Registering iPhone

[easyfood]

I was given an iphone as a present which was bought in the UK.  Approximately 240tl was paid to Maliye (tax office) for registration (115tl I think) and then to Turkcell for a new SIM card (macro SIM)?  That was to take approximately 2 weeks.  2 weeks later I returned to Turkcell and they informed me I had to have the SIM card unlocked.  No problem, I thought.  Then to SIM Eletronk where I was charged 280tl to have it unlocked.  That is to take 9-15 days.  Just thought I'd let people know how expensive it now is.  240tl was OK (ish) but Turkcell had not informed me of the cost of unlocking.  It just wasn't worth that sort of money.  Also, I had to get a new telephone number as it's an iphone.  I know a new one is expensive but ....  14 days is up today and still not unlocked!!!

[stoop]

To be honest I wouldn't bother with the hassle of registering a UK phone in Turkey. We tried it once and it was a waste of time - it was still blocked after a few weeks!

We ended up buying a cheap phone and sim from a phone shop in Fethiye. It works fine and was about 120ytl all in I think.

Having said that - if we lived out there I would want to be able to use my iPhone.

[Denise40]

Use an IPOD Touch instead of IPHONE does all the same things except you can't use as a phone, you can get Facetime, internet etc and don't have to register IPODs and get a cheap Turkish Mobile, and less likely to get pinched!

You can also buy unlocked phones in the UK so that would bring the cost down a little.
 

[Scunner]

Unlocked UK phones won't get round this unfortunately.

[LeeGlo]

Unlocked UK phones won't get round this unfortunately.

Too right. I fell for this last year, got a mate to bring me an unlocked Nokia phone out. Cost me 100TL tax plus 24TL for a new sim card and registration. On reflection if I'd taken that into consideration it would have been about the same to buy it here. Even worse, I had to get said mate to register the phone in their name as I didn't know that it had to be done within 30 days of the last passport entry stamp.  I'd put my sim from my old phone in it and if I hadn't got the "we will cut you off" message before my mate left don't know what I'd have done.

[bluegypsylou]

Has anyone had any luck having  an i-phone unblocked over here ?

[Scunner]

It doesn't answer your question but there are three independent mobile phone shops where we live - selling cases and covers and offering phoone unlocking. All three are owned by Turkish people  

[barry44544]

It's a fairly easy possess to unlock an iPhone, just a matter of downloading the software.
This invalidates your guarantee.
If the phone is more than 1 year old you can ask the phone provider to unlock it for you.
Or just use wifi and Skype, or face time with other apple users.

[Ian]

My original Turkish (very basic) nokia phone is looking a bit tired and well used now and I have the same model - as good as new and unlocked - in the UK - that we have hardly used so I was going to bring it over and just put my existing sim card in - are you saying that won't work?

[Marggie]

The one you bring from the UK will need to be registered with your provider.  It will work for about a week, two if your are lucky but then it will be blocked.

First of all you will need to go to the tax office and pay a fee (was 100 tl) but I believe it has gone up.  Then you go to your provider with your passport showing your date of entry to Turkey, this has to be done within 30 days of entry.  You will be able to keep your existing mobile number and there is a charge for registering - last year it was 10 tl.