Buying a sim to use in Italy

UncleBuck · 30 June 2013 at 10:44AM

I hope someone can provide some advice. Bascially I'm going to Venice and Lake Garda in the near future and I wanted to buy a sim ahead of time if possible (I'm with Virigin Mobile and the 'abroad' packages are way too expensive for the data usage).

I know I can buy one from one of the Italian telecom's but I was hopeing to buy one from one of the companies that advertise on the web.

Thanks in advance for any help :beer:

UB

flavione · 30 June 2013 at 11:15AM

UncleBuck wrote: »

I hope someone can provide some advice. Bascially I'm going to Venice and Lake Garda in the near future and I wanted to buy a sim ahead of time if possible (I'm with Virigin Mobile and the 'abroad' packages are way too expensive for the data usage).
I know I can buy one from one of the Italian telecom's but I was hopeing to buy one from one of the companies that advertise on the web.

When you buy a prepaid sim in Italy, you must register it, with your passport number as well a code which is similar to NIN.
So I'm afraid you can't buy them easily online.

If you're visiting Italy before July 31st, Vodafone Italy is offering 500 mins + 500 texts + 2 Gb for 7.5 euros/month with "Summer Smart 500" option. Coverage is definitely better than Vodafone UK, with DC-HSPA and 4G. :cool:

UncleBuck · 30 June 2013 at 11:52AM

flavione wrote: »

When you buy a prepaid sim in Italy, you must register it, with your passport number as well a code which is similar to NIN.
So I'm afraid you can't buy them easily online.

If you're visiting Italy before July 31st, Vodafone Italy is offering 500 mins + 500 texts + 2 Gb for 7.5 euros/month with "Summer Smart 500" option. Coverage is definitely better than Vodafone UK, with DC-HSPA and 4G. :cool:

Thanks for the great reply :T, coincidentally I was looking at the vodafone site after my posting. Unfortunately we arrive in Venice a short time after the 'Summer Start 500' offer ends

. That said the normal offer plus a top-up package seems to be the order of the day.

flavione · 30 June 2013 at 12:22PM

UncleBuck wrote: »

Thanks for the great reply :T, coincidentally I was looking at the vodafone site after my posting. Unfortunately we arrive in Venice a short time after the 'Summer Start 500' offer ends . That said the normal offer plus a top-up package seems to be the order of the day.

There's Vodafone Unlimited, with unlimited texts and internet (capped at 32kpbs once you use more than 1 GB) at €5.90/month.
Otherwise you can get similar offers both from Tim and Wind.
I would suggest both Vodafone and Tim for coverage though.