11939 Sky & Internet in Briatico, Calabria

Hi guys, me and my partner have just moved to Briatico in Calabria and absoltely love it, have even been to the local pound and got a little puppy but for the life of me can't get a solid answer on getting sky installed, if we go for Italian Sky will it have English channels and sport and if so does the Premiership come with that and secondly who are the best providers for the internet down here and roughly how much does it cost for the best package.

I know I have asked a lot but any help would be greatly appreciated

Kindest Regards

Mike & Nic. xxx

Category
Cost of living - Utility Services

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 13:48

Sky Italia DOES indeed have all the premiership (plus some Championship + Spanish/German/Italian and Russian(!)) football IF you get the whole package.

The English channels (in the main) are R-U-B-B-I-S-H !!! BBC Prime (years old), Hallmark(err??!!) Sky news (same thing repeated every 15 mins), there are others but deary me they are poor................

If I was starting TODAY (near the end of the football season), I would not get the full package..............there is Setanta Sports news available online (Internet) which is ok on a Saturday afternoon for live scores coming in...................good luck with your choice!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 14:01

Thanks very much for your help and if Sky Italia isn't that great is it possible to do the same as in Spain by getting UK sky with a bigger dish or don't you know, plus who are the best for internet services down here???

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 15:32

Hmmmm..................Yes you CAN do the 'big dish' thing..................BUT I believe you need a BIG dish AND reception is apparently patchy (on a good day)........

I can't advise on Internet connectivity in your area as I do not know it (Telecom Italia/Alice) seem to be the most prevalent here in Le Marche............There will be one that will work fine near you I'm sure.............

There are apparently alternative access options to 'Satellite' TV although again I am not able to advise(somebody will on this site soon I'm sure!)...............Slingbox, Freesat and a product (unproven here in Italy...... 'Selfsat') and proxy server access for alternative IP addresses on the Internet are all suggestions (none of which:masked: I've been successful with !)

Good luck!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 07:04

Hi Mike & Nic

We are in Calabria and have our full (except for BBC) sky package, including HD on a 70cm dish. We were told that it could not be done but after a little research on the net, I found the information and got a local installer to position the dish in the right direction. You need to have a UK sky box and subscription, but this can be done by a couple of companies if you have left the UK without it. If you pm me I can give you further info.

As for the internet, we have wireless broadband through the telephone provider (Telecom Italia) for Euro 19 a month.

Hope this helps

Sue

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/21/2009 - 04:53

While Telecom Italia is the #1 internet provider in Italy and has by far the largest ADSL coverage there are other internet providers that provide a similar (or better) service for a much lower price including

[URL="http://www.tele2.com/"]Tele2.com Start[/URL]
[URL="http://www.infostrada.it/"]Infostrada[/URL]
[URL="http://www.fastweb.it/"]FASTWEB: il Portale - Servizi ADSL, fibra ottica, telefono e TV.[/URL]
[URL]http://www.vodafone.it/[/URL]

When you're comparing prices be careful to check whether you preferred operator's quote requires you to be paying Telecom Italia's "canone" which can be a significant additional cost. Most offerrings (including Telecom Italia's own "Alice Casa" [URL="http://adsl.alice.it/"]ADSL HP | Alice Adsl[/URL]) nowadays are "senza canone".