Cell phones in Italy

First thing to remember is that if you get a SIM for your phone it becomes an Italian phone with a different phone number for all intents and purposes. Meaning your Mom (unless she buys the disposable phone in Italy) will have to make a long distance international call to reach you even if you are standing next to each other! Depending on who she has phone service with, that can be very expensive.

If you will be using your phones for nothing other than a way to find the other when separated, you might not have to do anything. Just use your phone as normal. Of course you will get charged roaming charges which can add up. Check with both phone service providers to make surety phones you have will work in Europe and if you want see if they offer reduced price roaming plans for Europe that might save you a few dollars depending on how much you will be using the phones. You can use hotel WiFi to do all of your email and other data related activities for no additional cost in most circumstances.

I'm sure others will provide even more detailed info on this.

I just talked to my provider and was able to get an international plan for my daughter and I for around $60. A bit pricey, but way cheaper than it would have been with roaming charges. We had no trouble with reception and calling home. It was important to my daughter that she be able to post things on Snapchat and such. She did a little, but we mostly waited until we could use hotel wifi. Have a wonderful time!

First of all, her cell phone (a "flip phone") may not work at all in Italy. If it is a Verizon or Sprint phone (no SIM card), it won't work at all - guaranteed. That's because Verizon and Sprint use a wireless standard called CDMA in the US, and Europe uses something different called GSM. Smart phones tend to be able to to roam on GSM even if they are used with Verizon or Sprint in the US, but those older flip phones generally do not. One easy rule: if the phone has no SIM card (none to remove if you pull the battery out, etc.) , it will not work in Europe. Leave it at home.

If her flip phone is from T-Mobile or AT&T (who use GSM like they use in Europe), it MAY work in Europe. But even though it's a GSM phone, it still may not have the right frequencies to work in Europe, even if you can buy an Italian SIM card for it. The phone itself is what determines which radio frequencies it supports.

You can figure out by googling the make/model of phone what its specs are. Look for frequencies. The key frequency it should have to work in Europe at all is 900MHZ GSM. If it has 850MHZ and a few higher ones, it most likely will not work in Italy.

If the phone has the right frequencies to work in Europe? Then it's worth taking to Italy - maybe. If she has T-Mobile and is on a recent plan like Simple Choice or T-Mobile One, she already has a decent international roaming plan: 20 cents a minute calls, to the US or to call anyone in Europe or to call you (whether you have T-Mobile or not). If she has AT&T, she can get their roaming plan for $10/day, but that's probably expensive for what she might use it for (call you once in a while - maybe?). The good news is: AT&T charges you for that only if you use the phone that day.

If her phone is US T-Mobile or AT&T and has the right frequencies for Europe, she might be able to get it unlocked (get a code from T-Mobile or AT&T) and buy a cheap Italian SIM card when you arrive there. Unlocking the phone is easy if you have the unlock code: turn off the phone, insert the new SIM card, turn it on...and the first time, you type in the unlock code. And that's it - you'll never have to enter it again.

If you do the same thing with your smart phone - buy an Italian SIM card - then that might make some sense - you can call each other with your Italian SIM phones.

For your smart phone, assuming it's unlocked, I would go the local SIM Card route. These are two major plans for tourists from Italy's largest providers Vodafone or TIM.

Whether your mother's phone works in Italy or not, depends on the phone. If it's not a GSM Quad Band phone it may not work. Europe uses the GSM standard (some US providers don't) and uses different frequencies, which some old non quad band cheap phones don't have.

The cheapest route for your mother, who probably doesn't care about having a data plan, is to buy a cheap phone that works in Europe, then buy a local SIM card for that phone. They are as cheap as 10 euro.

If you both have a local SIM card, you will both have Italian numbers and calling one another won't cost much at all.

If you buy such cheap phone in the US you can do so on Amazon or similar website. Just search for these key words:
UNLOCKED GSM QUAD BAND PHONE.
Smart phones will also pop up in the search. Just filter the cheap dumb phones. Your mother won't care to have a smart phone. They are as cheap as $15-$25 new. You can also buy them in Italy for similar prices. It is also possible that the one your mother already has works. But I don't know. You'll need to inquire into the technical specs.

hypno,

It would help to have a few more details.....

• do you only want phones for keeping in touch in Italy, or do you also need to be accessible from home?
• what type of phone is your mother using and which network is it with?
• which smart phone are you using and is it unlocked?

With more information, it will be easier to offer more specific suggestions.

We just returned from Italy (yesterday) and had good luck buying Italian SIM cards for our phones.
I'll write the details here in case it helps anyone out:

For the first 2 phones we used the WIND office in the Milano Central train station. 25 euro
for 2G of data and some few texts and few minutes of calling (that we did not use). We
needed the data to talk to use google maps, chrome (train schedules), and WhatsApp to
talk to each other and family back in the USA. Son's phone was an Iphone SE which is
carrier unlocked, and my phone is Motorola G4 play carrier unlocked. I only used 1G of my
2G of data, and that was doing daily video (WhatsApp) calls back to the USA. My son
used 1.7G of his 2G. Also he "used up his top-off" at some point, which I don't understand, but
we added 5Euro to the "top-off" in a Brescia WIND office and were good to go.

