Mobile phones in Turkey

[dedgy007]

No good in Turkey, the Gov't have banned all foreign cell phones.
To turn them on in Turkey you have to visit the Tax office pay 50 euros then go to phone shop to be connected..... daylight robbery
DON'T DO IT

[rivonia]

Originally Posted by dedgy007

No good in Turkey, the Gov't have banned all foreign cell phones.
To turn them on in Turkey you have to visit the Tax office pay 50 euros then go to phone shop to be connected..... daylight robbery
DON'T DO IT

Hmm not quite true! If you have a UK phone then do as we do when in Turkey. Just make sure it is fixed at ROAMING before you get to Turkey and it will work as normal. No need to register.

Peter

[dedgy007]

Well my mates over there and that's what he's been told.

All changed recently.......I tried phoning him 6 times = No good

[rivonia]

Originally Posted by dedgy007

Well my mates over there and that's what he's been told.

All changed recently.......I tried phoning him 6 times = No good

I can see where your coming from. It would appear that he followed the advice? given to all visitors to Turkey. "You have to Register your mobile" or they will cut it off. Well we did not follow that advice and had no problem. By the way we use GYM SYM which is a 0044 number.

Peter

[Tim Godber]

We have used our UK phone in Turkey for the last three years with no problems, no registration, no charge apart from normal rip off roaming charges. We also bought a local phone for local use which is well worth while. Best of all though, is the Turkcell dongle attachment for the laptop which gives very good internet connection even in remote places and at a cost similar to our home landline.

[rivonia]

Originally Posted by Tim Godber

We have used our UK phone in Turkey for the last three years with no problems, no registration, no charge apart from normal rip off roaming charges. We also bought a local phone for local use which is well worth while. Best of all though, is the Turkcell dongle attachment for the laptop which gives very good internet connection even in remote places and at a cost similar to our home landline.

Hi, We also bought the dongle for the lap top and it worked great. As you say it worked in those remote anchorages that we tended to use.

I can and would recomend it and tell everyone before they set of to make sure that they have roaming then DO NOT REGISTER YOUR PHONE.

Peter

[Buena Vista]

I am not sure what you are suggesting you are supposed to register, e.g. we were there for most of last summer (and will be returning in a couple of weeks) and we used our Aussie phones with Travel SIM cards no problem, no registering etc. Also Sat Phone with Iridium SIM, no problems, no registering.

Maybe you need to register your telephone if you use a local SIM ... I have no idea but that is certainly not the case for data SIM's

We used local Data SIM cards from Turkcell for laptop and iPad and they worked fine, nothing to register and seemed to work everywhere we cruised and anchored, great service.

Are you sure this is not another "urban myth" like the "poopy copter" in the Mulga area?

[dedgy007]

important words in MY second thread........ recently / Tax Office
and yes if you register "it costs 50 euros" to switch your phone ON so you can send and receive calls.
I know you can buy other sims if your fortunate in having an unblocked phone.
I'm talking "bog standard person" like what I is

[rivonia]

Originally Posted by dedgy007

important words in MY second thread........ recently / Tax Office
and yes if you register "it costs 50 euros" to switch your phone ON so you can send and receive calls.
I know you can buy other sims if your fortunate in having an unblocked phone.
I'm talking "bog standard person" like what I is

Looks like you have changed things a bit as before it "" was my mates over there"" now it would appear different story.

Is this the rumour monger?

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by Buena Vista

I am not sure what you are suggesting you are supposed to register, e.g. we were there for most of last summer (and will be returning in a couple of weeks) and we used our Aussie phones with Travel SIM cards no problem, no registering etc. Also Sat Phone with Iridium SIM, no problems, no registering.

Maybe you need to register your telephone if you use a local SIM ... I have no idea but that is certainly not the case for data SIM's

We used local Data SIM cards from Turkcell for laptop and iPad and they worked fine, nothing to register and seemed to work everywhere we cruised and anchored, great service.

Are you sure this is not another "urban myth" like the "poopy copter" in the Mulga area?

No, this one is not another urban myth. Technically, you are supposed to register your phone in Turkey. That is if you wish to purchase a local SIM card and have a local number. If you wish to just ROAM, then you do not have to register your phone. Honestly, do they really think all those thousands of tourists who visit for just a week or two are going to register their phones? Hardly. Roaming works fine if you have a phone plan from another country.

But if you want a local number, the old way was to register your phone and purchase a local SIM card. That changed late last year. Now you are required to go to the local tax office and pay a fee. The fee in Fethiye in October 2012 was 100 TL (about 46 euro today). Then you take that tax receipt to any Turkcell or other phone company and can then register your phone for a minimal fee and purchase a local SIM card for your unlocked phone. This is a change from the old registration method that just involved a small fee paid directly at the cell phone company.

If you also have an unlocked data modem, the same type tax receipt is required in order to buy a SIM for it. We wasted weeks dealing with Turkcell offices in 4 cities before we finally gave up trying to get a SIM to work with our unlocked data modem last summer. It worked fine the previous year, but their registration requirements changed last summer. We found it was cheaper to just buy a Turkish data modem which did not require that visit to the tax office.

As with all things Turkish, your experience might differ from ours. Different person, different day, different city, different application of law.

