I’m going to Milan early next year on vacation from USA and I was thinking about buying a temp plan from my mobile provider TMobile. I’m also considering getting a prepaid tourist sim from either TIM or Windtre. I was wondering what the benefits would be. My phone can use 2 Sims and I would appreciate a local italian number to set up a temporary WhatsApp account but other than that I’m not sure.

  • ֆᎮ⊰◜◟⋎◞◝⊱ֆᎮ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    If your phone is sim unlocked just go find a provider there and get a sim.

    It’s usually way cheaper.

    Actually I just looked up how much those plans cost and I can tell you 100% it would be cheaper to get a SIM card locally.

    • mechanicus@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 month ago

      Awesome! I looked at prices and thought that also. Are there activation charges for a tourist sim?

      • ֆᎮ⊰◜◟⋎◞◝⊱ֆᎮ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        I have no idea about the activation fees but there are usually some form of activation fees regardless.

        On the T-Mobile site it showed $180 a month for 5 GB of data usage for a month. I’m pretty sure you can find unlimited data usage for 30ish bucks in Italy.

        Just get something that’s prepaid. I think €20 gets you 40 GB ballpark. You also get the benefit of getting a local number so you can make phone calls locally without any charges. Cell phone providers in North America are scum. I’m in Canada and we probably pay the most for our mobile phone plans in the world.

    • ABluManOnLemmy@feddit.nl
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      1 month ago

      I’d say normally yes, but Italy has abnormally cheap data plans. Local data is probably going to be cheaper than eSIM apps in this case. This might also apply to traveling to other places in the EU (buying an Italian eSIM - but check that it can be activated outside of Italy first)