Dialing
 

My daughter just called from her new Italian sim. The number is 12 digits long starting with 39. How do I dial that from my US Tmobile phone? Sorry if this is an incredibly stupid question. Have a great day!

Hi,
you dial
01139.......

there are no stupid questions - only stupid answers :)

Chris

Dialing
 

Thanks very much! :)

Here's an example of a stupid answer: "Use the Plus key on your key pad. i.e. dial +39...."

Seriously though I did know someone who only made international calls on his mobile as his landline phone had no plus key! (and he had figured out how to programme the plus into a number on his mobile) :)

Yep, the plus is better, because you can use it on all the numbers in your SIM and it will always dial the number correctly. 011 is not used outside North America as an international code, so any number you program with that at the front won't work if the phone is used, say, in Europe. You can add the plus (and the country code 1) to all your US numbers as well; for example +12125551212.

Having said that, you'd probably be better off getting a calling card to use from your TMO number. CheapPhoneCards.com has a couple of them (usually described as pinless or clean) that can be set to recognize one or more numbers you are calling from, so you only have to enter the PIN once; after that you get a prompt for the number you'd like to call. It's a LOT cheaper; typically around 18-22 cents per minute to a mobile number in Europe (and 4-5 cents to a landline, so if you can get her to find one she can be called at it would be to your benefit). Of course you still have to pay for TMO airtime, though you can use these cards from a landline as well (generally to an 800 number). I've had one of them since 2005 and it hasn't expired yet (despite claiming 365 day validity).

Thanks for all the input. One question though, Motel 75, if I call her at her Italian sim her incoming calls are free. That is why she got that one. She thinks her outgoing to the United States are like .09 + .16 but I told her I think it's more like .50 per minute all said and done when I look at this forum. I emailed her to see which WIND card she ended picking up.

Unfortunately for me when I call her from my Tmobile number I pay .99 per minute. But I do recall reading something on the net that said if you call those Italian sim cards from a calling card then they get charged like 39 cents a minute instead of the incoming being free. I guess we'd be ahead on our end but she would end up going thru her card faster. It seems like you either pay now or pay later.

I don't think the Italian SIM will ever be charged for incoming calls while in Italy, no matter how you call them. You might want to have your daughter look for one of the Wind Dialoga International (sp?) long distance cards. I've looked for them without luck but if she finds one she can make international calls much cheaper.

Incoming calls are ALWAYS free. It's the US that's the exception. I think you're confusing the fact that it's more expensive to call a mobile number. (As I mentioned in the post above, it's around 4-5 times more, e.g., 4 cent to a landline, 20 cent to mobile.) European mobiles only pay to receive calls when they are in another country.

There's a big difference between 9 and 16 cents and 50 cents. Tell your daughter to find out exactly how much it costs to call you. (If she still doesn't know, have her check her balance, call you for less than a minute, and then check balance again; do this again for less than two minutes, then you will be able to figure out the connection charge and the per-minute rate.) Again, a calling card from a landline is usually the cheapest option, in both directions.

Dialing
 

Thanks for the additional information. I will have her call me and check her balance. I'll have to do that once she tops up. She had already burned through her first 5 euro on the card. She had picked up WIND9 I guess. She hasn't figured out how to text message. She says it doesn't work. Any suggestions about that?

Thanks a million!:)

Wind9 is a special offer of Wind on sale in this period. You pay 9 cent/min (rounded by the minute) plus 16 cent of setup fee (so first minute 25ct, then 9ct/min). But that applies only for calls to Italian numbers.

Calling the US costs 50ct/min plus 15 ct of set-up fee. But maybe the dealer activated her the "Call your country" option (free for a new card) with which she spends 35 ct/min plus the usual set-up fee.

Anyway after each call she receives a flash-sms with the cost of the call and since all billing with that tariff is on per minute base it's really easy to understand how much is she paying.

Sending SMS is really straightforward: just write it and send it ;) She just have to remember to write your number in the international way, so whith the +, like explained above.