phones, internet
Keeping in touch is not so hard these days. Mostly.
Currently out of cities and regional towns mobile phone coverage is patchy. In fact, it’s almost non-existent for most carriers: Optus, Vodaphone, etc. You are restricted to the expensive old dinosaur Telstra.
Did I mention Telstra is unresponsive and expensive?
But if there is any coverage it will always be Telstra.
Actually, once you are connected and never have to deal with them anymore, it’s not so bad.
Connecting to the Internet can also be very patchy once you start to get remote.
In South Australia, you can register at public libraries and get a password that allows 8 hours a day free use. Completely free? That’s right. In smaller towns, the public library is often sensibly located at the local high school, and the opening hours are whenever the school is open.
Elsewhere in remote Australia, the public library usually has access. They use satellite connections, so the speed can be good. The libraries usually charge, and it can be very expensive.
Then there are the Telecentres: internet nodes set up to avoid disadvantaging regional areas. It can disadvantage casual users who often end up getting charged twice as much. Like anywhere between $5 and $12 an hour. Yikes, forget that. So much for access.
If you have your own laptop/netbook, there’s plenty of free wireless in the cities, eg, McDonalds. You have to use their mobile phone network once again, and prepaid card access is, well, expensive.