E-Mail in Turkey

[rivonia]

Hi to those people in TURKEY or who have been there. We shall be going for the first time and we use the lap top all the time to get e-mails. Do we have to buy a dongle in order to send/receive. Whilst writing we have mobiles with GYM SYM cards in which work anywhere. Do we have to do anything with the phones.

Many thanks

Peter

 

[catmandoo]

Hi to those people in TURKEY or who have been there. We shall be going for the first time and we use the lap top all the time to get e-mails. Do we have to buy a dongle in order to send/receive. Whilst writing we have mobiles with GYM SYM cards in which work anywhere. Do we have to do anything with the phones.

Many thanks

Peter

using a uk sim on roaming in Turkey works out at about £6 per megabyte . I got a turkish Vodaphone dongle and Sim card loaded up in Kas and it worked quite well until the bought time expired I could not find any place elsewhere to top it up nor could I understand the turkish messages that resulted

so I now look for an internet cafe - don't try the marinas you have to log on to a website with ID and password - cumbersome try the marina cafe instead

 

[DaveRo]

It's possible to use a Turkish SIM and 'tether' your laptop to an unlocked mobile phone, but it's technically quite complicated:

http://yachtvigdis.wordpress.com/mobile-internet-access-in-turkey/

We'll be there in a week or so and will find out whether it still works..

Here in Greece (Tilos) we're using a Wind PAYG SIM in an iPad, but I can't think of a way of doing that in Turkey because the SIM is registered to the phone (by IMEI) so you can't move the SIM from a phone to an iPad. Unless anyone knows otherwise.

 

[bjvarley]

Hi Peter
We have been in Turkey for the past 6 months also at Kas (new marina). The marina internet facilities all seem to be quite good. That at Kas was fine. You have to ask for a user name and password.
We have recently purchased a Turkcell VINN internet dongle for remote access. I can't remember the cost exactly, but around £50 for the dongle and then £20 for 3 months and 10Gb download. There are a range of packages, but we got the most expensive as I hate running out of juice especially when Windows downloads updates without telling you! It works excellently all around the coast - so long as the mast isn't behind the cliff you are anchored beneath. Yes we have a WIND Greek dongle too for when we get back to Greece. That was free I think, as a promo deal.
Note that it can be difficult to get some web page access and other stuff is restricted in Turkey. Download ExPat Shield and use that if you have problems. I tried to buy something to collect from the UK paying by credit card over the internet and the payment was rejected until I used Expat Shield.
I don't know how your sim cards work in the phones. We were told (and it has been repeated) that if you buy a Turkish PAYG sim card for a non-Turkish phone, it will only last for 2 weeks, and then the IMEI number has to be registered - which can prove difficult if not impossible. The best thing is to buy a cheap Turkish phone. We were fortunate in that friends passed one on to us. Again Turkcell seem to have the best deals and have many outlets as well as topup cards available from corner shops. I have always found Vodaphone overpriced and coverage not brilliant. And yes, the Turkcell text messages are all in Turkish. However it does tell you your balance after each call.
Rosemary (other half of Brian)

 

[rivonia]

Hi Peter
We have been in Turkey for the past 6 months also at Kas (new marina). The marina internet facilities all seem to be quite good. That at Kas was fine. You have to ask for a user name and password.
We have recently purchased a Turkcell VINN internet dongle for remote access. I can't remember the cost exactly, but around £50 for the dongle and then £20 for 3 months and 10Gb download. There are a range of packages, but we got the most expensive as I hate running out of juice especially when Windows downloads updates without telling you! It works excellently all around the coast - so long as the mast isn't behind the cliff you are anchored beneath. Yes we have a WIND Greek dongle too for when we get back to Greece. That was free I think, as a promo deal.
Note that it can be difficult to get some web page access and other stuff is restricted in Turkey. Download ExPat Shield and use that if you have problems. I tried to buy something to collect from the UK paying by credit card over the internet and the payment was rejected until I used Expat Shield.
I don't know how your sim cards work in the phones. We were told (and it has been repeated) that if you buy a Turkish PAYG sim card for a non-Turkish phone, it will only last for 2 weeks, and then the IMEI number has to be registered - which can prove difficult if not impossible. The best thing is to buy a cheap Turkish phone. We were fortunate in that friends passed one on to us. Again Turkcell seem to have the best deals and have many outlets as well as topup cards available from corner shops. I have always found Vodaphone overpriced and coverage not brilliant. And yes, the Turkcell text messages are all in Turkish. However it does tell you your balance after each call.
Rosemary (other half of Brian)

Hi Rosemary, thanks for all the info (thanks to the other folks as well) We also have a Greek wind dongle which was free, for use when we start the greek islands again later in the year. It looks like we shall have to get a dongle. Anyway we shall see.

Fair winds

Peter

 

[Norman_E]

Hi to those people in TURKEY or who have been there. We shall be going for the first time and we use the lap top all the time to get e-mails. Do we have to buy a dongle in order to send/receive. Whilst writing we have mobiles with GYM SYM cards in which work anywhere. Do we have to do anything with the phones.

