SIM card in Italy .... and beyond Italy to all of EU!!

I wrote this step by step for a relative. It might be clearer than above.

Cell/Mobile phone service in Italy and beyond to other EU countries
as discovered by me on a trip to Italy in March, 2019.

Among the recommended companies is: TIM
( I think it stands for Telecommunication Italia Mobile)

They have a 15Gb & 200 minutes (BUT NO TEXTING) phone plan
for 20 euros for 30 days.
BUT you MUST purchase it in The States just before leaving by going here:
https://www.tim.it/tim-tourist-en

What you get is a SIM card for (your) GSM phone,no Verizon nor Sprint phones.
So that means it should be a current / newer AT&T or T-Mobile GSM phone that
is UNLOCKED. OR an unlocked "World GSM" phone.

AT&T or T-Mobile will gladly (by law) unlock your phone if it's paid for and
free from a contract.

When you purchase the SIM card online in The States you get an
invoice/certificate that you need to print out and bring with you to Italy.

Go to any TIM store (they are independent franchises) & hand the printout to
a clerk and after a lot of typing and some running around they should hand
you a packet with a SIM card in it. Since these people probably don't get
much, if any, money out of the transaction I recommend you give them 5 euro
as a tip.

They may or may not help you put the sim card in your phone.
If possible bring the two form factors for larger sim cards with you if your
phone requires the original large or mini sim card size because I think they
hand you a micro sim card.

After a couple hours it should start working and have 4G data plan plus a
cell phone number in Italy. DO NOT TEXT! It's not included and will cost
all your data plan to use it. If you want to text with somebody you need to
use an App that transports text over the data plan.

There is a TIM App on Google Store (Apple? too?) that helps you manage the
use of the account and its calling and data. I think it shows how much is
left and not how much is used so check in first thing to know this.

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY of DOING IT.

I like "having my cake and eating it too." So when I prepared to go to
Italy I grabbed one of my spare phones that is world GSM capable and brought
it along with my every day US phone. I had my US phone enabled for travel
and did not change it's sim card or service. So I could use it MINIMALLY to
keep the cost down. Alternatively you could put your Verizon or Sprint phone
in airplane mode and then just turn on WiFi to use it for everything but
calls and text.

Instead I set up WiFi access point (hotspot) on the spare phone and connected
my everyday phone to it using WiFi. By doing this I could use the TIM data
plan on my everyday phone via WiFi. I kept the data plan on my everyday
phone OFF for the entire trip. Don't forget to use a good password on the
hotspot so that someone else in your vicinity can't steal the data plan use.

I was also capable of connecting my tablet and my laptop to the hotspot.
There's a lot of free WiFi in Italy but its slow and not very good, plus you
risk the chance of being watched and having passwords stolen.

Hope this helps someone!

1. please, don't tip in non-tipping countries. You don't need to show off, if they don't make money they can either refuse the service or charge 5 € more and give you a receipt.
2. Texting won't cost all your data. Since texts to foreign numbers are quite expensive, a couple of messages to US numbers will cost all the complimentary credit included in all SIM and your credit will go negative. Tim will block that sim and It will stay blocked till you top-up with 5 Euro. In case of emergencies you can send a couple of texts to an Italian number without blocking the SIM.
3. Those who do not need a lot of giga can happily talk and send texts all over the world buying a Vodafone SIM.

Most US cell companies offer plans for travelers. Yes they are a little more expensive than a new SIM card, but you already spent how much on your vacation?
We have ATT and payed $10 a day to use our phones during our trip. No restrictions on data or texting.

$10 a day is a lot of money if you ask me. AT&T is a rip-off.
That’s why I dumped AT&T Mobility and now have TMobile Magenta Plus (unlimited Data and texts worldwide) for $50 a month (voice calls are 25cents a minute while overseas).
If you buy a SIM in Italy there is no roaming charges in the rest of the EU (not sure about Switzerland).
TIM doesn’t include any texting, and Vodafone may include only limited texts with the deal, but that is why the rest of the world texts and calls using WhatsApp, which uses only data.
Get your family and friends on WhatsApp before you leave.

