How to Get Online Away From Home or Work

If all you want is your Twitter feed and there aren't any hotspots or mobile service where you spend time, Inmarsat's IsatPhone Pro is easily configured with free incoming tweets in an SMS text-like readout on the phone's handset. Prepay SIM cards, newly available in the U.S., start at around $90 and last two years. The phone itself costs $660 on Amazon.

Ever since the days of the fax machine and clamshell PC, I've delighted in the concept of working away from home or office.

I have fond memories of lugging those clunkers from the back of my car in and out of motel rooms through bone-chilling blizzards and driving rain -- adding to the carry-load, certainly, but bringing freedom.

With many of us now accumulating multiple connected mobile devices, including laptops, tablets, cameras and phones -- all of which can accompany us on sojourns out of the workspace and home -- one might ask: What's the most efficient and cost-effective way to keep online while away from the economical, unlimited Internet pipes available at our fixed locations?