Is there a wait period for TIM SIM activation?
 

I am getting conflicting reports about activation of TIM SIM cards. I really just want to arrive in Italy with a working cell phone... is this too much to ask? I already have the phone, but need the SIM card. I know that back in 2005 I had to wait for the WIND card to register, it was a painful wait... I am also interested in purchasing, renting, borrowing an activated TIM card for my upcoming trip. Can anyone help? thx.

We purchase a card when we arrive and it usually takes about an hour to activate.

susanboston,
I have purchsed two SIM cards, at different times, at the TIM store and have made a call at the store to verify it worked. I spent about fifteen or twenty minutes at each store.

Henry

There is no wait period.
Go to a TIM shop, buy the SIM card, give your passport details (to generate your codice fiscale), pop your SIM card into your phone, top-up if necessary, and make one chargeable call (for a minute or more). The SIM is activated and ready to use.

thank you all for these prompt responses! i will wait until I get to Venice to buy the card... please let me know if you know of a place within the Venice airport to do this transaction. THANKS!

susanboston,
TIM store in Venice:
VENEZIA
Cannaregio n. 1412/1412b
30121 VENEZIA VE
Telefono: 041/2448525
Fax : 041/5233784
Orario di apertura invernale:
9.30-13.00/15.30-19.30 / sabato pomeriggio chiuso
Orario di apertura estivo:
9.30-13.00/15.30-19.30 / sabato pomeriggio chiuso

Henry

Dear Henry: I am just seeing your response on TIM stores in Venice... I am very grateful and am printing it out, as we "speak".... Thanks! - susan

Forgive me but I don't know much about using my cell in Europe. Does this mean I can take my cell phone to Italy and purchasing a SIM card there, which would allow me to use my phone receiving/making calls from the US? I always leave my phone at home, but this year I am going to be in Italy for 5 weeks.

Eating lunch in my office so I decided to browse the internet. In the mean time I found this website:

http://www.valuesphere.com/intouchsm...rnational.html


You can actually purchase your card before you travel to Italy. Hope this helps you!

$40 + postage?????

In Italy....€10...

Also read the fine print....sorry it's not a good deal.

See...that's why I enjoy this site. Everyone is helpful. Thanks for letting me know that.

audrey...

Can you use your mobile phone in Europe (I assume you're in the USA but much of what I say holds for Canada too)?

The answer is most assuredly....maybe

There are several questions you have to answer...

1. Does your provider use GSM technology? In the USA, T Mobile USA and AT&T use gsm...Verizon does not (they have a few models that use both their technology and gsm but these phones are probably locked)...

2. If the answer to the above is yes, does your phone have either the 1800 mhz band (most prefereable for Italy) and/or 900 mhz.

3.. If the answers to 1 and 2 are yes, then you don't need a sim card. Call your provider to see if you can get international roaming....but it will be expensive so if you're going to use the phone a bit, it will be mucho expensive so we go to #4

4. Is the phone (sim) locked? You see telcoms provide phones for very cheap amounts of money to hitch you to your service. To keep you from running away from them, they routinely lock the phones....when you lock a gsm phone that means there is a bit of programming in its boot up menu that restricts the sim cards it will accept to that of the provider. Now there are codes that will wipe this out (it's called an unlocking code)...if you've been a customer for a while, your provider might give you the unlocking code or you can get an unlocking code through the net or in other places. You can also, if you desire, buy a cheap gsm phone on ebay; just make sure it has at least one of the European frequencies (900 and 1800)...most phones sold on ebay are either tri band which will have at least one of these frequencies or quad band which will have both.

If you navigate through this, the best way to get a TIM sim card is to wait till you get to Italy, have your hotel tell you where the nearest TIM store is and buy it there...like I said currently they run only €10 with €5 worth of credit included!

Yes I live in the US. I will be traveling to Italy with(by that time) my husband. He is from Italy but has not been back to visit in 7 years. We will be staying with his parents. We are getting married in a few months. He said we could get a phone there and do the trips to the tobacco store to purchase minutes. I just thought it would be nice to have MY phone. I have a motorola razor with AT&T. I called the service center last year before a trip to Germany and you are right, way too exspensive. I just wanted a phone in which my mother could call me direct if anything should happen while I am gone. My mother doesn't speak Italian and his parents do not speak English. It would be nice for her to be able to contact me directly.

