Getting prepaid mobile broad band in Italy

[swiftfr]

Hi everyone.

I will be travelling around Italy in May, visiting Milan, Venice, Cinque Terre, Tuscany (Castellina in Chianti), the Amalfi Coast (Praiano) and Rome. I am interested in the best way to get wireless broadband internet access through my laptop for the month I am there. I would be interested in getting a prepaid usb device (Chiavetta?) that would have coverage in the areas listed.

Obviously I would not need an ongoing contract as I will only be in Italy for 1 month.

My needs would be for internet access, email and VOIP if possible.

I would be interested in any thoughts about the options available to me.

Cheers!

[Effendi]

Did you read this thread?
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/euro...ata-italy.html

[swiftfr]

Thanks Effendi.

I note that WIND only has GPRS coverage in Castellina and the Amalfi coast. Will GPRS coverage allow me to access internet through a USB key (chiavetta) attached to my laptop? (or do I need UMTS coverage?)

TIM coverage seems better generally. Do you have any experience with this carrier and a preference for either one?

I would also need to purchase the chiavetta. Do you have any knowledge of what is required to do this? I apologise if these questions are simplistic, but I am new to this.

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

[Effendi]

Surely UMTS is much better (faster) than GPRS, but you can use both of them. So if TIM offers you better coverage and there's a data offer which suits you I'd with TIM.
No problem to buy a chiavetta, you only have to register for the sim-card (you need your passport and the famous Codice Fiscale).

[Stu]

If I am reading this correctly, I get a significantly better deal using an Italian data SIM (with the roaming fee paid) for data in France than any of the French offerings. Am I wrong?

[swiftfr]

Some further questions regarding internet coverage with prepaid chiavetta

- if I have a UMTS chiavetta can I get a GPRS connection on it if there is no UMTS coverage in that area?
- With TIM Alice plans (30 or 100 hour), is the price paid irrespective of the amount of data until the number of hours are used or is there additional cost for data?
- Can a TIM Alice plan be used for just one month (i.e. no ongoing commitment)?

Any responses appreciated.

[Effendi]

All chiavette are both GSM (GPRS+EDGE) and UMTS (HSDPA), so no problem. The only operator which has problems where no UMTS is available is "3", since it roams on TIM GSM network and you pay extra bundle.

With the "per hour" plans you just pay every 15 minutes, no matter how much data you download/upload.

Any plan listed here can be used for 1 month. Some must be switched off, others just expire after 30 days.

@ Stu: I'm not updated on French prepaid data, but I don't think they pay about 12-30€/MB, at least I hope for them...

[swiftfr]

Thanks again Effendi!

[mrdillinger]

Thanks for the link showing the options. I was reading them and I have a quick question (sorry for being a newbie). I am planning on being in Italy for 3 months and I want to only use a broadband card for all of my work purposes. So I plan on being online for let's say 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. Looking at the TIM plans, I think that Alice Unlimited would be my best bet, but I want to make sure that the data is truly unlimited as I will be pushing quite a bit of traffic using technical applications via VPN.

Can someone confirm that this data is truly unlimited...only restrictions are hours online?

Many thanks

[Effendi]

Officially the only restrictions are hours online. But if you download/upload too many GB there could be problems. All operators have a "fair use policy".