Telecom Italia

After a month of failing internet culminating today in failing phone so we cannot make or receive calls and the internet keeps going down every 10 minutes, husband called Telecom Italia for the nth time  to hear the same customer service people saying the same c..p and promising a tecnico will call (which they never do). We have decided to change provider - any recommendations? I know we are in Lazio so not so near many of you but if anyone has any suggestions...

FBower wrote:After a month of failing internet culminating today in failing phone so we cannot make or receive calls and the internet keeps going down every 10 minutes, husband called Telecom Italia for the nth time  to hear the same customer service people saying the same c..p and promising a tecnico will call (which they never do). We have decided to change provider - any recommendations? I know we are in Lazio so not so near many of you but if anyone has any suggestions...

FB, don't know if it is late in the day, but we raised a fault issue online and they were out within 1-2 days. Realise it will vary area to area, but you never know. Saying that we too have the same fault with intermittent ability to call in and out, so it could be more of a wide spread failure. We don't use it for internet thank goodness. Anyone using ADSL near an exchange will get a reasonable to good service, but I doubt many do here in Italy. Not too sure what's in your area, but there are a few providers who use Italia lines to provide a service. What's mobile reception like where you are? If you can get half decent internet access, then Skype and others can provide a phone link. "Skype in", which you have to pay for gives you a number for people calling you. They also do a Europe package for €5-6 per month to call landlines anywhere in Europe. Three mobile (Tre here) also are doing data and call packages with NO roaming charges in a lot of countries, including Italy.... So if you  often go back and forward to the UK and have mobile access where you are, they may be an option.

I think the first thing you need to establish is what companies actually provide the physical line in your area. Try doing a search on sites such as fastweb or tiscali and see if they have their own lines in you area.

If they don't have coverage, they will most likely use telecom lines.

I have tried Tiscali and they were good with average speeds of 3-5 Mbps in my area during peak times and 7 Mbps at off peak.

I actually prefer Telecom as there seems to be no peak and almost always get 7 Mbps. However, as you said you was having problems with them, I would imagine you would have problems too with others that use the telecom line.

Mobile broadband could be a solution but ONLY for light users. I have tried almost all of the mobile companies and found Coopvoce to be the best for price and speed. Coopvoce uses the TIM network for the for the line and Tiscali as the ISP.

I am not sure how far you are from a big city, but some comunes do also offer residents free wifi. If not, there area some commercial WIFI providers in Lazio.

I remember reading about lazio wanting to offer free wifi in all of it's terrioritory. Not sure how far they got but here is a quick link that may be of interest. http://www.sostariffe.it/news/wi-fi-gratis-in-tutto-il-lazio-lidea-di-zingaretti-78829/

We don't have a phone line but we do have internet which is transmitted to our dish from a cemetery about 25km away.  Works very well.      

But, as is so often the case with this fine forum, I'm blown away by the depth and range of knowledge of the other members.  Steve and Chillout - wow!

Respect.     

FBower,

I'm not sure where you are located so a little difficult to advise with anything other than a general comment. There are Satellite providers (Tooway, Cloud Italia etc), you could try a gongle and there are also many wi-fi based connections around.

V

A couple of links that might be of help Mobile BB Italy  , I've not used this for a while, but it should at least give you the links for the various operators. This LINK I pulled from a straight Google search under "ADSL Lazio". I'm sure there will be others there under the same search. Thanks for the complement "G", but I just wish I had half the knowledge of some of the others on here....