mzzxx11

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a TIM sim card to use during my visit to Rome.

Is there a TIM shop at FCO airport? if so, where?

what's the procedure like for purchasing a sim?

lastly, for a 4-5 day visit, any suggestions which plan to go with?

Cheers

Forrest Bump

Yup, T1 - B gates, airside.
Check the prepaid deals.

mzzxx11

Thanks.

I'm planning to buy on arrival, not while departing.

Any TIM shops around public arrivals area?

Cheers

Forrest Bump

Not sure about landside, but on arrival you should still be able to walk to the airside shops.

mzzxx11

Thanks.

According to this: http://goo.gl/pBMcbS
sims can be bought only airside, otherwise downtown.

Forrest Bump

Yes, but depending on your arrival gate, you still may be able to walk your way to the store, before leaving the airside area.

mzzxx11

Trip update: went to the TIM shop at Gate B airside and purchased a sim + voice + data package all together for 20EUR. However, I was told the package allows 5GB of data but after 4 days of light usage it seemed my internet traffic has stopped (allowance exceeded?).

Also, connection in 3G Rome was intermittent, and I had to restart the phone now and then to get the internet back. Overall, not too bad but could be better.

Cheers

Ross0

I've seen recent reports that there is a TIM SIM card kiosk landside, can anyone confirm? I'm landing in FCO next month and would like to buy a SIM on arrival.

thanks

JBD

Last report I read here was from June.
(The link brings you to his specific post): http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26710245-post207.html

Perche

There was a major T3 rebuild for departures that opened December 1st. I don't think any earlier posts about TIM store availability at T3 departure areas can be relied upon without an updated post.

To answer the question about buying a SIM on arrival, it is important to know what the arrival terminal is. There are four terminals at FCO. I don't know why they are called T1, T2, T3, and T5, and skipped over T4. Two of the four have no TIM store at all.

Ross0

Thanks, arriving on AA from US, so I believe T5.

Perche

Terminal 5 is only for departures. I sympathize with the confusion. After a nearly sleepless night in Rome (that I would rather forget) I made the same mistake.

Early in the morning I told the taxi driver to take me to the airport. He said, "which airline," and I told him AA, without paying attention. He took me to T5, the AA terminal, which was completely closed. I was out on the sidewalk before I noticed that all of the doors into T5 were locked, and would be, until late afternoon.

As I gradually woke up I realized that I was leaving on an AA ticket, but the route was BA-LHR-AA-LAX-SFO, which would mean T3. I completely screwed up. There is no way to get from T5 to T3 on foot, so I called the FCO airport telephone line, and they told me that there was a shuttle for workers that comes every hour that goes from one terminal to another, even if it is closed because workers still need to go.

I waited outside on the street in January for about an hour or so, freezing, and eventually took the workers' bus from completely closed down T5, to T3. Thank goodness for my habit of getting to the airport early.

Investigate further. You are probably arriving at T3? TIM has different stores airside, landslide, and Terminal dependent, so the answer really depends on that.

Cris L

I was under the impression that you could only purchase an Italian SIM card if you had Italian ID AND address?

i was refused about 10 years back, and a very good friend who moved there about 4 years ago and has Italian Passport was likewise refused, before he had proof of address!

JBD

If you're flying next month then I'm assuming you're on AA718, PHL-FCO.

I was almost positive that you'd be arriving in T3, but I just checked to be sure. And on AA.com and another flight tracking website it is incorrectly showing T5 as the arrival terminal - so that's probably where you got the bad info. But T5 is a terminal only set up for departures if flying directly to the US or Israel.

But then I tried another tracking site, and see today's flight showing arrival at T3:
http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...ate=2016-12-22

Of course this doesn't address the question of whether there'll be a TIM store/or kiosk there.

As of right now, ADR has yet to update their shopping map since last May when this was posted. You'll see in that link my post quoted in the post from pcharles, with the link to the stores in T3 Arrivals. I had seen then as I do now, that there's a TIM store in T3 Arrivals, but apparently that wasn't the case as noted by pcharles.

Sorry I'm not of more help, I'm anxious to hear a current report too. Good luck!

JBD

Regarding purchasing a prepaid SIM in Italy, you only need to show your passport, and generally the store will then generate the Codice Fiscale. If not you can obtain one yourself easily enough online.

It sounds like you're describing attempts to open an ongoing billable account? Or were both you and your friend only trying to buy a prepaid SIM too?