In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Hi Mick chick............. A very good question which unfortunately I am not able to help with directly, other than to say that, on the surface, the 187.it website is very good, but..............., the automation takes over to the point of exasperation (at least it did for me recently). After three weeks(online) and many phonecalls (to humans)...........all recognised on the 187.it website, (my Italian is limited ), I had to resort to asking a friend to 'sort it'. TWENTY FOUR hours later, problem was resolved! It may well have been a combination of my three weeks of teeth gnashing and the final human conversation from an 'Italian'...............but my word, what a pain. The very best of luck............ S
I signed up to the
Submitted by Annec on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 06:22In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Offline option
Submitted by SirTK on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 13:36In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Telecom Internazionale
Submitted by simonandjo on Thu, 06/02/2011 - 04:29In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
We've been using this for 3 years now and it's a godsend for phoning family and friends in UK, Gibralta and America. It is such good value and there are no limits. Also use Skype which is of course free but not all have access to PC or have good enough signal. It is easy enough to order services online with Telecom Italia but changing or cancelling them is a different matter. I think we wrote to them in the end...
10 euros per month
Submitted by sprostoni on Thu, 06/02/2011 - 05:02In reply to Telecom Internazionale by simonandjo
The International calls for a tenner (excluding the line cost of course), is well worth it, the first thing we do when we get calls from the UK is to call them back..............very good. Re Skype (VOIP ?), it was some years ago that I used/tested this and found a couple of things which I wasn't keen about. 1. The volume of the speech seemed a lot lower ? 2. There was a slight delay in hearing the other person speak? Is this still the same? I suspect that the technology has improved over the years. The best use for us is the Skype video linking, as this is indeed excellent; whilst we do not use it alot, I would think that people with family, young children etc, it must be fantastic S
Skype versus phone
Submitted by Raggio on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 04:44In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Skype every time for me! We have family in Italy (with parents of over 90 who definitely do not have computers only regular phones), children in the UK and, for the moment, in Spain. We use Skype computer- to-computer to contact the kids – that’s free – and Skypeout to talk to unreconstructed relatives. This last caper used to cost us €1/hour until a Swiss friend told us about an arrangement you can have with Skype. It costs us around €5 a month and we get “free” time for as long as we like to wherever we like as often as we like - I talk for a minimum of 30 minutes every day with my mum in Italy. Check the Skype website to see what countries this covers. Our phone bills in Belgium before we did this were horrendous, they looked like phone numbers and not phone bills! Now, we only get the smallest of Belgacom bills to cover local calls and other tariffs which they apply just for the pleasure of it. When we’re in Italy, we just log on with our usual Skype name and the arrangement continues to work there too.
grazie Raggio
Submitted by sprostoni on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 09:19In reply to Skype versus phone by Raggio
It looks like I should check this out again. If I may ask some questions? So..............if I CANCEL my telecom italia number/line............. 1. I do not need to buy a new telephone ? 2. I assume I have a new number ? 3. I can phone (normal ) BT landlines in the UK (for me) with minimal costs (currently 10euros per month unlimited + line costs) 4. What is the volume and delay like ? 5. If I was to call from Italy to the UK via Skype to a NON COMPUTER (i.e. landline).............(for say 3 hours per month) what would you estimate the costs to be in total? just a round figure............... Thanks in advance, S
In reply to grazie Raggio by sprostoni
S I use Skype all the time and I now find the service is equal to or better than a normal landline, no problems at all with volume or delay. I have a Skype In 0207 number in London (it could be in any of the major connurbations) my family call and it rings my Skype phone here. The cost to them is the cost of their local call to the London number. I do not need a computer switched on to receive a call because I purchased a Dualphone off Amazon for about 60 pounds which operates off a wireless dongle which plugs into my internet router. You can also plug in a normal landline of you so wish. Routers can be bought where you can plug in a 3G dongle from TIM et al if you wish to get rid of your landline. There was a post on this some time back. As for calls to the UK, I have Skype Out which costs a fiver and allows me to ring any landline in the UK or Europe for free. The only cost I have over the subscriptions is when I call my kids mobiles. Hope this helps. Charlie
£46.29 per year unlimited Europe
Submitted by karenr on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 06:53In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
If you pay annually rather than monthly you get a further discount. Just renewed mine in April. Furthermore you get the option to buy a number at half price. I couldn't buy an Italian number as you had to confirm you lived in the city to which the number belonged and very few places in Italy were available (certainly not Ripatransone). With a UK number you don't have to confirm you live there so I just selected a Cambridge number as used to live near there. Our friends/family in UK can ring the Cambridge number and just be charged a local call or if not local to that area we call them back on their landline. You do pay for mobiles and the other downside is if you have a UK number it is no good for Italian friends to call you on - they have to call us on our mobiles, or we have to call them.
