Using three in Italy, Denmark and Sweden

[Ties Brants]

This summer I went on a interrail trip to Italy, Denmark and Sweden.
I tried to find a sim card that would give me internet access in these countries as well as Germany. (as I had to travel trough Germany a lot coming from the Netherlands).
The best option seemed to be a Three card from the UK, because they had affordable data options that I could use in all the countries except Germany. I tried to get a Three UK sim card, but that thread only came alive when I was already in Italy. So in the end I used an Italian and a Swedish Three card and a ICQ sim for Germany.


Germany

The ICQ sim worked well in Germany. The only thing was that I first had to force my phone not to use the UMTS network, but the gsm one. Because otherwise it would not make a connection. Interestingly enough going from gsm to umts with an active connection was no problem. I didn’t use the internet with the icq card that much, because it still isn’t really cheap. But msn worked okay.

Italy

I already had a Italian Three card, bought for me by an Italian friend, so I didn’t have any problems with the fiscal number. Because of the fact the data roaming on the TIM network will cost you 0.60 Euro connection fee every time you make a data connection I didn’t really had any credit left after my last visit. (to prevent this this time I put my phone on manual network selection) So I had to find out how to put credit on in on the internet. The option to do it directly on the Tre.it website didn’t work for some reason. And you are only allowed to do it once that way (within a period of time, I would think. But I’m not sure) In the end I had to sign up for the tre.it web shop on add credit to my card that way. In the end it worked, but it took some time finding out what to put where.
Activating the 30 days 50 mb a day thru the website worked perfectly and when I arrived in Italy I had internet.
The coverage of Three was okay most of the time. Although in the train from southern Italy back to Florence the connection failed a lot. Also because of the many tunnels there (so I think this would have been a problem with all the networks). In Milan, Bergamo, Florence, Pisa and Palmi the connection was okay. The coverage was usually not prefect (usually 1 or 2 bars out of 4) but the connection was stable.

Denmark

The Three like home option with the Italian sim card worked perfectly here. The coverage seemed to be okay. (I didn’t really check it that much as I was sleeping most of the time in Denmark)

Sweden

My first day in Sweden I also used the Three like home option from my Italian sim card, as I didn’t had the time to get a Swedish Three card. Biggest problem in Sweden with a non Swedish Three card is that there are parts of the country where the four networks work together two by two. Three and Telenor share a umts network and so do Comviq and Telia. When you use a Swedish sim card the phone will just display the network name of the sim card even if you are using the shared network. With a non Swedish card however you will see “Sweden” or “Sweden3g” as your network. And because of the fact that Three like home only works with the local Three network it is quite important to know which one is the Three one. (as far as I could find out Sweden3g is Telia/Comviq and Sweden is 3/Telenor)
The connection was pretty stable, even on the x2000 train.
The next day I bought a Three data sim card for kr 99 (something like 11 euro’s)
( http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...age/Sweden+-+3 )
I could buy this card without showing any ID (surprisingly) But the shop did only accept cards, not cash.
The sim card included one week of data usages. And an extra week costs another kr 99 (when you are out of days you are supposed to be automatically forwarded to the Three website where you can buy more credit. This didn’t work for me, but just going there myself did work. Then you can buy access for a day, week or month by credit card (MasterCard/visa)
The card work good in the train from Malmo to Stockholm, in Stockholm and Malmo itself and on Oland. I used it to watch Dutch television (www.uitzendinggemist) in broadband quality and to call with skype. Both worked without a problem on my EEEpc 901 connected with Bluetooth to my HTC tytn II. The only really disadvantage of this card is that you can not use it as a normal sim card. There is a phone number connected to it, but I don’t think you can call it. You can certainly not make calls yourself as there is no option to add credit to the card. So I had to change sim cards a lot, because I had a Comviq sim card to stay in touch with people in Sweden and my Dutch sim card to keep in touch with the people at home. For people staying longer in Sweden it might be best to take the option that includes an usb modem.

I also heard that if you have a Telia internet connection at home you can get a Telia mobile broadband sim card for only 99 a month. This might be usefull for people staying longer in Sweden. (although I know it can be pretty hard to get a Telia internet connection without a Swedish personal number)

[Effendi]

It seems that with Telia you get the same tariff as 3 but with a normal prepaid card which you can use for voice too:
http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...Sweden+-+Telia
(very nice website!)