Cell Phones

I use Verizon and just received my global phone. It was $10 shipping, it uses my normal number and will cost $1.29/ minute in Italy. (texts and picture messages are between .05 and .50 depending on whether you are sending or receiving)

It was simple to deactivate my normal phone and activate the new one. If I really need to talk to someone for any length of time, a phone bank might be cheaper. For quick calls home or to confirm reservations and such, I think it will be handy to have.

Just returned from Italy with 3 of those Verizon phones advised in a previous post between our group of 5. Beware: Reception sketchy and mine could not be programmed and was useless; Verizon did gave full refund. Cell phone dealers in Italy were not interested in our Verizon phones. Consider obtaining a phone over there. Or, you may have better luck with the Verizon phone.

My Verizon global phone would not hold a charge and eventually would not even turn on.

It worked fine after I activated it a couple of days before the trip. When I went to recharge the battery, it would not hold a charge. Once in Rome, I plugged it in, it showed that it was charging, so we went out for the day.

Upon return, it would not even turn on. I tried removing the battery and putting it back in. Nothing worked.

Verizon was apologetic and credited my account w/ no questions.

Honestly, I was fine not having it! I e-mailed my husband every few days to let him know all was well (he's a worrier). I think having a working phone would have been a distraction because dh and my kids would have been texting me.

Peggy,

As you all presently have cell phones, you might consider renting phones rather than purchasing off E-Bay or whatever.

Check the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Call In Europe, Cellular Abroad, Telestial or Mobal for information on the products they offer.

However, if you'd prefer to buy some inexpensive phones for future use you could use either the E-Bay approach and use a SIM card either from an Italian network or a "travel SIM", OR buy one of the inexpensive phone handsets from one of the firms listed above (which will come with a SIM card and a calling plan).

Happy travels!

I bought two of those phones off ebay a couple years ago for this very reason. One of them turned out to be broken (scrolling arrows didn't work) and it was too late to try to do anything to fix it. I used them in conjunction with two SIM cards that someone on this board had lent me. Turns out the SIM cards had expired and I had to pay a 10 Euro penalty just to reactivate it. The guy who helpfully lent them to me didn't know they had expired. I was out about $100 and we ended up not using them at all. What a hassle! Next time we're thinking about using rebelfone.com and just renting a couple of phones specific for Italy. Sounds a lot simpler.

"Of course those "travel phones" recommended can cost you a whole lot more"

Actually, one of the "travel phone" firms I listed above is offering a new Nokia phone at the present time for only $29. Another of the firms has new Nokia phones for $49 and the SIM card is FREE.

With reference to the point made in a previous reply, many of the SIM's offered by the "travel phone" firms will expire if not used for a specified time. At least one offers a "non expiry" option (I believe at extra cost).

You'll also have to consider whether having the number and being familiar with the calling plan before departure is important to you. I like to have the number before leaving for Europe, so that I can provide it to family and friends and deal with any questions they might have.

Check the respective websites for the details and pricing.

Cheers!

Thanks for all these good comments. We want to use only within our group of 7 while we travel together. Not for back to U.S. Just for reconnecting when we lose each other, etc. Hubby and I have Pay-as-U-Go phones and they cannot be adapted for use in Italy. I think we shall rent thru AAA. Or get high powered Walkie Talkies??

I do not care about having a new number since we will only use these in italy.

I have learned alot from all of you. Thanks!

I have had mixed results with TIM. Due to anti-terrorism laws in Italy phone stores are not supposed to give you a SIM card without you showing a codice fiscale (essentially the Italian version of a Social Security card). One TIM store would not give me a SIM without it. Another store in a different city sold one after making a copy of my passport; but that meant I had no cell phone until we arrived at that city. You can find lots of info about rates & plans for SIM cards at http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/ You will get the best rates by buying a SIM from a carrier located in the country you are visiting.

