Hi all,

We're holidaying in Europe for a month starting 22nd September.
We will be in Italy for 10 days then doing a barge trip from Paris up through Belgium to Amsterdam.

We only need phone communication should family want to contact us (if the house burns down or is taken overrun by Koalas) or vice versa.

We have both CDMA and GSM 3 band mobile phones and use Vodaphone prepaid sims at home.

We have read through some of the posts on this forum but are not sure what is the best thing to do considering we are travelling through 4 countries.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi!

As you will be in several countries, I think you should forget about country specific SIM. If you buy an Italian SIM and then use it in othe countries, you will have to pay a lot for both incoming and outgoing calls. And you don't stay in each country long enough to make it interesting to buy one SIM for each country.

I think the best option is to buy an international SIM. (You should look at the different providers to compare their rates. There will be no problem with coverage in the countries you listed.) You will get free incoming calls, good rates for outgoing and one single phone number for all countries.

As you don't plan to make a lot of calls, I don't think adding CBW or another callback provider would be useful.

A Vodafone Italy card could be also a good option, using the Passport tariff; it works in France (SFR), Belgium (Proximus) and Holland (Vodafone) so also receive calls would cost 1 euro for half an hour, which is not too bad. Calling Australia would cost anyway quite a lot (1 euro first minute, then 2.40 euro/min...).

So if you plan to call/receive a lot surely a United Mobile sim is the best option. If you just plan to receive some calls (less than 20) I think Vodafone could be a little cheaper. All in all I think UM would be anyway the best choice also for future travels.

Does Vodafone Australia have Passport?

It seems they don't...

No. I've just been looking myself

An attractive feature of United Mobile for an Australian is the fact that Australia is a UM zone 1 country which means you can use it to receive calls for free even in Australia although admitedly people calling you will pay higher rates..

Effendi...I remember reading on the Vodafone IT web site that at least in Italy Vodafone passport would be expiring on 30/06/06..have they extended it?

Finally with vodafone having sold Proximis, will vodafone passport continue working in Belgium?

Voda Passport in Italy is valid till January 31st 2007 (it means it will work till that date, unless prolonged again). I think they will prolong it, anyway.

Proximis has been sold by Vodafone but I think they'll keep on offering Passport there as well as they are doing in Sweden and Japan. Vodafone is expanding its "Passport network" also to other operators which aren't 100% Vodafone.

Thanks everyone for the info. From what you've said it looks like the UM may be best for me.

I have e-mailed them on the 9th and asked if I should order it now (departing in 11 days) or if I can puchase it in Italy after I arrive.

They haven't replied yet (weekend) so if any of you know the answer, could you please let me know?

You cannot purchase UM in Italy, they don't have shops, the only way is to buy it online through their website (maybe using our affiliate link).
You can ask them to deliver it to Italy, it should be cheaper and faster, I suppose. But of course you need an Italian address (I think a hotel could be ok).

Thanks Effendi, I am staying in B&B's so have plenty of Italian addresses.
Will be in Villa Di Piazzano in Cortona Monday 25th, Antica Torre in Firenze Wednesday 27th, etc., so will use one of them.
They still haven't replied to my e-mail ... do you have any idea of delivery time frames?

Usually it takes not more than 1 week to deliver to Italy, but I really cannot say anything more since I have my UM card from a long time..

I topped via this Australian reseller in March. See if they can get you one in good time.

http://www.riiing.com.au/

I'd have to disagree with the international SIM business; it sounds like you're mostly going to be in Italy, in which case an Italian SIM would make a lot of sense.

I've had good results with Vodafone, and if you're interested in coming back, keeping the SIM active means only a 3 euro topup every 10 months, which you can do on their website using a foreign credit card (basic Italian required, however). The Passport option would make sense for placing calls in the other countries; you might be able to use it with your Australian SIM.

Receiving calls is another matter, and you might want to have a look at the rates for using your Australian SIM vs. those for the Italian one while outside of Italy. However, if you're only keeping the phone in case of emergency calls, this shouldn't be such an issue.

Remember that to get an Italian SIM you need a real or fake codice fiscale; see the Italy page for details, and a codice fiscale calcuator. (I figured mine out a few years ago using pen and paper, and used that; when I finally got a real one, which took 10 minutes, it was only slightly different because they included my middle name.)

The OP wrote he is also going by barge from Paris to BE and NL. I think the international card would not be a mistake. In addition, in AU @ home he will have free incoming.

True, but he didn't say how long; it all depends on the amount of time and telephone use. If (as seems likely) it's just a few days on the barge, and he just wants to be reached in case of emergency, it might not be such a big deal to rely on Passport for the occasional outgoing call and let it be known (as he mentioned) that he is to be called only if really necessary.

Sure, an international SIM might be pretty useful, especially if he's going to be placing and receiving lots of calls, and it might be useful later as well. However, for low use, most of it in Italy, and "being reachable in an emergency" an Italian SIM would be cheaper, and easily available, whereas it sounds like there's not enough time to order an international SIM.

TRUE, but the OP says for a month with 10 days in Italy.

Aha, I misread the post. Then an international SIM might be a good idea, if it's still possible to get one.

As it's mentioned that it's not for high use, only emergency, I'd also tend to go with a local rather than global one, as the latter are a fairly high cost for the SIM compared to the credit included.

I agree probably Vodafone because of Passport, so you could make do with just the one, and when outside the SIM's home country an sms could be sent home to get them to call back. Then it's just sms cost plus ?1 per call