If you have ever thought about buying a prepaid broadband plan, now is a great time to take another look. With the price of USB modems falling you can now get started for under $100.

The latest ISP to drop its modem price is 3 Mobile, who are now offering their E1553 modem for just $79. This means that you can buy the modem plus a 500MB voucher (eg enough to use email) for a total of $94. Or you could buy the 12GB voucher plus modem for just $199 and the data will last you for 365 days.

Some other start-up offers that are also worth taking a look at are:

Pricing/offers current as at 16/1/2010. Vodafone offer must be activated prior to 31/3/2010.

THE EMERGENCY PHONE

Many people just use a mobile phone to make necessary calls or to be contactable, for instance the elderly or young children.  If this sounds like you, then consider a plan with a long credit expiry (365 days) so that your credit doesn’t expire before you have had a chance to use it. A great plan that I have used for my parents is Savvytel. There are others and you can check them all out here.

INTRODUCING BOB

You have probably heard of VOIP. It’s basically making a phone call via the internet. The main benefit is that call rates can be much cheaper that those of a traditional home phone.

iiNet one of Australia’s largest internet providers has launched a new combined internet and phone service called BoB™. BoB™ gives you: