One thing I'd suggest is getting a WiFi adapter with an antenna connector, a high gain WiFi antenna (like a cantenna) and Boingo.

T-Mobile doesn't sell or promote their wifi/UMA service to be used overseas. In fact, if you call them, some reps will say it can't be used when overseas. We have used it w. no problems in several countries from Costa Rica to Ireland to Israel. There are dozens of posts at howardforums.com from users who make heavy use of it around the world. One user did have trouble in S. Korea.

...mike

I find that if I turn OFF pictures when browsing on a SIM data plan, I cut my BW by 2/3. One can always DL a picture by clicking on it, but this saves a ton of BW and also serves to kill the ads. Why pay for the ads to DL.

There are also various compression solutions for web surfing. The pictures look rough, but they are there. On Outlook, go headers only and do your first cut of your e-mail in that mode.

Thanks again guys, all the tips have made a big difference .. esp the no pics! Could you recommend any compression solutions Stu?

For e-mail, there is an interesting option for slow, expensive, high latency circuits. Check out www.uuplus.com It's a bit extreme for most of us but if you were hooking up over Iridium, I'd recommend it. Some mail programs allow you to download the first N lines. You may also be able to use a mail server that strips out unnecessary headers. Also, your server sould implement agressive SPAM filtering. Having a unique address just for your mobile and using a whitelist would keep much of the junk mail at bay. For web surfing, always use the WAP or Mobile interface to a site if they have one.

compression software
 

You can give a try to the free "toonel.net" software. (to be installed from www.toonel.net)
Its a java software so you need the JRE on your computer (to be installed from here: http://java.com/en/download/)

The toonel software uses a proxy and you can set the compression rate for pictures yourself (or just disable them in the browser).

In the attached screenshot you can see a short test - I loaded some news websites and had about 65% compression rate including pictures, flash and advertisement banners.

Chris

For email only - T-Mobile USA as an unlimited intl. Blackberry option for $20/mo. It can be turned on and off at will - meaning if you are going out of the country for 10 days, you have it activated for those 10 days. I know a couple Canadians who have T-M USA service just to make use of this option. ATT USA has a similar option, but it is much more expensive.

...mike

AT&T's option allows unlimited data though. :-)

Isn't the T-mobile one unlimited too?