Peace of mind is important when you travel abroad. You want to know that you can communicate with family, friends and colleagues if you need to. When you are away from your home country you are using the services of another GSM operator whom your local operator has signed a roaming contract.

For example you live in London and get your GSM services from Vodafone, when you visit Istanbul, Vodafone is no longer your service provider, you can choose your operator which Vodafone has signed a roaming contract say Turkcell, Telsim or Aria.

So why should you care about roaming?

First of all roaming is much more expensive from your local GSM costs, even you receive a call from your family or friends in London, you pay most of the charges of the call.

How does this happen? Examine the following table and further some examples below:

CALL RATES FOR ROAMING VODAFONE SUBSCRIBERS
	Caller	Receiver
Roaming GSM to a GSM in Istanbul	Rates of the network being used+Vodafone markup	Free
GSM in England to roaming GSM	Credit Unit Rates	Rates of calling that country from England + Vodafone markup
Roaming GSM to roaming GSM	Rates of the network being used+Vodafone markup	Rates of calling that country from England + Vodafone markup
Roaming GSM to standard phone	Rates of the network being used+Vodafone markup	Free
Standard phone to roaming GSM	Credit Unit Rates	Rates of calling that country from England + Vodafone markup
Vodafone service markup is %XX (usually around %10 to %20), please check with your local GSM operator for the accurate markup.

Example Situations:

• You are in Turkey and you are calling a standard phone in England or Turkey. You are charged: the rates of the network you are using in Turkey plus the Vodafone markup. The receiving party is not charged.
• You are in Turkey and you are receiving a call from a subscriber in England or any other country. You are charged: the rates of calling Turkey from England plus the Vodafone markup.
• You are calling a roaming Vodafone subscriber from your Vodafone mobile or your standard phone in England. You are charged the domestic call rates since you are unable to know the location of the roaming Vodafone subscriber.

What to do?

In order to avoid extra roaming charges and markups even when you receive calls when you are abroad, the best solution is to buy a prepaid card (costs from USD 5.50 to USD 14.00 depending on the operator) and give your new number to your family, friends or colleagues so when they call you from your pre-paid card number you do not pay a dime.

Which one to buy?

At the moment you have three alternatives in Turkey. Turkcell is the market leader and best coverage all over Turkey, consequently the most expensive one (USD 14.00), Telsim is the follower, not as reliable as Turkcell but OK, Aria (is a consortium between Telecom Italia & Is Bank Turkey) is very new to the market and uses GSM 1800 (your cellular phone should support dual band 900 & 1800), good coverage in Istanbul and other major cities but not very good on the road and rural areas yet. (This page is last updated on 2001-09-17) Of course Aria is the cheapest one in the market USD 5.50.

For detailed info please visit these pages:

Turkey has a reliable phone system.Turkey's phone system is modern in the major cities and less so in the rural countryside. Turk Telekom offices with telephone booths can be found in most communities. Larger Turk Telekom offices are generally open daily 08:00-00:00.

Dialing instructions: