Prepaid plan in USA to call abroad

[naco]

Hi there,
this summer i'll be for some weeks in New Jersey between july and august. I have been looking for a prepaid voice plan to call abroad. I'll use my sim to call/recieve from Italy, and make few calls to usa.
I found this Tmobile plan really interesting.
I should have, with 10$, unlimited calls to fixed lines in Italy+unlimited texts to Italy. Is thath right? Does the monthly option go month by month (so 10$ for july and 10$ for august) or it works on a 30-days period?
Are there any additional costs? (apart recieved calls/sms, calls to usa and the cost of the sim?)
Can i have my sim shipped to italy or do i need to buy it in the US?

[weekilter]

Originally Posted by naco

Hi there,
this summer i'll be for some weeks in New Jersey between july and august. I have been looking for a prepaid voice plan to call abroad. I'll use my sim to call/recieve from Italy, and make few calls to usa.
I found this Tmobile plan really interesting.
I should have, with 10$, unlimited calls to fixed lines in Italy+unlimited texts to Italy. Is thath right? Does the monthly option go month by month (so 10$ for july and 10$ for august) or it works on a 30-days period?
Are there any additional costs? (apart recieved calls/sms, calls to usa and the cost of the sim?)
Can i have my sim shipped to italy or do i need to buy it in the US?

I hope you realize that the $10 is in addition to any prepaid plan that you use. It's not just $10 for unlimited calls. It's unlimited calling to any of these countries in addition to whichever plan you choose whether it's a prepaid "Pay As You Go" plan or one of the other prepaid plans some of which do offer unlimited calling for $50 or $70 per month or a plan which gives you 1500 shared minutes or text combination and data for $30. I know at least for T-Mobile they probably will not ship internationally. When you get to the states stop in at a T-Mobile corporate store (not a dealer) and for $10 you'll get a SIM with 10 minutes time. From there you can add whatever funds you need for the type of account you choose (PAYG or monthly) account. You can also get a "Flexpay" account which has basically the same rates as billed monthly accounts except you pay for your charges in advance. This might be good if you need a data plan. You can also get a "GoPhone" starter kit from AT&T also PAYG or monthly plans with unlimited minutes for a price. It's probably cheaper to not get the discount plan and use a service such as onesuite which is a prepaid long distance plan. Rates to western, central or southern Europe and the UK are 2¢/minute with onesuite.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by weekilter

I hope you realize that the $10 is in addition to any prepaid plan that you use. It's not just $10 for unlimited calls. It's unlimited calling to any of these countries in addition to whichever plan you choose

that means they will deduct you a US minute if you make a call to one of these international countries??
Honestly, i never understood how US operators work, Thats soooo weird...

[inquisitor]

An alternative could be tuyo.com, who charge $ 0.12/min + $ 0.10 connection fee for Italian fixed lines and $ 0.36/min + $ 0.10 connection fee for Italian cell phones, while incoming calls cost $ 0.10/min + $ 0.10 connection fee.
International SMS are billed with $ 0.10 and incoming ones with $ 0.05.

[DRNewcomb]

TelnaMobile's rate to call Italian landlines is 9.8c/min. To cellular ranges from 24.9-37.9c/min. They are not prepaid but charge your usage to a credit card.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

An alternative could be tuyo.com, who charge $ 0.12/min + $ 0.10 connection fee for Italian fixed lines and $ 0.36/min + $ 0.10 connection fee for Italian cell phones, while incoming calls cost $ 0.10/min + $ 0.10 connection fee.
International SMS are billed with $ 0.10 and incoming ones with $ 0.05.

Unfortunately. TuYo has not been doing new activations for about a year now. I still have a SIM I am using with them. But I wonder for how long...........

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

TelnaMobile's rate to call Italian landlines is 9.8c/min. To cellular ranges from 24.9-37.9c/min. They are not prepaid but charge your usage to a credit card.

plus a not mentioned amount of taxes - sounds a bit like roulette playing to me

"Rates exclude local, state and federal taxes, as well as the federal USF charge, which are collected on behalf of different official agencies and billed as separate line items on your monthly bill"

[Stu]

I interpret the TMobile add to require you to have their unlimited talk and text plan. Once you purchase that, you get unlimited to Italian landlines and to text Italy on top of that.

Truphone is $0.15 a minute in the US for both calls to the US and Italian landlines. Mobiles are $0.35. Texts are $0.15 to both the US and Italy. You can probably beat the price, but the SIM will work when you return to Italy which might be nice to wrap up any unfinished business. Data is $0.15 a meg.

One consideration that you haven't mentioned is whether you are getting data or carry a smart phone. If you have some data, many calling card services now offer dialers that work very efficiently and will connect you through their service almost seamlessly. It is also much cheaper to send text messages to foreign phones with these services than through your regular carrier.

[naco]

How different is the american mobile market! Thank you for explainations! Ok, i think i won't use thath tmobile plan, but i will be massively using fring with sip/skype from my mobile, so i only need a decent data plan.
I will look for it, ant things will be easier
Thanks again!

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by naco

i will be massively using fring with sip/skype from my mobile, so i only need a decent data plan.

Where possible, try to make calls using wi-fi rather than data (prepaid US data plans are not that great either).

There's plenty of free wi-fi almost everywhere, for example in McDonalds, Starbucks, libraries, and most hotels (except high-end hotels, who often charge).