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TIM - Telecom Italia ripping people off with their Internet - Part II

Finally I have my account activated again! My Unlimited account which actually is 400 hours is not available to me so I had to settle for the 100 hour subscription again. Thus in 1-2 weeks I'll probably run out of connectivity. No, I am not always on Internet but I wish my laptop could be though. Then I could continue to download some of the torrents while not using the laptop and leave it up for my wife to get online in an easy way.

Now in the TIM ALICE subscriptions they clearly mention that each time you connect you will be charged 15 minutes. Thus even if you are on one minute they will deduct 15 minutes from the 100 hour credit.

No problem there as I would normally be on atleast 3-4 hours in one go. I would not start up just for a few minute session. Well that works perfect in theory!

The reality is slightly different. Even though I have the latest drivers for my ONDA modem supplied by TIM and have installed it according to all the instructions there is some things that just dont work as they should.

So I get connected and start browsing. I have good connectivity and normally get a download speed of 150 - 200 kbps which I would consider very good for a HSPDA modem. The signal strength is just about full all the time so for sure the connectivity should be stabile. Well it aint.
Despite all this the ALICE system keep kicking me out and it can happen 3-4 times in an hour. I reconnect and most of the time I cant reconnect as it says the IP adress is already on the network. Ofcourse it is as I was on it just a minute ago. The system dont recognize that the previous session was lost and thus dont reassign the IP address. Thus I have to log off and log on again. That will ofcourse mean that 15 minutes connectivity time is lost! In some occasions it can take 3-4 trials with disconnecting the modem physically from the computer and connecting it back and then opening a new session before it can work. Each time a try is made 15 minutes are deducted..... I know because I have checked the credit hours left. Thus the 100 hours in reality becomes something much less. I would estimate that I loose atleast 1 - 1.5 hours of browsing time every night just due to disconnetions like that. Thus something like 20 hours out of a 100.

This overall means that for the connectivity that I should have paid 40 Euros for a month of I end up paying 48 Euros for 100 hours of which I loose 20 hours.

Pricewise this actually mean that I end up paying more for one month connectivity in Italy than what I would pay for the same service in Uganda!!!!! I paid 3 times the amount of money for the modem there and I pay 120 USD a month for connectivity which I thought was a bit steep. However when I compare it with what I would have to pay here in Italy to get the same level service here in Italy I am getting a real bargain in Uganda. I had my laptop running for 3 days in a row in Kampala connected to the HSDPA and not even once did I get disconnected. the overall Speed for the normal sites I browse was the same in both instances.

Ofcourse I should change provider here in Italy but that too would be a problem as the other companies demand a purchase of modem tied to a subscription for atleast 12 - 24 months. Getting a ADSL or other type fixed connectivity would be an option to except that since I have no telephone line I know it would take something like 4 months and a lot of hassle to get that installed. Something I am not interested in at present.

TIM - Telecom Italia ripping people off with their Internet

I have been using the TIM Telecom Italia's Internet connections over HSDPA for almost a year now. Each month I go through the trouble of re-activating the system and it is to say the least a rip-off every single time.

As I am heavy Internet user I try to subscribe to the ALICE UNLIMITED. Well it is not really unlimited as it only allow you 400 hours of connectivity in a month. That amount normally covers me just barely. But that only IF the modem/network actually works properly full time during the month.

Today it was that day of the month again. Time to reload the Internet. As I dont trust the system I would never have it auto-activated on my Creditcard and thus have to go to the bancomat where I re-charge 50 Euro on to the Sim card or telephone number. I then get a SMS stating I have 50 Euro just loaded on the account. Ofcourse the Bancomat system don't allow me to reload the amount I want but rather have 4 fixed amounts.


With that I then try to activate the MAXXI ALICE UNLIMITED as per the instructions on internet. This entails sending a free! SMS. To make sure I don't consume all the credit I just put I check the availability of the promotion on internet with my Vodaphone connected mobile. And the www.tim.it webside proudly announce that I should subscribe to the MAXXI ALICE UNLIMITED as the most comprehensive subscription.


Unfortunately the system give me a not so positive answer to the effect that the particular offer is suspended? you can try to find that fact anywhere on the Website but it for sure is not suspended. It is just that they have figured out the way to rip people of. I have checked it month after month and even though I know how to activate that particular package it will only work every second or third activation while you have used another subscription in between ;-(


So with this denial SMS to activate the service the only option I have is to find another package. Then they have several options but it is only the 100 hour one that actually works any time of the day any time of the week. The others are only weekends and night time according to a schedule they do announce but in reality means all your normal phone credit is eaten up if by mistake someone forgot to only use it in the evening.

I then activate the 100 hour subscription which should cost 20 Euro and 5 euro for the first activation. Thus a maximum 25 Euro in any instance. That happened at 19:40



So a simple calculation would give me 50 - 20 = 30 Euro left or in worse case 50 - 25 Euro = 25 Euro left if for some reason the one day I was not subscribed warranted a new registration ;-(

Well obviously I dont know how to count as the credit left on the account is 1.81 Euro!!! I guess her smile below is saying. Thanks for letting us rip you off but atleast u got to see my thumbs up and smile.


If I try to press the link to Visualizza il dettaglio del traffico the only thing I can get is a blank screen or and error rapidly logging me out of the system.

To add insult to injury of course I also receive an SMS at 19:54 requesting me to refill the credit as obviously I will otherwise not be able to call or SMS anyone... I never use this Sim card for anything but the Internet.



Now the interesting thing is that this is a prepaid SIM card thus no billing or anything like that.
If I look on the billing there is no voice calls, no SMS's, no internet consumption and no miscellaneous charges of any sort. Just a blank page with 0 consumption. So where did 25 Euros disappear to????

Thus overall I have tried to activate 400 hours of Internet connectivity which should costs 40 Euro. Instead I am having to settle for 100 hours costing me 48,19 Euro's!!

Ofcourse there is no point in calling the Helpdesk as they dont speak anything but Italian. I have a collegue who speaks Italian and who tried to figure out how she could loose 50 Euro in one day even though she had only made 5 local telephone calls. She had no success in retrieving any money thus I do not expect any neither.

As you can see below All this happened in one our. Between 19:00 and 20:00 today. I guess they would say I did a whole lot of things that hour but in reality the only thing I was doing was trying to activate the Internet and check what is happening on the SMS log. As you can see the log shows first the received messages and the SMS's between the system and myself during that hour.

Inbox of SIM card

Outbox of Sim card.
As you can see all the SMS received and sent are all to 4916 which is a Free SMS number for the internet activation and credit checks. The recieved www.tim.it SMS;s are to warn me that someone tried to log in to the Account linked to the Sim card on the Tim server. That someone was me.

That was the first part of the ripoff?!