For safety and communication ease between students and SAI staff, Study Abroad Italy provides all students rental cell phones, with no monthly charge, for the duration of their stay in Italy.

This arrangement is made through our partner provider, Student Cells. No charges are made for incoming calls and text messaging received while in Italy. If a student chooses to use their cell phone to make outgoing calls and/or text messages, applicable charges will be billed to the credit card submitted when picking up the cell phone.

For registration and billing information see: http://www.studentcells.com

Internet Access

Study Abroad Italy provides all students with the opportunity to rent a laptop modem while abroad through our partner, Student Free Move www.studentfreemove.com

Student shared apartments are generally NOT equipped with internet connections - laptop modems allow students to access the internet from their laptops anywhere in Italy where cell phone reception is available.

Only students that rent cell phones through Student Cells, Inc. are eligible to rent modems from Student Free Move, however since SAI provides each student with a free cell phone from Student Cells, all SAI students are eligible to rent a modem.

Modems are available for the following SAI programs:  Florence, Milan, Rome.

Technology: Student Free Move uses brand new HSPDA technology with a speed up to 7.2 Megabyte/sec (where available) with state-of-the art USB modems for both Mac and Windows, including Vista.

Cost: The cost of this service is 49 euro/month, plus a one-time set up fee of 25 euros. The monthly rate includes unlimited usage with an allowance LIMIT of 5 Gigabytes per week.

NOTE: This service is available in Italy only, and does not work outside of Italy.

Students will be informed via text message and email when they have passed the 80% usage amount in a single week. Again, when the student has passed the 95% usage amount, another warning email and text message will be sent to the student, warning them to stop usage or they will incur extra billing charges.  If a student does decide to go over the weekly limit of 5 GB, the extra fee is 25 Euros per 1 GB block of usage.  The extra fee is sold in blocks of 1 GB, even if a smaller amount over is actually used.

Please click on the following link for more information about costs: http://www.studentfreemove.com/rates.htm

How to Sign up:
Students sign up by accessing www.studentfreemove.com and go to the registration form.

Billing for Modems:
Student Free Move processes all billing for their modems directly with each student, and students must present a valid credit card and drivers licence ( or passport) in order to purchase the modem plan. Modem charges will appear on your credit card statement as “Italy Cell Phones”.

PLEASE NOTE: Modems are NOT billed through Student Cells, Inc.  Study Abroad Italy makes this option available to students, however SAI is NOT part of Student Free Move and its billing practices. Once you have obtained a modem please direct all questions to Student Free Move.