Satellite TV and Internet

[jdabney]

My villa in Puglia will be ready to let from the end of May 2005. Because most people renting holiday homes seem to want TV, can anyone advise me on the best way to go about obtaining satellite TV in Southern Italy and who the best providers might be? It will be quite important to be able to access as many English language stations as possible, oh and Sky Sports for the Rugby of course!
Equally importantly as there is no cable or telephone landline, is there any possibility of getting high speed internet access through the same satellite provider, or if not what is the best way to obtain this?
Any advice here would be gratefully received

[livinginitaly]

Hi,

Yes you can get sky coverage in Puglia .... here's a link that gives more information on dish size and channels etc.

skycards.net

Regarding Satellite Internet ..... this normally requires a phone connection as well, as all 'upstream' information is sent via the phoneline then hi-speed 'downstream' information is sent via the satellite to your pc.

You can purchase 'two way' satellite connections ..... but last time i looked it was over 10k plus a very expensive monthly charge.

[jdabney]

Thanks Tony, that is very helpful. I presume the internet connection problem will have to be dealt with by using wireless mobile phone cards.

Does anyone know if there are any internet wireless hotspots in any of the Itria Valley towns such as Ostuni, Martina Franca, Cisternino or Ceglie Messapico?

[livinginitaly]

Hi,

Only one I can come up with is in Ostuni ..

really long link edited by mods so our scrollbars don't go crazy

It's not 'free' though and seems to be on a holiday village ... i've known places like this provide access to 'non members' for a fee though.

Hope this helps

[Ciapolin]

OK, I probably shouldn't be saying this but here goes

The ex-pats I know all use a UK address but access sky from here (I use my parent's address). The downside is that you don't get the magazine. The upside is you just pay the normal subscription price.

C-A

[willemijn]

Re internet connection through satellite: try alice SAT from Telecom. They offered me (in Umbria) a deal where I only pay 50 euro for the receiver, it is both up and downstream and once it works (all for free - THEY SAID!) and connecting is 2.4 euro cent per minute.
That is not cheap, but for very fast internet the best I have heard so far.

Once you have this, you could also watch many channels through the internet. Possibly a bit expensive, but I heard of a system where you downlaod the programs you want to see and can view them offline. No idea how this works and when, neither the costs.

[jdabney]

Willmijn

That all sounds brilliant, I will definitely give Alice SAT a try

[willemijn]

am now in the phase where the 'modem' was delivered and all reasonably in time. Waiting for the technician now. Am really curious how this works out.

[Italian Fever]

I'm just providing my renters with access to BBC World, Sky News and the very few other English speaking channels from Hotbird/Astra19. I'm making the assumption that there are enough clients out there who don't want to go on holiday to watch loads of TV. Hope I'm right

[jdabney]

When I started this thread in 2005, I was certain that TV was necessary. We've done absolutely fine without it and none of our guests (except one snotty little kid who made a point of saying so in our guest book) have complained, actually most saying what a pleasure it is not to have the dreaded box. Having said that if I were there for more than a couple of weeks I would get withdrawal symptoms from not being able to watch the Rugby!