isabel

Yes, another cell phone question. Sorry about that. But - I'm getting conflicting info in my quest for finding out the best way to stay in touch with the U.S. while in Italy. I have a cell phone which should work in Italy (purchased in France) so all I need is the SIM card. At some point I think I read here that you could just buy one when you get to Italy, for about 30€. But doing an Internet search for buying Italian SIM cards here before you go, they are all in the $90 range. Is it really that much cheaper to buy one there? Also, I read on SlowTrav.com that in Italy they are only suppossed to sell SIM cards to Italian residents. How true is that?

So 2 questions. If you have purchased a SIM card in Italy recently, how much did it cost? And did they say anything about having to be an Italian resident? Thanks

dee20002

sorry, no answer for you but instead a hope that you will get some, as I will be in Italy later this year and want to figure out how to have a cell phone to use. And, by the way, did you buy the cell phone SERVICE in france? I'm confused.

marcy_

Currently, a SIM card in Italy (TIM card through Telecom Italia) costs 40 Euros and gives you 20 Euros talk time. There are different calling plans available, but one plan is 10 cents a minute plus 15 cents per call. Incoming calls are free. Calls to the US are about 56 cents a minute. (All of these prices are in Euros)

It 's possible that they're only supposed to sell the TIM cards to residents, but apparently it isn't enforced.

Alec

If you bought your phone in France it's likely it's locked to the French network that supplied it. There is no easy way of checking except to put in a sim from different operator. If it's a Nokia, you can get unlock code from the internet (e.g. www.uniquephones.com/unlock/index.php), or you take it to an unlocker and pay around $15-20.
It's true that sim-pack in Italy costs between 20-40 euro, depending on networks. Not all retailers insist on Italian tax code (codice fiscale, notionally similar to SS number), but if you get it at an official network shop they will generate the code for you from your personal details. There are three GSM operators: TIM, Vodafone and Wind. Wind has marginally the cheapest tariffs but worst coverage. Vodafone has good coverage but higher tariffs. TIM probably the best one to go for and very widely available. Get it from the official TIM-shop as they will help you choose from one of eight tariffs available. Sim-pack costs 40 euro with 20 euro credit, but sometimes there's a sale on with prices as low as 20 euro.
Details of various pre-pay options (updated June 2004) in English at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italia.html

isabel

Thanks Marcy and Alec for that information. I was hoping the higher prices I was finding on-line were just if you wanted the convenience of buying it here in the US before going over to Italy.

Alec, have you had experience with phones being locked to the French networks? When my daughter was in France she took the phone to a Bouygues Telecom store (that's whose service she was using) and asked if the phone could be taken to Italy and get a SIM card there and they told her yes. Also, all the US cell phone guys (Cingular, T-Mobile, etc) that I checked with said that the practice of locking phones is mostly an American thing and to their knowledge phones in Europe are usually not locked. Now I don't necessarily believe these guys as they seem to do a lot of double talking. But in this case they have no incentive to tell me that, in fact, they would have an incentive to tell me the opposite in order to try to sell me a new tri-band phone, and none of them are doing that. So I just wondered if your information was first hand or what. Thanks (I really don't want to get over there and find it doesn't work).

SydneySteve

I have found that a great and inexpensive way to communicate is via direct email on a Blackberry while roaming on a US SIM Card. The cost is around 2 cents per kilobyte with non-fixed charge or flagfall. Of course having email and a browser on a handheld device is great for communicating with hotels, restaurants etc. while traveling.

