Experience getting prepaid in Italy - April 2011
 

I just came back from Italy and I'd like to share my experience. I first opted for coop.voce in which you can only find that in IperCoop. I stopped by one of the places (in Perugia). The sale rep was nice and asked me for documentation. I provided him my passport and he spent about 20 minutes typing info into computer and talking with someone over the phone. After that he informed me that I cannot get the card. I then opted for TIM mobile and the process repeated (another 15-20 minutes including photocopying my passport). He also asked for address in Italy (I provided the address of the hotel). At the end I got the TIM and used that with the TIMxSMARTPHONE which was great overall, and I could use Skype all the time. What is weird is that in some places, I got no reception inside a place (e.g. a restaurant) at all.

In any event, taking my passport and getting documenation is not a true prepaid. The whole idea of prepaid is with no registration whatsoever.

In Italy, as well as in several other countries, you must register in order to use a prepaid card. That's totally normal. If you had a Codice Fiscale with you you wouldn't have thos problems with not-so-smart clerks at the phone shops. ;)

No, the whole idea with Prepaid SIM cards is that you pay before you call, instead of after. That's why it's called PREpaid. It's all about paying before or after, not passports or registation.

I agree. Fact is that the US is just more lax than a lot of other countries about giving out prepaid cards. In some countries, you have to register just to use the internet at an internet cafe. Although, come to think of it, I went to an internet cafe in Northern Italy last week to print out a boarding pass and they didn't make me register, as they did in the past, so maybe they've changed the rules.