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SIM Cards - Orange vs. TIM in Amalfi Coast

Posted by (Halton, Ontario, Canada) on

Hi, we will be traveling from France through to Italy for the length of a month. We are planning on purchasing a Holiday Orange Sim card in Paris for the two weeks we will be there. We can top up for an additional two weeks which would cover our travel in Italy for only an additional 20 Euros on top of the first 39.99 Euros (sim and 2 weeks).

Does anyone know what the reception is like for Orange card holders in and along the Amalfi Coast? I am more looking for Data usage rather than calling availability. Anyones experience or advice would be great.

I am aware there are other options for Italy such as TIM and Vodaphone. Would just like to avoid purchasing an additional Sim card and have continued service from point to point.

Thanks for any and all input.
Regards,
Tania

Posted by
16206 posts

Orange is a French provider. While roaming in Italy it will simply connect to whichever Italian network has the best signal in the area you are in, which is likely TIM or Vodafone. Orange partners with all three major Italian providers (TIM, Vodafone, Wind). So no worries.

Posted by
5687 posts

Orange doesn't operate in Italy - but they must have roaming partners there (maybe Vodafone or TIM?). So what you really want to ask is: who is Orange's roaming partner in Italy? You can ask in France when you are buying the Orange SIM. But if their roaming partner is TIM or Vodafone, I'd assume coverage in Italy will be great. If their partner is WindTre, maybe not so good...

Make sure your phone supports all of the fastest data networks for Europe. They use different frequencies in Europe for mobile radios than are used in, say, North America. A phone that is LTE in North America may not be in Europe. At very least, make sure it supports the 3G frequencies (UMTS 900MHZ and 1800MHZ). If your phone is a newer and expensive model, it's more likely to have all of the frequencies you need.

Posted by
18 posts

We did a Vodaphone in Italy a couple of years ago. We must not be technical geniuses because it didn't work well for us. We have since changed to T-Mobile because they offer coverage in Europe. We recently spent a week in Paris and our phones worked fine, but slow. We plan to pay the extra when we go to Italy to get a faster speed. It is still cheaper than AT&T's international plans (which also didn't work well). T-Mobile is no extra fee for data in Europe and phone calls to US are 20 cents a minute.

Posted by
5687 posts

Terry, as I said above, not all US phones would have the fastest European frequencies. It doesn't matter which mobile company you use (or even if you buy a European SIM card) if the phone is technically unable to connect on certain radio frequencies. All depends on your phone's specific make and model.

I used T-Mobile a few years ago with a European phone that had all the local LTE frequencies, and despite being slower 2G data, mostly the phone was very fast. (Except when accidentally trying to stream video - then it would slow to a crawl - "throttled" by T-Mobile.)

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