mobiles in Turkey

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NornaBiron

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We are moving to Turkey next month and have heard rumours of problems with mobile phones not working. We plan to purchase a local sim to use in an unlocked phone. We also have a UK vodaphone that we want to maintain and an unlocked mifi that we plan to buy a local sim for. What do we need to do to ensure that our devices work?
 
My page here described the process up to June 2012
http://yachtvigdis.wordpress.com/mobile-internet-access-in-turkey/

Since then the procedure has changed at least twice, with a requirement to pay a tax. This blog post gives a recent experience
http://theistanbulletin.com/2013/01/07/from-the-creators-registering-a-foreign-phone/

There should be no problem using the UK SIM. Whether it's possible to get a local SIM for an unlocked mifi (or a tablet) I don't know. I've never read of anybody who's tried it. Good luck!
 
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Often cheaper to buy a basic mobile phone with sim in Turkey than pay the tax on an imported mobile . You can also only register one imported phone every 2 years.
 
NornaBiron said:
We are moving to Turkey next month and have heard rumours of problems with mobile phones not working. We plan to purchase a local sim to use in an unlocked phone. We also have a UK vodaphone that we want to maintain and an unlocked mifi that we plan to buy a local sim for. What do we need to do to ensure that our devices work?
Click to expand...

Hi Andy & Steph,

In essence Turkey (as far as mobile communications is concern) are a law unto themselves.

The biggest & best provider in Turkey is Turkcell, our experience of Vodafone was poor.

You will need to register your phone (It costs about £5.00 with Turkcell and lasts 2 years) otherwise after about 10 - 14 days your phone will be blocked.

You can then carry on using your own sim card (uk etc) or for cheap local calls get a Turkish Sim Card.

For internet connection you are probably going to need to buy a local Dongle / MiFi. Turkcell will not work on any other dongle but their own. Cannot speak for Vodafone.

The dongle we think costs about £40. The cost per month (Pay as you Go) is about £15.00 for 4Gb / 1 Month.

Regards


Albert & Sheena
 
Having tried to comply with the Turkish "law" and registered my mobile device and paying the £30 tax I duly had it blocked some months later.
My advice would be to buy a cheap device out there and use with a local SIM.
Dave
 
I'm pretty sure that it you got Turkish PAYG SIM registered to an imported mifi device it would be a world first!

A mifi device will have an IMEI, just like a phone, so in theory the law could be complied with. But when I registered a SIM (in 2011) the procedure in the Turkcell shop involved them using the phone itself to phone up a central computer. They couldn't do that on a mifi device - or a tablet. They didn't key in the IMEI - I was watching closely.

It's why I used a phone as a wifi hotspot to get internet on the iPad.
http://www.joiku.com/products

It may be possible to register an IMEI against a SIM without actually using the device, but I doubt if you'll find anyone to do it. They'll sell you a dongle or a mifi.
http://www.turkishliving.com/forums...registering-mifi-infomation-2.html#post862800
 
Dave100456 said:
Having tried to comply with the Turkish "law" and registered my mobile device and paying the £30 tax I duly had it blocked some months later.
My advice would be to buy a cheap device out there and use with a local SIM.
Dave
Click to expand...
The probable reason was that you did not top it up at least once every 270 days ; this would also happen to a local phone.

If you are going to register an imported phone it must be done within 30 days of your arrival date. Before going to the shop to register, not all have the facility, you must go to the tax office and pay the tax , around 130TL but may have gone up in the last budget. You will need to take your passport and visa and only one phone can be registered per passport every 2 years.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I understand the situation with using a Turkish sim in an imported phone, but what about using my UK vodafone sim in my UK phone, will that be possible or will it also be blocked?
 
NornaBiron said:
Thanks for the advice everyone. I understand the situation with using a Turkish sim in an imported phone, but what about using my UK vodafone sim in my UK phone, will that be possible or will it also be blocked?
Click to expand...

No problems, just expensive. The reason for registering if using a local sim is to stop the dumping of cheap phone imports.
 
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akyaka said:
No problems, just expensive. The reason for registering if using a local sim is to stop the dumping of cheap phone imports.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks. So, sorry if I'm repeating myself, I can use my uk vodafone sim and uk phone without registering it, is that correct? It's handy for receiving texts from friends and family and avoids the hassle of notifying everyone of number changes.
 
yes use mine occasionally when Ringing UK and cannot be bothered to transfer the number to my Turkish mobile and add the international dialing code. As with using in most foreign countries you may find that both you and the recipient get a charge
 
akyaka said:
yes use mine occasionally when Ringing UK and cannot be bothered to transfer the number to my Turkish mobile and add the international dialing code. As with using in most foreign countries you may find that both you and the recipient get a charge
Click to expand...

Thanks, that clears up our main question!
 
akyaka said:
The probable reason was that you did not top it up at least once every 270 days ; this would also happen to a local phone.

If you are going to register an imported phone it must be done within 30 days of your arrival date. Before going to the shop to register, not all have the facility, you must go to the tax office and pay the tax , around 130TL but may have gone up in the last budget. You will need to take your passport and visa and only one phone can be registered per passport every 2 years.
Click to expand...

Just for the record ... The device was a MIFI, registered on arrival, always topped up within 60 days, I did pay 130TL at tax office and it worked for a year or so until blocked. I'm now in the process of claiming the tax back; a whole new insight into the Turkish tax system!!!
 
Dave100456 said:
Just for the record ... The device was a MIFI, registered on arrival, always topped up within 60 days, I did pay 130TL at tax office and it worked for a year or so until blocked. I'm now in the process of claiming the tax back; a whole new insight into the Turkish tax system!!!
Click to expand...
So you imported an unlocked mifi and got a local (Turkcell?) SIM for it. Is that right?

Do you know how they registered the SIM against the IMEI? Did they ask you for the IMEI and if so where did you get it from - a label or off the box?
I'm curious about this - as I said I've never read of anyone doing it before.

270days applies to a Turkcell Hazir Kart PAYG SIM, btw. If this was some other SIM there might be different rules. (Hazir Kart does data but it's sold as a voice/SMS SIM. If you mention 'data' the shop will sell you something more expensive - but probably with higher data limits.)

It seems to me that if you've accidentally fallen foul of the operator's rules for topping up you don't have a case against the tax people. But good luck!
 
akyaka said:
No problems, just expensive. The reason for registering if using a local sim is to stop the dumping of cheap phone imports.
Click to expand...

Actually, since the roaming charges were brought under control, using a UK SIM in Turkey is quite reasonable (no more expensive than the UK). Here are the Vodafone charges:-


Make a call 24p a min (minimum call charge of 30 seconds; after that, you'll be charged per second)
Receive a call 7p a min (you'll be charged per second)
Send a text 8p a text
Send a picture message 36p a text
Data You’ll pay £2 a day (UK time) for 25MB of data abroad. The first 4.4MB is 45p a MB and the next 20.6MB is free. Over 25MB is 45p a MB.

Data is the killer, but that will be sorted by Neelie Kroes in June 2015. Data, IMHO, is a ridiculously high price in the UK.
A good mobile phone is in my experience far better for data than a Huawei dongle (sic).
 
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