Getting prepaid mobile broad band in Italy
 

Hi everyone.

I will be travelling around Italy in May, visiting Milan, Venice, Cinque Terre, Tuscany (Castellina in Chianti), the Amalfi Coast (Praiano) and Rome. I am interested in the best way to get wireless broadband internet access through my laptop for the month I am there. I would be interested in getting a prepaid usb device (Chiavetta?) that would have coverage in the areas listed.

Obviously I would not need an ongoing contract as I will only be in Italy for 1 month.

My needs would be for internet access, email and VOIP if possible.

I would be interested in any thoughts about the options available to me.

Cheers!:)

Did you read this thread?
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/euro...ata-italy.html

Thanks Effendi.

I note that WIND only has GPRS coverage in Castellina and the Amalfi coast. Will GPRS coverage allow me to access internet through a USB key (chiavetta) attached to my laptop? (or do I need UMTS coverage?)

TIM coverage seems better generally. Do you have any experience with this carrier and a preference for either one?

I would also need to purchase the chiavetta. Do you have any knowledge of what is required to do this? I apologise if these questions are simplistic, but I am new to this.

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

Surely UMTS is much better (faster) than GPRS, but you can use both of them. So if TIM offers you better coverage and there's a data offer which suits you I'd with TIM.
No problem to buy a chiavetta, you only have to register for the sim-card (you need your passport and the famous Codice Fiscale).

If I am reading this correctly, I get a significantly better deal using an Italian data SIM (with the roaming fee paid) for data in France than any of the French offerings. Am I wrong?

Some further questions regarding internet coverage with prepaid chiavetta

- if I have a UMTS chiavetta can I get a GPRS connection on it if there is no UMTS coverage in that area?
- With TIM Alice plans (30 or 100 hour), is the price paid irrespective of the amount of data until the number of hours are used or is there additional cost for data?
- Can a TIM Alice plan be used for just one month (i.e. no ongoing commitment)?

Any responses appreciated.

All chiavette are both GSM (GPRS+EDGE) and UMTS (HSDPA), so no problem. The only operator which has problems where no UMTS is available is "3", since it roams on TIM GSM network and you pay extra bundle.

With the "per hour" plans you just pay every 15 minutes, no matter how much data you download/upload.

Any plan listed here can be used for 1 month. Some must be switched off, others just expire after 30 days.

@ Stu: I'm not updated on French prepaid data, but I don't think they pay about 12-30€/MB, at least I hope for them...

Thanks again Effendi!

Thanks for the link showing the options. I was reading them and I have a quick question (sorry for being a newbie). I am planning on being in Italy for 3 months and I want to only use a broadband card for all of my work purposes. So I plan on being online for let's say 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. Looking at the TIM plans, I think that Alice Unlimited would be my best bet, but I want to make sure that the data is truly unlimited as I will be pushing quite a bit of traffic using technical applications via VPN.

Can someone confirm that this data is truly unlimited...only restrictions are hours online?

Many thanks :)

Officially the only restrictions are hours online. But if you download/upload too many GB there could be problems. All operators have a "fair use policy".

Noted. I will make sure to read the fine print when I sign up. Thanks for the reply Effendi. :)

Fair use means being able to use copyrighted material for non-commercial use without paying licensing fees.

Like quoting part of the book in a newspaper article.

No, fair use for mobile operators means not downloading gigas and gigas of data and things like that.... they really don't care about copyrighted material. BTW p2p is usually blocked on mobile networks.

In the US, the words they use is "terms and conditions."

"Fair use" is mostly used in the context of copyrights.

Do the mobile operators list hard download caps?

This might be of interest, a blog post about installing USB keys offered by the carriers in Italy:


Making Things Happen Blog Archive TIM, Vodafone, Wind or H3G: who’s offering the best 3G internet access?

The guy refers to TIM having better coverage for the most part, Vodaphone having the better modem. Do these carriers have coverae maps showing where they have 3G vs. GPRS?

OK, found some info. including some coverage map info. But it's confusing, there are so many options.

Can someone outline the terms of the keys offered by Vodaphone and TIM?

Are these unlocked so that I can use them in other countries later?

Or are they locked and on contract with a required monthly top up?

This one from Vodaphone looks too cheap to be unlocked and seems to include some time as well:

http://www.areaprivati.vodafon...ternet_key_christmas


TIM has a lot of them and they come in many configurations. This Huawei E1692 for instance is available in a 59 Euro SKU and a 99 Euro SKU:

HUAWEI Chiavetta Internet E1692 7.2 MEGA - TIM

http://www.tim.it/consumer/c36.../o101037/prodotto.do

They both come with a Tim card with 5 Euro of prepaid traffic.

The 59 Euro also includes 5 hours of Internet.

The 99 Euro bundle says 1 year of navigation (40 hours per month for 12 months).

Can't tell if either of these are unlocked or if there are required top ups.

Or whether you can go to use say 100 hours in a month by recharging.

TIM has a good coverage map search:

TIM

Vodaphone has a map search but it returns no results. Tried Milan, Rome, nothing:

http://www.areaaziende.vodafon...9%2Cc&ty_key=az_must

Wasn't it easier to read here?

Buy an unlocked usb dongle on eBay and use it with any carrier. BTW dongles by TIM, Vodafone and Wind are unlocked on prepaid. The cheap one you linked is for postpaid.
The TIM dongles you linked are fine, but the 99€ one is no sense if you stay here less than 1 year and in any case the data offer is terrible.
They have good offers at Wind:
Wind - Shop

So something like this:

3G USB Wireless WCDMA HSDPA UMTS Modem 7.2M PC Laptop K - eBay (item 320509806382 end time Apr-29-10 00:34:02 PDT)

Wind does look good but I'm looking to stay in Deiva Marina and Varenna a week each and they don't seem to have shops in those towns.

eBay looks to have about the same prices for the Huawei models that Wind are offering.

But those Wind models, such as the Huawei E1750 for 59 Euro include a SIM with 10 Euro? Is this unlocked model so I could use another carrier's SIM in the future or use in another country with a local SIM there?

Do WIND stores carry these modems or is it only online ordering? In particular, I'll be visiting small resort towns in Liguria and Lake Como. I may have to go to a nearby bigger town to find a Wind store so I wonder if they will have inventory.

I'll still try to get one on eBay but there are a lot of no-name products (not that Huawei is a big name but at least the Italian carriers resell that brand) there and it's not clear they're reliable.

Huawei is the biggest name in the dongles world...
I cannot tell you if any Wind shop in Liguria or Lombardia has the dongle you want, of course the only way to know it is going there and ask.
I live in Liguria (I'm from Genova), I know there are at least 3 Wind shops in Chiavari, about half an hour from Deiva, for example. No problems in Como. In Deiva there's NO 3G coverage with Wind, by the way, and I fear neither EDGE.
As I already wrote, Wind dongles are unlocked, no problem. They always come with a prepaid card, usually with 10 euros of credit, sometimes with more (there are many offers).

I'm suppose to have Wifi in DM -- it's interesting, hotels in some regions or towns either all have Wifi for free or try to charge for it and the rates are all over the place, even though presumably the ADSL from TIM is similar in costs everywhere.

But Varenna hotel has expensive Wifi so if I can find time while in Liguria, I'd try to get it set up, especially since you can get a 40 or 100 hour plan, neither of which I would exhaust in one week.

At least there are prepaid data options in Italy -- some offering 14.4 or 28.8 Mbps speeds. Can't say the same about the US.