Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Have just read the article on Page 4 of C2D a couple of times and am confused. In two weeks time I'll be taking delivery of a brand new Huawei mobile and transferring the sim card from my present phone which has a Turkcell registered card in to the Wuawei. Does that mean I shall be OK and not be "blocked" or does it mean I'll have to trundle down to the Turkcell office with identification to get the new phone registered with them. This supposedly is to cut down on the number of lost, stolen or illegal phones in use here in the TRNC. I got totally lost when they go on about phones having an IMEI number and IMSI number!

So glad I'm not the only one who failed to understand this article, could this be the reason why I have had no service on my UK mobile for about a week now?

That's funny loobyLoo. I have a dual sim phone with a virgin UK chip and a Turkcell chip. I have had them both for several years. Until last week or a little before I lost all signal on the virgin chip and could not get it to connect to any network. But going South, Hey Presto the chip fired back into life on the EE network. very strange

The thing is, are they registering NEW phones coming into the country which have no Sim card, or is the query with the Sim card. I hope they don't think they are going to start charging people import duty on presents!

I started a thread about losing KKTcell signal on a UK phone about a month ago. I have been in touch with EE who didn't know what the problem was, in fact I was on a webchat with them for nearly two hours. If unregistered sim cards are being blocked it would explain why we are not getting a signal here but it would cause a lot of problems, for example what about holidaymakers trying to phone or text home? This seems an ill thought out policy really. Mickhm I also get a signal on my UK phone when I get over the mountains and it connects to the Greek Cypriot networks.

It is the simm card that requires registration not the mobile

Not according to the article in Cyprus Today.

Maisiemoo wrote: what about holidaymakers trying to phone or text home?

Do the blocked phones work in an emergency ? if not this is a very dangerous thing to do especially as Maisiemoo pointed out holiday makers are in a very vulnerable position if they get in trouble. Maybe the poor old phone companies pushing this because they are feeling the pinch ?

We both have the same problem,no network for UK Tesco PAYG mobiles....

Casebound take your phone to one of the shops near the harbour and they will unlock it for you.

Why not just go into a Turkcell office in Girne and ask the girl on the customer services desk to explain to you the situation re "unregistered SIM cards will be blocked".
I did months ago.
I have four phones, two with Turkcell SIM cards in and two with O2/Vodaphone SIM cards in.

She told me that it only the Turkcell SIM cards that need to be registered in your name - NOT the phones (my SIM cards anyway from some years ago).

Phones with UK SIM cards in should not be affected and if you cannot get a signal this is probably (but not always) due to "Roaming" and you need to set up your phone appropriately to connect to a network. I have found that in the past my UK phones automatically connected to Turkcell but recently have been connecting to Vodafone Turkey every time I cross from the ROC to TRNC!!!

Hope this helps.

Vodafone has a big investment in Turkey.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/d ... a.citynews


Use an appropriate App and you won't pay a thing !

If as people are saying, "its the Sim card that has to be registered" NOT the phone"", then surely the card is automatically registered with Turkcell, as they sold it to me in the first place. To me the article reads that its the phone. Then they can judge what phone you have etc. A touch of Big Brother perhaps? Trouble is, will the people in the Turkcell office know the answer, it could very well like checking with Immigration or Police, new rules are interpreted differently by different people.

The EMEI number refers to the phone not the sim card the article isnt clear because it refers to the sim in the byline, a few months ago we did need to register sims if I remember?

Registering the Turkcell sim card was something we had to do last year, this is something new, and having read all of the above and the newspaper am still none the wiser. I have a U.K. phone with a U.K. sim card that I use when calling England or when I go South. Which do I have to register?. As someone said, what about holiday makers that come with only a U.K. phone, won't they be able to use it here. That doesn't seem right.

kerry6138 - you are correct that we were told to register the SIM cards some months ago.
You are also correct about the EMEI number.

So far I haven't seen this newspaper article but the original purpose of the recent policy was for all Turkcell and Telsim SIM cards to be registered.
Clearly a lot had been automatically registered when the customer first bought one and entered into a written/signed contract or agreement.
But some Pay as You Go SIM cards were still sold without the seller taking the particulars of the customer and providing this information back to Turkcell of Telsim.

Sophie - if the seller recorded your details at the time then you should be OK - but you can ask Turkcell and they will check on their computer.

