Traveling to Italy - Broadband/Mobile Help
 

I'll be gone for just over two weeks in Italy. Primarly looking for cellular usage, both phone and data.

I have a plan in the US with AT&T and the iPhone, but rates there are a bit absurd as I found out last time ($700 phone bill.. OUCH!). I have two unlocked smart phones, one is a Nokia e65i and the other is the TMobile Google phone (its about 3 years old).

Last time I purchased SIM cards and minutes from a company, but neither one were cost effective.

Ideally, I'm looking for a decent plan for cellular and data on either phone. Would be great to use my iPhone, but not looking to pay more than $250 for two weeks of service.

Any suggestions?

Prepaid cards
http://www.fastweb.it/offerte/mobile/prepagata-simpaty/

Annual contract, at any time you can close down
http://www.fastweb.it/offerte/mobile/internet-mobile/
http://www.fastweb.it/offerte/mobile...obile-300-ore/

Add me on Skype if you need more infos
yourescortservice

will you be calling within Italy or will you be calling international most of the times?

look to separate your data and cellular - data plans can be had with 'pay as you go" or "one of monthly" plans starting at €30/moor €7/100MB - and then pay as you go cellular is going to cost for international calls, but hell, europe is awash with "call this local number for free international calls" which are priced locally from you cell phone but you get internation dialling. Hell, if you were in france, I could give you a freephone number to use from your cell to get free international access....

don't pay for cell+data - separate them for sure....

Mostly depends if you plan on making local or international calls. Vodafone, wind and TIM have offers that can be activated to save up cash. Let me know and i'll check whats on the menu.

Good luck :thumbsup

I'm looking at a service by Xcom Global to rent a MiFi card while I'm there. Its about $220 for the trip but says unlimited 3G data.

iPhoneTrip.com has a good service too, but your phone needs to be unlocked in order to use it, my iPhone is not, but the other two phones are.

I'm leaning towards the Xcom service so I can use it on both my iPhone and iPad, as well my laptop. Then I can just use something like Google Voice or some other VoIP service to make calls.

The downside to that is the call quality will often suck if the 3G signal is not at its fullest and I wont be able to use Google Maps to find turn by turn directions since the iPhone uses cellular coordinates to mark your location.

I'd like to not have to rent/borrow a portable GPS from someone if I can avoid it, which makes the iPhoneTrip.com service a little more appealing.

220$ for how long? For that much you would be looking at at least few months of unlimited data in mots European countries.. I think lets wait for some italian to give you tips, as that price is ridiculous.
And you still did not reply where will you call - domestic within Italy or mostly international.

Yeah, that seems a bit much but I can't sign up for a contract if I am only there for a month. I read something before about how their mobile companies don't like "tourists" signing up for plans and will put them on prepaid.

I wouldn't mind signing up for a month plan, then just cancel as it would probably be cheaper than what I'm paying for mobile broadband and cellular.

My calls would probably be a mix of an Italian cell and US calls, but more leaning towards calls to the US and a few text messages to both.

so looking around, I have the option to purchase a monthly plan from some carriers (TIM and Vodafone) but its nearly impossible to get a hold of anyone from their support that speaks English :( My Italian is pretty poor and can't hold a convo about SIM cards and data :1orglaugh

I'm thinking of buying one of these SIM cards with unlimited data and xxx minutes for $50/mo then cancel and pay the $100 fee, but in order to do that, I need to unlock my iPhone to put in the new SIM or use my Tmobile G1

This is a lot harder than I imagined :disgust

Mate, you don't need to sign ANY contract lol. Ever heard of prepaid cards? You buy a card, prepay some euros and you are set to go. Its as simple as that.
Since I am not Italian I don't know exactly what prepaid cards are used there, so the only thing we need here is somebody from Italy to name you X, Y anz Z names of the cards and thats it.