Cell phones in Italy

Ralph, if you spend a month in Italy every summer you need a prepaid italian SIM card issued by an Italian carrier (Vodaphone, TIM, WIND). It gives you an italian phone number that will be yours forever as long as you add money to it at least once a year. It lets you call within Italy at about 10 cents a minute instead of the $1.29 a minute you'll pay with AT&T (or 99 cents if you sign up for their $6/mos int'l plan), and all incoming calls are free while in Italy. Calls to the US are cheaper, too.

Go to the site http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italy.html and read up on the carriers, then next summer in Italy pick one up. Don't bother with the ones available on the internet; you'll pay $40-$50 for the convenience of having one before you go, just get it when you're in Italy.

The other thing you'll need is an unlocked phone. Either buy a phone that can be unlocked, or go to eBay and buy a cheap unlocked phone which are around $30.

I've used my AT&T (service) phone in Italy and Switzerland over several trips. I only use the phone to check in at home, and in case of emergency. I have used the text message program too. I love my service with AT&T. it works great on the European cell services.

My phone of choice now is the iphone. I used the Razor for a while, but didn't like the phone in general.

Not signed up for international service as we only are in country 2 weeks once a year. It was explained to me that if I kept my calls to under 20 min, it was a wash over the additional fee they charge for this service.

How much do you plan to use your phone? Are you calling within the country, or calling home? If you only need it in case you need to be contacted, you might consider also using a phone card you buy from a tabacci for calling home...it's a lot cheaper!

Ralph, you might also check the rates and phones at T-Mobile (although I suspect they will be very close to AT&T).

Another option would be to purchase an unlocked quad-band phone from E-Bay. Of course, with any purchases of this type, "caveat emptor". That will provide you not only with the option of buying a SIM card when you arrive in Italy, but also using travel SIM's from firms such as Cellular Abroad, Mobal, Telestial or others (be sure that you have a clear idea of their rates though).

Which option to choose will depend mostly on what you intend on using the phone for? If you're going to be making mostly in-country calls, an Italian SIM would probably be best. If you're only going to be sending occasional texts to family back home (which is what I mostly do) then roaming with T-Mobile or AT&T would likely be at least as cost effective, even without the "international plan" that they offer.

Good luck!

I just called T-Mobile on this same issue. They said $0.99/minute.

Dumb question: How do I call people in Italy once I'm there? Do I still have to do the 011 39 (as if I'm in the US) or do I dial as if I'm in Italy? How about for people to call me (both from the US and in-country)?

Matt, first of all, there are NO "dumb questions" here.

To answer your questions, I'm assuming you'll be roaming with T-Mobile and a US-based number?

In Italy it's only necessary to dial the local number (no area codes AFAIK). Some numbers may be nine digits, some ten.

For people to call you from the U.S., they dial your regular number as usual, and the network will direct the call to wherever you happen to be. One important point though - you may want to check again with T-Mobile, as I believe incoming calls will be billed at US$1.99 per minute, since they are routed from the US?. Only local outgoing calls in country are usually billed at US$0.99 per minute. Calls to other countries in Europe (ie: long distance) are also billed at the higher rate.

If you're expecting to receive calls from the US, be sure to tell your family and friends to check the time! There's nothing worse than being awakened at 03:00 by careless individuals that have no clue about the time zone difference (especially annoying if the call is of a trivial nature!).

For people to call you "in-country", they will have to dial your US number (and of course pay long distance charges to the US).

If you don't want to incur huge cell phone charges, I'd suggest limiting the voice calls and using text as much as possible.

Happy travels!

Tmobile would charge you $.99 per minute to call to US, plus the monthly coast. You can buy an unlocked phone here in the US, off of ebay, and get a SIM card in Italy. Orange or Vodafone I think are the cheapest. FYI Tmobile is called Orange in Europe.

I agree totally about getting a pre-paid SIM card with an Italian number in Italy. More than that, I found a deal from AT&T that will get you an excellent phone at low cost. I'll PM you but in no way do I gain financially or any other way with this suggestion. It is simply one that I used in the past and recommended to another person in this forum who also used it.

T-Mobile may be called Orange in some countries, but not everywhere in Europe. It is called T-Mobile in Germany.

T-Mobile and Orange are totally separate (and competing) companies everywhere. T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom, Orange is now owned by France Telecom.

I am currently studying in Italy. I purchased a "cheap" cell phone here for 40 Euro. You can use any pre-paid sim card in this phone. I chose the plan that most of my friends here have so I could talk to them for less, but it sounds like you should just buy the plan with the lowest rates. It will cost less for you to call home and to call other Italians with this plan. In addition, it doesn't cost anything to call up and use a calling card (minus the cost of using a calling card). I believe it was also mentioned that with these phones, it is free for incoming calls. It costs 30 cents for me to use my calling card to the US but it costs my family and friends in the US to use the same calling card 6 cents to call me. I have them call me, this way it costs less. IMHO, this is definitely the best option if you plan on making more than one or two calls during your trip, especially if you are a frequent traveler. I also believe, but not promising, that this phone will work anywhere in Europe as long as you have that country's SIM card.

Happy Travels!

i purchased a motorola z6c locked phone from verizon which is gsm. the employee gave me the name of a website called phonescoop.com. he claimed this site will provide info for me to unlock the phone and use an italian sim card. has anyone used this site or unlocked a verizon phone while in italy or europe. can it be relocked again upon return to the usa.
thanks in advance.
ralph