TIM Italy Review: Not the Best Anymore, but Still Good (+Speedtests)

In March 2022, I decided to go on a trip again.

In March 2021, when I returned from Taiwan after a year, I felt like going out again because I had been at home for a year.

And travel restrictions were being lifted left and right.

So, what is the best way to catch up on a year of lost travel time?

Visit as many countries as you can within a month.

I visited Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Italy, Malta, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia & Slovenia.

Intense? Yes – I was exhausted for weeks… but it was worth it.

Because I (re-)tested 41 local SIM cards, like TIM Italy, Airalo's Eurolink Europe eSIM, Nomad's Europe eSIM & SimCorner's Europe travel SIM cards.

If you have read any of my SIM card buying guides before, like the Italian one, or watched a YouTube video of mine, you know that I am crazy enough to buy and test so many SIM cards.

If this is your first Phone Travel Wiz review – welcome.

I buy and test all/most SIM cards in a country and tell you which ones are the best so that you do not have to 😎.

You may have already read some blogs or articles saying that TIM Italy is the best.

But is that true? The only way to find out is to test TIM Italy and compare it with the other Italian SIM cards (Wind Tre (formerly Wind and Tre), Vodafone Italy & Iliad).

And that is what I did – and I will share my experience in this review.

Let's get started, shall we?

Original publication: 18^th of May 2022. Last updated: 15^th of January 2024.

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Table of Contents

Who is TIM Italy?

Worry not; I will not cover the history of TIM Italy in-depth, including the list of CEOs.

That would bore you… and me too.

However, I do want to introduce you to TIM Italy quickly.

TIM, standing for Telecom Italia Mobile, is the second-largest mobile operator in Italy.

It used to be the largest mobile operator in the country for literal years.

That was until Wind Italia and Tre (3) Italia merged into Wind Tre in 2016, but the Wind Tre brand name was not adopted until 2020.

TIM Italy is part of Gruppo TIM, which is active in Brazil as TIM Brasil and in San Marino as TIM San Marino as of February or March 2022.

That is all the history I will give you – see, I told you it would not be too bad😜 Anyway…

In Italy, you have four mobile operators, which I will list in order of market share:

• Wind Tre (formerly Wind and Tre)
• TIM Italy
• Vodafone Italy
• Iliad

Of course, I tested the other three mobile operators during my trip to Italy in March. You can read them here: Wind Tre review, Vodafone Italy review & Iliad review.

You also have plenty of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) in Italy, such as Coop Voce, Lycamobile Italy & Kena Mobile.

Speaking of Kena Mobile, it is a discount sub-brand by TIM Italy (to compete with Iliad, which offers 210 GB for only 10 EUR a month. Yes… 210 GB!).

While Kena Mobile is cheaper than TIM Italy itself, you will have to deal with a speed restriction of 60 Mbps download and 30 Mbps upload.

And you cannot use 5G NR with Kena Mobile (yet).

While TIM Italy used to be the juggernaut in the country, being the best overall mobile operator, it has slacked over the years.

It is currently the slowest mobile operator in Florence and Naples – even slower than Iliad, the newcomer.

But do not be upset yet (actually, why would you be upset about a corporation that has no interest in you?); it is currently winning the 5G NR race by being the fastest.

So perhaps TIM Italy will redeem itself this decade.

I will tell you more about TIM Italy speed later.

But we have to cover something else first before I even talk about prices and plans, which is the coverage experience with TIM Italy – after these quick frequency details:

• 2G: 900 MHz & 1800 MHz
• 3G: 900 MHz & 2100 MHz
• 4G/LTE: 800 MHz (Band 20), 1500 MHz (Band 32), 1800 MHz (Band 3) & 2600 MHz (Band 7)
• 5G NR: 3700 MHz (n78)
• VoLTE: Yes
• VoWiFi: No

Here you have TIM Italy's APN settings:

• Name: WAP TIM
• APN: wap.tim.it

Note: leave anything not mentioned above untouched.

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TIM Italy Coverage + My Experience

You can have a mobile operator providing you 1 Gbps download speeds.

But if it covers only one street in the entirety of Italy, it will be useless.

So, how is TIM Italy's coverage?

