Simple. Just send and SMS, or several million. The amount of data transferred with an SMS makes it the most expensive data service on the planet by a country mile. And while that might be an extreme example, a report from Market Clarity lays bare the huge variation in the prices of fixed and mobile broadband data services in Australia.

While most mobile prepaid offerings blab on about notional 'value' which means nothing when call rates are not specified, Optus has come up with a radically different approach.

Telstra has revised its combined broadband and telephony offerings to co-incide with the launch of T-Box.

Virgin Mobile has been quick to point out that the new capped plans announced by VHA yesterday with much-touted unlimited on-net calling are what it has been offering for some time.

VHA, the merged Vodafone Australia and Three has taken its first step towards harmonising the current offers with the announcement of new capped voice and data plans that are common to both brands and that feature unlimited on-net calling. However the company is still do decide which brand it will carry forward long term.

Virgin Mobile has launched a suite of capped mobile plans under which unused call credit can be rolled over into the following month. If its survey results are to be believed, they should see customers flocking to Virgin Mobile in droves, but the reality is likely to be rather different.

Lebara Mobile -  the UK based mobile service provider and recent entrant to the Australian market that specialising in providing low cost international calls from mobiles - has cut its already low rates to as low as one cent per minute for six destinations.

AAPT has upgraded its bundled broadband and home phone Anytime Unlimited plan to include free local and national fixed line calls.

Faced with increasing competition from 3G wireless broadband services, Unwired has cut prices and increased data volumes on its plans.

The European Union is at loggerheads with leading hi-tech exporting countries - The US, Japan and Taiwan - for applying import tariffs to goods that were previously tariff free, on the grounds that new features have expanded the functionality of these products.