Travelling through USA

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by Ellina

Hi, we're goin to travel through West USA for 15-20 days.
We would like to call Italy (and receive calls) at a cost less expensive than those offered by our mobile company in Italy. It would be interesting to navigate also with our Iphone to look for motels along the road.

Can you suggest us a good solution? An USA-sim? What else?
For internet connection we should use wi-fi but we wouldn't be in main cities for a long time and so a connection should be more useful.

Well, 'West USA' is pretty big and I suspect there will be many places with no data when outside 'civilisation.'

I am going to suggest TRU truphone.com . Check them out. They work on both the T-Mobile and the larger AT&T network. At times data won't work and at other times it might be slow. But this might be the best and easiest option.

Here are their rates in the US and calls to Italy.
For an Italian resident
When in USA:

Calls to local landlines will be charged at: €0.11/min
Calls to local mobiles will be charged at: €0.11/min
Receiving a call will be charged at: €0.11/min
Sending an SMS will be: €0.09/sms
Receiving an SMS will be: FREE
Data usage will be: €0.22/MB

And when calling back home to Italy
Calls to Landlines will be charged at: €0.11/min
Calls to Mobiles will be charged at: €0.24/min
Sending an SMS will be: €0.11/sms
Rates shown for all other currencies are inclusive of tax / VAT.

Hopefully, others will see this and confirm or reject this suggestion. The data rate is probably about the best that you can get easily as someone in Europe.

Hopefully you have not left yet.

[princess]

You haven't mentioned what you are paying in Italy. Anyway, if you come to US, get a suitable prepaid plan from Truconnect. I have been using it since 10 months. No hassles of an expensive fixed monthly plan. TruConnect charges only for the actual usage. It’s great for the occasional users.