Cell Phones in Italy
 

We are planning a 12 day trip to Italy without our kids. What is the best method of communication back home other than e-mail. Is it better to purchase a prepaid phone card (if so, where do we purchase one) or rent a cell phone or upgrade our phones we have here in the U.S.

I would like to be able to call home each day so I need a cost effective way!

Thanks for any input!!

Susan,

You can purchase "international" and local phone cards at a news or tabchi stands. I've used them frequently with no difficulty.

The most cost effective and, overall efficient, is to upgrade your cellphone in the US. We have a tri-band cellphone that we requested to be unlocked by our US carrier. All we do when we travel anywhere else (mostly to Asia and Europe) is purchase the local SIM card (about Euro 30) and use it in our phone. It comes with about Euro 10 worth of calls and can be re-loaded with pre-paid minutes by buying phone cards.

Very convenient and can be used anywhere and anytime.

RCC - Can you please clarify some questions regarding your suggestion? Do you have to have a US activated Service (T-Mobile, AT&T, etc.)or European Service to use an unlocked phone with SIMS card? Sorry if that is a stupid question, but I have read numerous posts on this and can't figure it out. Depending on your answer, can you receive incoming calls from the US with this option? Thanks!

My best cell phone ever was in Italy - - buy a pre-paid PHONE (not a card) - - for about 80 euro, and the first 25 euro of calls is included in the purchase price. INcoming calls were free, so I just called home, and had them call me back. I went through less than 10 euro of call time, in 10 days.

And then I "sold it forward" here on this forum for something like 55 dollars (this was when 1 euro was about $0.91 USD). A win-win for buyer and seller!

Best wishes,

Rex

You generally cannot upgrade your US cell phone, which is a dual band phone that doesn't work in most parts of the world.

You need a TRI-band phone. US carriers usually "lock" their triband phones into the US system so that you can't use these phones overseas unless they are "unlocked". AT&T will NOT unlock their triband phones, T-Mobile will.

However, a better way to do it is to buy an already unlocked triband phone here in the States FIRST, before you sign up for the service. Then, when you do sign up for the service (Cingular, AT&T, or whomever), all you need is a small SIM chip which you insert into your phone.

A SIM chip is like a battery. You can swap out SIM chips for each country or for all Europe/all US. SIM chips cost anywhere from $30 to $65 per chip, so, cost out the phone PLUS chip(s) before deciding what you want to do.

There is a website which will describe all the bells and whistles that come with mobile phones and where you can read to your heart's content. It's called "mobileburn".

I would do a websearch first because the mobile phone world is constantly changing, just like it's so darned confusing trying to find the right service plan here in the States.

Furthermore, the prices of the phones are always on a downward curve, so don't try to "pick up a bargain" on eBay. The phones I've seen on eBay have usually been way obsolete models.

Thanks for the info. I did go to my Cingular store and verified that I do have a worldwide phone that is NOT locked so I can use it in Italy.

The cingular guy told me to purchase a sim card in Rome and use prepaid calling cards to make calls.

My confusion with this advice is:
1. what kind of phone card is he referring to? A phone card purchased here or one purchased in Italy for all phones or just cell phones associated with the sim card purchased?
2. will I only be able to make calls in Italy, or if I call the US, will it cost me a fortune?
3. can I purchase a basic phone card that can be used in pay phones and use it with my cell phone after installing the new sim card?
3. would it just be more cost effective to purchase MCI phone cards and use a payphone?
4 are pay phones difficult to use with a prepaid phone card?

Please let me know if you have any info. I don't really need a phone to make local/Italy calls. It would be nice to have one, but I am trying to be cost efficient. I am more concerned with trying to keep in touch with my kids back home.

HELP!

Easiest thing to do is to buy a phone card at any Tabacchi. Just make sure to ask them if it is good for calling U.S. We bought one for 10 Euros and got probably three hours of talk time. We used it primarily to call home from our hotel room but also used it to call locally and between towns in Italy, including on payphones. It was extremely easy and no lugging a phone around.