I will be in Italy and looking for a pre-paid SIM that will allow me use my Treo 650 for data. I am looking for a provider that will allow for Dial-UP Access, so the Treo will act as a modem for my laptop.

Some carriers block this type of tethered access and I was wondering if anyone know if TIM or Wind specifically blocks or does not block DUN.

Also, I read that Wind has better performance, but TIM offers EDGE (from this post). I am not sure what that means...which one is best?

Well, of course I hope your Treo 650 is the GSM version and not the CDMA one, otherwise it's of no use in Italy. If it's the GSM it will work perfectly (it's quad-band) but it doesn't support EDGE, so you'll use GPRS in any case, both with Wind and TIM. WInd offers EDGE too, but only in limited areas, while TIM has nationwide EDGE coverage.

I don't understand exactly what's the problem for the connection... probably because I don't know the meaning of DUN and tether! :D

Anyway with both TIM and Wind you have data plans and you can use them on your Treo (if it's unlocked, of course). Usually here people prefer to use Wind, which works outside of Italy as well. There are tons of discussions about it! :)

yes my phone is an unlocked GSM. It also supports EDGE.

In this post, you say:

"Wind GPRS performance is usually better than TIM (but TIM has EDGE)"


I don't understand if EDGE is better or not. If I have the choice of EDGE with TIM or GPRS with Wind, which do I want?


Also, if I purchase a SIM card in one province (state) and then travel to another, will I have roaming charges? Is the internet more expensive if I use it in a different province?

EDGE is better since it has a higher data downlink/uplink speed than GPRS. EDGE is known EGPRS and offers speeds of up to 135 kb/s:

http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=107

Effendi meant that WIND's GPRS coverage is more built out than TIM's GPRS coverage. But if you have a phone that supports EDGE, then you'd be better off using TIM's EDGE network.

As for your second question, roaming charges are incurred only if you roam outside of Italy. All rates you see listed on WIND's site and here on PPGSM.net apply nationwide for all of Italy. There is no domestic roaming as you know it from the US.

DUN stands for Dial-Up Networking:

http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=222

Tether is a term associated with using your phone as a method of transferring data. A data plan is tethered (attached) to a contract for example. That is the definition as I understand it ;).

Thanks for the definitions! :beer:

I was wrong, the Treo 650 supports EDGE so if you want faster communication TIM would be better, unless you have EDGE with Wind too (not so widespread, but present). Anyway I think it won't change too much. If you are staying in Italy only you can go with TIM and one of its data offers (they are listed on this site too, in English, national operators sections). If you plan to use it in other countries too, Wind is of course much better.

My local Rogers speedtest tells me that even thought EDGE is faster than GPRS, it is not of any real significance difference. Doubling "very slow" nets you slow. I would think your decision should also be based on cost, Wind has a data deal, TIM does not (based on the info pages here)...

TIM has a data deal too, but you get 500MB instead of 1GB. There's all written in the TIM page here on PPGSM.

The Maxi TIM Web deal ? It said 05 Feb 2005.....

My bad...

My fault, TIM page is really outdated... :(
Anyway you can subscribe it till 2nd July 2006, unless prolonged, of course... and they'll do...