Prices, avaliability, what you get(bandwidth, amount of time, etc.)
This was prompted by someone from Australia that they have 700MB/mo bandwidth limit(I don’t know if that sort of limitation occurs in Canada, but it seems unusual to me). I was wondering how other countries ISP differ from North Amerca’s.
Irish situation:
I pay €60 per month for my 512/128 ADSL line (broadband, in other words). That’s got a soft cap at 8Gb downloaded per month (uncapped uploads). If I go above that I have to pay extra. There’s a 4Gb capped version available for €40. For uncapped you’re looking at €100+ a month. Availability wise, if you live in a city, you’re probably ok for ADSL, forget it outside of urban locations.
I’m not aware of prices for dial-up, but I believe most of them would be cheaper than ADSL but because local calls aren’t free here you’ll end up having a large phone bill instead of a large ISP bill.
Cable access is rare. I believe some parts of Dublin have it, but Waterford certainly doesn’t.
UK: Unlimited dialup is about £15/month (=$25 ish). Cheaper options exist, either limiting you by bnadwidth, by total hours per month, or by time of day. Non-contract dialup costs are local phone costs - somewhere around 1-4 pence/minute.
Unlimited 512Kb ADSL about £30/month. Limited versions can had for about half that, limiting you to a few GB download a month.
I live in the City of Dublin, just outside City Centre, and I can’t get it.
Hong Kong
Broadband penetration is high here, about 80% and there is a lot of competition. Broadband is available all over the city through either cable, fiber or DSL.
Typical cost is about HKD 200 ~= USD 25. No ISP has upload or download caps.
Netherlands.
I have ADSL with down-/upload speeds of 2240/416 KBit/s and a so-called “Fair Use Policy”. This means that there is no download limit, as long as you don’t download absolutely insane amounts. I personally have downloaded close to 10GB in one month without problems. The cost: 50 Euros a month.
The newest fad here is so-called “free ADSL”. Basically you have dial-up ADSL. You get an ADSL modem for free, and you pay per minute that you are connected (no monthly fixed rate). Prices: 0.25 Euro to “dial-in”. 0,0205 Euro per minute on weekends and at night. 0.0256 at non-peak hours. 0.0431 Euro per minute at peak hours.
£10.00 per month unlimited dial-up here. They seem enormously keen to sell broadband, and there are some good deals at present, but Celyns simply have to stick to the cheapo version. 
Other than unlimited dial-up, the norm would be 1penny per minute. There are companies who charge more, for instance, in daytime, but, well, I am not sure why anyone woule use them
There are many differing deal available here. This “someone” is just talking about the particular deal they have. Basically, the more you pay, the more you get, but the permutations are endless.
Most common in Sweden is 512/128 ADSL, for aprox. €35. There’s no official cap, but I believe the biggest ISP (Telia) will use some fine print, in case you’re downloading an obscene amount.
I have Bostream VDSL, so I get 8MB/1MB for €45 with no cap and fixed IP. I’m still amazed at the amount they can squeeze into those old copper wires from the 50’s.
There’s a good explanation here as to why there are limitations.
New Zealand ISPs and their rates courtesy of Netguide.
UK ADSL guide. I pay £20/month for an uncapped 512/128 service.
China - home use ADSL unlimited service is about $15/month. Speed is a little slow. About a megabyte/minute.
It might be worthwhile to describe the typical offerings in the (Northeast) US for our rest-of-the-world friends.
Dial up: There are a number of ISPs (AOL, Juno, NeZero, etc. etc.) offering dialup capabilities. They usually provide a few toll-free phone numbers. Plans vary from unlimited use (connection time) to pay-per-minute-with-five-free-minutes-per-month ($5/mon). Speeds range anywhere from 14400 to 52k depending on phone lines and ISP’s equipment (I could never get better than 24,400). Caps on email storage. $15-$45/month unlimited use.
satellite : Usually free installation but the published fees are about $150, +200-400 for satellite equipment - dish etc… email storage caps. $50-$100/mon depending on length of plan, unlimited connection. With satellite you can only download attachments, not upload. 1 Mbps speed theoretically possible, but probably averages about 400k.
cable: Various plans as with dialup. Usually free installation but the published fees are about $40, with modem. email storage caps. $35-$60/ mon, unlimited connection. 3-30Mbps speed theoretically possible, 1.5 - 6MB published range, but probably averages about 700k.
ADSL: Various plans as with dialup. Usually free installation but the published fees are about $40, with modem. email storage caps. $30-$60/mon, unlimited connection. ASDL provides toll-free number, but is only available within so many feet of the phone exchange. 144k-1.5 Mbps speed theoretically possible, but probably averages about 470k,