TIM for 13 days in Italy: voice,SMS,tethering
 

I have gathered quite a bit of information on this forum (thank you!!!) but still feel a little confused by the pre-paid phone options.

I have an iPhone 4S (already unlocked). I want to use the phone in Italy for 13 days in May '13 (Venice, Florence, Manarola, Siena, Rome).

I want to be able to:
-Make/receive calls (Mostly short calls within Italy to confirm lodging reservations, etc. Calls to/from the States would only be necessary if something urgent came up at home or at work.)
-Receive voicemail
-Send/receive text messages (to both iPhone and non-iPhone users)
-Access the internet and online apps on my iPhone
-Tether my iPhone to my laptop (when free wifi is not available or a secure connection is required for work. VERY important.)

It seems like TIM is the best option for me (but I'm open to suggestions).

Am I correct that I should purchase these TIM options: 'prepaid SIM card' for 10 EU and a 'data pack' called 'TimSmartMaxi' 5EU for 1 week?

Thank you.

Yes, that's all correct.
Wind can also be an alternative, but TIM is supposed to have better coverage.

Thanks Effendi. Just a few more questions...

Will I be able to verify that the phone, text, internet and tethering options are all working before I leave the shop? (Will the store be able to help me set up any configurations required for tethering?)

Will they be able to show me how to get sms messages from TIM delivered in English (and other english menu options)?

Will I get instructions on using voicemail?

Is there an option to speak to an English-speaking agent on the TIM customer service phone number?

What is the process for getting another week of data? (I want to be VERY careful that any renewal charges will NOT automatically apply to my credit card.)

Thanks, again!

Let's try to answer all your questions! :)

1) With TIM usually you have to wait some time before the sim is active. It can be half an hour or a couple of hours. Unless they changed their system. So you should wait a bit before checking the sim. And then you probably have to wait some more time for the data package activation. BTW you always receive an SMS telling you the option is active.

2) I hope they should!

3) Voicemail should be very easy to use, if it's in English. BTW in Italy nearly no one uses voicemail, so expect quite a basic service. Anyway I think there's no sense to use voicemail in Italy!

4) No way

5) TIMxSmartphone MAXI renews automaticcally every 7 days. No one will charge your credit card, it's a prepaid card, if you have credit they take it, if you don't, you stop using the sim-card.

You might consider a package that gives you more data, like Internet Start or Internet Large.

A lot of hotels, both those belonging to big chains and small family-operated ones often have unreliable, slow Wifi. The chains are now giving you real slow connections for free but try to upsell you to "business class" broadband which is only about 2 Mbps.

I've used the predecessor to the Internet Large plan over a 2-week period as I was moving around to different hotels. It was good not having to rely on hotel Wifi, which is unreliable.

ETA: In most cases, the TIM coverage is good and I got over 4 Mbps regularly. Compare that to a recent trip in London. My hotel gave 30 minutes of Wifi for free so I bought a 1-week package for 10 pounds. Speeds would sometimes be over 12 Mbps down and about 500 kbps down. But then during the day and night, that speed would degrade often to a few hundred kbps down.

I also got a 3 SIM, 1 GB for 10 pounds, and the speeds on that were 3-4 Mbps.

Hello, I'm planing on traveling abroad to Italy, with a touch of Switzerland and Southern France and would like similar coverage as what Sproketz describes. Only difference is, I have an android tablet and android phone. But I'm a complete noob with mobile connectivity stuff. I visited the TIM website and had a difficult time navigating and finding the "TIMxSmartphone MAXI" plan. Can someone please provide a link to TIMxSmartphone MAXI plan and Internet Start or Internet Large?

So the better choice for visiting Italia, is TIM over WIND? I'm looking at a 4 week trip. Thanks so much.

Here is Internet Start:
Internet Start | TIM
You get 4GB instead of 2 for this summer. It has a monthly fee of €12.00 plus an activation fee of € 5.00

Internet Large:
Internet Large | TIM
but it doesn't make much sense to spend 20€ for just 1GB of data more than the Internet Start which is much cheaper.

TIMxSMARTPHONE MAXI doesn't exist anymore (I have to update the pages). Here are the Smartphone options available by TIM:
- TIMxSMARTPHONE: 300MB/week for € 3.00/week. No tethering, no VoIP, no P2P
- TIMxSMARTPHONE MESE: 1GB/mongh for € 10/month. No tethering, no VoIP, no P2P
- TIMxSMARTPHONE 4G: 500MB/week for € 6.00/week. Tethering allowed, 4G/LTE allowed, VoIP maybe allowed, no P2P.
All info (in Italian) here:
Offerte Internet per Smartphone | TIM

With WIND here are the options:
- Internet No Stop: € 9.00/month for 1GB. Tethering allowed, no VoIP
- Internet Big: € 15.00/month for 3GB. Tethering allowed, no VoIP
- Internet Unlimited: € 20.00/month for 10GB. Tethering allowed, no VoIP

Those options can get cheaper if you active one of the several options for free minuts and messages offered by Wind.

Both TIM and Wind have good coverage. TIM has 4G, Wind not yet.

Effendi, Thanks so much for the information. I looked at all of these. For data, with my untrained eye, it looks like the Wind "Internet Unlimited" offers the best deal: 20 € per month for 10 GB. But no voip? I thought I noticed somewhere that voip was allowed? Thanks again.

Once it was allowed, now they write it's not... who knows...

OK. Thanks

How is Three? Three Ireland works in Italy (Three Like Home) and they definitely support VOIP.

Three has rather good coverage in towns, but has still quite some problems out in the countryside and mountains.

I know that TIM is easy enough to set up on a smartphone with SMS to control the tariff.

However, I heard plenty of tales that if the SIM is strnasferred to another device, e.g. a tablet or Mi-Fi, it then gets blocked.

It would be valuable to know if any of these offerings above work with a 3g iPad Mini with the nano SIM (or a Mi-Fi).

Never heard about a similar problem with TIM. If you have an unlocked device you should have no problems at all.

OK thanks, so their appears to be allowed... unless, like in the UK, Apple devices specifically disallow tethering on most networks.

Now, all the TIMsmartphone packages are controlled via SMS, correct? Or, how can it be set up on an iPad that has no SMS facility?

You ask the dealer to activate it for you or call 119 (but they will speak Italian only, most probably). Or you put the SIM in a Phone, activate by SMS, and then put it back on the iPad.

The nano SIM is the issue - it won't go into a standard phone. But I have an idea: I have a basic MiFi. It needs manual setting up of the APN but takes a standard SIM. So maybe use this, I just need to discover the APN details for TIM data.

I just borrowed a TIM SIM from a member of this forum and managed to get it recharged €20. It is on the €6 a week 500 meg plan. Is there an SMS or a short code that I can have a friend enter to discontinue the plan when he is done with this trip or does he need to call 119?

You can:
- call 40916 (IVR)
- call 119 (operator)
- register to tim.it and deactivate it from your personal area

Unfortunately some basic Italian is needed in any case (I'd use the website), but if you need any help with translations I'm here to help.