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Lingering Cell phone questions
Okay, so I have researched the heck out of renting/buying a cell phone for use in Italy. But a few lingering questions still remain.
After the research I am leaning toward using ebay to purchase a GMS phone and not rent from the international services available online. Buying an inexpensive phone ($40 on ebay) seems a bit more practical because I can reuse it for a future trip -- but I am not a SIM user here in the US and while the the entire SIM concept sounds wonderful to those of us locked into Verizon I am not quite sure how to use the whole SIM thing. Where and when do I get an Italian phone number? So I went to Ebay and have determined I would like to purchase an unlocked, quad band GSM phone. The descriptions on ebay mostly indicate the phones work with several carriers in the US. Will they work with an Italy TIM SIM or Global SIM card if they are unlocked, quad band GMS? Also, advice runs from purchase an inflated priced Italian SIM card in the US or wait to purchase a SIM card in Italy --- but you have to have a Code Fiscale number to do that. WHAT? So can I just go to the tabac, purchase a 10Euro SIM card, insert it in my unlocked Quad band GMS phone and be on my way? When do I get an Italian phone number? Should I purchase a SIM card prior to US departure to call my waiting prearranged airport transport? Will the US phone adapter that comes with the phone work in Italy? What sort of converter or adapter do I need for that? All lingering but substantial questions. Any one that can help here -- I know all the Fodorites want to help but can you answer specifically on this one? |
You need to buy either a tri or quad band, unlocked phone.
Unlocked means that it can work with any carrier (ATT, Vodafone, etc). The SIM card is a little card that fits inside the phone, under the battery. It contains the phone number and other information about your account. Most Verizon phones do not have a SIM card that can be accessed by the user, which is why you would not know what it looks like. As to the card and carrier, find the one that is the least expensive overall. This includes connect charges and per minute charges, incoming/outgoing. You do not necessarily need an Italian phone company, but Telestial may work out best for you. You do not have wait to buy the card, but there may be a delay in activation. This can be from a few minutes to a day. Once again, depends on the card and carrier. The advantage to pre-buying the card is that you already have a phone number before you leave. |
I can answer all your questions except the one about getting a Code Fiscale.
First, the charger will work in Europe -- you just need the correct plug adapter for Italy (which you'll also need for your camera charger, and anything else you plan to plug in). Second, the SIM comes with an Italian phone number. Third, yes if you have an unlocked quad band phone it will work with any SIM anywhere (we've done the ebay route, too). Hope that helps. |
An excellent choice...most of the ebay provider phones are really good value.
As far as the sim card business is concerned...basically the sim card is the blood and guts of the phone...it determines the carrier, your phone number, can save some phone book entries. Changing the sim card, simply a matter of opening the back, removing the battery, taking out the sim card and inserting the new one, an operation that takes approximately 15 seconds accomplishes all the changes necessary. A coda fiscale is imply a number that is generated based on your nationality, last name and date of birth. If you go to prepaidgsm.net, you will find somewhere a method of generating your own coda fiscale. Or the merchant selling you the sim card can do so. Italy is one of those countries that requires you to register the sim card, not that it is a very effective way to thwart terrorism, but that's the law. That's why few Italian sim cards are available on ebay. Before this idiotic law went into effect, it was easy to obtain Italian sim cards. Upon arrival in Italy, you can go hunting for a mobile phone store in the airport or wait till you get to your hotel. Find a store operated by one of the operators, they are all pretty competitive and it doesn't really matter which carrier you use. I use TIM so ask your hotel desk staff where is the nearest TIM store. They are used to dealing with foreigners and sim cards are pretty cheap in Italy. The price ran last summer at €10 for a card with €5 worth of call credit. Don't know if that's gone up but the latest info is on prepaidgsm.net They're used to selling sim cards to foreigners so language should not be a big problem. They will jot down th einformation they need from your passport and either generate a coda fiscale or whatever it is called or use the one you can generate at the above web site. They may even work with you, I know TIM allows this, to change the voice menus of the phone to English (the phone controls the display language), explain how to use voice mail and explain the various calling plans. Voila done. You will receive free reception of calls while in Italy, an Italian phone number (with a 39 country code)...you can communicate this number to your friends at home. You can also work with various third party providers or your own to set up a way of forwarding calls to your phone say from the USA (see Kall8 which will provide a US toll free number for $2/month to forward calls to Italy at something like 35¢/minute or you can set up call forwarding, as I do, from your home line. Calls on Italian sim cards to North America, assuming you are from there, are a bit expensive. You can buy a local phone card and use the local phone card's local number to call the USA or you can check up on a firm called enlinea that will provide fairly cheap calls to the USA. Do remember that calls to an Italian mobile number are more expensive than calls to Italian landlines (this is why you get the free reception of calls)...also the Italian sim card will remain valid for 1 year. To topic it up, you go to a tabachi and ask for a top up card (if yu go to Italy often, you might wish to leave with a top up card so you can keep the number instead of going through with buying a new sim card each time you go to Italy)...also under eu regs, you will be able to receive calls on your Italian sim card throughout the eu had 0,24€/minute or if you're going to be in a particular country for a while, purchase a new country specific sim card there. Hope that helps. |
Finally . . . It is a bit clearer.
You mentioned a top up type card to add more money. Is that how it is obtained? My kids use Virgin Mobile in the US and I am familiar with the top up concept to add more money for time usage. It that available at the tabac too? Do you just dial a top-up number on the phone and press in the PIN number from a top up card for more money? Thanks again. |
Hi phone gurus!
