|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home Page Site Search Sights & Activities Localities • Places Good Travel Faqs Sicily's Top 12 Hotels • Planning Maps of Sicily Weather • Climate Nature • History • People Food • Wine • Dining Arts • Literature • Culture Monthly Magazine Sicilian Identity Sicily Links Contact • Follow
|
Internet Access Points & Mobile Service Wireless & Smart Phones: While you won't find a lot of free WiFi access in public areas (or even in hotels and restaurants), your smart phone or PDA should automatically connect to a local 3G or EDGE network easily enough. TIM has more coverage outside cities than Vodafone (which partners with American telecom company AT&T). Bear in mind that your carrier's "roaming" charges for such service (outside your home country) may be substantial, and that your phone's internet and network settings can make a difference in that regard. Yes, changing certain settings can actually save you money. This site is reasonably mobile-friendly, but if you've arrived with an iOS (iPhone) or Android-based smart phone you were probably directed to a special home page. Voice: Prepaid or billed telephone cards like AT&T, MCI or BT are increasingly being replaced by cell phones. Using such a card, you'll still have to make a toll free or local call to make a connection to your service's access number for Italy. From an Italian phone booth (these are becoming a rarity), you can do this with a prepaid domestic telephone card (carta telefonica), purchased for €10.00 from a tobacco shop, newsagent or (in some cases) bar. Italian residential and hotel telephone rates, based on those of Telecom Italia (the national telecommunications company) are among Europe's highest. We recommend that you avoid using Telecom to make international calls. Internet Points (see below) often offer long-distance phone service. Since rather few Sicilian hotels provide internet access, be it via computer terminals or rooms with modem access for your laptop computer, the only place to check your email or visit a website may be an internet access point ("internet café"). Rates vary, as do conditions: Don't presume economical "dynamic pricing," hundreds of terminals, espresso bars or even convenient hours. (Outside of resort towns like Taormina, Sicilian schedules are often fickle.) But you'll at least be able to get online to get in touch with your world. The phrase "internet point" is widely abused in Sicily, the typical one being nothing more than a solitary computer and modem in a shop that sells computers or makes photocopies. Our small but growing list consists of real internet access points you can use. We'll risk an accusation of being partial by saying that the internet points in Taormina, Sicily's most popular resort, are particularly accommodating. Taormina Catania Palermo FYI: A few readers have told us that this page alone makes visiting Best of Sicily worthwhile! Any internet access point listed here has at least two stations available for customers to use. This list is the result of our own search for internet cafés. We try to keep it up to date. The selection of businesses indicated on this page is based, in part, on their willingness to accomodate foreigners. We receive no payment for listing firms on this page but try to keep it up to date. |
|||
Top of Page |
In Italy
your mobile carrier will use the services of TIM, Vodafone or Wind, all of which have service centers
in major cities (in Palermo they're all in the same part of Via Libertà). Italy's mobile networks and service
are among the world's most efficient and, all things considered, most economical. You may even find it practical
to purchase a cell phone account (using pre-paid cards) in Italy for your use while you're here.