Prepaid SIM in Italy?

[wco81]

Thanks Effendi.

It appears there are stores which sell the WIND on the same street as my Hotel in Siena on Strada Massetana Romana.

There is also a Conad supermarket.

Siena post office seems to be a few hundred meters north of Piazza Campo so I may look for that as well.

[msjfb]

Originally Posted by snowcat2007

How would one buy a Wind prepaid card without actually being in Italy? there is nothing on ebay right now.
I am planning on going to greece this summer and it looks like that the new italian wind roaming option is the best bet for my iphone. (if anyone has a better idea for Greece, i am open for suggestions

However, since i won't travel via Italy, i can't buy a sim card in Italy.

Does anybody know of an Internet site that sells activated wind prepaid cards to non Italians for a reasonable price?

thank you for your help!

Try www.ebay.it , you will find many offers there. You should be able to find someone willing to mail you one.

[sbe]

Can anyone update me on the cost of a Tim Sim? I thought it was 10 euro with a 5 euro credit but the English language Tim site is quoting 40 euro with a 20 euro credit.

They also talk about something called Timmy and Timmy Tacs where they sell you a phone with a 20 euro credit and no activation fee but I can't find any information about what the phones cost.

Many thanks.

[Effendi]

Oh god, it seems the English version of TIM website is quite outdated if they are still talking about an ETACS handset...

I don't know why you should be willing to buy a TIM card, but you can surely get it in any shop with 10 euros, including 5.

[wco81]

Hmm, waited about 30 minutes at the Siena post office to try to buy Poste Mobile. There are signs for it all over the office. I'd also dropped into the post office in Volterra earlier but didn't see any signage and didn't want to wait. Figured a bigger office would be more likely to have it, although, I have to say I couldn't find any mention of carta prepagata Posta Mobile on the poste.it site at all.

While I was waiting there was a clerk opposite the counters. They had a little area there where they sold books, DVDs, video games and apparently TIM, Vodaphone and other top up cards. We tried to communicate, she barely knowing any English and me knowing no Italian. When I mentioned I was interested in the Poste Mobile, pointing at the signs, she seemed to be trying to tell me the TIM top up cards were a better deal. So I told her "carta prepagata" and so she said to wait for someone at the counter.

Well waiting about 15 minutes or so, I got up and asked for that and the clerk at the counter gestured me towards the girl who'd first tried to help me. They went back and forth and the girl said they didn't have any, they'd have it tomorrow.

Oh well, I could have used it, but I will just see if I can find another post office in one of the other towns I plan to visit. But I'm not going to go out of my way looking for it.

[sbe]

Thanks Effendi for the info. We are going to be activating 4 or 5 phones between a couple of families and I was kind of freaked out about a possible price increase. 10 euros sounds a lot better.

Does anyone know if they ever run a promo where Tim Club or something like it is included or reduced price? All our calls will be between the cell phones with only a few to land lines so a discounted rate would be quite nice.

Only other calling besides the occasional land line will be back to the US.

BTW if anyone is headed off to Italy in the next few months I'd be happy to send them the sims since I don't think we will get to use them again before they expire.

[keccollins]

HELP!

I am going to italy for about 25 days and I am so confused about prepaid sim cards.

Should I get a prepaid sim in the US before I go, or over there? I have heard that it's hard to get over there?

Thanks!!!

[dr0ss]

I'll be in Italy next month with my family; I would like to get SIMs both for my phone and for my son's. I see that Wind has a promo on called the "Noi Wind Pack" which offers:

Fino all’8 giugno 2008 è disponibile, a soli 15 euro, l’esclusivo Noi Wind Pack, 3 SIM Wind con 5 euro di traffico incluso che parlano e inviano SMS GRATIS tra loro!

If I am reading it right, this lets me buy 3 SIMs for 15 euros, with 5 euros talk time (on just one, or 5 euros apiece?) and exceptional rates between the 3 SIMS. My questions are (a) Am I interpreting this offer correctly? I do not trust my Italian on this, the deal seems too good to be true. (b) It seems to auto-renew after the first month; if I only need it for a month, would the right strategy be to simply cancel the plan after a couple of weeks? (c) My son (and his phone) will actually not be joining me until a week after I'm there; is this a problem w/r to activation (eg, can I activate all the SIMS just in the one phone)? A thousand thanks in advance for any advice. - DR

[Effendi]

Uhm, you should have 5 euros on each sim but they activate you the NoiWind and NoiWind SMS options on all 3 sim-cards, so you have to pay 8€/month for these option. That means that you loose your 5 euros at once, you have to refill and loose other 3 euros after you refilled to get the "free" options, which are free only on the activation fee, but you have to pay for the whole month in advance. So it's not a great deal if you don't need those 2 options.

[dr0ss]

Originally Posted by Effendi

That means that you loose your 5 euros at once, you have to refill and loose other 3 euros after you refilled to get the "free" options

Thanks; this makes sense (I knew my interpretation was too optimistic). Since I only need the service through June, only need 2 SIMs, and do not expect to be generating all that much traffic between the phones, I guess I'm better off just buying two 10EU sims. - DR