lainysmall

I am traveling to Italy and Switzerland in April/May and want to use my own smartphone there but my carrier is Boost Mobile and I am having difficulty finding information about it. I've called the company and emailed and have 2 different answers, neither of them helpful. Can someone give me some tips?
Thanks!!

Andrew

If your phone is unlocked, you may be able to use it in Europe with local prepaid SIM cards you buy in each country. (You can roam from one country to another but roaming eats your prepaid credit faster.) But I'm not sure what model Samsung phone you have - ? I think Boost uses the Sprint (CDMA) network in the US, and in Europe they use GSM not CDMA for phone service. If you have an old flip phone, it's probably not going to work.

If it's a smart phone and has a SIM slot, and if it is unlocked, you may be able to roam on GSM networks in Europe. And a smart phone can definitely use it with WiFi, though, when WiFi is available. If it's Android, you can install Google's Hangouts Dialer app to make free phone calls to the US, even to landlines. (If you also get a Google Voice phone number, people can call you on that number as well and leave voicemail.)

bvlenci

Actually, most Italian SIM cards now have excellent roaming plans for Switzerland and other European countries. Phone calls usually cost about the same as domestic Italian calls. Data is not quite there yet, but in most cases the cost will be less than setting up a new plan in another country.

There are two plans from TIM, the first for use within Italy, and the second for travel to others European countries and the US.
https://m.tim.it/offerte/mobile/este...for-visitor-uk

The second doesn't have a description in English, but it's called TIM in Viaggio Pass, and it costs €20 for 10 days, with 500 minutes, 500 texts, and 1 gb of data. If you don't need the data, you can just make calls in Switzerland for 16 cents a minute, with an option called TIM in Viaggio Full. This is automatically included with the TIM for Visitors plan I mentioned above, at no extra cost.

Vodafone, the other major Italian provider, has similar plans, but for most tourists I think the TIM plan works best.

bvlenci

I should have mentioned that the TIM plans allow you to use your minutes for calls to any European country or to the US. The TIM for Visitors plan, for use within Italy, lets you call over 50 countries with your minutes.

lainysmall

Thank you both for the great information. It's been over 16 years since my last visit so it's like I'm going for the first time!