Is there a SI card for the mobile phone that will work throughout Europe. We usually get ours in Italy which s good for just Italy. This time we plan on visiting other countries and would like the SIM card to work everywhere in Europe.
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
Virtually all SIM cards are good anywhere in Europe. While out of the country where you bought it, it will use up minutes a bit faster because you are roaming, but it will still work. Why do you think it only worked in Italy? You just have to be sure to top it up before leaving the country where it was purchased, or make sure you know how to add minutes elsewhere.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16268 posts
If you bought a data plan in Italy and you go across the border, you will be data roaming. It's very expensive to data roam and you'll use up your money very quickly. The way around that is to buy the passport plan which automatically deducts about 3 euro a day from the balance in your SIM card, but gives you a significant amount of MBs per day + SMS texts and voice minutes. Vodafone charges 3 euro a day. You can set up the automatic purchase for each day you are outside of Italy.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
This is good to know. Does anyone know if TIM does the same? That's who we have our SIMs with.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Michael,
Here's TIM's International Roaming page (in Italian): http://www.tim.it/estero/chiamare-e-navigare
And here in English is a page about TIM; scroll down to the bottom for the international roaming data details: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italia/tim.php
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32406 posts
pit,
If you have an unlocked phone, you could also use a SIM card from one of the travel phone firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial, Mobal, EuroBuzz or others. Many of these use U.K. numbers but work in all parts of Europe with fairly consistent rates, which are arranged in zones. Eastern Europe is a different zone so the cost is slightly higher. Billing is often post-paid with calls charged to a credit card, so there are never any issues with topping-up.
I've been using one of these for several years, and it's been very cost effective for voice and text. However, if data is added, the costs increase considerably.
If you take a mobile phone purchased in North America, be sure to check the Input Voltage ratings on the charger to ensure it will work on 220 VAC electrical systems. You will of course need Plug Adaptors specific to the countries you'll be visiting.