Cellphones in Italy

If you have an AT&T or T-Mobile phone, and it works in Italy, you should be able just to take the chip that comes with your new Italian cellphone account, exchange it for the one in your phone from home, and be good to go, right? Wrong.

Your home service provider will try to keep you from doing this, and the first step is that every cellphone in the U.S. is sold "locked"—which means you can't swap chips. I mean, physically you can—the "lock" is a bit of programming code—but the phone won't work.

What you need is the "unlock code"—a simple set of digits you punch into your phone to unlock it forever.

You phone company will do everything in its power to keep you from learning this code, even though they have it readily available. They will swear up and down they cannot provide it, or they will tell you the code has to come from the manufacturer, so you should contact Motorola (or whatever).

They are filthy, stinking, greedy liars. They can get the code, send it to you in an email or text message, easily. They are simply trained to stonewall you for as long as possible, hoping you will give up.

You think I'm joking. I am not. Ever try to get out of that two-year calling plan you're locked into (or, for that matter, a gym membership)? Yeah, it's like that.

Pester the heck out of them long enough, and—with one glaring exception—they will give in.

That glaring exception: an AT&T iPhone

As of the iPhone 4S, T-Mobile (immediately), Sprint (immediately) and Verizon (after you've been a customer in good standing for 60 days) will unlock your iPhone.

However, AT&T still categorically refuses to unlock an iPhone—for now, at least. As an AT&T iPhone user, this annoys the !@#$% out of me.

You can buy an unlocked iPhone in other countries, but since the price isn't being subsidized by AT&T or Verizon, it'll cost you a monstrous $900 (in Italy, around €620 for the cheapest model) or more to buy one.

If you have an iPhone or Android phone, just forgo the 3G and cellular antennas entirely. Put it into airplane mode (which turns off all antennas), then switch on ONLY the WiFi by itself. You can now use any stray WiFi signal to make Skype calls—for free! It's what I do.

This is a pretty straightforward exercise: simply rent a world phone (and the accompanying short-term service plan) and don't worry about the details.

It's not the cheapest option—per minute rates are a bit richer than they would be if you bought an Italian phone outright (see below)—but it's far cheaper than using your own phone and home account, and is by a long shot the easiest way to get a mobile that will work in Italy.

There are many companies that provide this service—heck, rent a car with consolidator AutoEurope (www.autoeurope.com) and they'll usually throw in a GSM cell phone for free (you still pay for the minutes you use, just the rental is free).

Otherwise, research the best deal for you—with some you buy the phone and its good for life, with others you rent it—with any of the following recommended services:

• www.cellularabroad.com
• www.mobal.com
• www.telestial.com

How it works is simple. They'll provide a phone that works in Italy, a number for people to call, and you can rest easy.

You can get a standard phone, a smartphone with a data plan, or even (with Cellular Abroad) a MyiFi roving hotpsot so you can go online at will with your existing laptop or Smartphone. (Good way to depoly the WiFi: Use it, and a Skype app on your smartphone, to make free calls.)

Most home phone and cell phone services allow you to forward calls, so you can set it up to have your rented cellphone ring in Italy when people call your regular phone number(s) back home. Neat.

Useful Italian
cellulare - cellphone
telefonino - cellphone
ricarica - "recharge" (money)Almost as cheap as renting—and probably a better idea if you plan to travel abroad more than once in the next few years—is simply to buy your own world phone with an international plan.

You can buy an international phone and plan from the merchants listed above under "rentals":

• www.cellularabroad.com
• www.mobal.com
• www.telestial.com

Or, as is says above under the picture at the top of the page, stop into any Italian cell phone merchant (the biggest: TIM, Vodafone, Wind) and buy the cheapest phone available along with a pay-as-you-go plan (called a ricaricabile, or "rechargeable" one).

Finding a mobile phone store is not hard. Airports and major train stations usually have them, and these offices in particular are extremely accustomed to setting up an account for foreigners. Otherwise, just wander any downtown for more than five minutes and you'll pass half a dozen competing mobile phone retailers.

Within 15 minutes, you'll be back on the street with a brand new phone—and your own, personal Italian phone number.

How to keep your Italian mobile phone working

Charge it every night :-)

No, what I really mean is how to keep the phone account topped up with money so you can keep making calls. Your rechargeable account will come with a certain amount of time/money on it. (In Italy, you use up Euros, not minutes, as you chat.)

You can easily add more to the account as you use it up at just about any tabacchi (tobacconists; same place you get bus tickets), most bars, and many newsstands (or online using your credit card), and anywhere you see a sticker for your carrier's symbol on the merchant's door.

Or just go into any of those establishments hold up your cellphone, and say the name of the carrier in a questioning voice ("teem?", "vodaphone?", or "weend?").

There are tips for using your cellphone abroad—including, crucially, the fine print on international roaming details (last updated May 2009, but still useful) for every major U.S. carrier—in this article at Cnet.com.