Ciao tutti!

Hopefully I will be finally moving in to my permanent apartment this weekend. I have been doing research on the web regarding which company to go with and I have no idea what to do. I am going to talk to the landlord on Sunday. In earlier email she said there was a line in the apt. already I think it could be Fastweb. My friends tell me Alice is faster and cheaper.

I spend a lot of time on the internet for work (and just keeping in touch with friends stateside). I have a cellphone I bought as a tourist and just add minutes to my sims card. Now that I live here I was thinking of getting a monthly plan...which should be cheaper.

Some friends have said don't even bother to get a land line/home phone but I would need one anyway for ADSL right? Setting up phones back in L.A was a pain. I'm kind of dreading this. I don't even know where to start. Do I go to a telecom office in Rome, do it on line. Has any had any positive experiences with this kind of thing. Grazie.

I would avoid Telecom if you can. When my Alice DSL worked it was great, but when it didn't it was a nightmare. BUT, Fastweb might be worse. Any other choices? Remember one member posted about the nightmare of returning Fastweb modums, I found returning the Alice modum easy. Just remember if you go with Telecom, they are great roping you in but they are in NO hurry to restore service- even when they do admit fault (the centrolinea was down about 5 times in 5 months). I was stressed, telling them I needed my DSL for work, but often I went 1 week w/o service. It took them just a few days to get it up and running initially, though, while I've heard other companies take longer. Also, I think a friend of mine didn't have a landline with Fastweb, but I might be mistaken. This is just my personal experience and hearsay, of course

We've had ALICE ADSL for nearly three years with barely a problem. By which I mean we might have had a total of half an hour's downtime in three years. FastWeb is vastly more expensive and I've heard as many horror stories about FastWeb as I have about Telecom.

Ok, FWIW, here's my input: when I moved in to my new apartment, I asked my LL about DSL, and he suggested I get a connect card to bridge the gap before I could get a more permanent solution. Both he and the agency recommended Alice. So I toodled over to Telecom, and the laziest git I've come across so far said they were out of connect cards. What about Alice? Not for at least a month. Try the guys down the road.

So I did just that: they were awesome! They hooked up a temp solution with a vodaphone connect device, got me the first month's fee off on some special offer, got my application to Fastweb sorted (who called the next day to hook us up the following day, which they did) all in the space of about 30 minutes. I later blew up my husband's computer, so we dragged it to them: they fixed it in less than 24 hours and charged me for the new cable only, none of their work, nor the replacement part, which they had filched from an old computer they had on hand.

We moved in on a Tuesday and we were wired by noon Friday. Am I a fan of Fastweb? Let you know when they get round to hooking up our TV. But I sure am a loyal customer to my wonderful pair of geeks, and since they're just around the corner from me, it's going to be a long and beautiful friendship!

By the way, I ordered internet and TV only, no land line (with 2 mobiles I think it superfluous) and there was no problem: just order the package you want. Fastweb also has optional Sky and pay-per-view programs. They should hire me to market for them...

Grazie mille. This is very helpful.

I have a TIM sims cards so I will look online what kind of packages they have.

I don't have a TV and will not be getting one soon but thanks for the info about your experience with Fastweb's Internet/TV line package. I will check that out as well.

I used FastWeb when I arrived here for my highspeed internet....they hooked me up in record time and I didnt have one problem all year. Now that I am trying to cancel and tell them I am leaving, there is all sorts of trouble. After 6 weeks of trying to get them to understand, I ended up having to call my credit card company and not accept charges from them anymore. They dont seem to want to let you go! At this moment, my internet is supposed to be gone but you can tell that I am writing to you. Take that info for what it is worth....

It pays to check your contract. Many providers (of all sorts of services) require a notice period for cancellation, sometimes three months, occasionally six months.

We have Fastweb and I love it! We were with Libero but whenever there was even a light breeze outside the internet would be gone for days. My husband and I need the internet for his work and my online classes, so having zero downtime is incredibly important. I only have good things to say about Fastweb. We pay 45 euro a month for internet and a phone line (a landline number)and have had great customer service.

that's the rub for me...I dont have a contract..I have a month to month and I gave them more than 30 days notice of the cancellation. I called and I sent a letter with return receipt...its all on the up and up on my end....they are just inept at this point.

I had a basic Fastweb package in my first apartment here and found it expensive and unreliable. Lots of calls were dropped. I have telecom here, it's fast, not too expensive and the service has been reliable - only time I was without a service was when the turned me off to upgrade me!? But that was only the ADSL. The wi-fi package also includes Alice TV which you can get a Sky subscription for if you want. Otherwise there is a basic package included but all in Italian, there is no option to switch languages. The selection of free films on Alice is very good though.

I have a contract now but I could only have it with an Italian Credit card. It is a fixed amount with so many minutes, SMS etc each month. I believe to get the more normal kind of contract you need an Italian bank account. I also had to sign up for 2 years. HTH

I have Fastweb that is provided by my landlady so I have no idea of the cost, but in 7 months it has been extremely reliable and it is much faster than my broadband connection in the US; about two and a half times faster for download and the same for upload. As to phone, if one has broadband access, use a VoIP phone, mine is US equipment and number and it works well.

I had been having Telecom for 24 years, with no major issues but I was just tired of people calling to ask you to buy something or doing surveys. Plus, I found unfair the monthly fee in comparison to the speed given (i.e. I had Alice 6 Mega for 39,90 euros/month but people in the city had Alice 20 mega for the same price).

I switched to Fastweb and completely quit with Telecom without problems. I called the customer care once because I messed up the cables in my apt. and in 2 days the technician came and did the job for free.

I am definitely happy with FW: connection goes smoothly even during weekend and holidays, while with Alice it was too crowded and slow.

Ok, I have read the repsonses to Telcom, Alice, and Fastweb. Here is my story. My husband and I came to Italy last year moved into an apartment order telcom, got my delivery of the phone and the modem. Everything worked find after a month of back and forth trying to get a technician to come out. Now, we are only in Italy for eight months in the year. We kept telecom and paid the bill while we were gone. Now that we have moved to another apartment we were able to keep the same phone number but it took telecom two months to turn it on, and we still do not have the DSL on.This has been going on since March, We have had Italian speaking individuals speak with Telecom in ref to DSl but still we are at a loss. We were told it is telecoms problem outside our apartment building. Strange I know there has got to be better service. We can not even find a office to go to. We live In Ravenna. Anyone know of an office because phoning is not helping.I had to buy one of those mobile phone cards and it is just t slow.Help

The TIM shops all deal with ADSL orders now so I would go to one of them. At least you can try! I would take an Italian speaker with you as the staff won't necessarily speak English or enough to understand your problem.

So is Tim, Telecom also? I guess there are so many sub companies. My phone bill and dsl are both under Telecom. I am paying for a service I don't have. I have had three of my Italian friends speak with rep from Telecom and I am still waiting. But again I shall get another Italian speaking to go with me. Thank you for your response.

TIM is the mobile telephony subsidiary of Telecom Italia.