It is the best – according to Speedtest, which awarded TIM Italy the Italy Speedtest Best Mobile Coverage award.

Opensignal also claimed that TIM Italy has the best 4G/LTE coverage experience (9.2 on a 10-point scale) – on par with Vodafone Italy and Wind Tre.

If you want to know about TIM Italy's 5G NR coverage, I have to disappoint you – it is the worst of the Big Four.

Really – Opensignal states that TIM Italy has a 5G NR availability of 1.9% of the time – even Iliad scores better (2.7%).

But Wind Tre is winning the race for now (22.9%), followed by Vodafone Italy (8.1%)

TIM Italy is also losing the 5G NR reach race, with a score of 0.7 – far behind Wind Tre's 4.6 and behind Vodafone Italy (2.5) and Iliad (0.9).

Even the TIM Italy employee, who I bought my SIM card from, said that 5G NR is useless (in Rome) when I asked for a 5G NR-enabled plan.

So yeah, they know.

But so far, I have been talking about coverage from other reports, but what was my coverage experience with TIM Italy?

Honestly, it was good – I had nothing to complain about.

Reception on the metro was quite okay too, especially compared to TIM Italy's competitors, but there were blackouts here and there.

Apparently, TIM's coverage is not as great as in Milan because mobile operators are somewhat limited on where they can build towers.

The TIM Italy employee gave a funny example explaining that metro lines and building new buildings can take a long time because you can somehow stumble upon an ancient sword, and construction will have to be halted for a while.

Anyway, here you have a TIM Italy coverage map:

Now, let's talk about actually getting a TIM Italy SIM card.

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How to Get a TIM Italy SIM Card & Prices

Now that you have gotten all that background information, it is now time to talk about how to actually get a TIM Italy SIM card.

In the previous section, I already mentioned that I got my TIM Italy SIM card from a TIM Italy employee, implying that I visited a TIM Italy store.

And that is correct – you have to visit a TIM Italy store to get your TIM Italy SIM card.

That is because of the SIM card registration laws in Italy – SIM card registration is mandatory.

You just have to present your passport (or ID if you are from another European Union nation).

• Find out which countries have SIM card registration regulations and what is required from you (lookup tool)

Italian SIM cards are not sold by third parties, like grocery stores or convenience stores like in many other (European) countries.

I bought my TIM Italy SIM card at Rome Termini train station, which has always been a train station but has become a mall in recent years.

But here is a store locator in case you visit another place in Italy.

You actually have two TIM Italy stores at the train station – one on the ground floor and one on level -1.

I went to the one on the ground floor because the one on level -1 was closed somehow, even though it was supposed to still be open.

Apparently, the lone employee who manned the store went upstairs to help the guy on the ground floor because something was wrong with the system.

Before I tell you how much SIM cards costs, I need to inform you about the… new SIM card process in Italy.

Well, it is not really a process, but every mobile operator has a policy, you could say.

You see, when you buy an Italian SIM card, it always has to be done in combination with a plan.

That is fair – no problem… Except for the fact that there is an activation fee you need to pay too.

Now, my Italian is not the best, but let's try to analyze this receipt.

I got a plan that cost 19.90 EUR (I will talk more about plans later).

I will list all the prices in EUR (Euro).

To convert EUR to your currency (let's say GBP – (British) Pound (Sterling)) with up-to-date exchange rates, use the Wise Currency Converter tool.

Disclaimer: the SIM card prices mentioned in the review were current when I was in Italy – the offering and prices may have changed since then. To see TIM Italy's current starter packs, check out my Italy SIM card buying guide.

The SIM card itself seems to costs only 3.30 EUR.

But TIM Italy will never just sell you a SIM card – it has to be bought with a plan.

There seemed to be a (plan) activation fee of 11.88 EUR.

So the activation fee is more than half of what I pay for my plan – crazy.

Be aware that although TIM Italy has eSIMs for prepaid customers, most salespeople are not unwilling to sell them to short-term travelers for some reason.

But eSIMs are not available for the TIM Tourist SIM card.

If you truly want an eSIM or do not want to deal with Italy's SIM card registration scheme (mandatory) and unnecessary activation fees, consider getting a travel eSIM for Italy.

