Trip to Italy, 6 week duration, 80+ year old user. Need pointers.
July 23, 2013 7:42 PM Subscribe
My mother is travelling to Italy (lots of relatives there) and would like to have basic cell phone access while there. I need to work out the details before she leaves in September.
Her first part of the trip is with a tour group in the areas near Vicenza, Padua and Venice. Part 2 of the trip she will be staying with her sister in the Trentino area farther north. The main idea is for her to have a way to call out infrequently and be reached for short calls. If longer calls are necessary, she would find a land-line. The phone has a camera and she will be taking pics.
Her phone is a rather old AT&T Z331 (or sometimes called a ZTE A331), but according to the AT&T site, it is international capable so that is good. There will be no need for email, text, web access or anything like that. Just phone and messages and those will be sporadic. The camera stuff is fairly straightforward. I have checked the AT&T site and there are temporary international plans for this phone. Or at least it seemed that way but I could be reading it wrong.
So what am I missing? Any generalized Euro travel tips appreciated. As a general note, I am trying to make this as easy as possible for a senior and my choice would be to use this current phone as opposed to getting something fancier. She is a very basic user and more choices will only lead to confusion. Finally, there seem to be quite a few Europe cell phone questions answered already, but the AT&T roaming seems to be the odd option. I also intend to call AT&T soon to get it setup, but would like to know as much as I can before calling.
Her first part of the trip is with a tour group in the areas near Vicenza, Padua and Venice. Part 2 of the trip she will be staying with her sister in the Trentino area farther north. The main idea is for her to have a way to call out infrequently and be reached for short calls. If longer calls are necessary, she would find a land-line. The phone has a camera and she will be taking pics.
Her phone is a rather old AT&T Z331 (or sometimes called a ZTE A331), but according to the AT&T site, it is international capable so that is good. There will be no need for email, text, web access or anything like that. Just phone and messages and those will be sporadic. The camera stuff is fairly straightforward. I have checked the AT&T site and there are temporary international plans for this phone. Or at least it seemed that way but I could be reading it wrong.
So what am I missing? Any generalized Euro travel tips appreciated. As a general note, I am trying to make this as easy as possible for a senior and my choice would be to use this current phone as opposed to getting something fancier. She is a very basic user and more choices will only lead to confusion. Finally, there seem to be quite a few Europe cell phone questions answered already, but the AT&T roaming seems to be the odd option. I also intend to call AT&T soon to get it setup, but would like to know as much as I can before calling.
Best answer: Confirm with AT&T that her phone is also unlocked from them before she goes. If it is carrier-locked they will need to unlock it. There may be a small fee for this, but you can try and argue that after X-years a fee is not required. By "international capable" they possibly just mean that it's got a SIM or is GSM functional. Then, as three blind mice says, just go into a phone store (or even many grocery stores or tobaccanists if it's like the rest of europe) and ask for a pre-paid card. Make sure she keeps her old sim safe, she will need to switch out when she gets back to the US.
posted by Iteki at 3:36 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by Iteki at 3:36 AM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: Please rig your mom up with simple but higher-definition camera before she goes though. A trip that far, to visit family that she has limited access to deserves documentation that will last a little longer than that camera can reach, if her eyesight deteriorates as she gets older she may want to be able to make big prints of the pics etc.
posted by Iteki at 4:30 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by Iteki at 4:30 AM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: To be honest, my suggestion would be for her to leave her phone at home and get her sister to buy a basic prepaid phone for her before she gets there, if that's at all possible -- maybe have it delivered to her hotel ahead of time if she isn't meeting her at the airport. I would not want to try and walk an 80 year old through unlocking an AT&T phone after she gets over there, especially if she doesn't know italian.
posted by empath at 4:58 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 4:58 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks. All these are great suggestions. I agree with the picture quality thing too although I am doing my best to not make this into a tech puzzle for her. One option would be to go "old school" with the camera using one or a few throwaway cameras. Overall, the general thrust is to limit the number of tech toys as opposed to adding new ones. If there is an existing solution, better to give her something she feels comfortable with. We'll see though.
empath: Fortunately, she has been studying Italian (with a tutor) for the last 9 months and along with growing up in an Italian family where it was spoke daily, she should be more than fine for this trip. I like the throwaway phone idea too. Have you done something like this before? (And yes, I want to avoid at all costs playing the part if International Tech support).
