460 Info on Cell Phones needed

As with all mobiles there is no one way!

[url]http://www.privati.tim.it/pr/pr_dettaglio/0,,3_22,00.html[/url]

from [url]www.tim.it[/url]

You can geta sim card to put in your mobile phone. I bought one for 10 euros.

All the main providers have lots of very confusing tarrifs. You do also have to take into account where you wish to use your phone for reception of signals. We have found that Wind has a stronger and wider coverage than TIM in the Imperia province of Liguria. You can take your UK mobile phone (if you have one) into a telephone shop and take out a Pay as you go connection. They then fit the SIM card and provide information. You usually need to show a passport and have an Italian Codice Fiscale card. I don't know if this is possible without a codice fiscale. Certainly it was required when I purchased a Wind sim but not for the Tim one. It is then possible to recharge the sim in a variety of places including supermarkets, online or at ATMs. This would certainly be an excellent way to begin; you could always have a different kind of contract later.

I haven't used these folk so can't say if they are good or not but this might be of interest (think it's aimed at the Uk market).

[url]http://www.talkitalia.com/[/url]

[QUOTE=iwanttobeinitaly]I haven't used these folk so can't say if they are good or not but this might be of interest (think it's aimed at the Uk market).

[url]http://www.talkitalia.com/[/url][/QUOTE]
I bought a card from them. I've not used it in Italy yet, but I have registered the SIM through talkitalia (you need to include your passport number).

Although I'm not planning to move to Italy in the near future (sadly!), I found I was spending a lot of money using my UK mobile to phone and text home. I thought this would be a good investment, at £30 (including 10 Euros credit), because my last visit to Italy cost me about £40 in call and text charges. The card provided is for use with the Vodafone network, and can be topped up in all the usual ways. It is cheaper to call and text, is that if someone in the UK calls you, you aren't charged.

The charges for using this SIM are quoted as:
Calls to Italian land lines and Italian Vodafone numbers = €0.10 per min
Calls to other Italian Networks = €0.40 per min
Calls to UK and USA = €0.40 per min
To send SMS = €0.15
To listen to the anwer phone = €0.15 per min
which are considerably cheaper than using a UK mobile in Italy.

Is there an easy way to check the coverage available by different mobile phone service providers throughout Italy?

I use Vodafone at home in Cumbria as it seems to be the best for in amongst the hills and valleys and I'm heading for Calabria soon.
(And yes my monthly bill quadrupled when I was there for a week in April - gulp - so an Italian sim card will be the sensible option).

There are only three cases in which I would recommend purchasing an Italian SIM card before you leave to Italy:
1) you have to know your Italian number before you leave.
2) you will be whisked from the airport to the middle of nowhere immediately upon arrival.
3) you have loads of money.

When you arrive in Italy just pop into any TIM, Vodafone, Wind etc shop and buy a SIM card. It'll often only cost you the same as the amount of credit pre-loaded on the card e.g. 10 Euro and it is a quick process.
In my experience there is always someone with enough English at the mobile phone shop to walk you through the forms and photocopy your passport etc. You'll have no problems and you'll have saved yourself 20 pounds + which in the case of Ryanair flyers could be more than the price of your airfare!

If you really want to buy a SIM before you leave then the best place to go is eBay. Search for "Italian SIM card", or if you are adventurous go to the Italian ebay.it and buy a load of them at wholesale prices and sell/give them to your holiday mates, family etc. Just search for SIM or "TIM SIM" and you'll have no shortage of offers.

Many thanks to all of you who have responded to my cry.

I bought a SIM from Talkitalia ([url]www.talkitalia.com[/url]) and was very happy with their service.

It was very convenient in that I had a contact number as soon as I got out there, no hassle.
I also gave my new number out to friends/family before I left as this was sent to me too by talkitalia.

hope this helps

Hi

We gave up trying to get a landline, when thet came back with a huge bill for moving poles. We use a mobile, from TIM which seems to work well all around Italy.
TIM has many different tarriffs all of are confusing. I just stuck a pin into one of there leaflets and hey presto our phone works well. We have a TIM internet cardd for the PC which costs around 30 E per month. With TIM we recharge our phone and internet card on line and also through our Banca Della Marche account. All work fine.
Cost for calls will always be hard to caluclate, but calling within Italy costs 18 cents per minute, but there are cheaper call plans that have restrictions during use.
I would call into you local shop and see what suits you. Dont forget there is also Vodaphone which seem to have a similar pricing plan, but the phone wouldnt work where we live in Cingoli

Good luck

I bought a SIM card in the usal way in Calabria. It worked well until I went for a reload. Although had credit I couldn't use the SMS facility any more. I left soon afterwards so was not able to find the reason why. I think maybe when purchasing a reload you need to specify if you want calls or SMS.