3 Mobile Prepaid for Italy & Austria

[Juandpurple]

I have read most of the threads that I can find relating to this topic and still got a few questions. I will be on a Europe tour with our concert band, so it'll be tight group travel most of the time. I kinda only have one shot at getting a SIM card, so I want to do as much research as possible in advance and in and out of the shop hopefully in 30 mins.

We'll spend roughly 1 week in Italy (Rome, Florence, Montecatini/Pisa/Lucca, Venie/Mestre) and 1 week in Austria (Vienna, Hallstatt, Schladming) None of the hotels we are staying offer free wifi, so I want to get a SIM from Italy that would give data in both Italy & Austria.

Looking through the options, whilst TIM and Wind offers better deal in Italy, Tre.it seems to offer best deal for my case using their "Like Home" feature. Looking at the coverage map, all the places we go should be covered by the 3 network.

So here is how I understand the process:

1) Head to a 3 mobile shop (Best one is probably at the Termini Station in Rome, as we would tour the Colosseum that morning and one hour lunch free time) and get a "SIM Prepagata" which would cost €10 with € 5 Credit.

-?Should I choose 3power10 or Autoricarica? I know 3power10 has €5 activation cost, but what's the catch then for Autoricarica? I am not going to make many phone calls so the cost/min does not concern me.

2) Subscribe to "Superweb Week" for 15 hour/week unlimited internet. I prefer this over the Super Internet as I won't be on net every day but when I do I don't want data restrictions.

-? The T&C of Superweb says the 7 days starts on 00:00 each Sunday. I intend to get SIM on a Saturday. Is this true?? should I hold off activate this feature until Sunday? How do I activate without internet access?

-? Is there anyway/other plans that allows me to top up once I am over the 15 hour/week? Say if I use up the 15 hours in the first 3 days, is there a plan that allows me to pay another €3 and I get another 15 hours of internet? OR can I stack the offer - pay €3 for Superweb and if I used up the 15 hours, opt in the Super Internet or vice versa?

3) I have a smart phone (Samsung Omnia 2 aka i8000L) and intend to bring a laptop. I am thinking of getting a data stick either from Canada or in Italy. I see the Huawei E173 is selling for €19 on the Tre.it website.

-? Is this outright price? I can just pick it up at the shop (assuming they have stock) and use the sim for laptop? If so, I would prefer to do this opposed to bring one from Canada, so I won't have any set up issues.

4) I want to use "Like Home" feature when we are in Austria.
-? The roaming is automatic as long as I have credit in my account?
-? How do I stop roaming if I am outside 3 network in Italy and Austria, as well as if I reached 15 hour/week limit and cannot renew for another few days?

5) Can I stop auto-renewing Superweb once I am in Austria? I need it to auto-renew only once, then want to stop this option.

To Sum up, I think €20 should be enough to cover the cost: €10 for the SIM and any set up cost, and €10 refill to cover 2 weeks of Superweb, plus txt and short phone calls.

Any comments/Recommendation would be appreciated!

[Effendi]

You cannot activate the Super Web.week on a voice prepaid plan. You can use it only on a data sim-card with the Super Web Time plan. You cannot make voice calls with that.

You can buy the Huawei E173 including the data sim-card with that plan and 1€ of credit for 19€. Just plug it into your laptop and surf. Of course you also have to refill it first since you need at least 3€ to use the SuperWebTime every week. So I suggest you to refill the card with 15 euros so you are fine for the whole month.

If you use more than 15 hours you pay € 0.90/hour.

Important: be sure you be always on 3 ITA or 3 AT networks, otherwise you'll pay a lot. Use the manual connection with the usb dongle and always take care about the network the sim is registered to.

[Juandpurple]

Thank you!

So if I want data on both my Cell phone and laptop I will need to get separate SIM for Cellphone, and buy the USB dongle package for the computer.

Is there a way to restrict roaming to other networks and just allow access to the 3 network?

Also, what's the catch with Autoricarica as opposed to the 3power10? Do I need to link my SIM to a credit card? It seems Autoricarica does not have the activation cost like 3power10, so if there are no catchs wouldn't Autoricarica be the better option?

Thank you so much for your help!

[Effendi]

No, there's no way to restrict roaming, just use manual roaming.
3Power10 is much cheaper than Autoricarica, that's the reason to use it. But if you don't care about local calls you can go with Autoricarica, with no activation fee.

[Juandpurple]

Originally Posted by Effendi

No, there's no way to restrict roaming, just use manual roaming.
3Power10 is much cheaper than Autoricarica, that's the reason to use it. But if you don't care about local calls you can go with Autoricarica, with no activation fee.

Thanks Effendi! That was really helpful! Greatly appreciated!

[Juandpurple]

more help needed!!

i am in rome now and while i successfully obtained a Tre.it SIM and usb key, the person at the shop (Negozia Tre at via Candia) wasn't really helpful and refused to check the plan with me after all its activated, and asked me to go home and check online instead.

When i finally go online... it seems prepaid sim (supposedly included euro only had 5, and the 5 is not accessible. the internet key is subscribed "naviga 3 time" instead of "naviga 3", and because during installation, my computer crashed, so it didn't log off, and used up all my hours....

in any case, reading the website again, i am confused as to which data plan can be used with " abroad as home in Austria.". I will be in Austria in a few days and would really want to know how to do this!!

All'estero come a casa
http://www.tre.it/Assets/tariffa/5/C..._0_filePdf.pdf


before my departure the T&C said Naviga 3 (not Naviga 3 time) will be ok for abroad as home, now it seems "super" plan (not sure which one) will be ok.

But then there's additional charges per MB. and some changes from July 1, 2011. I used google translate to try and figure out the details but it's really quite contradictory.

Can someone (Effendi?) kindly review the above pages for me and let me know what's the latest information? I see a lot of people bought SIM to use for ipad and continue to use them in UK with no extra charges or issues, but that was prior July 1.

Thanks again for your help!!

[Effendi]

If you have the SuperWebTime plan you pay 0.10€/MB. It's a nonsense plan, BTW... it would be better if you active a daily/weekly or monthly bundle on it.

Of course it was much better to buy a normal prepaid sim card (not a data one) and activate a data option on it.

[Juandpurple]

Thanks for your help.

I did get a sim as well as the data sim card - as i want to maintain my blog on my laptop and the Tre.it sim won't let me use the same sim. So.. which data bundle would you suggest? Right now my active plan is "Naviga 3 time" which is 15 hours for 3 euro. There is superweb day/week/100 available as other choices.. do all of these means i will need to pay .10euro/mb? I read a lot of people get sim for ther IPAD and able to use in UK without charges... which plan would that be?

[Effendi]

"Naviga 3 time" is not activable anymore, as far as I know. And it's also the ONLY option which doesn't work on other 3 networks around the world (see here).

BTW if you really have the "naviga 3 time" it means you have a VOICE sim-card and not a data sim-card. So deactivate it (call 4040 or 133) and activate one of the following:
- Naviga 3 mese: 50MB/day - 9€/month
- Naviga 3 week: 100MB/day - 3€/week
You should be able to use them abroad too.

The "Super Web" options can be activated only on data-only simcards with the SuperWeb Time plan and they all should work on 3 networks abroad.