[Effendi]

Quick Facts

Country: Italy
Network Name: 3 ITA
Prepaid Card Name: Tua
Frequency and Technology: WCDMA 2100 (plus national GSM roaming)
Prepaid Package Cost (Just SIM): ? 30.00, including ? 20.00 of credit
Documents needed: ID card/Passport and Italian Fiscal Code
Prepaid Package Validity: 12 months, plus 1 month to recharge/receive only
CSD access: No
GPRS/EDGE access: Yes, GPRS on national roaming (at extra charge)
UMTS access: Yes
SIM applications: No
Manual included: Yes, very small manual in Italia, plus some brochures about 3G services, in Italian
Refill amounts: ? 10/7, ? 15/5, ? 30/24, ? 60/54 (cost/credit); the recharge cost can be used on the Mobile Portal 3.
Availability: only at 3 shops
Competitors: TIM, Vodafone, Wind

More In-Depth Information

Buying:

The Good:
You can find a prepaid kit by 3 quite easily at any 3 shop, we suggest once again to go to official shops (very nice ones) in bigger cities. You can choose your preferred rate plan, for free, when you buy the new kit (if you say nothing you keep the preactive one, TuaSemplice). The card is usually active in a couple of hours.
If you don't have a 3G phone you can buy one, sim-locked, ad quite cheap price.

The Bad:
Some shops could have no sim-only kits, 3 usually sells much more phone-kits since not many people have UMTS phones. During main festivities and holidays the activation could be slower. Usually you have to wait 1/2 days before using MMS and some advanced services.
As usual you need an Italian Fiscal code.

Usage:

The Good:
3 has the best W-CDMA coverage throughout Italy, and national roaming with TIM is available everywhere in the country, including 3G covered areas. The audio quality of calls is very good, while video calls are not so good and quite expensive.
UMTS data connections is great for speed, but tariffs are too high; there's a mini-flat for ? 9/month to get 5MB of UMTS data every day which could be useful for some mail and messaging.
Voice calls are rather cheap with the SuperTua plan (very similar to Wind10), unless you hate per minute billing with set-up fee (not the ideal for short calls).
International rates to many EU countries and the USA are the cheapest ones (25 cent/min) also to mobile phones.
Customer Service directly on the Mobile Portal is well done, you can find information on the credit and also send e-mails to the service. All is in Italian only.
When you receive calls you get a lot of extra credit, but only in the next month.

The Bad:
International SMS are expensive (30 cent), there's a setup fee of ? 0.60 for all data connections (unless you download less than 6KB) which makes small surfings really expensive (SMSbug will work for 1/2 messages without paing the 60 cents).
Customer Service is in Italian and you have to pay 60 cents per call to speak with a human being. The online service is shitty too and in Italian only.
If you are at a "borderline" place between 3G and GSM coverage you will go crazy.
You cannot use 3 u-sims on GSM phones, and you need a 3 ITA branded phone to use the Mobile Portal and MMS without delays (8 hours usually).
All 3 phone-kits are operator-locked (you can use 3 u-sims only) and most of them are sim-locked too (you can use the sim sold with the phone only). Some new phones have "mini-sim" too, which are just normal simcards cutted at every side.

TIPS:
If you have another friend on 3 you can activate the VideoNoi option for free and videocall at 5 cent/min to your friend for 6 months.
Use SMSbug for messages but only max 2/3 at a time or you'll pay extra 60 cent for the connection.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you are a 3G fan and have a 3G phone you can try 3 services and their best coverage in Italy, otherwise I think it's better to choose Wind for a cheap product or the other 2 for best coverage.