Any help on this would be appreciated, as I've found nothing in other forums:

I'm spending 5 months living in Italy during the week and traveling through Europe on the weekends. I have a T-Mobile BB 8700 in the US right now that I had unlocked...I'm looking for the best international roaming plan for unlimited data and texts

Do I keep my US plan w/ T-Mobile and expand it to international for 5 months?
or
Do I purchase a SIM card through a local phone company like Vodaphone once I get to Italy?

Can't find prices on data plans in Italy anywhere. I'm nervous they won't sell me the SIM card flat out or their unlimited data plans will be too expensive.

Again, any insight would be great. Thanks .

-Tom

Hi Tom!

This is just a shot in the dark, but I did find through the blackberry website that Vodafone & TIM are 8700 series service providers.

I was hoping to find some prices but the problem is I don't understand the language. Maybe someone else here does.

I even tried the AltaVista Babelfish, but I am clueless.

Here are the webpages I found though...I hope someone else can be better help.

Vodafone

TIM

Here is the blackberry page that had the service providers listed:

BlackBerry

Hi Tom
I'm from Italy and I have two BB data plan , one for personal use with Tim and one provided from my work with Vodafone.
Tim in Italy is the best provider for the BB service , with 23 euro for month you have push mail and an internet data plan for 200 Mb ; for to active the BB service you must call 800988119 (from your Tim sim) and demand to turn on the service (it's immediatly , you only leave your IMEI a PIN device number) , remember also to ask them express to activate to you the unlocking the BB browser (otherwise you can only navigate with the wap service).I don't know the cost for the international BB traffic , ask them for it.
Remembers also that the cost (23 euro) scalings from your sim credit monthly and you must have a 25 euro residual credit on it after recharge , otherwise you pay at consumption.
When you want turn off the service , you must recall the 800988119 and ask it them , beyond it makes you to unlock the device.
Vodafone have only a 20 euro/month rechargable subscription for only 100 mb push mail (international I don't know) not internet plan included.
Excuse me for my bad english and if you speaks italian I can explain it to you better.

oopss.. I forgot
If you are interested only push mail without internet data plan , with Tim the monthly cost it's only 15 euro

That Site has an english version.
Vodafone



Good luck

I traveled to Italy/Germany for only 10 days, but found T-Mobile to be the best deal for international data. I could never get a straight answer out of Cingular if the data was unlimited or charged by the kb. I didn't want to chance it.
With TM I had unlimited data and web surfing. It synced to our BES flawlessly. The coverage was excellent all through southern Germany and Northern Italy. It roamed on several other networks (vodaphone was one, dont remember the others) without any problems.
I added the international plan mid month, turned it off when i got back and the cost was prorated (29.95/month additional if I remember right)

For voice I bought a United Mobile sim card that I put in when I needed to make or receive voice calls. It has free incoming calls to Lichenstein (or Isle of Man - don't recall which). I then signed up for an account at callbackworld.com. The final cost for calls was about .10 -.12/minute I think. It had an 888 inbound number also.

If you don't want to switch sims, carry two devices.

I could not find a prepaid sim that has unlimited data.
PM me if you want some good info on the United Mobile Sims.

Hope this helps
Dan

I don't think you'll find a prepaid SIM that comes with unlimited Blackberry data.

As for Cingular, if you get their unlimited international Blackberry data you get unlimited data usage while traveling internationally. You're only charged by the KB if you don't have the international BB data plan.

Oh, Duh. I totally overlooked that. It was like 3 in the morning, I can give an excuse. :D