Buying a cell phone in Rome: TIM, Vodaphone, or Wind?

you can buy an unlocked quad band GSM phone at Amazon.com. that can be used anywhere.Then buy a sim card either here or in Italy. Check out cellular abroad.com. I did buy the sim card for unomobile but it was difficult to buy extra minutes. My next visit I plan to buy a TIM card for my phone. Still looking into whether I can purchase here. Hope this helps

you can bring a unlocked phone from us - kiosk in the mall can unlock for $10-$20, just be sure it's a quad-band phone (your att/tmobile or kiosk can tell). you can then get a sim card once you get there. or you can just buy a phone card and use it at the pay phones so you don't have to worry about charging your phone. TIM or vodaphone are pretty much the same, it's like getting a prepaid sim card from att or tmobile - they're about the same price and coverage, as far as your phone is unlocked. the other option is to use skype - i think free wifi is more popular in europe than in us.

Hi: I've read the posts about people buying phones on eBay. I would rather not do that - some of the phones have not functioned properly, and I don't want to have to worry about getting the phone unlocked successfully. There also doesn't seem to be any financial advantage to doing that; correct? The prices on eBay don't seem to be any less than the phone prices on the TIM website, for example. I don't want to rely on a phone card, which can't be used if we have car trouble in the countryside as we're driving around Tuscany. We will feel most secure if we have a cell phone, which is what we did during our last overseas trip to England in 2009. Is there a reason not to buy a phone in Italy in order to be sure that it works in Italy? THANKS.

Hi: I just checked Amazon for unlocked quad band GSM phones; lots of negative reviews of refurbished phones that cost much more than a new cell phone in Italy. Can someone please comment on the "what I think I know" and "things I still don't know" from my original post? I would certainly appreciate it. THANKS.

Sandy, I recently took an unlocked Verizon Blackberry (9530?) to Italy. I wanted to get a sim card upon my arrival. This was the first time I attempted anything like this because the past few trips a phone was provided for free from my car rental agencies. I searched for a provider while walking around Venice. The first store we came upon was a Wind store. (I did not see any stores after that). It was difficult communicating so I was unable to get assistance in setting the phone up but we were able to make a call or two. We were getting text messages from Wind in Italian and my daughter was unable to receive our text messages but we were getting hers. We were told it would work in the surrounding countries but we were not able to use it in Germany. In hindsight, I would secure a sim card from here that I would be able to use overseas. This is just my experience. A friend who travels to Italy quite often and is fluent in Italian has used multiple sim cards without a problem. I'm sorry I do not have the providers she uses. Good luck, John

Sandy, buying a phone in Italy is certainly one option, especially if you expect to use it on future trips. I'm sure any of the networks are good, but as you noted TIM is the largest and therefore MAY have the best coverage (in my experience, there aren't many places in Europe that DON'T have cell coverage). ¶ Buying a quad-band, unlocked GSM phone off E-Bay is another option, but as you found not all of these are "reliable". I've found that new phones off E-Bay are usually reliable. ¶ A third option would be to buy a phone off one of the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Call In Europe, Cellular Abroad, Telestial or Mobal. One advantage of that approach is that the phone will be instantly available as soon as you step off the plane, the rates will be consistent regardless of which network towers you're accessing and there won't be any language or setup issues. ¶ Which option to choose will depend to some extent on your expected usage. Will you be using it mostly for texting, for calls back to the U.S. or for calls within Italy? Good luck!

Hi:

Thanks for this very helpful information. We are not texters, and our plan would be to use the cell phone for informational calls to sights, hotels, and restaurants during the trip, as well as at-least-daily calls to the US. Of course, another reason for us to want a cell phone is the possibility of a medical or other emergency while traveling; we have some health issues and want to have the security of cell phone communication when we are not in our hotel or near a land line. We would not expect to receive calls from the US - in fact, we really don't want to receive non-emergency calls while we are in Italy.

Thanks again.

Sandy, Thanks for the additional info. Using a phone purchased in Italy will give you the best rates for calls "in country". However, it would be a good idea to also review the rates for the "travel phone" firms, as they're quite reasonable also (and no language or setup issues). ¶ You may also want to have a look at * www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/phonechart.htm * (cut & paste the link inside the asterisks), so that you're somewhat familiar with phone use and dialing in Europe.

We recently returned from Italy and easily purchased a new sim card for an inexpensive Vodafone cell we purchased there in 2007. The sim card + what would be around 125 minutes (for calls made in Italy) was 20 Euros. Rates were as follows: .16 Euros for calls made within Italy, .50 E for calls to U.S., .12 E for texts, and all incoming calls free regardless of where they originated incl. U.S. A top off card for more Euros can be purchased if needed. To check unused Euros we would call 404 and immediately we would get a text back with this info. The screen prompts were set in English. We have used this phone on 3 trips since with no problems and our son took it to Vienna for a semester study abroad. He just swapped out the sim whenever he visited a different country to get the best rates. The phone came with a wall charger. NOTE: A passport was required to purchase a new sim card. Buon Viaggio!

Hi:

Thanks for the great information! I'm feeling much more confident about this now.

Thanks again.