Visiting Italy and France

[ahab]

Yeah, the accessibility factor is one of the most important things to me. I guess I'll just wait for now and see how things are looking in a month or so.

Thanks.

[Landis]

Originally Posted by ahab

Yeah, the accessibility factor is one of the most important things to me. I guess I'll just wait for now and see how things are looking in a month or so.

Thanks.

Well, it's really easy to buy SIMs locally in France or Italy, all you need is a picture ID - presto! Takes about 5mins. For example, calling the US with an italian WIND prepaid is 0,5€/min, should be a lot cheaper than using your US phone. Cost for the card itself is 10€ with 5€ of credit included.
I wouldn't recommend using an italian SIM in France, costs are likely to be similar to the roaming charges from your US phone and you'll have some trouble topping up.

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by ahab

Yeah, the accessibility factor is one of the most important things to me. ...............
Thanks.

What do you mean by accessibility? That they be able to reach you at any time?

If you buy a SIM there (say Italy as recommended) and the outbound rate is .5 Euro (not euro cents - 1 Euro is ~ $1.30 so .5 Euros is about 65 US cents), then I recommend that your family calls YOU. You will have free inbound in Italy and they will have to pay intl LD charges to an Italian cell. My guess is with a decent US calling card that will be around $0.30 per minute, perhaps less. It's cheaper to a landline so if you happen to be in the hotel room, they could call you back on a landline #.

TRUE, you will be paying INBOUND fees with the IT SIM card in FR. Top up on your last day in IT.

Stan

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by snaimon

What do you mean by accessibility? That they be able to reach you at any time?

If you buy a SIM there (say Italy as recommended) and the outbound rate is .5 Euro (not euro cents - 1 Euro is ~ $1.30 so .5 Euros is about 65 US cents), then I recommend that your family calls YOU. You will have free inbound in Italy and they will have to pay intl LD charges to an Italian cell. My guess is with a decent US calling card that will be around $0.30 per minute, perhaps less. It's cheaper to a landline so if you happen to be in the hotel room, they could call you back on a landline #.

TRUE, you will be paying INBOUND fees with the IT SIM card in FR. Top up on your last day in IT.

Stan

Stan...just to clearify the euro is indeed broken into 100 units called cents (or referred to outside euroland as euro cents) but something costing 0,50€ would correctly be called 50 cents by some...(of course not .5 euro cents)....

[ahab]

What makes the most sense is probably to get a SIM in Italy, run out most of the minutes, and then one in France. I'm not concerned with paying for a second SIM and any unused minutes--small percentage of the cost of the trip --but I just want to have my cell phone is my primary means of communication.

Of course, it would be easier to have one phone number throughout the trip rather than two, but that means either buying an international SIM or just keeping the Italian one while in France. Either way, still much cheaper than just using Cingular's international roaming.