Re the phone itself: if your SIM card is registered and working OK in your existing phone then you can take it out and put it into another compatible phone. When you make or receive calls the telecom provider (over the airwaves) cannot determine which phone the SIM card is in - or so I understand.

stellstar1 - as you probably know a phone with a UK SIM card will "roam" and find a network to connect to. Turkcell and Telsim are not concerned with UK SIM cards.

Paul 90 with regard to the uk sim I have tried to connect with it but it will not recognise any networks within TRNC. There are none listed but it will automatically register with a network when going South. I am at a loss as to why

mickhm - I can sympathise with your problem, It's a mystery!!
But, call into a Turkcell office and ask for their advice.

When I had the web chat with EE they got me to look for available networks, both Telsim and Turkcell were shown as 'forbidden'!

Hi Caveboy I have a Tesco mobile Irish Sim and used to have the same problem try below works for me every time we go and them just reverse what you do when you get home

Settings, phone, sim applications, when abroad, network selection, manual, International belagom IMSI

As the first poster, when I receive my "present" of a brand new mobile I will take the Sim card out of present phone and place in my up coming present of a new phone and see what happens. Thread has been somewhat hijacked by people with UK Sim cards and roaming difficulties and though I might sympathise with them it isn't the problem I have!!!!!

If you do not register with your TRNC supplier (with local SIM)you will be blocked! Using a UK SIM maybe different,very expensive, we can certainly use our UK SIM here as long as we are prepared to pay the horrendous costs for usage. We too have Virgin,which is same as EE, T mobile & others as I understand they all use same source. No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong!

Personal experience - I visited for a month last September, bringing one phone with a Vodafone PAYG sim and one (old Nokia 3310) phone without sim. The "Vodafone" automatically connected to "Vodafone TR", and I bought a Telsim PAYG sim for my other phone (for local calls).
Returning this April, the "Vodafone" again automatically connected to "Vodafone TR", but the "Telsim" phone was not active. I bought a top-up for my Telsim chip which reactivated it (adding the previous unused credit) and I received a message requesting registration - this I did with name and passport number, and my "Telsim" phone works again. Note that I have not received any message or request regarding registration of my "Vodafone" sim or phone.
I don't know whether this clarifies or further muddies the waters....

Jofra - your absolutely correct - that is how it should be.

Naas26... Thanks for your helpful advice,but what does "belagom imsi" mean ???? Just worried it might switch on roaming... ???

Paul9, must have missed your earlier message because yours is probably the answer I was looking for, but will call into Turkcell when my new phone arrives. I have had the same number for 9 years, signed a contract then and pay at the end of each month. It never dawned on me to PAYG although I suppose it was available but I can't remember them asking me. The original Sim card was purchased from what was the then Turkcell HO in Girne and I had to produce Passport and signed contract for the house!!

sophie, you should have no problems as you are on a "Contract" phone and not PAYG. Just take your existing SIM out of your old phone and drop it into your new phone (That is if the SIM size is the same - new phones normally use a micro-SIM and the older ones use a standard BIG SIM) it should all work fine. I have changed phones (Instruments) about 4 times in the last 9 years and kept the same SIM (although on the last one I had to go to the Turkcell office next to Cafe George to have it cut down to micro size) and never had a problem. Good luck.

On UK phones it seems that the Vodaphone SIM will work without problem but others, such as Orange (my daughter arrived on Friday to find her phone no longer picks up anything) are blocked. Why they should be blocked is a mystery known only to Cyprus!!! I can only hope that it is something the phone company's are working on to try to get the system to work both North and South - then again it may just be a mistake on behalf of the phone company's, nah, how silly is that???

Just got off the phone to EE and they have told me that they are in talks with their roaming partner in North Cyprus which I assume is Turkcell, we have been cut off before now and again but this looks a lot more serious this time.

Can anybody confirm that they have gone to Turkcell and registered their EE sims and they are working as it is not really clear reading the replies on this post. That way we can be sure you have to register you UK sim in order to enable you to connect to the network. My gut feeling is that EE are trying to get rid of roaming in North Cyprus as they no longer offer this in their new roaming tariffs.

If anybody can reply and let me know I would be grateful. Meanwhile I have an email for level two tech support who I have been dealing with and will let you know any updates as and when.

Thank you for posting this is very helpful and no I haven't been to turkcell but can go later in the week

Turkishcypriot -" My gut feeling is that EE are trying to get rid of roaming in North Cyprus as they no longer offer this in their new roaming tariffs."

