Broadband and local telephone service in Italy
Italy has over 20 million phone lines and 88 million mobile subscribers, which means over 100% population penetration rate. Eutelia, Tiscali and Telecom Italia are the major telecom players inItaly. Broadband access is available via fiber, ADSL, wireless and fast 3G networks. Unfortunately some of the mountain areas in Italy are not covered by broadband service due to the lack of funding to maintain the telephone network. Mobile networks in Italy Major providers are Wind, Vodafone, Telecom Italia and H3G. Italy is using the European CPP (calling party pays) system, meaning that dialing mobiles costs more, while the call is free to the receiving party. It can be quite expensive to dial Italian mobiles. Costs of calling Italy: 4 options available
1. The easiest option used by many businesses and individuals is Skype, however, Italian mobiles cost a rather substantial $USD 0.35 per minute with VAT. This can be somewhat problematic in terms of costs if you are on the phone with your Italian partners all day.
The $0.35 price tag is for all Italian mobiles. It does not matter what network you are calling and with Skype, there is no way to economize on calling the least expensive mobile network inItaly.
2. Calling cards are also very popular for personal and business use. US andUKusers can consider UnionTelecard by IDT, which provides a good choice of calling cards. However, IDT still charges $0.21 per minute for Italian mobiles and also does not provide any breakouts.
3. VoIP providers that offer home hardware adaptor device are another option to consider. Broadvoice, Lingo and Vonage have very good rate plans to European fixed line destinations but all mobile numbers cost money per minute. We again get the same $0.20-ish rate per minute to call Italian mobiles, regardless of what network you are dialing.
4. Discount VoIP carriers with breakout-based pricing. Although largely ignored by consumers, however, they actually provide the lowest possible rates to EU mobiles. Call quality matches or exceeds Skype or Vonage but your costs are below $0.10 per minute rather than $0.35/min. These carriers do not provide a home device, you will need to setup your SIP-capable hardware like LinksysPAP2 or generic softphone yourself. However, the resulting savings are well worth it:
- Italy landlines $0.01 per minute
- Italy H3G $0.09 per minute
- Italy Vodafone $0.08 per minute
- Italy Wind $0.08 per minute
- Italy Telecom Italia $0.08 per minute
This is a sample pricing based on publicly available data from DID Logic.com offer, there are also many other discount SIP VoIP providers like Vpro, Megabux and Qwikdial.
Incoming virtual VoIP SIP DID local phone numbers inItaly– free incoming calls
In addition to economizing on outgoing calls, you can also get more savings by switching some of your calls to incoming virtual numbers with call forwarding. VoIP phone numbers inItalycan be used to forward calls to your existing SIP PBX like Asterisk, Vicidial, FreePBX, Freswitch or Avaya. Telephone numbers inItalycan be diverted to any phone number in the world, fixed or mobile. PSTN forwarding with many discount SIP carriers only costs $0.002 per minute. If you have a SIP device already, you can have your Rome or Milan DID numbers ring to your other SIP provider by SIPURIor use the DID number on your softphone like Acrobits, X-lite, Linphone, Fring and many more.
International call forwarding and initial setup
Italian DID numbers can also be used to create local presence in Italy without having to maintain staff locally. Your customers will dial a local number in Italy and get connected to your other numbers in another country. The call is local and free for your callers. Ring-to destination can be changed at any time wherever you are.
Virtual VoIP phone numbers in Italy can provide excellent savings but may also require some IT skills to do the initial setup. To get your VoIP incoming number in Rome, Milano or any other Italian city, you will need to have a SIP trunk setup in your existing IP PBX, or have your IT specialist install softphones for your Carpenter seats that will process calls on Italian VoIP virtual phone numbers to your Asterisk or FreePBX.
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