I compare the best Italy travel eSIMs in my comparison guide and also drop a few discount codes for you 😏.

The thing I did not mention yet is that Italy has the lowest mobile data rates in Europe and the fourth-lowest worldwide.

The 19.90 EUR plan features 100 GB of data, which is insane.

And if you still remember from two sections earlier, Iliad gives you 120 GB for only 10 EUR.

So I suspect that these activation fees somewhat compensate for the low prices of plans… as they are truly low.

And you always have to deal with activation fees when you change plans… and they are not low either.

There is a way to avoid the TIM Italy activation fee – by getting a TIM Tourist SIM card.

It costs 20 EUR with 15 GB of data, 8.6 GB EU/EEA data, unlimited chat data ¹, 200 local/international minutes ² for 30 days.

¹ for Facebook Messenger, iMessage, IMO, Skype, Snapchat, Telegram, Viber, WeChat & WhatsApp
² to Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan & Venezuela

Oh yeah, in case you did not know, you can often roam for free with your SIM card in other European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) countries – just like with the TIM Tourist SIM card.

Below is the list:

Most TIM Italy stores pretend they do not sell the TIM Tourist offer – or they do not know what you are on about.

However, they are sold at (Rome) Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (FCO), so that will be your best bet to get it there.

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TIM Italy Plans, Plans, Bundles & Offers

TIM Italy has a nice variation of data-featured prepaid plans – and they are affordable.

If you stay in Italy for a short period, say less than a month, it will be cheaper to stick with the TIM Tourist SIM card to avoid the activation fee.

Or you can get a travel SIM card like the SimCorner Europe travel SIM cards (which I tried out in Italy).

And if your phone supports eSIM, a travel eSIM from Airalo or Nomad will be even more affordable (which I also tested in Italy).

And both methods allow you to skip the SIM card registration regulations of Italy.

If you stay in Italy for an extended period, like for work or education, be sure to get a plan you can stick too.

Switching plans frequently will be an expensive endeavor, even though the plans are cheap.

Anyway, I will list all the available plans below:

• Giga e Minuti/Data and Minutes (combo)
• Flat Day (data)
• Supergiga (data for data-only SIM card)
• Data Add-Ons (as the name implies)

Disclaimer: these were the available plans at the time I was in Italy – the offering may have changed since then (including whether 5G NR is available to prepaid customers or not). To see TIM Italy's current plans, check out my Italy SIM card buying guide (which gets updated regularly – at least once a year).

I will list all the prices in EUR (Euro).

To convert EUR to your currency (let's say GBP – (British) Pound (Sterling)) with up-to-date exchange rates, use the Wise Currency Converter tool.

Giga e Minuti (Data and Minutes) Plans

The Giga e Minuti (Data and Minutes) Plans are combo plans with data (with 5G NR access for select plans), minutes & SMS.

Note that the TIM Young plan is for the youth (up to 25 years old), and the TIM 60+ is for the seniors (60+ years old).

The following Giga e Minuti are available, which initially have to be activated in a TIM store:

Remember: TIM charges a 9 EUR (or even more…) plan activation fee, which is not included in the prices below.

Price	Plan	Data	EU/EEA Data	5G NR Access?	Local/EU Minutes 1	Local/EU SMS 1	Validity
11.99 EUR	TIM Young	50 GB	20 GB	Yes	Unlimited	Unlimited	1 month
12.99 EUR	TIM 60+	6 GB	Shared with data allowance	No	Unlimited	Unlimited	1 month
15.99 EUR	Executive Mobile	40 GB	11 GB	No	Unlimited	Unlimited	1 month
19.99 EUR	Magnifica Mobile	100 GB	14 GB	Yes	Unlimited	Unlimited	1 month

¹ for calls/SMS within and to other EU/EEA member states and back to Italy (NOT from Italy to other EU/EEA member states)

Flat Day

The Flat Day is not a plan. Instead, it is the default data rate.

If you do not purchase a data-featured plan and use data, you will be charged 2 EUR and get 500 MB until midnight.

If you go over your 500 MB data allowance, you can still browse the web @ 32 Kbps until midnight.

Supergiga Plans

The Supergiga Plans are data-only bundles (mostly without 5G NR access) for the TIM Italy data-only SIM card.

