Good value if purchased with a plan, the telstra’s speed impresses

Significant competition from the likes of Optus@Home recently has given cause for Telstra BigPond to devise flat-rate pricing plans that have opened up its cable service to the residential market.

As mobiles have gotten more sophisticated and popular over the past few years, it was inevitable that the humble home phone would get a makeover, and the first such 'mobilised' landline phone is Telstra's F3000.

The form of DSL offered by BigPond is ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), meaning that the upload speed is lower than the download speed.

Telstra says it now has more than 300,000 ADSL subscribers and is on target to reach a million by 2005. The problem with home ADSL is that unlike cable, Telstra doesn’t make it easy to network even though it requires an Ethernet connection. Interestingly, the Ethernet requirement for broadband Internet connectivity is also helping to drive the rising popularity of home networks.

The Treo Pro finally brings Palm's flagship smartphone into the modern age. It's available exclusively from Telstra on Next G, and unlike its cousin the Centro it comes with WiFi.

Cheap plans, good hardware and excellent results in our speed tests make 3 a deserving winner, in our group test against Telstra Bigpond, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin and Unwired.

good speed, good features and plenty of flexibility make this a winner

Disappointing speeds in our tests, underwhelming plans and expensive hardware make Unwired a niche choice

A free modem and competitive pricing around the 5GB mark make Vodafone worth a look – but other networks are cheaper per GB

It's not for meetings, it's for meeting up. If you don't like the bulk of a Treo, here's your smartphone.

There's no denying the appeal of broadband internet access and yet for a smart country Australia has been falling way behind our international counterparts.

The Ultimate 9502 is a heavy, chunkier unit that boasts some useful improvements over its predecessor, including classier Foxtel Mobile viewing thanks to better resolution.

It won’t win any awards in the looks department – it’s rather bulky and large for a phone - but looks aren’t everything in the mobile phone industry, unless you’re Apple.

Palm has embraced Microsoft, creating a neat 3G business phone in the process.

Surprisingly there's no visual voicemail on our Optus iPhone, but otherwise the phone performs brilliantly with a massive speed boost over the 1st gen model.

A funky set of  Bluetooth headphones. Connect to a variety of audio sources or use the built in MP3 player.

One of the first Next G handsets arrives in the labs. Hello Mobile Foxtel!

Despite worrying reports about network congestion, Optus performed well in our tests. Top-notch speed, balanced with keen pricing - if you value network performance above all else this is the mobile broadband to get

Slow speeds and a high price make this an underwhelming offering