Judy

[dedgy007]

Praise the Lord for Judy
Yes JUDY understands..... Judy's got it
Thank God
See I'm not lying or making it up thank you Judy
Judy's a STAR
All you other threads getting on your "High Horse" telling me I'm nuts basically.
Judy is heaven sent
THANX

And Judy (I can't mention you enough) has explained it correctly, cos as I said previously....My mate's over there so I'm only getting info 3rd hand.
Well he's back now as this threads been going on so long.....All I wanted to do was warn people......... Christ I'm going to Turkey in 4 weeks time.
Gonna leave my phone at home.

[Tim Godber]

Folks, lets not get uptight, this forum is for sharing experience. The phone issue is simple, and rather like the the blue card rules, what should happen and what does happen differ slightly.
Judy quotes the correct situation if you wish to buy a Turkish sim card for your UK phone. What many do including me is to use a UK phone (and sim) on a roaming basis, this breaks no laws, its expensive for international calls, but it works. Then for local use it is cheap and quick to buy a local phone. Thats what I do!

[SVAspen]

Yes dedgy007 and SVBeBe have got it right.

We used an unlocked phone and unlocked dongle from March 2012 thru May 2012 without any problems in Turkey. When we sailed back to Turkey in Sept. 2012, after using the dongle and phone in other countries, nothing worked!

Now we had to purchase a Turkish dongle for the computer with a new SIM to get internet access. When we tried to purchase a new SIM for our phone they said that we had to register the phone first for 50 euros. Our friends from the UK sailing in Gocek warned us about this charge because they had to register their phone for 50 euros to get the Turkish Sim to work (they wanted to avoid the high roaming costs using their UK Sim). Once their phone was registered it worked fine with the Turkish SIM.

However, there are two problems that we found:

1. We were told that once we registered our phone with the new Sim it would work but we could not let the Sim expire. If the Sim expired then we could not use the same phone for 2 years - a Turkish rule. We would have to register a new phone or wait 2 years to use the original phone.

2. Getting the Turkish dongle and Sim to work with a Mac is problematic. We were running OS Lion in September 2012 and had the latest update for the Turkish dongle. We had major problems getting the Mac to recognize the dongle. We were able to find a couple of work-arounds to get the Mac to work, something the support people in Turkey could not figure out.

I hope this helps.

[sycankiz]

Hello all from Turkey.

There is a law that practically prohibits Turkish citizens to buy more than one cell phone from outside of Turkey. An iphone 4S 16 GB is sold at 1600 TL which is about 880 USD. This price includes a lot of tax in it. So when we can buy the same phone at what, 500 USD in US, who is going to pay the stupid price in Turkey to buy one?

So everyone started to buy phones from abroad, i.e. USA, Dubai etc. Including the local phone dealers...

Thats why they have limited this, with a new law stating that; every one can buy one phone every two years (or one year I'm not sure) and must register the phone id number to the telecommunication system. For that; they require your passport copy with the page showing that you have actually been there to buy the phone and the receipt/invoice of the purchase of course. Once you register this (no cost for Turkish citizens) your passport can not be used to buy a second one for the next two years.

Anyway this is for the Turkish citizens. This is the same mentality that prevents us from buying used cars or used boats from abroad. Just check the used car prices in the local market from any newspaper the next time you are here and see what we are paying lets say for a 5 year old Audi or VW. Then you'll get the idea.

Coming back to the subject.

For foreigners, they don't have to do squat. After all they are tourists and can not be forced to pay for their phones unless they want to use the local sim cards. This is again done to prevent us to go around the system and get cheaper phones in to the system.

For example, my friend from UK comes here, registers his phone with a local sim card and gives it to me. I pay him the phone cost and registering fee and hey! I have my new Iphone5 still at 500 usd cheaper with a valid Turkish number, although I had the new 4S already registered to me just last year. I'm not in any risk as long as the phone bill is paid.

Anyhow, this is all stupid as you can see. But given the price difference on the said gadets; you may imagine how desperately people are trying to find a way around it.

The best way for foreigners visiting Turkey for extended periods is to buy a cheap phone with a local "pay per talk" kind of sim card. Such phones are available at around USD 40-50. Use it while you are here and after you are done with it give it to your 5 year old as a toy. Or to a marina worker as a present when you are leaving.

There are two points though;

1- The Turkish roaming charges are high (unless you have a special deal with your provider)
2- If you look at the map of Turkey, you will see that the Greek islands are quite close to the Turkish mainland;(some of them as close as 2 miles only) therefore you will need a solution for the Greek coverage for most of the time while sailing. There are many anchoring places on the Turkish mainland (or while on passage from one anchorage to one) where, although in Turkey/Turkish waters, you can only get coverage from Greece.

Vodafone Turkey might have better arrangements for Vodafone Europe users which I suggest you check. Other two are Turkcell and Avea. Local phone shops in main yachting areas (Marmaris, Fethiye, Gocek, Bodrum etc.) are well equipped and mostly will be able to adress all your questions on the subject. If you put it forward openly, they will assist you for the cheapest solution; again; in most cases.

For internet, go for the 3G usb dongles of any of the above providers. They are sold with prepaid monthly quotas like 1GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB. You will be OK where there is cellular coverage, and if there is 3G coverage, it is fast. There is no coverage problem in any town or city, only in remote anchorages and off the shore passages.

Having said that, in our 2000 miles of cruising in the area last season, we have encountered no coverage at 2-3 places only, all being remote anchorages.

Cheers
S/Y CANKIZ

[goboatingnow]

You will be OK where there is cellular coverage, and if there is 3G coverage, it is fast. There is no coverage problem in any town or city, only in remote anchorages and off the shore passages.

Actually I was suprised how good the coverage was around the coast , its the way to go

dave