6 months in Südtirol mountains

[allegro]

Hi, I am new and hopefully someone will take pity on me...(Effendi ??)
In 2011 I will spent 6 months on mountain farms (above 1.200 m altitude) in Südtirol. I have 2 mobiles and a netbook.
1. I need to phone in Italy occasionally.
2. I need to call Germany for 1 hour per week.
3. I need about 3 hours internet per week for my e-mails and timetables etc., skype and videos not necessary.
PLEASE, I will be happy with a "to-do-list" for dummies
Many many thanks!!!

[Effendi]

Coverage in the Alps cannot be perfect, so prepare to find yourself without signal sometimes. TIM should have the best coverage (expecially for 3G), probably followed by Wind (mostly GSM only, maybe some EDGE and little 3G). Vodafone is too expensive and AFAIR doesn't have such a great coverage on the Alps.

A good solution could be a prepaid card of the MVNO Nòverca (which uses TIM network).

There's a special option to call Germany at € 0.19/min (landline) or € 0.35/min (mobiles). No set-up fee, AFAIK.
There's a data option which offers you 1GB/month for € 11.00/month. Not the cheapest, but not so bad.

IMHO it's much better than a TIM Prepaid. The only con is that you have to buy it online (and they'll send it to your hotel) or go to an Intesa San Paolo bank (they are very common) and buy it there.

Wind has cheaper options for data, but for calling Germany it's € 0.20/min (60/60) plus € 0.15 set-up fee with the Call Your Country Option.

[petkow]

For your calls to Germany, rather than using the high voice rates that the networks charge, I think it would make a lot more sense getting online with your netbook (such as by using a 3G USB modem) and then using VoIP to call back to Germany.

Even with that good deal with Nòverca at € 0.19/min (landline) it still works out at an amazing €45 per month for the amount that you need to call back to Germany!! That would be ridiculously expensive over your 6 months in lovely Südtirol!!!

In any case, it does not look like you will be using much data for your normal internet browsing anyhow, so even a 1GB monthly allowance will be enough for the little that you do use along with the data required for the 4hrs of calling back to Germany via VoIP. (Around 1MB/min). So provided you can get your netbook online in Italy, and you have a headset, then I would look at using one of the Betamax/Dellmont providers (e.g. VoipGain.com) for your calls back to Germany. With such a company, provided you make a €12 topup every 120 days, it gives you "freedays" that allows you to call Germany landlines at 0c/min. Also Germany mobiles are charged at around 5c/min!

Maybe Effendi will be able to guide you as to what deals there are for cheap net access, and which of the networks allow you to make Voip calls.

[Effendi]

Of course with Voip you'd spend much less, maybe if you just need to call a person you could use Skype or similar programs to call for free. But I don't know if you'll have good 3G coverage wherever you go... I'm not expert about betamax providers and all that stuff...

[allegro]

Many thanks to Effendi and petkow. You are great!!!!
Allegro

[Stu]

This sounds like a situation where you might want to look at Booster antennas and the quality of your equipment. I have an old Sierra 551 that I purchased off E-bay with good reception and more importantly the ability to be hooked to an external antenna. Something like that with a Cradle Point router might get your farther if you are mostly working from a stationary location. Put an antenna on the roof, run a cable into your place and feed it into a wifi signal covering your area.

In the US, one of the best suppliers of this stuff is Wilson Electronics. I'd be curious if there is a comparable company on your side of the pond. Cell Phone Antennas and Cell Phone Boosters at Wilson Electronics