All the major cell phone carriers offer an international calling plan. These plans can get pretty expensive, that's why I chose not to use one. But if you are planning on using this plan, the cost will depend on your cell phone carrier. First of all, in order for the international plans to work, you need a smart phone. This means you either need a Droid, iPhone, Verizon Wireless' plan starts at $1.29 per minute for Italy with no monthly fee and text messages are priced $0.50 per sent message and $0.05 per received message (verizonwireless.com). AT&T’s international calling plan is about $1.39 per minute of Italy and $0.50 per sent message (att.com). This is why, unless you are pathetically addicted to your phone and you have a lot of money to waste, you should probably consider alternative options.
I constantly use Skype because my boyfriend and I have been long distance for about four years now. So when deciding how to contact home, I knew Skype would be my life-saver. I love how it’s absolutely free to video chat with anyone in the world. There are no catches and no hidden fees for video calling. However, because of the seven hour time difference between the States and Italy, it can sometimes be hard to catch the person that you are trying to video chat when they are near a computer. This is why I also purchased a calling subscription through Skype so you can call the person on their cell phone through your computer. Unlimited calls to North America through Skype costs only $7.99 a month! (skype.com). It’s a fantastic deal if you are planning to go to Italy for the semester. If you are just going for the 5-week program, you can still get a great deal through Skype. You can establish a pay-per-minute plan where you just load money onto your account when you run out of minutes. Skype offers calling to the US from Italy for just 2.3 cents per minute (skype.com). You can add money onto your account in increments of $10.00, so if you added $10.00 onto your Skype account, that would give you roughly 435 minutes to connect to the States.
The University of Mary also purchased some European cell phones for you to use during your time in Italy. The phones are pre-paid, so you have to load money onto them to get minutes. You will mostly use this phone for calling your classmates in Italy. There will be 5 minutes loaded onto your phone when you first get it, but depending on how often you use it, you may have to load more on. The gelateria down the hill from Al Casaletto sells these phone cards. you can go there and they will load the minutes onto your phone for you, or you can go to Vodafone. Vodafone is like Italy’s Verizon Wireless. This is the carrier these phones are under, and there is a location conveniently located near the campus. I usually loaded my phone here because the workers spoke a little bit of English. You can also use this phone to contact the United States. It’s more expensive than Skype ($0.15 per minute), but it’s really convenient when you’re traveling and you don’t want to bring your computer. When you receive this phone, you will also receive an EDIcard. This is just like a phone card, but in order to reach the United States, you have to connect through the number on the card. This card gives you about 300 minutes for free; all you have to pay for is $5.00 for the card and the minutes you load onto your Vodafone account.
This may be a little confusing at first, but they’ll explain everything and help you when you get there. Just know there are other options besides spending an arm and a leg on your cell phone’s international plan.
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