I signed up for a service plan with UUNet a couple of weeks ago. I have made several tests from San Francisco and found the connections to be lightning quick, much faster than with my former ISP. UUDial Solo is a little pricey - $19.95/month for 50 hours, and $24.95/month for 150 hours, but as I only use it when I'm away, I can get by with the 50 hour plan. (I have a DSL line at home.)

I also appreciate that they have local nodes in places where my former ISP does not. It will be nice not to pay long distance charges from the Boston suburbs, Wausau, Wisconsin, and Canada when making my connections.

Only down side - limited nodes worldwide. They don't have any service in Colombia, for instance. (Fortunately, my client there had a T1.)

Thanks very much for the recommendations posted here earlier this year. I'll let you know how the connection speeds are from Australia later this week.