Yes but, my queries?
Submitted by sprostoni on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 07:10In reply to £46.29 per year unlimited Europe by karenr
It looks like I should check this out again. If I may ask some questions? So..............if I CANCEL my telecom italia number/line............. 1. I do not need to buy a new telephone ? I assume the answer to this is yes? 2. I assume I have a new number ? I assume the answer to this is yes? 3. I can phone (normal ) BT landlines in the UK (for me) with minimal costs (currently 10euros per month unlimited + line costs) I assume the answer to this is yes? 4. What is the volume and delay like ? I assume the answer to this is there are no problems with volume and/or delay? 5. If I was to call from Italy to the UK via Skype to a NON COMPUTER (i.e. landline).............(for say 3 hours per month) what would you estimate the costs to be in total? just a round figure............... I assume the answer to this is something less than 50 euros per year ? Thanks in advance, S
1. I just talk via my laptop
Submitted by karenr on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 08:53In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
1. I just talk via my laptop - no phone - use laptop speakers/microphone. I also have a plug in headset but gets to hot for this in the summer. I don't know what type of phone you have but I would expect that you would need a new one - depends if the one you have is skype enabled. Someone more technical will no doubt help you on this. 2. You don't have to have a number at all. If you skype to skype you have a skype name which you create. You only have a number if you buy one and want people to call you. You can call out to other landlines or mobiles using skype credit and still just need your skype name to sign in. The number is optional but if you are planning to replace a landline and want to receive calls from people without internet/skype then you need to buy a number. 3. I think is covered by previous post. 4. I am not technical so quoting volume is not possible. I find that most of the time there is no delay and quality of call is excellent. However this does depend on your internet link and occasionally skype goes a bit mad (recent issues meant unable to access for a day or so until a fix was made). 5. Again this is covered by previous post. Depends on your subscription but my unlimited Europe package is just that - unlimited I can call as often as I like for as long as I like to any landline in Europe for my one off annual charge. You can if you prefer just have monthly or (from memory) quarterly subscription but I chose annual as I have no landline, live here permanently and the 12 month deal offers the best discount/value.
Sprostoni - another consideration
Submitted by karenr on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 09:01In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Just another thought. How do you get your internet? If you have Alice with Telecom Italia you are obviously going to need to replace that with some other internet provider. Before you disconnect your telephone (and internet) check your internet options/costs. I use a Vodafone dongle on contract and it costs me €60 every 2 months. I have no choice in this as Vodafone offers best reception/signal and I spent more than a year trying to get TI to even give us a quote for a landline. Before we moved into countryside we lived in Town and had TI/Alice for broadband and still used skype for overseas calls.
Great feedback
Submitted by sprostoni on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:33In reply to Sprostoni - another consideration by karenr
Hi all and karenr, Thanks a LOT for all of your feedback, and for answering my queries. I have a 'normal' Telecom Italia connected telephone and pay 10euros per month for calls to UK etc. (Our TYPICAL phone bill is circa 80euros every two months - I think !), costs include IVA, line rental calls to mobiles etc etc. So that runs at about 500euros per year. I have a very good internet connection via wireless (not going anywhere near Telecom Italia), and a fairly good laptop...............BUT, with no microphone. So, I assume that I could buy a Skype telephone (from say Euronics), plug it into my router and orf it will jolly well go ? If I trial this and it is as good as we hope, I could THEN say bye bye Telecom Italia I assume AND save 100's of euros per annum?? I'll have a think, thanks again for all comments, S