Can you stand yet another SIM card Question?
 

I added this on to the other current thread on the topic but that thread is now discussing how to unlock phones, and I don't think anyone is going to notice my query. So, I'm starting over.

I'm sending DD to Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice) with a school group. It is, of course, the same week that college acceptance letters are due to arrive at home. She would really like to stay in contact. Also, her BF will also be in Italy, with his parents, the same week.

I'm thinking about buying the Sieman's A70 unlocked phone from mobilee.com (per xyz123's suggestion on another thread). The last time we traveled to Europe, we rented a phone from Verizon. Its advantage was that any one calling me from the US only had to dial my regular cell phone number.

I do think that owning a unlocked gsm phone is now the way to go. We will have it to use whenever we next travel.

What I can't figure out is since DD is only going to be in one country, am I better off buying an Italian TIM card from Cellurabroad.com or an international SIM card from United-Mobile.com The cost per minute of use seems the same. The SIM card, however, is intially more expensive. Yet, I can't quite tell if the free incoming calls apply to the Italian TIM card, or only to the SIM card available at United-Mobile.

I do realize that it is most often advised to just go to a tobacco shop and buy a SIM card. But, I would really like to deal with this prior to her leaving, so I know the phone number, and so she doesn't have to detour from the group to run to a tobacco shop. Any insights?

ttt

thanks!

Italian sims are pretty cheap and include time...calls to North America are moderately expensive.

In general while United-Mobile recently has been 90% reliable, the local sim is probably closer to 99% reliable. That being the case I would probably go with the local Italian sim.

But I wouldn't, despite what you said, go with Telestial or Cellularabroad. In pure blunt terms they are rip off artists tripling the price for the sim cards they sell. I am not that familiar with Italian sim cards as I don't usually go to Italy but in some cases, I'm not saying this one, you might not know your Italian number untill you register the card there.

What you can do is look at the forums in www.prepaidgsm.net. You can post your question there and the people there, unlike this forum, are experts and will give you very real advice.

Also for the calls back to North America (I assume you are in North America) you might look into callback service such as callbackworld (www.callbackworld.com)...you also might wish to check up to see if you can have a call forwarding service keyed to one of the local landlines so people will know to call your local number and can set the call to number via the net once you get the sim.

So many ways to go, nobody can tell you what's absolutely best for you. But at least if you get the answers you need, you can make an informed decision rather than listen to some of the people on this forum who know very little about the subject. At least when I don't know something, like Italian prepaids, I admit it.

Thanks xyz123, I was hoping you would see my question. I appreciate your helpful answers and will check out your suggestions and report back when I figure out what I'm doing.

I ordered the Siemans phone from Mobilbee on Feb. 24. The phone is listed as "available" on their website. They never sent me an email saying that the phone was really out of stock.

After several weeks, several phone calls I had to pay for (no 800 number), and still no real answer from Mobilbee about when the phone would actually be in stock, I lost it. Yelled at the "manager" that answered the phone and she hung up on me. But, she did send me an email cancelling my order. She hung up after I told her I would post on the internet about their terrible customer service and false advertising. I was told by three different people three different answers about when the phone was due in, including one person who said it was absolutely due in their warehouse today.

I have ordered a different unlocked phone from cellhut.com (nokia 3120 tri-band) a bit more expensive, but they processed the order and sent me an email that is was being shipped out today. Already, much better customer service.

xyz123, have you ever ordered anything from Mobilbee? Hope your experience was better than mine!

Just wanted to top this, so that others can see my concern/warning about mobilbee.com

I ordered a nokia from them about a year go and had no problems.....of course one's sucess is no guarantee of another's...sometimes companies get too big for their own good....I apologize if I sent you off in the wrong direction..

Normally I don't worry too much about these things...if they can't get the merchandise either they won't charge my credit card or if they do, I get them to credit it or the credit card company handles that...of course there's always the danger of fraud by any criminal internet merchant but that can even happen with reputable merchants (see Office Max and citibank for that)...

Having said that, the Nokia 3120 is a nice little phone and you'll enjoy it.

Sorry,

xyz123

Please don't apologise, I appreciate, as I'm sure many others do, all your knowledge and information you freely give to Fodorites on the SIM card/unlocked GSM phone issues that many have trouble understanding.

I just thought I would warn about Mobilbee and the false advertising of listing items as available, when they are not available. And, that there are many other sources for unlocked phones out there.

Topping so that xyz will see this, and so I can spell "apologize" correctly (grrrr I hate making spelling mistakes)

Hope that other fodorites will join me in thanking xyz for all his help in dealing with us mostly clueless potential users of gsm phones.