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SIM card & talk/text/internet between Switzerland and Italy.

Hi All,
I will be travel for 28 days (8 days in Switzerland and 20 days in Italy. I have Verizon phone and ‘play more plan’, trying to save $ by thinking about not to buy travel pass, and not to upgrade to global plan. Please advise or recommend me the followings:
1. Our phones will put into the airplane mode as soon as we leave the USA airspace, it will avoid extra charge from Verizon regarding talk/text/data plan. Is this action will eliminate me not to pay any extra charge for the whole trip from Verizon?
2. Between Switzerland and Italy, which country offers lower cost on SIM card, abd operating fees?
3. Still in the airplane mode, i can use wifi internet from the hotel for my email, internet without incurring extra charge?
4. Again, using wifi internet from the hotel, i can use either Skype or Net Messenger for phone conversation either local or back to USA without any extra charge?
5. Finally, I don’t think with wifi, i can access my messages from Verizon, right?

Please help and thank you very much.

Posted by
3812 posts

Two caveats:

  • when Italian Companies like Tim and Vodafone write in their ads: "X gigas and Y minutes of talking time included in this plan when you travel around Europe" they mean when you are in EU countries, not all over Europe.
  • if a plan doesn't mention texts, texts are not included. You are supposed to chat via WhatsApp like everybody else. Therefore, you can send only a couple of texts to US numbers before going negative and blocking the SIM.
Posted by
424 posts

Make sure your phone is UNLOCKED. I used wifi with my iphone in airplane mode in Spain No charges. Much easier to just get a local sim card and have full use of your phone.