I want to be sure that my husband and I both have working cell phones while in Italy. We will only be calling one another to make arrangements during the trip so all calls will be in Italy (with perhaps an occasional call to the US to check in at home). In the past we just used our T-Mobile phones and paid the high per minute charges since the calls were infrequent and short. We have since canceled our cell phone plan with T-Mobile but still have our unlocked quad band phones so thought we'd just get SIM cards.

I have never bought just the SIM card so I don't have a sense of prices. I looked at Telestial and other sites where you can buy the SIM cards in advance and have them shipped to the US and the best price I found is $40 for the card with E5 of time on it and a rate of E0.10/minute outgoing calls within TIM network (incoming calls free). Also found a $5 SIM card but the calls are US$1.49/minute. Is this much higher than what I would pay just going into a store in Italy or is it a decent deal? I am tempted to buy (the $40 card) before we leave since it will be easier. I speak a little Italian and have been looking on the TIM website and can't figure out what to buy - can't imagine that transaction will go better in person with jetlag! The SIM cards only last for a year or less and we probably won't be back in Italy within that time so this is just for this trip.

Sally30,
I paid 10 euro for a SIM with 5 euro of time on it at a TIM store. They wanted to see my passport and it was done.

Henry

I bought TIM prepaid SIM cards last week in Italy. It was €5 for a SIM card AND came with ~€5 of airtime. I added €10 additional airtime. The process took about 20min per number because of the amount of keyboard entries required. As a foreigner, I needed to show my passport. I only said I wanted prepaid cards, and the helpful salesperson selected appropriate prepaid cards and selected all appropriate options, e.g. no advertising phone messages, etc.

The SIM retains the telephone number for 13months.

I paid 5€ last fall for a TIM sim.

Does the TIM sim also come with data time so I can get email? Do you know what the per minute rate is to call the US with an Italian sim?

Well it certainly sounds cheaper to get the card in Italy. Guess I just need to think about whether I want to spend the extra money to get the cards in advance and not bother with the hassle when we arrive. thanks for the responses!

http://www.tim.it/consumer/homepage.do