Going to Italy, what is the best option?

[EChid]

Ok, I have my unlocked ROKR E2 so I am planning on getting a prepaid SIM once I get to Italy, but I have a few questions:
1. I have heard that prepaid SIMs are now hard to buy, since a few recent terrorist activities have made use of them. Is this true? I am hoping that once I land the terminal will have plenty of options for me around the $20 Euro mark.
2. I obviously want to stay in contact with people here, but I have a few options and I don't know which is better. First of all, I could buy a calling card and give it to the person I would most often call, so they could call my number at about $0.18 cents/min (thats Canada to Italy Mobile according to callingcards.com) and I will have free incoming (as far as I know European prepaid has free incoming no matter what), or I could pick up my own calling card for calling Canada from Italy (which is far cheaper). Which is better?
3. Finally, would a calling card from a mobile phone work the same way as from a landline? In other words, if I was to use a calling card to call Canada what would be taken off my prepaid account balance? Would it be no amount, the local charge, international? Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

[DRNewcomb]

If you look through the archive you will find a lot of information about Italian carriers and SIMs. In Italy you can't generally call a toll-free number from a mobile phone, or if you do it's not toll-free. So you will pay for the air-time even if you use a calling card for the international call.

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

If you look through the archive you will find a lot of information about Italian carriers and SIMs. In Italy you can't generally call a toll-free number from a mobile phone, or if you do it's not toll-free. So you will pay for the air-time even if you use a calling card for the international call.

but do remember air time + a cheap calling card can be very cheap indeed and cheaper than calling North America with the naitive mobile carrier.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

but do remember air time + a cheap calling card can be very cheap indeed and cheaper than calling North America with the naitive mobile carrier.

The lofty and noble goal of this group is to find a legal way to make mobile calls anywhere in the world, for free.

[EChid]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

but do remember air time + a cheap calling card can be very cheap indeed and cheaper than calling North America with the naitive mobile carrier.

So what I can gather from this is that I will save some money by using a calling card?

[Effendi]

Originally Posted by EChid

Ok, I have my unlocked ROKR E2 so I am planning on getting a prepaid SIM once I get to Italy, but I have a few questions:
1. I have heard that prepaid SIMs are now hard to buy, since a few recent terrorist activities have made use of them. Is this true? I am hoping that once I land the terminal will have plenty of options for me around the $20 Euro mark.

no, it's not true, nothing at all changed. Buying a prepaid card in Italy is very easy, but you need a Codice Fiscale (more information here)
A prepaid card usually costs 10€ including 5€ of credit.

Originally Posted by EChid

2. I obviously want to stay in contact with people here, but I have a few options and I don't know which is better. First of all, I could buy a calling card and give it to the person I would most often call, so they could call my number at about $0.18 cents/min (thats Canada to Italy Mobile according to callingcards.com) and I will have free incoming (as far as I know European prepaid has free incoming no matter what), or I could pick up my own calling card for calling Canada from Italy (which is far cheaper). Which is better?

if you want to call with the mobile it's probably cheaper to be called (free for you, quite cheap for the people calling you). If you want to call you can get the Dialoga International cards by Wind, and a Wind prepaid (0.25€cent/min to Canada)

Originally Posted by EChid

3. Finally, would a calling card from a mobile phone work the same way as from a landline? In other words, if I was to use a calling card to call Canada what would be taken off my prepaid account balance? Would it be no amount, the local charge, international? Any help would be appreciated.

it depends. If you call an 800.xxxxxx number you pay nothing from your prepaid account balance; if you call number starting with 0 you pay a local landline rate; if you call aumber starting with 1 you'll pay a lot; starting with 3 it's a local mobile.

thanks[/QUOTE]

[EChid]

ok, thank you so much everyone. I think I've finally got it clear. I bought a calling card so that people can call me and I will get a Diologa International card so we can share the costs. I would really like to use Wind for their data plan as long as the coverage isn't terrible. Also, is there someplace I could find the settings for the wap GPRS connection on my phone before leaving?

[Effendi]

Wind coverage is not terrible at all, I usually have no problems with it.

Anyway I don't suggest you to use wap, which just changed its rates: 30 cent per connection to Wind's portal, or 30 cent set-up plus 0.03 €/KB for other sites.
Much better to use the internet.wind APN for web connections through GPRS, EDGE or 3G.

You just need the APN, internet.wind, nothing else.
The APN for wap is wap.wind, by the way, and I think you need some DNS or other ip as well, but I never used it...