Many thanks

Peter

If you have a UK mobile the cheapest way to use it in Turkey (assuming that it is unlocked) is to go to a Turkcell shop and buy a Turkcell SIM, and get them to register your phone, otherwise the IMEI number will be switched off within 2 weeks and quite possibly after only one. Take your passport as they will want to see it. Only main Turkcell shops in big towns can register your phone. Do not be fooled by Turkcell signage on shops, as most are just sales outlets and not actually owned/run by Turkcell. If you are in Marmaris the main Turkcell shop is very good. It is opposite where Tansas supermarket used to stand before they knocked it down! For broadband anywhere a VINN dongle is very good, but if your laptop runs Vista, take it with you to the Turkcell shop and get their man to install the software, as it sometimes has problems working on Vista.

 

[affinite]

Is a Vodafone dongle locked to country ?

I have a Greek Vodafone dongle which we have used succesfully for a few years. Will it work on Vodafone Turkey (with a VF Turkey SIM) ?

 

[DaveRo]

I have a Greek Vodafone dongle which we have used succesfully for a few years. Will it work on Vodafone Turkey (with a VF Turkey SIM) ?

Probably not. If it's SIM-locked it won't work with any other country/operator. Vodafone GR & Vodafone TR are different operators, technically.

A 'dongle' has an IMEI just like a phone (or an iPad) so if you were to unlock it you'd still need to register the Turkish SIM to the foreign dongle - and I don't know whether you can do that. Does anybody know?

Note that it isn't always true that a Turkish SIM will work for 2 weeks in a foreign phone - see the link to my blog page I posted earlier.

 

[satsuma]

As I recall, upon entry to Turkey (visa stamp) you have 30 days to register a foriegn mobile phone if you intend to use a Turkish sim card. This period is the same for foriegners and Turkish citizens alike if they bring a phone into the country (30 days from entry).

All of the major phone companies can register phones, but there are only "limited" outlets from each provider, capable of doing this, Turkcell having the biggest coverage.

Cheap phones start from around 100TL + registration etc.

If your current phones and cards are foriegn, they should continue to work under your existing contract, but the costs may be expensive. Most of the Marinas have good wifi coverage for laptops and many also have free internet access in thier offices.

 

[DaveRo]

Here's the Turkish goverment's website (English pages) which explains the law. It's probably clearer in Turkish ;-)

http://imei.tk.gov.tr/en/

But, as I and norman E have said it's easy to buy a Turkcell SIM and register a phone. It's only the use of the phone as a modem (tethering) that might be complicated - it depends on your computer and level of technical skill.

Several people have reported (not hearsay) that if you put a Turkish SIM in a non-Turkish phone that it stops working after a period up to 10 days. But in my case the phone was blocked from day one.. My suspicion is that it was because I'd lready been using the phone in Turkey for roaming - but that's just a guess.

Has anyone taken an iPad into a Turkcell shop and asked for a PAYG SIM for it? That's what I'm going to do.

 

[Norman_E]

Here's the Turkish goverment's website (English pages) which explains the law. It's probably clearer in Turkish ;-)

http://imei.tk.gov.tr/en/

But, as I and norman E have said it's easy to buy a Turkcell SIM and register a phone. It's only the use of the phone as a modem (tethering) that might be complicated - it depends on your computer and level of technical skill.

Several people have reported (not hearsay) that if you put a Turkish SIM in a non-Turkish phone that it stops working after a period up to 10 days. But in my case the phone was blocked from day one.. My suspicion is that it was because I'd lready been using the phone in Turkey for roaming - but that's just a guess.

Has anyone taken an iPad into a Turkcell shop and asked for a PAYG SIM for it? That's what I'm going to do.

I think you are right. Once an unregistered phone is used in Turkey its IMEI number gets recorded. If it is using a foreign sim then no action is taken, but if a Turkish sim is then used the phone will be cut off after a total of about 10 days after the IMEI was first recorded, or the Turkish sim was used, whichever comes first. I was told that this was done originally to stop thefts of mobile phones from visitors to Turkey, by rendering the phones useless to the thieves.

 

[MBullock]

especially when Windows downloads updates without telling you!

Suggestion, you can change your Windows Update settings to notify (only) when updates are available. That way you could choose to download the updates when connected somewhere appropriate. Hth,

 

[catmandoo]

Hi to those people in TURKEY or who have been there. We shall be going for the first time and we use the lap top all the time to get e-mails. Do we have to buy a dongle in order to send/receive. Whilst writing we have mobiles with GYM SYM cards in which work anywhere. Do we have to do anything with the phones.

Many thanks

Peter

I got a vodaphone dongle from the shop in KAS . worked well until money ran out then I got a lot of Turkish which I did not understand and gave up and used internet cafe to download Igrib and similar 5 day forecasts - alittle email also . I found it sufficient