S going to Italy. Any suggestions about phone, wifi?
Is he going to visit for a week? Or live there for a year?
10 days
He can take his smart phone, set it on airplane mode and use wifi to skype, use face time or use another online message app (such as facebook messaging.) Tourist destinations in Italy are loaded with wifi hot spots.
I would not worry about it for just 10 days. See if his hotel has wi-fi so he can skype if need be. My D spent a semester there and we bought a cheap unlocked phone and she got an Italian SIM card – but for 10 days I wouldn’t bother. But you can google cheap international phones for some options.
The Italy forum on trip advisor addresses this in great detail. If his phone is unlocked he can purchase a SIM card and phone plan for not that much. TIM is the provider most mentioned. If he has Verizon he can purchase an international plan but it doesn’t include much data 100 mbs for $40.
What @musicamusica says. If he wants a phone to call locally in Italy or even back to the USA, you can buy a simple flip phone very cheaply in Italy. Cell phone service is cheaper in Europe than in the USA.
ATT family plan ccount allows us to “buy” unlimited international minutes, and texts for specific time periods for a low cost
I think it was $30.
DS who has an older IPhone and is on our plan, has used that option 3 times in the last 3 years.
He did not no need to get another phone or Sim card.
piece of cake.
To add— a lot of this depends on what your domestic plan offers. I have usually used the airplane mode/ skype option since our plan (Verizon) stinks as far as travel in Europe goes. This Nov I will be in France for a month, so that makes it worthwhile to get a French SIM card for my unlocked phone. For a couple of weeks, not so much.
If you have Sprint or T-mobile you can get a free international plan on your current phone. We have Sprint and my D (studying abroad) gets free texts, 20 cent per minute phone calls and “unlimited” 2G data. Since most of the time she’s on wifi this works fine for her. You can also buy a 3G data pass for a week for only $25. There’s a two week pass as well.
http://www.sprint.com/landings/international-value-roaming/#!/
Kajon’s expensive lesson…If you are sending pix to your friends while in a wifi area, these files can take a bit longer so stay put until it actually sends!
Get all the friends & family on What’s App for texting and calling on wifi or data
If you buy a local SIM you probably cannot call US #s, but when we went, I downloaded and activated an Xfinity app on my mother’s landline account with Comcast & that gave me the ability to have a faux US # that worked over wifi & data, I even used it to call a client in the US
If one needs good wifi, you can also rent a portable Mi-fi unit from various sources, it works on the 3g/4g and is only as good as the cell service, but it gave me much better data reception than the phone was getting.
For only 10 days I wouldn’t do the same thing same as for 10 weeks.
Because we parents live overseas, we maintain separate US & overseas cellphone accounts for ourselves. But for our kids who are studying in the US, we just maintain a US cellphone account for them.
When they visit us overseas during breaks, we just temporarily turn on the int’l service plan for them. They have “locked” phones, so a local SIM card isn’t going to work on their phones. They supplement by using free wifi whenever possible to reduce the amount of data roaming.
WhatsApp is really useful for free messaging & voice calls to other WhatsApp users. Definitely download it.
In the two years D has lived in Europe I have not once called her using a conventional phone call. There are far far too many free options available. I either text or skype her almost every single day. Sometimes it’s just “hey what’s up” and sometimes it’s a 2 hour meal and girltalk session.
I can’t imagine in 10 days there would be much need for making any phone calls to chat, and even so, musicamusica is right there are many wi-fi options. However, there may be a need to call for a reservation or get information about a tourist attraction which might require a conventional phone call. Or even an emergency may require a regular phone call. So for 10 days I think if your provider has a plan that’s probably the easiest thing to do since you’re probably not going to need much.
When D went to England/France for 10 days, we put an international texting plan on her phone and locked down data. That worked well.
When she went to Greece for a month, I also put the international plan on her phone, but mainly we communicated via What’s App. Where she was staying had wifi, and she didn’t move around much, so that worked.
Now that she’s in Greece for a semester, she’s purchased a local SIM card (her phone is unlocked). She uses that to communicate with her classmates. We still communicate mainly via What’s App.
I have no advice as far as what to get, but make sure the user understands what the settings on the phone being used need to be to work with the option selected. We are in Canada right now, and I paid for a Verizon upgrade, but I don’t know how to make it work. I can call and text, but I can’t get to the Internet with my phone.
^^ I second @1214mom 's advice. Make sure you you know how to turn on/off the data roaming function on your phone; otherwise, you could end up with a REALLY ugly surprise on your phone bill when arriving home.
I wanted to respond to @ClaremontMom - please correct me if I’m wrong or missed something subtle - I barely have a handle on anything approaching technical!
" there may be a need to call for a reservation or get information about a tourist attraction which might require a conventional phone call."
I use WIFI and “Skype to land-line or mobile” in situations like this. It does have a cost, very low per minute, paid through money kept in a Skype account. Last trip to Asia, I called DH for two weeks daily for 30 - 60 minute chats - Skype to our home landline. I didn’t come close to using up the $25 I had in my Skype account. (Don’t ask why DH can’t/won’t Skype computer to computer…)
Skype does warn you that emergency calls cannot be made with this service.
With only 10 days on a country with many WIFI hotspots, I would not go a SIM route - and I have an easy to use unlocked Iphone. I’d just use the local WIFI.
@Momofadult - Yes, I should have been clearer…What you said obviously works, but it still costs money so I was sort of considering it the same thing (i.e. NOT FREE, but depending on what you have it may be cheaper). The other thought was if I’ve suddenly found myself walking the city and need to make a phone call NOW. Rather than looking for wifi to make that Skype call, I’d want the ability to make that “normal” phone call. And of course for emergencies I would not want to be dependent on a wifi connection!
So for me, having the ability to make a phone call is an “insurance policy”…but obviously, most of the time wifi connection is fine (and usually the cheapest or even free) option.