That is my feeling as well - based on the fact that Telsim is Vodaphone anyway and Turkcell as more international roaming agreements than any other operator in the world, then both probably see us (TRNC) as part of Turkey. Orange (that well known dodgy provider) would cut you off for any possible reason - that is based on experience by the way - and then charge you for it, so it doesn't surprise me that only UK Vodaphone SIMs are working.

I am on O2 and mine works fine, also with O2 you can download an app to use the Internet for your calls to the UK which will use up your free minutes

O2 is Tesco's partner for their mobile network,so why has it blocked both of our phones then ????

See the other thread that's just started on this subject. It's really easy to register and I've registered my phone's and Turkcell sim and English sim card with no problem.

My wife has a PAYG from Tesco and it is working fine

We have a contract with Tesco mobile on two UK phones and this morning tried calling our N Cyprus mobile from these phones. Neither worked.

Calling our two UK mobiles from our N Cyprus mobile worked.

We have registered our N Cyprus mobile.

We also had friends staying in the south who crossed over to the north with their UK mobile phone and wanted to call us from Girne to say they had arrived, their mobile did not work. Tad frustrating.

We see no reason to register our UK phones.....seems a bit of a strange way of controlling devices if when you arrive in NCyprus you have to register your mobile. Would have thought this would make business people pretty irate...coming to N Cyprus and not being able to do business via your mobile...does not make sense. Also does not make sense if there was an emergency and you were trying to use a UK mobile to summon help.

The problem appears to be with 02 and EE according to the helpful girl in the Turkcell shop in Girne. She knew all about it and made more emails to internal departments in Turkcell. Whether O2/EE have fallen out with Turkcell remains to be seen....So we are no further forward at this time.

A really silly question, how do I go about registering the sim card? I'm visiting gain in July and will get it sorted. Do I do it through the Turkcell shop in Girne or can it be done online?

I was in supreme yesterday and heard someone asking the telephone girl there about the registration thing. A very helpful young Cypriot man translated for us. Apparently, there has been so much misunderstanding that ''they'' are having a rethink and you need do nothing for 90 days. After 90 days ''they'' will be in touch by text message.

Oh just wonderful, how very typical!!! There wouldn't have been any misunderstanding whatsoever, it someone had the nouse to think things through from start to finish before hitting the Send button and going to press. "they" do this all the time, whoever "they" are.

I think this about sums it up !

We drove across this morning via Metehan,just after the Coca Cola factory....hey presto,Cyta chimed in ! So the problem is certainly in the North area.

EE is back now. I sent them an email threatening to take legal for al my costs incurred whilst I cannot use the phone for 8 days and if by magic it came back on that night. They called me the next day and gave me £250 for compensation. Apparently it wasn't a roaming problem but a technical problem.

Hi all came back after 5 months away went into turkcel to regester the pay as you go sim. No problem. As only one person spoke English I was directed to him, I asked about the uk phones ect having to be registered. He came back after speaking to a few employees yes the phones have to be as well as the sim by end of September .and any tablet computer ect has to be regester as well. So I asked him what about a smart TVs he said yes. Ok then you think you have all the answers. I went back with all my devices iPads ect..... Not the tv. He then said after speaking on the phone and speaking to others sorry we don't know how to regester them.
It's very funny on one hand and annoying on the other, but I suppose if the management don't know how the hell are the people on the shop floor ment to know. I think nearer the time there will be a mad rush to get everyone to fall into place before the minions are cut off the Internet . Thought I would let you know what my Saturday afternoon was like..... I needed a beer oops or two

Turkishcypriot wrote:EE is back now. I sent them an email threatening to take legal for al my costs incurred whilst I cannot use the phone for 8 days and if by magic it came back on that night. They called me the next day and gave me £250 for compensation. Apparently it wasn't a roaming problem but a technical problem.

I will do the same with O2 then as no service still....

Caveboy - Not sure why you cannot connect your O2 number to a local network.
My phone is constantly "on" - the O2 number roams and connects to Vodafone Turkey (not KKTC Turkcell any more).
I can receive and make calls with no problems.

There was a short article about this problem in Cyprus Today, explaining how to reconnect. I went in to Settings, then to Mobile and Sim, then Sim settings and change Network selections to search for networks, you can then choose what network to connect to. Everything ok now as I have started to get texts through now on my UK phone.