Study Abroad in Italy: Phone Plans

Words and photos by Anika Woelffer, our Jetsetter Journalist who is studying abroad in Sorrento, Italy, during Spring semester 2024.

Before studying abroad, I was worried about my phone plan and if/how I would get service. My American phone plan doesn't offer an international service and many other providers can be pretty expensive. I recently got the iPhone 15 which only allows electronic SIM cards and I wasn't sure if Italy offered those plans. Even though I was told by Apple employees that I'd be able to purchase an e-sim in Italy, I was still nervous since I didn't know how or if they truly did offer them. 

Turns out, Italy does offer e-sim cards. In case you are studying in Sorrento and it’s helpful, the phone plan I got was from “TIM”.

They have a store about a 10-minute walk from campus and it was super easy to set up. All I had to do was go into the store with my passport and purchase a plan. They don't have many options which makes it easy to pick.  It was €45 to activate the plan plus one month of data. I went through about 11-15GB of data a month and had to load €9 every month to keep it activated. They have a mobile app that makes it easy to reload, but it's all in Italian. In total, I spent around €75 euros on TIM for my time abroad, and I know that's around the same price for one month to keep your American phone plan. TIM worked all over Europe, and I only ran into trouble when I was in Africa. They don't offer international plans, so I had to purchase 3 GB for $20 on an app called Airlo, which was a little pricey, but necessary. 

  Map: The walk from Sant’Anna Institute

My Italian phone plan worked just like an American one except I wasn't able to call anyone back home unless I used WhatsApp. It was great for data and I could do everything without wifi (except call and Facetime). If I was on wifi, the calling problem went away, but I only needed the plan for my apps anyway so it wasn't a problem.

Now even though my Italian phone plan worked great, I did run into some issues. For starters, I wasn't able to use my American phone number. I ran into some trouble with this when it came to verifications on apps that used my American number. Since I had that line turned off, I didn't receive any of those notifications, which was frustrating. So, if you were thinking about purchasing an Italian phone plan, I would change important verification sites (banking apps, email accounts, etc.) to a parent's number where they can receive the code. Another thing to mention is that you won't receive any calls unless someone calls you on WhatsApp. Lastly, if someone doesn't have WhatsApp, you won't be able to call them. I ran into trouble with this when I was trying to call my apartment because they don't have a WhatsApp number. 

In the end, I recommend getting an Italian phone plan if you are looking to save a decent amount of money or if your American phone plan does not offer international service. Even though there were some downsides, they only affected me a handful of times and I could always find solutions.