[davie1924]

Off to sunny Turkey on Fri but not sure what to do about my i phone. How much will calls to the UK cost? How much will it cost me to txt my mates over there? Finally, what about Internet access and using my various apps? Any help would be most appreciated.

[alan1302]

Originally Posted by davie1924

Off to sunny Turkey on Fri but not sure what to do about my i phone. How much will calls to the UK cost? How much will it cost me to txt my mates over there? Finally, what about Internet access and using my various apps? Any help would be most appreciated.

Costs will all depend on what network you are on and what contract you have with them.

[wavejockglw]

Turkey is outwith the EU and has 3 networks, Turkcell, Vodafone and Avea. All have good coverage and in resorts 3G is HSPA+ 14.4Mbs or better.

Costs are horrific for roaming on all of the UK networks with the minimum to make calls home about 60p./min and then there's Vodafone who own the Turkish network with their name outright and charge contact customers £1.69/min to make and receive calls! Data is a ridiculous price on all UK networks when roaming in Turkey. Expect to pay between £2 and £8 a Megabyte! Best switched off otherwise you will get a very nasty reminder of your holiday when you get home!

You can't use a Turkish PAYG SIM in a UK handset as it will be blocked. All UK handsets using a Turkish SIM have to be registered with the Turkish authorities and that costs 7TL. You are only allowed to register one handset every two years and you must produce proof of ownership and a UK passport to register. If you use a Turish SIM in a UK handset it will be blocked in a couple of days if you are lucky or hours if you are unlucky! If you do use a Turkish SIM calls to UK are about 20p/min, SMS about 10p and data is good value, Vodafone Turkey offer local customers 500MB for 7.5TL valid for 30 days.

Now the good news. There is lots of Wi-Fi in Turkey. Just ask your hotel or apartments for an access code, same applies in cafes and bars. To call home get a phonecard from any shop for Turk Telecom and enjoy 30 mins to the UK from a public callbox for around £2.

Mobiles in Turkey are great if you have a Turkish SIM but outwith that avoid the temptation unless you are prepared for a hefty bill on your return.

Have a great time and watch out for the heat, it can be 50C in June/July!

[Richard_T]

You might be better off looking into a two phone solution, phone 1 being your smart phone, and phone 2 being an old ( non smart) phone

Take the sim card out of your iphone and put it in an old non smart standard phone ( you may need a micro sim card adaptor for this easily available on the high street) and use your smart phone with wifi only, alternativly if you can get your iphone unlocked, or it is already unlocked get a UK pay as you go sim card, you will need to do some resaerch on what UK pay as you go deals are available in Turkey.

With your normal sim in a non smart ( ie standard) mobile you wont run up any data charges unexpectadly, but you can use this phone to keep in touch should you need to.

With a UK pay as you go sim in your smart phone you can still access data services ( depending upon your UK sim) should you need to and you wont run up a bill, once the credit has gone thats that, but you can still use wifi.

[wavejockglw]

Data roaming can be disabled on the iPhone quite easily, in fact its normally disabled by default so unless you specifically allow data roaming you should be safe from high charges but check just to make sure!

[Bagsbunny]

The iphone probably WON'T be network-locked if bought from,say, the Apple Store. Probably WILL be locked if bought from a network.

[simonmoore]

Do not use! Trust me cost me a packet. I got my money back I was lucky but it would have been a £600 bill otherwise

[Richard_T]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Data roaming can be disabled on the iPhone quite easily, in fact its normally disabled by default so unless you specifically allow data roaming you should be safe from high charges but check just to make sure!

the safest and only sure way is to take the sim card out.

[wavejockglw]

Originally Posted by Richard_T

the safest and only sure way is to take the sim card out.

A bit drastic!

Just disable the data roaming but be selective about answering calls and making them of course!

I'd use the public call boxes evertime as they are good value for money and there are plenty of them in resort areas.

[davie1924]

Im Vodafone, but think I'll be giving the Internet etc a miss for a week. Thanks for all your help guys!!

[wavejockglw]

Originally Posted by davie1924

Im Vodafone, but think I'll be giving the Internet etc a miss for a week. Thanks for all your help guys!!

No probs, Vodafone roaming rates in Turkey are an absolute disgrace when they own the Vodafone network there 100%. Keep data swiched off and only use the phone for an emergency.

Vodafone UK charge £8 per MB for data roaming on the Vodafone Turkey network. Vodafone Turkey charges 9.50TL (about £3.20) for 500MB for the locals. It's a horrific difference, UK Vodafone customer pays £4000 for 500MB Vs a local Vodafone Turkey customer who pays about £3.20. Vodafone UK need to explain why that is but they are not the only network charging like that for roaming in Turkey so whilst they are the worst example owning a network, others apply similar charges and vastly rip-off holiday makers.

[douknowotimean?]

What I tend to do when I go abroad is use my PAYG Tesco Card from the UK, top it up by a certain amount and basically just live off that.

When I'm abroad I usually just tend to phone home or text and that is only when I need to. I wouldn't use the Internet or social network sites abroad because the last time I tried logging on to facebook abroad. They asked me security questions in Spanish.

One thing though. Make sure mobile data is switched off on the iPhone if you are not in a wifi zone. I'm convinced that there is always something running in the background, on the iPhone, that uses data and you wouldn't want your credit eaten up in an instant.

[heskethbang]

You can do several things

1) Use an international sim card (assuming your iphone is unlocked - o2 and voda did this for free for me even though I was in contract)
2) Turn off Data roaming, cellular data, so the phone works for calls and text only.
3) Put onto airplane mode, but switch wifi on - and use skype/voipstunt to text/call internet via the zillions of free wifi places in turkey.