My suggestion is to buy a cheap phone from eBay; make sure it is a quad-band. Then get either a SIM in the country or buy one in advance from one of the travel stores. One thing I've never heard of anyone doing but might be worth looking into would be going to a store such as ATT and seeing if you can buy a pre-paid SIM they use on the no-contract plans. That way you can test the phone before you go, know the number so you can give it out in advance in case of an emergency back home, and will have a phone you know will work when you arrive.

Forget about walkie-talkies. Not only don't you want to carry the extra weight (and its not weight in your luggage, its weight you'll have to carry on you each time your out of the hotel or else what was the use in bringing them in the 1st place?) but the range is not going to be sufficient.

Especially considering the information posted by Mike, I still feel that using travel SIM's is a good option. I found that the situation he described was also the case in Greece when I was there a month or so ago. The cell phone shops told me that "registration" is required, with a Passport often being the only acceptable document. While all vendors may not follow the rules, this type of thing is becoming more common in Europe.

While the cost of a "travel SIM" might be slightly higher than using local SIM's, in my own experinece I didn't find Us$ 0.69 per minute to be an exorbitant cost. If the phones are only going to be used occasionally, I doubt there would be a significantly higher cost in using a travel SIM.

I tend to use text messaging quite often, and Us$ 0.69 per sent message is also quite reasonable (with received texts being free).

Cheers!

Peggy,
To answer your questions:
TIM is one of the big mobile outfits (Vodephone and Wind are also).
TIM can set the prompts to English.
I paid 39 euro for a phone and SIM with 5 euro talk time (local calls about .12 euro a minute, incoming free)
Cheapest option is to borrow a quad band phone from a friend (those that are bragging on new blackberries or iphones are good suspects) and have them unlock it then buy a SIM in Italy (10 euro with 5 euro talk time).

It's my understanding that American walkie-talkies are illegal in Italy because they operate on the same frequency as their emergency response organizations.

Rebelfone rents cellphones for Italy at $1 a day. If you're planning to use them only to coordinate getting together and not to shoot the breeze, their minute rates also look good.

If you go to the Codice Fiscale website mentioned above and enter your information, you find out what your number would be "if" you applied for it. You cant' get a real Codice Fiscale from a website. You have to apply for it in person either in Italy or at the Italian Embassy in the U.S. or Canada. (The Italian government is going to want to know why you need it.)

And unless you are living or doing business in Italy, you don't need it. Just show your passport and you shouldn't have any problems getting a sim card or phone. If someone does give you a hassle, just go to the next store.

For those who plan a long stay in Italy, may want to open a bank account, rent an apartment long term, or any other financial related transaction--where if done in the U.S. you would need a Social Security number--then you'd need a Codice Fiscale. Once you apply, you'll get issued a card with the number on it as well as your name, DOB, etc.

We just got back from Italy and Greece and needed a cell phone to contact our landlords upon arrival at various apartments we rented. I thought I had it all worked out in advance but was wrong. I bought a new cell phone from AT&T which was supposed to work anywhere in Europe. I had it unlocked for this purpose. I had a SIM card for Europe which was a complimentary gift from Rail Europe with the purchase of our rail passes. But when we arrived in Rome the phone didn't work at all. We went to a cell phone store at the airport and they explained that US phones don't have enough bands. European phones have 4 bands and US phones only have 2 bands. Whatever this means. So I ended up buying one of their cheapest Nokia phones for 39.00 Euros and it worked just fine in Italy, Croatia and Greece. Lesson learned the hard way.

My husband and I have quad band World Phones from AT&T. We have used them in Europe before.

For our upcoming trip - 3 weeks Italy and 1 week Germany - is there any reason why we can't have our phones unlocked here and buy a sim card when we arrive in Rome? Will we be able to use the same card when we arrive in Germany? What about texting with these sim cards?

In previous trips we used our phones in a very limited way and just paid the bill when we got home. This trip I can see using them more to contact places we are staying and connect with my relatives in Germany, not to mention occasional calls home.

This whole phone thing is confusing...