Turkey is one of the frequent tourist destinations not only among Tele2 subscribers, but also among all other lovers of southern holidays. However, in order not to incur additional costs, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the conditions and tariffs of Tele2 in this country. International roaming always costs more than calls within the country, but for popular destinations the operator has special conditions and discounts. We will talk about them in this article.
Internet cost
Roaming in Turkey involves the transfer of mobile data at high prices. Without connecting additional options, the cost of 1 MB of traffic will be 25 rubles. When auxiliary is activated, traffic consumption will be much more profitable. A 10 MB traffic package is provided. Above the limit, the price for sent/received data will be 10 rubles/1 MB. To activate the function, use your personal account, usd command *143*31# or call the operator. Mandatory daily payment for using the service is 100 rubles.
Attention! Mobile Internet is rounded up to 50 KB.
Communication without additional services
This is especially useful if you may get frequent calls from work or home. If the trip falls on a birthday, then “Conversations Without Borders” will help you not go broke listening to congratulations from friends and family. The option is an expanded version of Unlimited Internet abroad, which will save money for those who are leaving for a long time. It offers exactly the same conditions, but with a monthly subscription fee of 1,800 rubles. For this money in Turkey you will get 400 MB of traffic per day at maximum speed - then it will be reduced to 128 kbps.
Call costs
For Tele2 subscribers in Turkey, the price for all incoming calls will be 15 rubles. Outgoing calls to Russian and Turkish subscribers have the same cost. In addition, 15 rubles per minute must be paid for calls to European countries and CIS countries.
The cost of calls to residents of Africa, Australia and Asian countries will be 35 rubles per minute. The most expensive calls will be to subscribers living in South and North America.
Attention! In international roaming, tariffs start from 1 second of conversation.
To save money when traveling outside Russia, Tele2 offers customers the additional service “Conversations Without Borders.”
Under this option, users receive a discount on incoming calls. For connected subscribers, the price of a received call will be 5 rubles/minute. You can activate the function using a ussd request *143*1#, as well as through your personal account or calling a specialist. The subscription fee will be debited every day for 5 rubles.
Tele2 Expert
The subscription fee is charged daily from the moment the service is activated until the subscriber disconnects it. Options 1 GB in Turkey and 2 GB in Turkey
Option Conversations without borders
To reduce the cost of calls, there is an option called Conversations without borders. It affects the prices for incoming calls: their cost will be 5 rubles per minute instead of the standard fifteen. The option also costs 5 rubles per day.
However, before doing this, you should familiarize yourself with Tele2 tariffs in Turkey. Some tariff plans include roaming services - we'll talk about this later. For now, let’s focus on the company’s basic prices for a given country, which apply in the absence of any discounts:
How to top up your balance in Turkey
Before you top up your account, you need to find out the current balance of your SIM card. To do this, use the ussd command *105#. After checking the available amount, you may need to add money to your balance. To top up your Tele2 SIM card account abroad, use the following methods:
Personal Area. The profile is available on the operator’s website and in the My Tele2 application.
Official website of the company. You can add funds to your balance directly in the online payment service.
Tele2 international roaming: how much it costs and how to connect
Planning a trip abroad raises the logical question of how to stay connected without paying huge sums for it.
It is not always cheaper to purchase a local SIM card, and then it comes to international roaming. It is advisable to read the terms and conditions before departure. By rationally managing the money in the account, the subscriber can activate services at relatively discounted rates. And then international roaming is no longer so scary. It is automatically connected on all tariffs. On Tele2 numbers, roaming abroad depends on which country the subscriber is located in.
Connection/disconnection conditions and status checks
There is no special need to activate roaming. When crossing the border, any gadget is automatically registered in the desired network. If this does not happen, then manually select the guest network in the phone settings and reboot the device.
There is no need to disable Tele2 international access. After returning home, the smartphone will automatically register with the local network. After this, home region prices will apply.
It is still necessary to deactivate additional options. To disable the service that provides a discount on incoming calls “Conversations without borders,” you need to dial the ussd combination *143*0#. If you don’t know whether this function is enabled on your device, then find out the answer by sending a request like *143#.
To disable, dial *143*30# from your smartphone. You can check the status of the option using the ussd request *143*3#.
If the functions are not disabled, then in your home region you will be charged a subscription fee for using additional options.
Rules for using mobile communications for tourists
10 nuances and questions about mobile communications in Turkey that you need to know about before purchasing a SIM card:
- Mobile operators.
There are three main mobile operators in Turkey: TurkTelekom, TurkCell, Vodafone and several small (virtual) operators. - Limitation on the validity period of the SIM card.