The following Supergiga are available, which initially have to be activated in a TIM Italy store:

Price	Plan	Data	EU/EEA Data	Validity
9.99 EUR	Supergiga 20	20 GB	6 GB	1 month
13.99 EUR	Supergiga 50	50 GB	8 GB	1 month
19.99 EUR	Supergiga 100	100 GB 1	16 GB	3 months
49.99 EUR	Internet 100 GB	100 GB	50 GB	6 months
99.99 EUR	Internet 200 GB	200 GB	50 GB	1 year

1 5G NR access

Data Add-Ons

The Data Add-Ons are, as the name implies, data add-ons. They cannot be purchased as standalone plans.

The following Data Add-Ons are available, which can be activated on the MyTIM app:

Price	Plan	Data	Validity
1.99 EUR	Giga Day	10 GB	Until midnight
4.99 EUR	Giga Week	10 GB	7 days

EU Roaming

You can use your TIM Italy allowances in the following EU/EEA member states without paying roaming fees:

Be aware that, in some cases, the EU/EEA roaming allowance is lower than the domestic allowances.

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TIM Italy Top-Up, Recharge & Balance Check

TIM Italy top-up vouchers are sold in TIM Italy stores, grocery stores, corner shops & electronics shops throughout Italy.

I did not have to recharge my TIM Italy SIM card because Italy was a short stop on my one-month Europe trip.

But I will still let you know about topping up your TIM Italy SIM card.

The following (online) TIM Italy top-ups are available:

• 4 EUR
• 6 EUR
• 12 EUR
• 17 EUR
• 22 EUR
• 25 EUR
• 50 EUR

To top up your TIM Italy SIM card, text the VoucherCode to 40916.

For example, if your voucher code is 123456, you would text 123456 to 40916.

You can also tell the salesperson how much credit you want, your phone number, pay, and they will top up your SIM card with the POS system.

Call 40916 and select option 1 or send a blank SMS (or whatever if your phone will not allow for sending blank texts) to 119 to check your TIM Italy balance.

You can also top up and check your balance on the MyTIM app (Android/iOS/Huawei AppGallery).

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TIM Italy Speed Test Results (in Catania & Rome)

Alright, now it is time to talk about the speeds you can expect to get with TIM Italy after covering all the other essential topics like coverage.

But before I share my 14 speed test results from Catania, Rome & Vatican City, I do want to set the stage first and make a small comparison with TIM Italy's competition.

In the first section, I mentioned that TIM Italy is the slowest mobile operator in Florence and Naples – and that is true.

In fact, TIM Italy is behind in general – and not by a bit too.

And in the coverage section, I said TIM Italy is losing the 5G NR race in terms of coverage.

But in terms of speed… it is winning – by a lot.

In fact, TIM Italy has the best overall 5G NR network – with the exception of coverage, of course.

As I said earlier, perhaps TIM Italy will redeem itself with the help of 5G NR.

Okay, now let's talk about my 14 speed test results.

I did speed tests with the Speedtest app at various test locations: 2 in Catania (1 result was lost, unfortunately), 11 in Roma & 1 in Vatican City.

Yes – while Vatican City is a country, it is tiny, and the Italian mobile operators cover the entirety of the city.

Okay, here are the results:

Those speeds are not too bad, but they are indeed on the lower end for 4G/LTE – especially for a country such as Italy.

I will show you the comparison with Vodafone Italy later, as I was restricted to 4G/LTE only with that SIM card, even though I was told it supported 5G NR ¬¬”.

First, let's deal with some TIM Italy statistics based on 14 speed test results:

• TIM Italy's average download speed was 44.43 Mbps
• TIM Italy's average upload speed was 21.37 Mbps
• The median download speed with TIM Italy was 26.24 Mbps
• The median upload speed with TIM Italy was 17.23 Mbps
• TIM Italy had the fastest download speed, compared to its competitors, in only 1 of the 14 locations
• TIM Italy had the slowest download speed, compared to its competitors, in 7 of the 14 locations
• At 2 of the 14 locations, TIM Italy had the fastest upload speed
• TIM Italy never had the slowest upload speed

Those are some depressing statistics about the former largest Italian mobile operator, I would say.

