They still get charged like that, by the way, but now I'm hearing about all these great 'unlimited' plans that are available. Verizon Wireless and AT&T have $99.99 a month plans for making unlimited calls, T-Mobile has the same but with text messaging included, and Sprint has a $99.99 plan with unlimited calls, SMS and data.

So where's the love in Australia? The best we've got comes in the unlikely shape of the Hiptop Slide, from the even unlikelier carrier Telstra. For $29 a month (not including the cost of the phone), you get unlimited email, Web browsing, instant messaging, SMS and MMS. The sting in the tail is that calls are charged separately at 30 cents per 30 seconds (plus a 25-cent connection fee for each call) and you have to sign up for a 24-month contract.

I've actually got a Hiptop Slide, and I think it's fantastic. It's not my main phone, but I usually bring it with me for sending text messages and reading my RSS feeds through Google Reader. Considering that Telstra usually charges $59 a month for 200MB of data a month, it’s a damn good deal. But I still have to bring a separate phone with me for voice, which I have on a $49 cap. Why can’t I have both in one plan? I’d happily pay $150 a month for all-you-can-eat voice, SMS and data, and I suspect there are others out there like me that would do the same.

I’m more keen on unlimited data than voice, though, so I’m hopeful that when the Apple iPhone finally gets released here in Australia, the carrier that brings it out will offer the same sort of plans that AT&T offers in the US:  a certain number of voice minutes (more likely to be a cap or some sort here), a set amount of text messages (again, more likely to be rolled into a cap) and that oh-so-sweet unlimited data.