three blind mice, iteki (or anyone): A question about the SIM card though: Should a SIM card be the route to go to make this work, is this something that I can preset here in the US before the trip? The scenario I envision is getting the card, doing a basic setup locally, the removing the card so the phone can be used until departure. On the day of the trip, I would switch out the card before she got on the plane and she would have it ready when she landed. Is this realistic?
fwiw - I do a lot of tech stuff, but phone tech is something I have chosen not to be dependent on for myself over the years. However, dealing with them and getting stuff working is no problem so any tech-speak is not a problem for me, so throw it at me - if I don't get it, I will ask. My job is to translate it down for the user.
posted by lampshade at 12:14 PM on July 24, 2013
empath: Fortunately, she has been studying Italian (with a tutor) for the last 9 months and along with growing up in an Italian family where it was spoke daily, she should be more than fine for this trip. I like the throwaway phone idea too. Have you done something like this before? (And yes, I want to avoid at all costs playing the part if International Tech support).
three blind mice, iteki (or anyone): A question about the SIM card though: Should a SIM card be the route to go to make this work, is this something that I can preset here in the US before the trip? The scenario I envision is getting the card, doing a basic setup locally, the removing the card so the phone can be used until departure. On the day of the trip, I would switch out the card before she got on the plane and she would have it ready when she landed. Is this realistic?
fwiw - I do a lot of tech stuff, but phone tech is something I have chosen not to be dependent on for myself over the years. However, dealing with them and getting stuff working is no problem so any tech-speak is not a problem for me, so throw it at me - if I don't get it, I will ask. My job is to translate it down for the user.
posted by lampshade at 12:14 PM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: I managed to buy a pre paid phone in Madrid not knowing very much Spanish at all. You just go to any of the many phone stores, tell them you want a basic prepaid mobile, and the whole process takes about 15 minutes. The phone I got in Madrid was like 30 euros and included 10 euros worth of minutes, and I had no problems calling the us. You can even recharge minutes on the phone at most ATMs in Spain, I assume its similar in Italy.
posted by empath at 12:24 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by empath at 12:24 PM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: And just as a reference, on the same Spain trip, I watched two genius-level network engineers struggle with getting an 'unlocked' iPhone working with an Orange sim card for FOUR DAYS, when I had my phone i bought there working within a couple hours after landing.
posted by empath at 12:28 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by empath at 12:28 PM on July 24, 2013
Response by poster: I managed to buy a pre paid phone in Madrid
hmmm....this sounding more reasonable now that I am thinking about it. I like the price too.
How would the phone recharge? Did it come with something to plug in the wall?
posted by lampshade at 7:51 PM on July 24, 2013
hmmm....this sounding more reasonable now that I am thinking about it. I like the price too.
How would the phone recharge? Did it come with something to plug in the wall?
posted by lampshade at 7:51 PM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: You mean at the atm? I mean you can buy more minutes for the phone at an atm. You just put in your carrier and phone number. Don't know if that was a spain only thing or a european thing. You charge the power just like a normal phone.
posted by empath at 8:43 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by empath at 8:43 PM on July 24, 2013
Response by poster: Just to follow up. She is going to go with the throwaway camera and get-a-cheap-throwaway-phone-in-Italy route. The reason is that she simply will not take any pictures with the camera she does not feel comfortable using it, which basically translates into "take it out of a bag, point, push a button on top". A camera on a phone is a bit more than she wants to deal with. I would love hi-res pix to come back, but will settle for the resolution hit and just scan them when she gets back and develops them.
Regarding the phone, we are going to have one of our many relatives who live in Italy pre-purchase a pre-paid-throwaway-phone (a variation on what you suggested ericb), get it running and she can pay for it when she gets there. While it probably won't have all the cool gadgets and apps, it will provide the basic reason she needs a phone which is simple communication. Heck, she wouldn't use any of the other stuff anyway and I have a strong suspicion she is going to lose the phone at some point before she returns.
So thanks for the info from everyone. It was good to have a range of options to think about
posted by lampshade at 5:28 AM on July 27, 2013
Regarding the phone, we are going to have one of our many relatives who live in Italy pre-purchase a pre-paid-throwaway-phone (a variation on what you suggested ericb), get it running and she can pay for it when she gets there. While it probably won't have all the cool gadgets and apps, it will provide the basic reason she needs a phone which is simple communication. Heck, she wouldn't use any of the other stuff anyway and I have a strong suspicion she is going to lose the phone at some point before she returns.
So thanks for the info from everyone. It was good to have a range of options to think about
posted by lampshade at 5:28 AM on July 27, 2013
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posted by three blind mice at 8:28 PM on July 23, 2013