Alec

Locking phones to the network is pretty standard throughout Europe. Italian networks don't lock their phones, but there the handsets are quite expensive as they carry little subsidy. In France, pre-pay phones are usually locked, and I'd expect your Bouygues phone (was it originally bought as part of a package with pre-pay sim card?) to be locked. You can find out by inserting a US sim card. If the phone displays something like 'Incorrect sim', it is locked. Networks routinely lock phones to recoup some of the subsidy on the phone by forcing users to buy top-up credit. If it isn't a Nokia, take it to an independent cellphone dealer, who will unlock it for a fee.
You can buy Italian sim more cheaply through a UK site http://www.0044.uk.com/index.htm
TIM card with postage to US will come to around £34 ($62), which is only slightly more than the 40 euro ($49) you pay in Italy. You have the advantage of knowing in advance the Italian phone number it comes with.

mebanese

I just got back from Italy. My husband purchased a SIM card through 0044, as mentioned in the previous post. We did indeed get our number before leaving, along with detailed instructions on how to use the phone (which I unfortunately LOST before arriving...). The best part - free incoming calls in Italy. 0044 customer service was excellent, BTW.

SydneySteve

Locking of phones is an interesting subject. When I purchased my Blackberry 7230 ( phone and internet email/browser device)with T-Mobile in the USA I told them I frequently traveled to the US from Australia and that I would like the phone unlocked so that I could use other SIM cards in other parts of the World. Their policy was that they would provide me with the unlock code after 3 months of account payments but they were prepared to waive that. They emailed me the unlock code which only took a few minutes to implement.

marcy_

I just looked at that UK site, and that SIM card only comes with £3.50 call credit (5.25&euro as opposed to 20€ call credit on one purchased in Italy, so it's not a very good deal.

xyz123

Most of these companies that sell prepaid sim's outside the country of origin are rip off agents. In many cases, you won't know your number anyway as many companies do not give you a number till activation (others include the number with the SIM pack) but I sure as hell wouldn't pay $70 for something that costs $50...that's an incredible 40% mark up.

Alec

Granted you get less call credit through 0044, but the advantage of getting it before the trip (so you can tell your friends and family your new number), full instructions in English and no hassle like getting fiscal code, public holiday/siesta (shut 1-4 pm) and language difficulty (not all cellphone staff speak English), many consider it's money well spent.

SydneySteve

I dont want to be seen to over-emphasise this, but cel/mobile phone useage while traveling is still rather expensive because the traveler will always be seen to have the marginal propensity to spend. Last month I was in Europe and UK on business from my base in Australia, using my USA T-Mobile Blackberry Account for phone calls and email as well as browsing compact web sites/portals. Most of my activity was by email. The bill came to about USD 170 - USD150 was in calls and SMS, whereas only $20 of the charges were emails and browsing. I wrote a vast multiple of emails to telephone calls sent or received. When you are able to send almost instanataneous emails from your hand you can tell people when to contact you on a land line at whatever hotel or other location for cents rather than dollars per minute.

xyz123

Yeah but Sydney/Steve...

You might have saved quite a bit if you didn't use your roaming but rather had bought a British mobile pre pay card. They are incredibly cheap in Britain, Virgin Mobile costs only £10 with £5 worth of credit and used that instead.

xyz123

To Alec..

Since you seem to be the expert here...what do you hear about outfits such as Easy Mobile and Ryan air that are in the process of starting up mobile operations with the purpose of briging low cost international roaming much as they did with flights. The Easy mobile web site claims they will be up and running before the end of the year.

And do you think that if this occurs, international roaming rates will be substantially lowered for all of us?

dmlove

I just want to add that we sent my son and his girlfriend off to Italy with an unlocked tri-band phone we bought on Ebay. We tried to buy the SIM card here, but they were out of stock (held up in customs or something). They arrived in Italy and bought the card at a TIM store - as stated above, 40 euros including 20 euros of time. Within Italy, calls cost .12 euros per minute. Calls to the US are .56 euros per minute. Incoming calls are free (we bought a international calling card so we could call them cheaply). The card is still good for incoming calls even after it runs out of "time". It can be "recharged".

Meantime, we're also headed to Europe, but since we expect to make no more than a few calls, we activated AT&T world calling/world roaming. It will cost us .99 per call to call our or to receive a call, plus $10.00 monthly