springs.

Details.

• You need to have ID with you to buy a SIM card.
• Monitor usage by using the cellphone to visit website "m.telstra.com"
• My cellphone had an "Internet Sharing" setting which worked well.