Hotspot or Sim Card - Rome, Italy

aman,

A bit more information would be helpful. What are you going to be using the device for? Assuming you have an unlocked phone, my suggestion would be to simply buy a local SIM card for your phone. Why bother hauling around an extra device which is going to be using the same towers as those accessed by the SIM card.

Does your home cellular network not offer an international roaming option?

will be traveling with a cell phone that has piss poor battery (android LG G3) and would rather not be utilizing it as a hotspot as my significant other will be travelling with me.

ideally a hotspot seems to make the most sense, but it's one more thing I need to carry and charge etc...

aman,

A hotspot won't do much to alleviate the problem with the battery in your phone. Have you considered getting the battery changed in your phone, or alternately upgrading your phone? I had the battery changed in my iPhone a few months ago, and it made a world of difference.

do you have recommendations for local sim cards i could get directly at the airport in Rome, or in the city itself? im planning to go directly to naples via train after I land in Rome, but would def want to have some type of working internet, as I do not have a global data plan from my provider (it's a prepaid service). Thanks

Check the searches above for the word "TIM" or "SIM Card in Italy" to get an exhaustive review of what's available.

TIM has a store (actually two counters that face each other) in terminal 3 at FCO. Check out the TIM for Tourist card. €20 for service, €10 for the card. Works great all over Italy. If your battery likes to die, why don’t you carry a small power bank.? - it’s about the size of a tube of lipstick.

TIM and Vodafone are the two leading mobile companies in Italy, and both are well regarded. I've roamed on Vodafone's networks in Italy on a couple of trips over the last few years, and coverage has been excellent. Don't know which is the better deal for tourists nowadays between them, but the TIM price mentioned above seems hard to beat.

Free WiFi is all over the place... Hotels, coffee shops, bars. Unless you need a constant connection, I see no need for a hotspot or a SIM card.

Additionally, our Sprint plan has free data (though slower unless we paid a premium for speed) and text messaging. Phone calls are $0.25 per minute to make or receive. We were there with our adult children (who are still on our plan!) for two weeks and on our own for a third week... And anyone in the U.S. who need to get a hold of us simply had to dial our regular numbers. Our bill might have been $10 higher for the month because of the trip - and that's because I had to call the airline about an issue.

What am I missing? So many on this forum write about the SIM and TIM cards and Vodaphone -- and the cost and headaches to get and use them seem much more than what the major carriers seem to offer subscribers.

What am I missing? So many on this forum write about the SIM and TIM cards and Vodaphone -- and the cost and headaches to get and use them seem much more than what the major carriers seem to offer subscribers.

In regard to "free WiFi everywhere" vs. mobile data:

Maybe you use your phone differently than I do, but I use Google Maps constantly to navigate as I'm out and about walking in cities especially or to use public transit. It saves me hours of time, but it requires mobile data to be practical.

E.g. when I was in St. Petersburg a few years ago (I had T-Mobile on that trip), I used the bus system extensively to get around. (buses are cheap there!) I didn't need to read a bus schedule - I don't read Cyrillic anyway. Google Maps had the schedules and told me how to walk to which bus stop, which bus to get on, and where to get off. It saved me an enormous amount of time and frustration. But I needed mobile data to use it that way. It wasn't really practical to go find free WiFi somewhere each time I wanted to hop on another bus.

If you want to pay for a carrier like T-Mobile or Sprint that has free unlimited roaming data for travel, that's great. They cost me more than I really want/need to pay for my US mobile service at home. I don't have a "family plan" for my mobile service, so Sprint or T-Mobile would be something like $60/month or even more - when I can get unlimited talk and text + 3GB of data for $15/month with Mint Mobile for example. Why would I want to pay an extra $45/month all year so I can get free unlimited roaming data once a year when I go overseas?

Hassle? I bought a Dutch Vodafone SIM two years ago and have used it on three trips to Europe in a row now. Not much hassle involved. The SIM is good for six months after last activity. Twice a year, I have to use it or add credit to keep it alive. When I'm ready for my next trip, I add credit to the SIM and activate a "bundle" for data right before I get there. It's cheap. In May, I was in Italy for ten days and spent a whopping 9 euros for 2GB of data, which is much more than I really needed. (I did use free WiFi at hotels etc. when needed.) Not really much of a "hassle" for me. I would need a different SIM to travel outside of the EU, though.

Mostly, buying a SIM is about saving money. If I didn't care about saving money at all, of course I'd just have Verizon mobile service at home and pay the $10/day for unlimited use when I travel - and pay a lot more for mobile service the rest of the year. Some people do that - and that's fine. It's completely a personal preference. Some people shrug at spending $300/month for a 30 day trip to use their phone while traveling, when the rest of the trip costs thousands anyway. I'd rather pay 20 euros or so for a 30 day trip for the data I need and save a few hundred bucks a year for my home mobile service - but I'm frugal. Some of us are, and don't really find buying/using these SIM cards much of a "hassle."