On Ebay there are SIM cards costing $20 that come with $10 worth of phone service and offer a UK phone number. It this something that is worth purchasing? We will only be in Italy. Can I top this up in Italy with an additional card from the Tabac? Or should I look for an Italian TIM SIM or Vodaphone SIM card with an Italy phone number? I take it the additional $10 of the $20 price above is their profit? Thanks! |
Yes, that's all there is to it...you scratch off the covering, dial a top up number and punch in the code (one of the reasons, of course, to see if they will set the voice menus to English although I managed to figure it out with trial and error)....
BTW top up cards in Italy start at €5 although many tabachis always claim to be out of the €5 top ups. |
This is a bit complicated so bear with me, I'll try not to be too wordy..
In your mind, you have to differentiate between country specific sim cards and country specific sim cards. There are some international sim cards offering free reception of calls throughout Europe (and other places too but this is a European forum but not North America). In previous years, they were housed in countries such as Estonia, Liechtenstein and Iceland. They were great for receiving calls as noted but for some reason, what are called termination fees to these countries shot through the skies. Termination fees are the fees charged to connect to a mobile network and represent the reasons it might cost 3¢/minute to call a UK landline and 27¢/minute to call a UK mobile, the 24¢ being the termination fee. Four years ago, I had such an international sim card based in Liechtenstein with country code 423. At that time my ld carrier charged 10¢/minute to call a Liechtenstein number and the termination fee was 1¢/minute. Great for call forwarding. Because of the location of these international sim cards, they were able to offer relatively cheap calls back from Europe to North America, not as cheap as a calling card but pretty cheap nonetheless. We were also able to figure out ways to cut that even further by using callback services. In recent years, however, these termination fee have shot through the roof making calls to Iceland, Estonia and Liechtenstein mobiles asininely expensive like in the vicinity of 75¢/minute. What the carriers then did is migrated many of these international cards to British off shore islands such as the Isle of Man and Jersey. Phone numbers from these carriers have country code 44, the same as anyother place in the UK. These are international cards. Not particularly bad buys as you do get the free reception of calls throughout Europe not just one country and relatively cheap calls back to North American. Some of them are having financial woes as many people have figured out ways to use them just to receive calls and will not make calls so they are not making a profit. In any event, you recharge these cards not through local top ups but through the internet. As a further ocmplication, many of the British (not Isle of Man and not Jersey) carriers are in such competition, that they are literally giving away sim cards for use in the UK. Click on my name above to come to a thread, I think cell phones in London, where I describe them. And such sim cards are available on ebay for as little as $6, shipping included. With them, from the UK and form the UK only, there are ways to call North America for as little as 3p/minute. And for the time being, British sim cards do not require any sort of registration (something the British government has put out feelers they would like to change!) Sorry if it's long winded but I want to make sure you have all the information. |
oops first sentence should have said you have to differentiate between country specific sim cards and international sim cards.
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<i>Author: daveesl
Date: 02/13/2009, 02:17 pm You need to buy either a tri or quad band, unlocked phone.</i> <b>NO, YOU DON'T!</b> There are only two bands in Europe: 900 mHz and 1800 mHz. <u>These are the only ones that a phone needs to have to work in Europe</u>. Here are the complete minimum specifications for a Europe phone: o GSM (all the networks in the US except T-Mobile and AT&T use another technology) o Europe-band 900/1800 mHz o Unlocked That's all. |
Yes, but if you get a quad band phone you will be able to use it worldwide, not just in Europe. Our phone has traveled all over Europe, Central America, several countries in Africa, and Australia.
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> only two bands in Europe
I beg to disagree. 1900/2100 WCDMA is woking perfectly too. :D. "Quad band" is needed for America only. |
Which means ""European"" dual band IS world standard except for America which does not comply with world standards.
Yeah, as always :D |
I think you're muddying the water here. The poster needs a dual-band phone with 900/1800. The rest is confusion, because having a quad-band in North America is only useful if you have a GSM carrier, and if you do, your handset is probably already quad, so the issue shouldn't even arise.
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"GSM 900 / GSM 1800 MHz are used in most parts of the world: Europe, Asia, Australia, Middle East, Africa.
GSM 850 / GSM 1900 MHz are used in the United States, Canada, Mexico and most countries of S. America." Not just the North America, and definitely not just the United States :-) |
Yeah, but everybody has UMTS (1900/2100) over here now, GSM 900/1800 is still working, but soooo outdated.
You can't even watch those endless reruns of Magnum, p.i. on you phone without WCDMA 1900/2100. What do you do on the train when you're bored to death. |
I sit there and wonder why anyone would want to watch TV on a 2" screen :-)
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<i>Author: logos999
Date: 02/13/2009, 07:16 pm You can't even watch those endless reruns of Magnum, p.i. on you phone without WCDMA 1900/2100. What do you do on the train when you're bored to death.</i> You lost me. You watch Magnum reruns to not be bored? How does that work? |
You just have to glue the screen to one eye, it looks huge from an ultra-short distance :-) (bigger than any plasma TV anyway). You use the other eye for navigating through traffic.
>Magnum reruns to not be bored? It's so predictable, just brilliant entertainmet. :D |
Well Moo... I don't know if all the above have cleared things up for you or not. Here's what I did... go to callineurope.com. Scroll down to where it says "Select your primary destination and compare us" and select Italy. Look at the prices. Pretty decent and no fooling around with SIMS, ebay or obscure Italian cell phone regulations.... I have no connection with callineurope except as a happy customer. Rob |
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