It is important to know! The SIM card will be active for up to 90 days. This is due to the fact that tourists can legally stay in Turkey for a maximum of 90 days, after which you must either leave the country or receive a residence permit. - Documents for obtaining a telephone number.
To purchase you will need a passport - Payment for communication services.
The easiest way for tourists to pay for communications is through operator branches in stores and shopping centers.
I advise you to purchase a package tariff plan
, because in this case the Internet and phone calls will be much cheaper. - Internet.
Mobile Internet in Turkey often works much better than landline Internet. You will need it to navigate around the country, to view what fines you have, to book hotels, etc.
Important to remember! Any SIM card purchased for a foreign passport will be active for up to 90 days and a phone number will be included with it; after this period, you can simply throw it away.
As you can see, buying a SIM card is not difficult, but that’s not all, let’s continue...
- What to do when visiting the country again.
Since the cards only work for 90 days, be prepared for the fact that when you visit the country again, you will have to buy a SIM card again, and this is a fact; if more time has passed, it will be deactivated. For this reason, you should not leave your phone number to everyone, because it is temporary. And purchasing a new card is an additional expense, approximately 100 liras or 1050 rubles. - Blocking a cell phone during a long stay in the country.
Keep in mind that phones purchased outside of Turkey will simply stop working after 120 days if you do not pay the tax on the imported phone. Here we are not talking about a telephone number, but about a device. This is due to the fact that initially mobile phones in Turkey are a little more expensive.
Let's talk in detail about blocking, what exactly is blocked and when?
It is not the phone itself or the SIM card that is subject to blocking, but the IMEI slot of the phone where you inserted the local Turkish card. If you return a foreign card, for example a Russian one, to the slot, then you will have a connection again, you will only be making calls and using the Internet while roaming.
Phone slots are blocked after 120 days, but for some people this process takes longer, but eventually the slot will be blocked. Even buying a new SIM card will not help you; it will also not work in Turkey.
Keep in mind that from January 1, 2021, the tax on an imported phone is 2006 Turkish lira, which is approximately equal to 21,000 rubles or $286. For a dual-SIM device, the tax will be more expensive.
Update from 02/24/2021:
However, we have good news, this year we signed a new decree and changed the blocking period from 120 days to 365 days , thus increasing the operating life of imported devices by 1 year, news about this was published in the Turkish government gazette Resmi Gazete.
This decision is temporary and the decree was signed in connection with the epidemiological situation and the spread of Covid-19.
Be sure to read: Where and how to change money in Turkey in 2021 is more profitable, we withdraw cash from Sberbank, Tinkov, Alfa and MIR cards
No one can say what will happen in 1 year, but for now, you will have 1 year from the moment you enter the country for the Turkish SIM card to work in your brought device.
Keep in mind that it is not your SIM card with your phone that is blocked, but only the Turkish SIM card in your phone until you pay this tax. The Russian SIM card, as well as the SIM cards of other countries, will continue to work normally in roaming.
To register your imported phone, you will need to obtain a tax number in Turkey.
- The process of choosing a tariff and the difficulties of communicating with sellers.
Be prepared for the fact that at points of sale, not all employees are well versed in their own tariff plans; in addition, not all of them speak Russian or even English.
As you understand, mobile communications are quite specific and have many technical aspects that are quite difficult to figure out without knowing the language. Another life hack is related to the purchase of the SIM card itself, if it suddenly happens that the seller speaks only Turkish and he does not understand other languages, then just tell him yeni sim-card (new SIM card) and it will be in your pocket! - Mobile phone theft.
In Turkey, it is not customary to steal mobile phones; theft in general is quite rare. What to do if your mobile phone is stolen? It's simple: you need to immediately contact the police, because the likelihood that your phone will be found is quite high. - Is there an alternative to the major telecom operators?
Yes, I have. In this article I will tell you about another little-known BIM operator (SIM cards of which can be easily purchased at any BIM network store) - Do not buy a SIM card at the airport , as you know, everything costs more there than in the city!
- Eliminate minutes and SMS from your data plan to save money. Almost every telecom operator has a tariff plan in which you can increase, for example, Gigabytes, which is more important for a tourist and at the same time there is no extra charge, i.e. no minutes, no SMS. Try to explain when purchasing a card and perhaps you will be connected to a more favorable tariff at the moment!
If you are suddenly wondering which program is best to use for moving around Turkey, then be sure to check out our TOP 5 programs in the ranking of the best navigators in Turkey for smartphones.
