Italy: TIM Maxxi Alice Facile?

[Average Traveller]

Hi all,

I wonder how long until mobile data access gets easy?

After reading a number of posts here I am wondering why I don't see the TIM Maxxi Alice Facile plan on Prepaid GSM Italy TIM page or Effenfi's Prepaid Data in Italy page.

I am planning to be in northern Italy for about 10 days including Venice, Bologna, Florence and a few days driving through small towns in Tuscany. I will be carrying my Palm Treo Pro and would like to be able to access the Internet directly on my phone as well as tethering it to my notebook.

Because I am not sure about what the data speed will be like in the smaller towns I'm reluctant to go with a time based plan. The TIM Alice Facile (1000 MB per month, €20) seems like a good bet for me, but I would have been more confident had the experts on this forum endorsed the plan.

Is there something that I'm missing about the plan? Is it WAP only? Is it not available to add onto the standard TIM prepaid voice cards? Speed limited? Something else?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[fedeprovenza]

You have 1 Gb in one month (gprs, edge, umts, hsdpa, it depends where you are in that moment) and you pay 20 euro. Sure, you can add onto the standard Tim prepaid voice cards.
Navigare da PC - TIM

[Effendi]

I think the TIM Maxxi Alice Facile is not available anymore, at least I cannot find it on the menu on TIM's website. Still the page is up (of course there are people with this offer), but not in the available options, AFAIK.

[Average Traveller]

Thanks for looking into this for me. I would not have figured that out and would have been pretty frustrated trying to activate the plan on my trip!

The TIM page that Google brings up says that it is valid until 31/12/10, but then it also says "abbonati" which babelfish tells me means "subscriber".

It looks like I have to revise my plans.

[Effendi]

It's valid till that day means that if you already have that active you can use it till that day. I suggest you to consider only the offers listed on my page here on PrepaidGSM.

[Average Traveller]

Molto grazie Effendi! I suspected there was a reason that you didn't list that plan.

As we will be spending time travelling between cities and exploring Tuscany I think that I will stick with TIM because they seem to have the best 3G coverage. I'll try the TIM Internet 40 and be careful not to waste too many 15 minute blocks just checking email or using Google maps. I will also be careful to draft blog posts on my computer before connecting to the Internet!

Finally, I think I noticed a mistake on the Prepaid Data in Italy web page. Under "Time billed offers" the TIM Internet 40 and Internet 100 are listed as having the same cost and time limit (€ 9.00/month for 40 hours). The Prepaid Data in Italy forum posting appears to be correct.

Thanks again!

[Effendi]

Thanks for the correction

[wisniak]

Hi,

Maybe I'm missing something here regarding data plans, but they seen VERY low (cheap) compared to France and the UK...

I have a prepaid SIM card for those countries, so that when I travel there I just top them up.

But when I use them for browsing or emails (DATA), the credit gets eaten up very very quickly.

After reading Effendi's great guides, I'm still uncertain about this.

I have the option of bringing with me a Wireless modem, which will provide me with 200MB per day (data only, but then that's all I need) at a cost of 50 Euros for 7 days.
I'll be needing no more than 10-20 MB/day.

So am I reading this correctly and indeed any of the pre-paid cards are way cheaper than that?

Thanks.

[Effendi]

Yes, they are much cheaper than 50€/week, you can get 3GB for 5€/month using the operator 3, for example.

[wisniak]

Thank you, Effendi.

I just got the update from that local company I wrote about, they offer me 78 Euros for 11 days, 2200MB data (no voice).

I'll go with your suggestion.