Calling and texting abroad from the UK

silkkat50

Hi there everybody!!

I have something which i hope you can help me with, I have a 16 year old lad coming to stay with us from italy, and his parents have told us that he cannot be without his phone, as most teenagers!! (and me..)

He arrives at five o'clock today but to be honest i didnt even think about what he would be charged to call and text ppl from here to italy..

Does anyone know they charges and if there is any international pay as you go mobile packages?

Any info would be fantastic thanks!!

macman

Rather difficult to say without knowing what network he is on!
He can go to the website of his Italian provider and the roaming charges will be given there, or he can phone their CS and ask-would have be cheaper to have done this before departing though.

Bob_the_Saver

Don't forget they're capped now by EU regs. 43 euro cents per min max

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8010352.stm

Anyway the speed the Italians talk he should only be on for 20 seconds
(ONLY JOKING)

redux

Most European networks now have the standard Eurotariff, unless the customer has some other optional package. So rates should be no more than 43 cents outgoing and 19 receiving, text messages 11 cents, all plus VAT.

Other options depend on which network he is on. Vodafone Italy probably has an equivalent to Passport, which has a connection fee per call, then same tariffs as at home. 3 Italy may still have an equivalent of Like Home, though 3 UK have phased theirs out. TIM, I don't know any options. Wind has a very interesting add-on called Easy Roaming, which charges €6 a month, then calls to or from Italy drop to 15 cents a minute after the 1st minute; it can be activated by text message or while logged in to the website.

For text messages, although 12 or 13 cents is a lot cheaper than before, it could still mount up if he gets busy. There are mobile Java programs such as Fishtext, which send via data instead, charging 2 to 4 cents per message, plus about half a cent to the network for the data cost.

If he's also going to make a lot of calls to people here, it could be worth getting a UK SIM too, and lend him an old phone

And of course if you haven't done so already, you can look up the MSE Callchecker for cheap calls to Italy from your landline, starting under a penny a minute to landlines