Telstra's horrendous mobile data charges now look even worse after Hutchison's 3 network announced its X-Series fixed line-like wireless broadband pricing to mark the completion of its HSDPA network upgrade.

Even before the latest announcement, 3 offered 200MB per month for $29, charging only 10 cents per MB for excess data. Next G charges up to an amazing $5.12 per excess MB.

Telstra previously offered a $29.95 plan with 10 hours usage at up to 1.5Mbps, but the price jumped to $34.95 while the speed was slashed back to 256Kbps - equivalent to the slowest ADSL available. Aren't prices of new products and services supposed to drop after a few months, once they've squeezed as much as they can out of early adopters?

Unfortunately 3's network only covers Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Canberra, Perth and Adelaide. Telstra's Next G network is aiming to match the nationwide coverage of the CDMA network it is replacing. When 3 customers are beyond the 3 network they don't roam to Telstra's HSDPA network but rather the painfully slow GPRS network.

The maths speaks for itself. Unless you desperately need fast wireless broadband speeds outside of Australia's major cities, you'd have to be a fool to hand over your money to Telstra.{moscomment}