Cell phone in Italy

Andy - there are a lot of threads here detailing cell phones in Italy. Try a search.

Your US phone will need to be an unlocked GSM tri or quad band phone to operate in Italy. If you keep your same US SIM, you will be roaming through your US carrier.

If you purchase an Italian SIM and put it in your phone, you will have an Italian phone on the local Italian network. It will have an Italian number. It will be like a prepaid account. It will come with a certain euro value on the card. To recharge the card, in most cases you can go to a tobacco shop (tabacchi) and pay a fee to get the recharge code or buy a prepaid card.

To Ron,
If I may impose again, what is the procedure and how difficult to purchase an Italiam SIM card (prepaid)? Are outlets to purchase fairly common or routinely located only in major cities? Thanks for your responses.

Andy,

To add to Ron's post, if you "roam" with your home cell network (AT&T or T-Mobile), your phone will access various networks in Italy as you travel around. I'm assuming that you're on a GSM network at home?

Your home network will have roaming agreements with other networks, and you'll be billed according to the roaming rate structure (which usually varies by country).

Cheers!

outlets are fairly common; I bought my SIM in the hilltown of Perugia.

My boss buys SIMs for the nations he goes to so that he doesn't pay the outrageous international roaming rates (and he saves a LOT of money). We both have Motorola 4-band phones so that we can use Italian SIMs while in Italy.

The SIM in the phone I used last summer hadn't been used in almost a year- and it still had money on it when I got there. The local call prices were really cheap. Having a 3 or 4-band phone and buying a local SIM is really the way to go!

Andy, no you do not need an account with an Italian phone company to use an Italian Sim card. You do, however, need to have an unlocked tri-band or quad-band cell phone. You can source one easily on the net. It is a worthwhile, if not necessary, investment for traveling. Here's how it works, when you arrive in Italy, go to a telecom store and purchase a sim card, insert it, and start using it.

I just came back from Italy, and I purchased both a TIM Sim card for 5 Euros (or was it 10...) (which included talk time), and an international phone card for 5 Euros (which included 40 minutes of talk time to the USA). I made local calls directly from my cell phone without incident. Likewise, the phone card worked well for calls to the USA.

I also always travel with my "regular" cell phone so that family can reach me in case of emergency, etc. I have T-mobile service, and to make and receive calls throughout Italy was 99 cents a minute. Moreover, receiving and sending texts can be quite cheap from abroad and an excellent way to stay in touch. Check rates with your service provider.

-Arnold

Thanks to all who responded for you excellent information and helpful suggestions. Will definitely make our trip more enjoyable and less stressful.

Try www.roamsimple.com, purchase a Europe sim card for $29 + shipping and their used unlocked phone or get one on ebay. The sim card gives you access and they will bill you for the calls you make to your credit card, better than prepaid and worrying. You will have the number and the card before you leave. No hidden charges and they give you a list of rates, learn how to text message, they are free. Even US calls are not horrible. We are taking 2 so when we get separated we can call....walkie talkies are not allowed in Europe....frequencies or something, or so I heard.