My husband and I have tri-band AT&T cell phones. We can add international roaming to our plan, then take it back off when we return.

Has anyone had experience using an AT&T cell in Italy, Rome specifically? We did this successfully for a trip to Mexico a few months ago. But I seem to remember a thread on one of the forums I read about someone not being able to get a cell signal in Italy with their phone, even though their provider (AT&T?) said their phone would work, and they had signed up for international roaming.

Thanks,
Carol

I could not get a signal in Rome after I signed up for AT&T roaming.

I had to make a special trip with my husband to the phone store to get the service because my husband has the account holder to authorize the roaming, then it didn't work.

I have a ATT quad band and did get service in Italy. On my last trip I had my ATT and I also had a European tri-band for calls within Italy.

If you are willing to pay the dollar per minute rate for the ATT it might be OK to try it over there. I had signed up for the plan with ATT that didn't cost any extra each month but did cost more per minute.

Do you know what European frequency your phones can operate on? YOu can probably find out by typing in the model number on www.CNET.com and then looking at the specifications for your phone.

You can go to www.Prepaidgsm.net and find which operators can operate on the frequency your phone has. That still may not assure you that you will get reception over there, though.

You could buy a cheap european triband on Ebay and get an Italian SIM and you will be assured that you'll have phone coverage in Italy. That's what I did on my last trip there.

Bill

Mine worked fine last year...Sorrento, Rome, Florence, the teensy town of Vanzo, Venice, Verona...I never had a problem. In fact, I had better reception there than I do in Morro Bay!

Also, when I called to activate roaming, AT&T said I already had it, no extra charge.

Thanks, all.
I think we'll give it a try - and if it ends up not working, the we'll complain when we get back.

Here is an article with some background information on the different bands used. US uses 850/1900, Mexico uses 1900 and Europe uses 900/1800.

A US tri-band phone typically has 850/1800/1900 bands. A European tri-band phone has 900/1800/1900 bands. If your phone has the 850/1800/1900 bands - it will only work in areas in Italy that area covered by 1800. Chances are it will probably work but a quad band would give you coverage for all 4 bands and you would be more assured of it working.

Good luck.

I am curious if ATT charges per minute also to RECEIVE calls? Or only to make calls?

Perhaps I was the one that wrote about NOT being able to use the A T & T phones that we were told would work in Europe...since that time we've gotten newer phones and they work great in Europe. Haven't been to Rome, but recently were in several northern Italian cities and had no problem receiving calls and email.
Happy travels-
Anne

I just returned from three week sojourn (Florence, Vernazza, Rome) and got excellent reception everywhere from my AT & T phone. No problems whatsoever. I signed up for the International plan and my calls were .59 cents per minute if I recall correctly. My phone was a Motorola Razr2 V9.

Since my experience with AT&T, I bought a quad band Razr on ebay, and a Global SIM from Telestial. Calls to the US at 49 (dollar) cents per min. Autorefill off my credit card when min get low.
If you have to buy a new phone rather than using your existing one, consider just getting a SIM card (global one or local Italian one).

quote:

I am curious if ATT charges per minute also to RECEIVE calls? Or only to make calls?

I would say yes since that is the practice of all cell providers in the US.

Based on my experience in March, AT&T does charge per minute to receive calls. We used our cell phone successfully in Bologna, Perugia (and rural Umbria) and Rome. Because my cell phone is used sparingly (emergencies, grocery shopping(obviously a male), we were not concerned about receiving a lot of calls so the cost was fairly modest based on our limited use.

quote:

Originally posted by Fibonacci:

quote:

I am curious if ATT charges per minute also to RECEIVE calls? Or only to make calls?

I would say yes since that is the practice of all cell providers in the US.

They do charge, but if you don't answer, there's no charge (so you don't have to worry about getting killed by your normal calls from home).

I was just in Florence with my iPhone and had signed up for the $6 / mo phone coverage (+$1 / min) and $25 for 20 mb data usage.

The phone service worked well but the data was a disaster. At first I didn't understand that what I had paid $25 for was the right for "Data roaming." Trying to clarify that took me a trip to the 1-and-only apple store in Florence (no help - except the guy telling me that one of his colleagues went to Germany w/o a roaming contract and it cost him eu 400 for 2 days. Finally I went on line and had a very frustrating "conversation" with a person who didn't know the basics either. After about an hour, it was clarified that I what I had paid for was 20 mb of data roaming. The fun wasn't over: 20 mb is tiny! (I had reset my "usage" statistics so I could monitor it). Then my iPhone wouldn't charge on Italian electricity (haven't found out why yet) so it soon died. What could have been a very big help (GPS for instance) turned out to be pretty much a zero.

Yes, it is generally a bad, bad, bad idea to do any out of country data roaming with any US mobile plan. I've heard some real horror stories.

Depending on the length and frequency of travel, it's often cheaper and easier in the long run to either unlock your phone or buy an unlocked phone specifically for traveling, and buy pay-as-you-go SIM cards for the countries you visit.

This is not first-hand info, but from someone I sat next to on the plane back from home the other day.

She told me she had an AT&T tri-band phone and couldn't get it to work in Italy.

OP with update on how the phones worked in Italy. My husband's worked - mine may not have. I never tried to call out, but friend who had both our numbers tried calling mine first and wasn't able to get through. I texted our teenaged children and got no replies - but that may be them, rather than the phone!

We had the international roaming activated to be able to call one another if we got separated and for our families back home to be able to reach us in emergencies. If mine wasn't working, it wouldn't have helped in the first situation.

Both phones did work in London.

Thanks for the followup AmicaItalia.