Telephone

The telephone services, beforehand controlled in monopolistic way by Telecom Italia, are now managed by various Italian telephone companies that propose different tariff solutions in relation to the day, the hour band, the type of call (national, international, to fixed telephone or mobile telephone) and the place (Italy/abroad) in which you are.
We find in the houses of all the Italian families a fixed telephone, even if is by now diffused the use of the mobile telephone above all among the new generations.
Nearly all the Italian venues have public telephone box. Public telephones, generally marked by a colorful telephone disc, are present in many bars, railway stations, trade centresor department store. In order to telephone from a public telephone box it is necessary to be in possession of a telephone card, in some cases of a telephone credit card. The telephone cards can be bought , besides in tabaconist, also in newspaper stands and Post offices.
In the first pages of the telephone guide it is possible to find the list of the main public services of the province in which you are.
In addition to the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages, Telecom annually publish for every city a useful guide called Tuttocittà, in which are available detailed maps of the urban zones and the urban transports, the address of the public offices and tourist information on fairs, cultural markets and events in the cities and the town councils in the nearby.

Telephone calls in Italy
In order to telephone within a city, its surroundings or in an other city, it is necessary to dial the wished number preceded by the prefix. The international code for Italy is 39; in order to telephone in Italy you have to dial 00 39, followed by the prefix of the region (including 0) and by the number of the subscriber. For example: 0039 011 442...

Telephone Prefixes of the Italian cities:
http://paginebianche.virgilio.it/localita.html
Telephone guide on line: inserting the locality it is possible to know also the province and the zip code.

Telephone numbers of emergency

• 112 Police officers - First intervention
• 113 State Police - Public Service of Emergency
• 115 National Fire Department - First intervention
• 116 ACI - Street Aid
• 117 Financial police
• 118 Sanitary Emergency
• 1515 State Forestry Corps
• 1530 Coastgard
  

International calls
In order to telephone from Italy towards a foreign country, dial 00, followed by the code of the country (for example, for Switzerland: 41), by the prefix of the region (without 0) and by the number of the subscriber.
For having information on international telephone services, on the way of making telephone calls, on the list of the foreign subscribers (of the European Countries and the Mediterranean area) dial the number 176.
The service is active every day for 24 hours and gives rise to 6 units charge.
For international calls through operator, it is necessary to dial the number 170.
For direct international calls:

Useful references (time and prefix)

• Local time in the world: http://www.fusoorario.it/
  A list of countries with the indication of the local time is available.
• Country Calling Code: http://www.countrycallingcodes.com/
  In the site are available telephone prefixes of countries all over the world and specifically of each city. It is also marked the local time.
  

Telephone Operators in Italy

Fixed Telephony
In Italy the field of the fixed telephony, before managed just by Telecom Italia, is now contended among various telephone companies. For information on how to activate a telephone service, consult the Internet site of the operators or contact the customer service by telephone.

Mobile telephony
Italy is the European country where the mobile is more used. Numerous are the operators available on the national territory with various offers according to the time band, the day and the services proposed.
In order to activate a telephone contract with an operator, it is necessary to contact the customer service, leave your own personal identifying data, the number of the tax code and of the identifying card and choose if stipulating a telephone contract or using the prepaid card.
Through the cellphone it is possible,besides making and receiving calls, to send and to receive sms (short messages of text) and images, to surf on Internet or to read your e-mail (in this case the cellphone must be equipped with WAP technology).

Rates

• Cellularitalia: http://www.cellularitalia.com
  Information on the rates of the fixed and mobile telephony.
• Tariffe (rates): http://www.tariffe.it/
  From the site it is possible to work out directly on line the cost of the telephone call just made, let alone to consult a series of tables of easy reading, realized for users of different telecommunication Operators.
• Risparmio Telefonico (Telephone Saving): http://www.risparmio-telefonico.it/
  The site puts at all the customers' disposal a fast system of calculation on line, thanks to which it is simpler to discover the cost of an urban, interurban call directed to one of the foreign countries pointed out in the site or also to a cellular telephone with Tim, Omnitel or Wind contract .

Useful references:

• Telefoniamo (Let's telephone): http://www.telefoniamo.com/
  Information on the mobile and fixed telephony, comparison between operators.
• Telefonino.net: http://www.telefonino.net/cgi-bin/gestori.asp?n=index
  List of the operators of fixed telephony and mobile telephony.
• Information of the telephony: http://www.punto.it/telefonia.php
  Site with information on the telephony.
• Telecom Telephone directory: http://www.info412.it/
  
• Assotel: http://www.assotel.it/
  It is the association of telephony and data transmission operators in Italy: the initiatives, the organization...
• Cellularmania: http://www.cellularmania.kataweb.it/
  Articles, models, technical cards on cell phones and the possibilities to send sms from the site.
• Gsmworld: http://www.gsmworld.it/
  Magazine online dedicated to the gsm world: rates, tricks, useful numbers and all the last innovations from the wap world.
  

In order to send sms

• ENEL: http://www.enel.it/
  It is not necessary to register yourself, it gives the possibility to send sms to all the operators.
• GSM BOX: http://www.gsmbox.com/
  In order to avail of the service it is necessary register yourself.
• SUPER EVA: http://freesms.supereva.it/index.php
  Without any need to register yourself , it gives the possibility to send sms of 160 character a day.
• OMNITEL: http://www.190.it/
  It is necessary to register yourself, it is possible to send SMS, e-mail via sms and to fix the personal agenda via sms.
• KATAWEB: http://www.kataweb.it/
  It is necessary to register yourself in order to have acces to the sms service. Only a sms a day.
• BANK4FUN: http://www.bank4fun.it/
  After having registered yourself, you can send a maximum of 5 sms a day towards all the operators.
• LIBERO: http://www.libero.it/
  It is necessary to register yourself in order to have acces to the sms service. It gives the possibility to send just a sms daily.