Roberto : Yes, I agree AT&T's $10 a day is crazy! AND you really have not control over it happening.

Dario: thanks for the Texting clarification.
Pretty much I agree about not tipping in a no-tipping country

But I feel this to be an exception because :
You buy the SIM while in The States from the TIM Corporate Web site.
but you get this SIM from a franchisee / independent retailer that
may not get anything for his time and trouble.

P.S. Italy doesn't need to be your first stop but you do need to go to a TIM store (in Italy?)
to get the SIM, install it and start using it.

I just returned from Italy. I bought a SIM card on Amazon for $20 which had 12GB data and basically unlimited calls and texts within Europe. I could not call or text the US, but I could use data (or wifi) to use WhatsApp to call home, and that worked perfectly fine. I put the SIM card in before I left to make sure it worked. This was a great option for me, and I didn't have to locate a store in Italy.

Beth

JoeF,

Glad this all worked out for you. I have had my own experiences and I can say:

1. Don't bother buying a voucher in the States beforehand. You can go into the phone shops and they have the same deals.
2. If a store won't install the card and make sure it's registered properly before you leave, walk out and go to the next store or you risk it not working at all.
3. I found Vodaphone to have a much smoother setup than TIM. I wasted a TIM card because the store fouled up the registration and it did not work properly after that.

I have a T-Mobile phone
Worked great in Switzerland 2 years ago - as-is
Worked great in Spain last year - as-is
Worked great in Switzerland and Italy this year - again, as-is

The internet is only 2G or 3G, so you have to be slightly patient.
But it worked fine for train schedules, etc.

It also was fast enough that we easily used the app Telegram for phoning each other and friends, over the internet (the app) for free.

What you get is a SIM card for (your) GSM phone,no Verizon nor Sprint phones.

Not true, unless you mean an old CDMA flip-phone. Most modern smart phones can roam on GSM/LTE. This is the only way companies like Verizon and Sprint can offer international roaming plans. There is no CDMA service in Europe.

Yes, I have used a Verizon smart phone in Europe with a GSM SIM card.

A rare case of a modern smart phone that wouldn't work: phones designed for TracFone in the US. Because TracFone does not offer any international roaming plan (for now), there is no reason for their phones to work (except on WiFi) outside the US.

I just returned from Italy. I bought a SIM card on Amazon for $20 which had 12GB data and basically unlimited calls and texts within Europe. I could not call or text the US, but I could use data (or wifi) to use WhatsApp to call home, and that worked perfectly fine. I put the SIM card in before I left to make sure it worked. This was a great option for me, and I didn't have to locate a store in Italy.

Next time, install Google Voice on your phone before you leave the US. Then you can make free calls home to US numbers, even to landlines. WhatsApp works great but only if the other party has it. My airline doesn't have WhatsApp, and neither does my financial institution. It's nice to know I can call any US number for free in case I get put on hold, etc.

I have still been using my Dutch Vodafone SIM - for three trips three years in a row - for my phone while in Europe. Bought it on eBay in 2017, never used it in the Netherlands but I have used it in Italy (twice), Slovenia, France, Spain, and Portugal. EU free roaming works great (would also work in Switzerland). But it's not a great option for voice calls - these SIM plans come with limited calling minutes. I only need my phone for data so not an issue for me. I can make voice calls/text with Google Voice or Skype if needed. On my last trip, I didn't need to make any calls to European numbers.

My US mobile carrier has no international roaming plan, and the Vodafone 2GB plan cost me only 9 euros (good for 30 days), which was plenty of data for my 10 day trip.

I think I had the same sim card as ladyvet27 last year for Eastern Europe and Amsterdam. I've bought it again for our upcoming trip to Italy. It worked perfectly. You need an unlocked phone and will activate it a few days before leaving to make sure everything is okay. You can only make call to the US with a workaround number, however. You will be given a British phone number. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FI1JW72/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Any thoughts or experiences about Wind for tourists in Italy? I've heard the procedure with TIM is problematic, and in searching for other month-long plans for tourists, Wind seems to offer a great deal.