But does that even matter? Isn't an average download speed of 44.43 Mbps good enough?

Yes… and no – let me explain.

A download speed of more than 25 Mbps is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.

Social media sites that allow for live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.

And I got an average upload speed of 17.23 Mbps – more than enough.

So, in short, these speed test results would be more than enough for watching videos at a high resolution of live streaming on social media.

But if we take TIM Italy's results to a global level, it is not doing so great.

At the time of writing, the global average download speed is 74.87 Mbps – TIM Italy is not even close to hitting the global average.

But the average is skewed because of countries like the United Arab Emirates, with an average mobile download speed of 268.87 Mbps (insane!).

So let's look at the global median – 30.75 Mbps. TIM Italy's median download speed was 26.24 Mbps.

That is very close to the global median… so TIM Italy is not doing that badly.

But it could do way better, especially when every other competitor has much better results.

Take a look at this TIM Italy and Vodafone Italy comparison:

Once again, these are 4G/LTE only results.

I used 5G NR with Wind Tre and Iliad… and they were much faster, of course.

But overall, TIM Italy is fast enough for general phone use on cellular data.

I would not recommend downloading a 10 GB movie on 4G/LTE, as it will take time.

But you will have plenty of data left – even after downloading such a movie.

We have gotta love Italy's generous data allowances for low prices!

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My Overall Experience with TIM Italy – Is It Any Good?

I would recommend TIM Italy, but it would not be my first recommendation.

Getting a TIM Italy SIM card was straightforward, and activation was quick.

Some Italian mobile operators claim it can take two business days before you can actually use your SIM card.

Hence, it is a benefit I have to mention here.

TIM Italy has extensive coverage throughout the country, and I almost always had reception (except on some parts on the metro).

The speeds were good enough, but it could be much better, especially compared to its competitors.

And when I say good enough, I mean you can browse the web and watch YouTube videos without worrying about buffering.

And since 100 GB of data is available for as little as 11.99 EUR, you probably do not have to worry about hitting your data allowance with TIM Italy.

But I am still disappointed with TIM Italy's overall performance compared to its competitors.

Especially because the company used to be the largest, even after privatization, and the best.

But now? It is not prestigious anymore.

And when even a mobile operator, Iliad, which started in 2017, has better network performance than the former government-owned monopoly, I am a bit worried about its future.

But TIM Italy is taking 5G NR seriously… to some extent.

While it has the fastest 5G NR speeds, it has the worst 5G NR coverage, behind all its competitors.

And when even an employee of TIM Italy does not recommend nor try to upsell you to a 5G NR plan because he knows it is a waste, I am not sure if I can even say that TIM Italy takes 5G NR seriously.

But even with all of this said, with affordable and generous plans, reasonable speeds from a global perspective but slow on a national level, and extensive (4G/LTE) coverage, I would recommend TIM Italy.

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Support Phone Travel Wiz

I spent 115.06 EUR on Italian SIM cards (35.08 for TIM, 30 EUR for Wind Tre, 30 EUR for Vodafone Italy & 19.98 EUR for Iliad) and 126 USD on eSIMs (100 USD for Airalo and 26 USD for Nomad) for my Italian SIM card reviews series.

While I love buying, testing & review SIM cards and eSIMs.

That way, I can share my experiences with you so that you do not get suckered into a good deal (price-wise) but have a terrible network experience.

But… it is expensive. I would genuinely appreciate it if you would donate to Phone Travel Wiz on Ko-fi.

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Italian SIM Card Reviews

As mentioned earlier, I also tried out Wind Tre, Vodafone Italy & Iliad when I was in Catania and Rome.

You should read those reviews too.

>>> TIM Italy Review | Vodafone Italy Review | Iliad Italy Review <<<

Later, I will make a comparison post of the four Italian mobile operators… but that will take a while (I have many reviews of other countries that I still need to write, so they are prioritized).

But you can still make an educated purchased after reading the Italian SIM card reviews.

Check out my reviews page if you want to read all the other reviews I have written, including other European SIM cards from this trip.

Italy SIM Card Buying Guide

There are more than ten SIM cards to choose from in Italy besides TIM Italy.

I analyze and discuss them in-depth in my Italy SIM card buying guide.