Mobiles in Turkey
 

So I travel here and there and usually have no problems with my phone wherever I go, with the the exception of Turkey, Turkey has always given me problems. Whenever I go there I essentially have to buy a disposable mobile. This is because they block your phone with the IMEI number from their networks. To avoid hassle and/or cost I decided I would buy a cheap Turkish mobile phone there for use there exclusively. After a while of travelling there and back (and very limited use) its microphone became very weak to the point where I have to shout for the person on the other side to hear me. So I bought another different mobile, again same problem developed after a while. At this point I'm thinking that it would have been easier just to look in to somehow registering my own phone. Has anybody registered a mobile phone in Turkey? Is the process straightforward? Is there any downside to doing so?

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

? Why not ATT international, I never had problems in Turkey with iphone4, roaming via ATT international.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

You obviously had a short holiday then. :D
After I think 2 weeks or so it gets blocked, and remains on the "blacklist" for around a year.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

And imagine roaming costs!

Fom what I know, turkey is very restrictive regarding 'unknown' phones (IMEIs) in their networks.
I believe the only way is to buy one again. Or get a contract over there (maybe it is possible to register than your own IMEI).
But I do not know more, sorry.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Or change the IMEI - IIRC this is (was?) a common Asian back-street business couple of years ago.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Is that illegal? if so I'd like to avoid it because I don't want to come back only to realise I've created more trouble than I've solved.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Hahaha , welcome to Turkey :) We have 3 networks here.Turkcell , Avea and Vodafone.Turkcell is best.If you want to get clear sounds with your phone you should use Turkcell.

Use your own network with active roaming state.

If you're talking about registering your own phone for use in country , you can do this in customhouse or airports.But you need to have Turkish Passport and 100 Lira :) Don't event try to change your IMEI.And also we have Wireless Phone Tax (1.1 Lira or 0.6$ per month) :)

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

You can register your phone, but you have to pay 100TL (Turkish Lira). This rule has just begun like a month ago. before, it was only like 10TL.

People brought many (illegal) phones from outside turkey, so they've made the registering much expensiver...

Glad i've registered mine JUST BEFORE the rule went alive

By the way, you only have to register if you want to use a Turkish local simcard. (Turkcell, Vodafone, Avea. I prefer Vodafone!)

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Good to know. Another reason on my "Why i do not want to go to Turkey, unless $company beats me into submission" list.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

You can just use your own simcard without any problems

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

I knew I should have registered sooner. I've got a Turkish Vodfone number specifically for there too, PAYG.

What's this wireless phone tax, I've never paid it, is it a recently passed law?

While I'm here asking about Turkey, does anybody have any suggestions for internet options a non-citizen has, shortest contract, etc? I had to always visit internet cafes to check mail, they were relatively cheap but had malware and the keyboard layout took a while to get use to.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

is that from where i am :p

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

7 days short. Company pays so I don't care about roaming charges

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

The tax is recently endorsed, it is to prevent vendors from selling illegal phones which the tax from are not payed. like HtheB said, it's only required if you use a Turkish sim card on the phone which you got it from outside of Turkey. If you are able to tunnel your connection to another device such as a tablet or a laptop, I would recommend a 1 month internet only plan. It is around 50 TL (approx. 23 euros). Vodafone and Turkcell are the carriers with the best coverage (with Turkcell I even got 2G signal 2kilometers off the Georgian border, which is an abandoned zone. Actually quite impressive). Bear in mind however that signing a contract is a pain in the *** in terms of activation and waiting time (24 hours). But it's really worth it as you will get HSDPA speed in many areas and 3GBs to play with.

For other options I would say look for public locations like restaurants and stuff like that for WiFi. But if you don't have a laptop or tablet with you, I don't know there are tons of internet cafes but you seem not to be ok with that. I can understand that since I haven't seen there a single internet cafe without malware LOL. All the fault of those filthy dirty horndogs wandering around.

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

I wonder how your internet connection is still intact since an ordinary connection wouldn't have survived that many "quakes". But I shouldn't push you replying back to me as you would need to have VPN and another maemo profile to do that.

naaah.. Just trolling..

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

just with respect :

actually i was asking and talking to @HtheB

and you failed.......

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

I was actually talking about those fake China phones... they are SOOO popular in Turkey...

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

I was very tempted to buy one of those China ayPhones when I was there becuase they took 2 sim cards, which would have worked out great having both my local and turkish sim card active at the same time. It had TV too! So those cheap phones are a little harder to find now I take it?

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Not at all... there are still plenty of those fake phones in Turkey. They just change the imei number with a (broken/older) device that was already from Turkey (so you dont have to register it)... It's only 5-10TL :p

So in other words: the soul of the older device is given to the newer device hahah

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Is the subject line for this thread correct?

Google Maps shows Mobiles in Alabama:

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

lollll!

and Batman is in Turkey, for real...

Re: Mobiles in Turkey
 

Hi.. I'm from Istanbul, Turkey... Any questions??