mobile broadband

[pigro]

I've posted info on this across several other threads in the past, but I suspect many who could benefit from it would never have stumbled upon it there.

If you are a holiday home owner looking for an internet connection in Italy for use during your visits there, but those visits won't be frequent enough to justify the cost of a fixed phone line or a line of sight wi-max type solution, the following may help.

Three UK now offer mobile broadband on a PAYG (pay as you go) tarrif. This offers

• up to 2.6Mbps in "turbo" areas or 384kbps otherwise
• data bundles of 1/3/7 GB @ £10/15/25 respectively
• each data bundle lasts for 30 days
• you can simply "top up" again if you use up the allowance within the 30 days
• bundled data may be used in both UK and Italy with no additional charges as long as you stay on the Three 3G network
• the USB modem required to get connected can be bought from Three for £50
• setup is totally painless - plug it in and it self installs under XP/Vista
• there is now also a mac compatible USB stick (and it will work under linux too if you're that adventurous)

so, basically for a total outlay of £60 (card + 1GB data) you can plug the gadget into your laptop, test connectivity in the UK to verify it's all set up and working correctly (and deal with 3 UK in english if it isn't), and then just take the lappy to Italy, turn it on and (in a Tre italia coverage zone) and enjoy one month of broadband surfing with no other charges and no recurring costs at all.

Topping up is easy too - you can register a credit/debit card with your Three account via the website and then use that card to purchase topups online or by phone from whereever you happen to be. Having purchased credit (which never expires until used) you need to convert it into an "add on" (i.e. the data bundle of your choice, which then has 30 days validity from the point of conversion). You can track the actual data you've consumed via your online account too, so its easy to see how much you ar eusing and if/when a top up should be done.

The Three UK website 3 - Coverage shows coverage for Italy and it is pretty accurate (my house in Italy is shown as right on the edge of 3G coverage; when I tried it out in practice, half of my house has coverage and the other half doesn't!). Obviously if this product appeals to you, 1st thing to do is to use the coverage checker to see if your Italian location has a signal - if not, it's no use for you until/unless they roll out the network further.

The 1GB allowance for a tenner would be quite sufficient for a months general purpose web use, including all normal surfing as long as you are not doing too much streaming video and restrict your downloading to music as opposed to movies.

One tip is to only top up the card with data bundles ... if you leave general credit (i.e. money that can be used for phone calls/texts etc.) AND you stray outwith Tre's Italian 3G network, you would then roam onto another operator's italian GPRS network, and be charged through the nose per MB of data (i.e. your credit would vanish PDQ). If you want to have call credit on the card, you can configure the modem to use a 3G connection only - that will prevent the automatic roaming and you will just get disconnected if you roam out of coverage.

If you think that the £50 outlay for a seldom used tech toy is hard to justify, bear in mind that it can be used on any (XP/Vista) PC, and would make an excellent backup home broadband solution in the UK (for when your ISP has a major outage or you are "between providers" etc.).

All in all, it's a fantastic package for me. Final thing - you can also get it on a pay monthly contract and currently (may '08) if you are already a Three UK customer you get the modem free and qualify for a 50% reduction in any of the 3 monthly bundles (i.e. £5/7.50/12.50 for 1/3/7GB respectively) for the duration of the contract. So, if you will be a regular visitor to your Italian place, it may be cheaper/more convenient to pay a fiver a month than to use the PAYG model.

[NickZ]

Originally Posted by pigro

[*]up to 2.6Mbps in "turbo" areas or 384kbps otherwise
[*]the USB modem required to get connected can be bought from Three for £50
.

I guess with that speed it's HSPDA? That's cheap for a HSPDA modem. I'm getting tired of using my phone. Actually I'm getting tired of the phone

[PAS 55]

Anyway I can check if they cover Sardinia?

[pigro]

Originally Posted by PAS 55

Anyway I can check if they cover Sardinia?

yes - sorry, the link above got screwed up for some reason, 3 - Coverage should be OK ... looks like there is a fair part of the island covered.

You can also check Sardegna on the Tre italia site here ...3 Wired Portal - 3 For You - 133 on line - Copertura Italia ed Estero - Copertura nazionale - Copertura regionale

[pigro]

Originally Posted by NickZ

I guess with that speed it's HSPDA? That's cheap for a HSPDA modem. I'm getting tired of using my phone. Actually I'm getting tired of the phone

Yes its HSDPA, the take up in UK is pretty rampant right now so prices are falling fast. It's a really neat one too ... proper credit card size, very neat. THe other 3G networks are also selling similar (Voda's goes to 7.2Mbps with a fair wind ...) but the killer benefit of Three in my circumstances is the portability of the bundled minutes and the PAYG charging.

[NickZ]

The cheapest HSPDA card or USB modem from TIM is 150 Euros or so.

For that price the local Expert shop has a Samsung I600 smart phone.

[libero]

I’ve just got back to the UK, the modem which is on 3 does pick up the Tre ITA signal, however I couldn’t log on even with the international barring removed.
After about eight calls to 3 back in the UK ,I finally got through to someone who actually knew what they were talking about, yes I was surprised by that!
I discovered from the phone call that all modems need the International baring removed (which I was aware of) AND also need the modem to be activated by 3 to be able to roam abroad.
They’ve informed me that this has now been done, I am going back over in six weeks, I'll let know how I get on!

[Val]

WInd agency in Giulianova set up a deal for me using 3T which was a Sony-Eric`mobile, software and usb cable for E60.00 and a payg sim card which costs E10.00 a month giving 2.6Mbps and 5gb data. I have used this for the last six months and is ideal for my usage and frequent trips over. The day that you reactivate for a month you have to remember the connection is made active after midnight that day. Larger data bundles are availiable, plus of course you have the mobile phone for Italy too.

[pigro]

Originally Posted by Val

WInd agency in Giulianova set up a deal for me using 3T which was a Sony-Eric`mobile, software and usb cable for E60.00 and a payg sim card which costs E10.00 a month giving 2.6Mbps and 5gb data. I have used this for the last six months and is ideal for my usage and frequent trips over. The day that you reactivate for a month you have to remember the connection is made active after midnight that day. Larger data bundles are availiable, plus of course you have the mobile phone for Italy too.

that s a really good deal. I used to use wind on PAYG (the old "mega" deal) but they only have GPRS coverage in my area, so the Three deal wins out for me. Your deal is way better value though - is it widely available or something that a local agency offered you as a special one off?

[Val]

Hi, no its not a special deal,it was one of four options listed (the cheapest) but ideal for month on/off use.