My other son met up with us and he got a similar deal, 25 euro for 8G of data and some
minutes/texts. Worked well

My wife has a Sprint phone with no GSM radio, so she could not get cell service in Italy; she
used WhatsApp , facebook on wifi; or one of us guys would create a wifi hotspot for her with
our WIND based cell phones.

FYI, we found that when we charged our phones using Italy->USA converter plugs bought on
EBAY, the phone's touch screens were funky and jittery while they are plugged in . You still
get a charge, but just don't be shocked if you phone seems messed up if you're trying to charge
and use the phone at the same time.

That's great feedback for US travelers to Italy - thanks for providing it, jbhanley.

My wife has a Sprint phone with no GSM radio, so she could not get
cell service in Italy; she used WhatsApp , facebook on wifi; or one of
us guys would create a wifi hotspot for her with our WIND based cell
phones.

FYI, depending on the phone she had, it might have been possible to enable GSM on her phone. My Sprint Moto E is CDMA but can roam on GSM, though it's not simple. Sprint offers an international roaming package like T-Mobile's (no extra monthly fee - just included in the plan), so obviously they expect their users to have to switch from CDMA to GSM in much of the world when traveling. That assumes she has a smart phone. Probably calling Sprint and asking how to use her phone overseas would have helped. She may even have been able to get free 2G data in Italy through her Sprint international roaming plan without even buying one of those WIND SIM cards.

FYI, we found that when we charged our phones using Italy->USA
converter plugs bought on EBAY, the phone's touch screens were funky
and jittery while they are plugged in . You still get a charge, but
just don't be shocked if you phone seems messed up if you're trying to
charge and use the phone at the same time.

That's unusual, jbhanley. I've never had that kind of trouble charging my Android phone in Europe. But I have used my original Android charger that came with the phone. What kind of charger were you using? Was it a simple converter plug (no electronics) vs a "power converter" that converts 220v to 110v?

Thanks jbhanley. That was particularly helpful. What is a WIND office?

WIND is the name of the mobile company, like T-Mobile or Verizon.

I suspect the converters were passive, I was trying to keep the price down. They
did a fine job of charging, just the "my screen is going crazy!" complaints from the
kids.

My wife's phone is a LG Stylus, and I never really checked to see if it had a
GSM radio... You make a good point there. Our other 3 phones support CDMA and
GSM (my kids are using the GSM flavor of Ting, my wife is using the (Sprint) CDMA
flavor of Ting)

Yes, WIND is one of the 3 big cellular phone companies in Italy (that is merging with
another, I read). I read that the coverage could be spotty, but we had fair
coverage in Cinque Terra, good coverage in Brescia/Rome/Florence, and spotty
(but usable) coverage on the trains in between.

I suspect the converters were passive, I was trying to keep the price
down. They did a fine job of charging, just the "my screen is going
crazy!" complaints from the kids.

But what kind of chargers? Were these the original, stock chargers that you got with the phones? I also use very cheap converter plugs and, again, don't have any trouble with my phone or tablet while charging in Italy. But I use my original Android charger. Some people use multi-USB chargers which may not provide enough power when multiple devices are connected to charge. (Charging the battery also takes more juice than just using the phone plugged in with a fully charged battery.)

My wife's phone is a LG Stylus, and I never really checked to see if
it had a GSM radio... You make a good point there. Our other 3 phones
support CDMA and GSM (my kids are using the GSM flavor of Ting, my
wife is using the (Sprint) CDMA flavor of Ting)

Could be, by installing one of those "Network" apps that she could switch from CDMA to GSM. That's how I could have done it with my Sprint Moto E (but I actually have another phone I use for international travel anyway). If it's on Ting then of course the international roaming comment I made wouldn't apply, so you would have had to buy a SIM. As an experiment, you could have tried swapping in one of your other WIND SIM cards and see if you could get it to work in her phone, with say the Network app.

Yes, WIND is one of the 3 big cellular phone companies in Italy (that
is merging with another, I read). I read that the coverage could be
spotty, but we had fair coverage in Cinque Terra, good coverage in
Brescia/Rome/Florence, and spotty (but usable) coverage on the trains in between.

I roamed in Italy on Vodafone and had great reception almost everywhere, including the Cinque Terre and the Italian Riviera. Their Italian SIM plans are more expensive, though.

I've used OEM and aftermarket dual voltage chargers I've never had a problem either. Like Andrew I've used Vodafone Italy and it worked well for me.

OP, I think Roberto has outlined a good plan for you two to keep in touch.