Problem with activation, WIND sim card
 

Hello,

First, thank you very much for this extremely informative site. It has made navigating all of the pre-paid SIM options much easier.

My girlfriend is spending a semester abroad in Italy as part of her graduate degree, and is having some trouble getting her phone working. She has limited access to internet and email right now, so I am trying to do as much as I can from here to help get things working.

Two days ago, she went into a WIND store and purchased a sim card for the Wind 9 Limited Edition plan. She also added the "No Stop" 9 euro / month data plan and I think also one of the call your country options.

The phone is a Samsung Galaxy i5500 (purchased from here: Amazon.com: Samsung I5500 Galaxy 5 Unlocked Phone with 2 MP Camera and and Stereo FM - US Warranty - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories)


She has received text messages from WIND in Italian, but can not receive calls, can't make calls, and can't send or receive text messages. The incoming texts from Wind seem to be the only thing that is working.

She went back to the Wind store and tried to explain that things are not working, but did not seem to get very far. She told me they were having trouble communicating due to the language difference.

Also, the number that they gave her has a 38 prefix, which I thought was odd. I can't find any reference to Italian numbers having a 38 prefix. I thought they were all 39.

She gave me her number 38 8823 XXXX, a pin which is 4 digits, a "codis" or "codice" that is 6 digits, and her complete sim card number.

Any help or direction that anyone can provide would be very much appreciated!!!!

Thank you,
Andy

Italian international prefix is +39, then Wind has 32x and 38x prefixes for mobiles, so there's nothing strange. So her complete number (in the international form) is +39.388.823xxxx. All ok.

First thing to do: set English prompts. She must dial 4242 and then dial 6 when she hears the automatic voice responder. Then she will be asked to choose between Italian and English, set English and that's all.

Second: check the credit. Dial *123# and see the flash-SMS with the credit. In my opinion she has no credit and that's the reason why she cannot make any call/text.

You can also register on 155.it using her number and her codice fiscale (she should have it). The website is all in Italian, by the way.

Let us know if she has credit or not. I think that should be the problem.