Consumer Cellular in Italy

Lynda, thanks for this notice. My husband has decided to get a phone, and we're considering Consumer Cellular as a carrier. The last couple of years we've just been using wifi on my phone when traveling, but are thinking about cell service next time.

It's good to know that Consumer Cellular's cell service worked and was reasonably priced. You say you didn't make any actual phone calls... does CC's international plan allow calls, or just texts and wifi?

Thanks for the help.

Edit to add: I just looked this up, and voice calls run about 6 cents a minute. That sounds good, since we'd use wifi for almost everything except finding each other!

Good to know Lynda! I've seen various reports on CC so glad that it worked for you, especially at such a busy time in Italy!

For whatever reason Consumer Cellular works great for us here in the Ft Worth Dallas area. And they have great coverage at my husband’s deer camp/ranch in the middle of nowhere central Texas, too. They are a company that uses other companies cellular towers as I’m sure you know, which is why they are cheaper than other name brand carriers. So they’ve been our company for years. It’s great to know I can use them for European travel now.

I don’t know how you can get around on Wi-Fi only, Jane. Tip of the cap to you. I’m profoundly dependent on using a map to navigate so the few times I’ve had to use Wi-Fi only to get where I’m going is nerve wracking. My Airola eSIM during a South England tour in ‘23 had horrible coverage in Bath for some reason. I kept looking for coffee shops to step into to get redirected.

I wish I had made at least one phone call on this trip. Next time will be Loire Valley tour in Oct and I’ll report back.

Pam, it was a huge relief to have reliable connections for the whole trip. It was a great trip and Italy was pretty busy starting up for another record tourism year I bet. I will get a brief trip report done pretty soon. Still wading through way too many pictures and I’ve got to get a final count of how many churches I went into. I think it may surprise even me.

In the States CC is on the AT&T network. The international roaming service includes talk, text and data. Being able to make calls when not tethered to WiFi is a big plus. Note that you are billed by usage, but the rates have continually been coming down. The best thing about it is that once you add Intl. roaming to your account, you have service as soon as you turn on your phone upon arrival - no muss no fuss with any flavor of SIM. I've had excellent connectivity in Italy, Poland, Budapest and Vienna, plus airports in Amsterdam and Munich.

Very interesting, markcw, did you mean you don’t call in to CC before you travel to inform them you are going overseas again and your cellular just kicks in when you land? When I arranged my trip with them I was definitely given the impression that they had my dates of travel and that was the length of time the coverage would last. In fact I got an email going and returning implying the same I thought.

@Lyndash - no, they make you enroll initially over the phone so they can emphasize that you need to log off the network and back on while in the States to download the updated configuration, and also to stress that you need to monitor your usage - they've had cases in the past where people ran up significant bills while on international roaming, streaming large amounts of video using cellular data.

I checked with them before one trip to verify that I still had the service, but there isn't a requirement to inform them of your travel dates. It's my understanding that as long as you see international roaming displayed when you log into your account, or in the CC app, you're good to go.

Edited to add: I did receive several e-mail reminders while traveling that I was using international roaming, and suggesting that I monitor usage - they are still mindful of people being surprised with large bills. The ultimate bills that I received were so reasonable that it's hard to imagine what you would have to do to be charged excessive amounts, especially if you use wi-fi when at your lodging.

Good to know.

Currently I am with Spectrum and their international service is exceptional. But for other reasons, I might be changing to CC in the future.

I am a member of AARP and other members are real happy with service and customer support.

Glad that they also have a very good international plan.