Turkey Report

[SIMCollector]

Originally Posted by prion

Have a look at ebay:
Turkcell gsm 100 credits kontor new - eBay (item 170391355848 end time Nov-05-09 06:08:22 PST)

Thanks for the feedback - 100 kontor is a bit hight for me as I'm just looking to keep the sim alive - but you pointed me in the right direction. Found this ebay store which has top-ups for Turkcell, Vodafone and Avea :

http://stores . ebay . com/Taxiem

Its crazy really as online Turkcell has the facility to accept top-ups with a credit card but will only accept Credit Cards issued in Turkey (maybe not such a bad ide ato avoid fraud and chargebacks). But they could accept alternative forms of payment. Maybe even one of the proper Turckell stores could do a cardholder not present transaction. Unfortunately, there are no top-up cards for smaller amounts - I think less than 50 Kontor, and I think these are hard to find. I had to get a 100 Kontor card, which was around 10GBP (16USD/11EUR) whilst I was there.

I guess that if anything goes wrong with the transaction, if paying with paypal, as a buyer your in a stronger position, in the event that they keep the money and I get no top-up ?

Seems like a good opportunity in any country that makes it hard for non residents outside of the country to get top-ups to offer a top-up service.

[Maxy]

One item of caution, I use both Vodaphone and Turkcell data here in Marmaris. The Vodaphone is only Edge where Turkcell is 3G and definately has the best coverage. Even 3G in small villages.

[DaveRo]

The Turkcell prepaid (Hazir Kart) data packages don't seem to have changed much:

http://www.turkcell.com.tr/bireysel/...eri/hazirkart/

[SIMCollector]

With regards registration of your phone's IMEI, I was told it was not necessary and the government website stated above I believe states that for tourists it is not necessary. I was told that if your IMEI is not registered then the SIM would be disconnected after 1 month. But this doesn't seem to have been the case for me. But at the moment, I'm not really sure whether some of my SIMs are registered or not and I don't particularly want to plug my details into the Government website in case it triggers disconnection !

[DaveRo]

Originally Posted by SIMCollector

With regards registration of your phone's IMEI, I was told it was not necessary and the government website stated above I believe states that for tourists it is not necessary.

That's not how I interpret the government website.

Here is the relevant page in English. I expect it's clearer in Turkish

I was told that if your IMEI is not registered then the SIM would be disconnected after 1 month. But this doesn't seem to have been the case for me. But at the moment, I'm not really sure whether some of my SIMs are registered or not and I don't particularly want to plug my details into the Government website in case it triggers disconnection !

I can understand that!

I assume all this also applies to dongles, BTW. Has anybody tried to register a foreign dongle - as opposed to buying a Turkish one and having it registered by the seller?

[SIMCollector]

Originally Posted by DaveRo

That's not how I interpret the government website.

Here is the relevant page in English. I expect it's clearer in Turkish
I can understand that!

I assume all this also applies to dongles, BTW. Has anybody tried to register a foreign dongle - as opposed to buying a Turkish one and having it registered by the seller?

I agree with you, the translation is not so good. I was reading this page, very early in the morning and for some reason thought registration may not be necessary.

Individual Import Applications | MCKS&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp

If your only staying for a short time then it may well not be necessary to register your IMEI. I was charged 5 Lira for the registration at a Turkcell extra store. But you get a receipt and an SMS (in Turkish) is sent to your phone, confirming registration, I beleive. Somewhere I have a copy of the actual document I completed as I requested this. But I dont think this is normally given.

On the lower part of the page in the URL above this is stated, which may refer to dongles in Turkey :

"With the web service application, records taken by subscription centers of GSM operators (Turkcell, Vodafone, Avea) are synchronously entered to the system. By this way, device can be recorded as soon as application is made. However, if any problem is identified while Telecommunications Authority is checking the documents received by GSM operators’ subscription centers the related device will be deleted from the record list. For this reason, documents given to subscription centers must be complete.

If the documents related with device and electronic identity information of device are not problematic, device information is entered to the system and IMEI number of the device is recorded. "

HTH

And if anyone know an online way of topping up a Turkcell SIM, I'd very very interested to hear !

[nomad]

Here's my experience with Turkcell using GPRS/EDGE Internet for 1,5 month - gone through most of their revenue tricks.

[DaveRo]

Does anyone have any up-to-date info about prepaid data in Turkey?

[Effendi]

That's quite strange. AFAIK you had to register your phone in order for them not to block it after some weeks, not the opposite. Probably something went wrong with your last year's registration.

[DaveRo]

Maybe once you have registered an IMEI against a SIM you cannot register it agaInst a different SIM..

I'm in Turkey now. I have updated the page on my sailing blog:
Mobile internet access in Turkey

I have the opposite problem: can I re-register a SIM against a new phone? I keep the SIMs alive with topups from the UK but I'd like to use them in a faster phone.