Audrey, the issue then isn't whether you use your phone, it's just whether you use your phone <u>number</i>. In other words, you can enable your AT&T account for international roaming, keep your regular phone number, but every call would cost a lot ($1.29 a minute). Or, you can get your Razr unlocked (have you had an AT&T account for awhile? We called customer service, and they gave us instructions on the phone to unlock our Razr, but we have been customers for years and years). If you get your Razr unlocked, you can purchase an Italian SIM card to use in your Razr. This would not have your phone number, however, it would have an Italian phone number. Incoming calls are free to the Italian number, and outgoing calls are whatever they are (maybe xyz knows the answer to that, but certainly a lot less expensive than $1.29 a minute). So, bottom line, if you plan to make only a few calls in total, keep your AT&T phone and number, but if you're going to use the phone more often, get it unlocked and get an Italian SIM/phone number.

Sorry for the underlining - geez, I wish we had a preview/edit function!

There are pros and cons....the above post makes many of the points....if it's only to be reachable the above post is quite right...you can retain your US number and pay $1.29/minute to receive calls...if mom calls you can quickly take the message, hang up and call her back using a landline or something such as a phone card (very very cheap)...

Although as noted since Italian sim cards are among the cheapest in the world (UK are cheaper but Italian prices are fine) you can go the route suggested, get the phone unlocked, switch in an Italian sim card, notify mom of your Italian number and talk to her for hours with you not paying anything but she will pay for an international call to an Italian mobile (remember the basic principles in Europe is caller pays the whole freight, therefore there is a surcharge to call a European mobile over the cost of the call...it should run around 30¢/minute to the caller...however, I have found and no offense meant to anybody because my parents are like this, those in the older generation who think an international call costs an arm and a leg and don't even know how to dial an international call from a US number (011 39 your number)...you can also do as I do, depending on your long distance carrier and your landline carrier, you can have call forwarding from your home number to the Italian number (my landline carrier, verizon, is one of the few in the USA who allow me to set this up remotely so it is not imperative I know the number in advance, I can set up the call forwarding from anywhere in the world)...there are also services (see www.kall8.com) who will issue you a US toll free number (866 area code I believe) that you can set via the internet to ring to your Italian number...it would cost something in the area of 35¢/minute...you can also set the cost to call back to the USA via the Italian mobile by checking out either a local calling card where you would dial a local Italian number and pay for a local Italian call and then use the oodles of minutes these calling cards provide.

In other words, depending on just what you need to do, there are loads of solutions I can suggest....technology marches on and having a local mobile phone is almost becoming a necessity today just like here at home almost every 10 year old kid walks around with his or her own cell phone.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to help.

BTW just to show how time marches on, according to a post I just read on www.prepaidgsm.net United Mobile, an international roaming sim card with free incoming calls (althoughthey have recently added a set up fee of 0,19€ per call to free incoming calls throughout Europe and many other places but tremendously high fees to use this sim to receive calls in North America), is on the verge of announcing a new sim card that will have dual +44/+1 phone numbers and allow 19¢/minute to receive calls in North America while retains the free roaming with the new set up fees elsewhere. I've seen promises of this being imminent before so I wouldn't hold my breath, but if it is true this might be a god send.

As I said, technology marches on and prices of modern 21st century technology keep coming down.

<i>there is a surcharge to call a European mobile over the cost of the call...it should run around 30¢/minute to the caller..</i>


We have a phone card to call my son's cell phone in Uganda for which we pay 17 cents a minute, and it's free to him. The same card is useable to call Italy. You do have to dial a 1-800 number for access, then the international phone number you are calling. The card we use is called Flying Colors and I get it from zaptel, whose customer service is fantastic.

My provider gave me the unlock code. Thank you so much.
I think the guy from AT&T learned something new today too. Grazie, Ciao!