vB Easy Archive - Cell Phone in Italy

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Cell Phone in Italy
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Posted by: BMWZ8Bond

I'm going to be studying abroad in rome for a semester and I'm trying to figure out the most cost effective way to communicate with my friends there. What would you guys reccommend? I will be there for about 3 months. I was considering just buying prepaid sim cards for my phone while i'm there (I don't know how it works exactly but i'd obviously want the same number the entire time i'm there). Some previous students said they rented a phone (don't want some cheap brick to carry around).

Any previous experience you can share or suggestions on how to save money here?

Posted by: chorro

probably cheaper to get a prepaid sim card. I believe international rates are atrocious!

Posted by: DRNewcomb

Check out www.prepaidgsm.net. The site is run by two Italians, so there's lots of information about Italian prepaids. What you may end up with is a Wind SIM and a Wind Dialoga International prepaid long distance calling card. You may also want to become familiar with callback services and VOIP forwarding services like voicestick.com.

Posted by: BMWZ8Bond

Awesome site, Thanks
What would you recommend, wind, vodafone, or TIM as far as coverage? or price wise if you've already looked into it....

Posted by: DRNewcomb

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMWZ8Bond

Awesome site, Thanks
What would you recommend, wind, vodafone, or TIM as far as coverage? or price wise if you've already looked into it....

To a large extent it depends on what you want to do. The cost for incoming calls are all the same (to both you and the caller), so if you mostly expect incoming calls, then go with TIM. I personally keep a Wind SIM active even though I have not been to Italy for a few years. Their coverage is not as good as the others but they used to try a lot harder and had some very good rate plans. Today, Wind acts a lot like TIM or Vodafone. If you are making a lot of international calls, the combination of a Wind SIM and the Wind international calling card is pretty good. (Even though I was never able to actually find one of the Wind Dialoga International (sp?) cards for sale.) You might want to wait and find out what all your friends are using. Same-net calls are often much cheaper. I think the best thing is to know how to use the combined services of a prepaid SIM, callback service and VOIP service to get the best overall deal.

Posted by: cc6000

I just spend the morning researching into cell phone options in Italy. We are going to Italy in 2 month for a 2 weeks vacation.

I found some web sites:

www.teletial.com is a good site to start and it sell the TIM cards.

I then looked on ebay and found only one seller for "Italy SIM" and it is for TIM service. It is a little cheaper on ebay than www.teletial.com.

I am currently on Verizon, so I will have to get a new GSM tri or quad band phone and it will have to be unlocked. I found a few sellers on ebay by searching "GSM Unlock phone."

The final task was to look into "Call Back" service to make cheaper calls back to the US from Italy. I am currently looking into www.gphone.com and www.kallback.com, both recommended by www.teletial.com. Haven't decided on the callback service yet. For the call back service to make sense, incoming calls to the cell phone will have to be free.

You situation may be different, in view that you will be there for a longer time.

Posted by: DRNewcomb

That should be telestial.com, not teletial.com. While they deliever that they say they will, they are a very expensive way of buying a SIM card. Unless you have some pressing reason for needing a SIM the instant your plane lands, it will almost always be much cheaper to wait until you get there. There were kiosks for both TIM and Vodafone in the Rome airport last time I was there.

Posted by: cc6000

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

That should be telestial.com, not teletial.com

Thanks for the correction.

Another question regarding SIM cards.
There are different rates listed on the net for TIM SIM cards. Are there different SIM cards for TIM with different per min charges?

Posted by: DRNewcomb

Quote:

Originally Posted by cc6000

Thanks for the correction.

Another question regarding SIM cards.
There are different rates listed on the net for TIM SIM cards. Are there different SIM cards for TIM with different per min charges?

The Italian carriers usually have multiple prepaid rate plans. You send a text message to pick one or the other. It get's pretty confusing. If you look at the Italy page on www.prepaidgsm.net it will do a better job of explaining the offerings that I can.

Posted by: BMWZ8Bond

Wow, soooooo many choices. So i've decided skype for calling home etc.

And I'm definitely getting a prepaid sim for my phone. The school (JCU) pushes PicCell wireless which apparantly uses TIM. So i guess that narrows my choices down to TIM since most/all my friends will be on TIM. However, PicCell offers € 0.073 for all Piccell-piccell calls, while the best plan on prepaidgsm.net is the TIM club for € 0.09 for 3 numbers.

Any suggestions?

Also in italy is it just understood that incoming texts/calls are free...?

Posted by: DRNewcomb

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMWZ8Bond

Also in italy is it just understood that incoming texts/calls are free...?

Yes. It's that way in all of Europe. Not "free" exactly, the person who calls you or send you a SMS pays for the service. That's why it costs more to call a cell phone in Europe (and most of the world, actually.)