1035 Utilities for Online Businesses

No, broadband is not a problem at all.
Where were you thinking of relocating?

Paola

I disagree, broadband is in many places but not in all. I live 10 minutes out of the walled city of Siena and they hope to have DSL installed in the next 5 years! If you live in a country setting you will have a hard time getting DSL, if you live in a city, you should be fine.

Is there a site that you can visit to see if broadband is available in your area - in the way you can with BT in England?

Yes, but you need to know either your phone number there or that of a close neighbor. Go here [url]http://www.alice.it/alice/ep/programView.do?channelId=-1073753205&programId=1073762568&doFilter=true[/url] (you may have to cut and paste the whole url) and where it says verifica la copertura, put in the area code and the number.

[QUOTE=Claire&Jim]My partner and I are looking to move to Italy. I run an online business and my partner is a Web Designer.
Is broadband internet access a problem in some areas? (I am assuming that larger cities like Rome/Milan etc are well provided) Obviously this is essential for both of us if we are to continue in business when we finally move.[/QUOTE]

Yes it is a problem, though the smaller towns are now starting to get broadband. You will have to check when you start househunting, site suggested already in this thread.
For instance our local town has, Vetralla, so we are told! We live 10mins out of town and manage OK with our GPRS connection.
Good luck with your planned move. Do take a look around Northern Lazio, we are only just over the hour from Roma and it is a lovely place to live! Of course all of on this forum, think where we live is the best!?

Thanks everyone. We are looking in Lazio with an easy commute into Rome. We will probably end up renting an appartment there whilst looking to buy a house further out. I will make sure I check the connection posibilities specifically when looking at properties.

Thanks again
Claire

Many thanks to Christina for the link which worked perfectly for me though it didn't give me the answer i wanted!
Is it too much to expect to find anywhere an indication of when broadband will reach a particular area? A friend about 20kms away has it so perhaps it is on its way to me.

[QUOTE=Claire&Jim]My partner and I are looking to move to Italy. I run an online business and my partner is a Web Designer.
Is broadband internet access a problem in some areas?[/QUOTE]
Yes, I run a computer consultancy and all that is available in my village in Abruzzo is ISDN, no DSL of any type. Even if it were available in the village, the house is too far away from the exchange for DSL.

An alternative is satellite broadband which is the only real option for many rural areas. The speed is good, but the latency is horrible.

excuse my ignorance Steve, but what is latency? and why is it so horrible?!

Cathy

KitKat,

Basically latency means the time taken for the request to be sent out (via a modem) the system to work out what data it wants to send you back and what route to send it by i.e. over the satellite link, and you to start receiving it.

Or the technical explanation :- In a network, latency, a synonym for delay, is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. In some usages latency is measured by sending a packet that will be returned back to the sender and thus the round-trip time is considered the latency.