North Cyprus mobile phone network

richardm


Joined: 17/06/2007
Posts: 4

Message Posted:
17/06/2007 16:30

Hello everyone. I am travelling with my wife and 5 kids on the 30th june to stay in a lovely villa near ilgaz. It is our first visit to the island of Cyprus and we are all looking forward to enjoying some cypriot hospitality and a relaxing holiday.



I have been doing a little research on mobiles as my wife and i are both bringing our phones with us. I have found that there are 2 providers for roaming service in N Cyprus , Turkcell and Vodafone Turkey/ Telsim. Problem is that i cant use my own tariff on Vodafone passport with these providers.Resulting in £ 1.70 Per minute calls.



I can however use the CYTA Network on Vodafone passport but apparently their coverage only extends just north of Nicosia and around the Famagusta direction and not around the girne area.



Could any kind person advise me what the coverage is really like and what any other vodafone users do there. A new local sim card isnt really an option for me as

I need to recieve calls at my current number.



Many thanks ,Richard.

wearytravellers



Joined: 27/04/2007
Posts: 250

Message Posted:
19/06/2007 03:44

Best get a local sim card and set your phone to forward ALL calls to the local number. Much, much cheaper than paying for UK roaming rates. Sim cards available just about every supermarket.



Good Luck and enjoy your holiday.

richardm


Joined: 17/06/2007
Posts: 4

Message Posted:
20/06/2007 23:17

Cheers pal.

stephencheshire


Joined: 25/06/2007
Posts: 1

Message Posted:
25/06/2007 20:01

I speak as on O2 user who needs to keep in touch with the UK for business purposes when in the TRNC. I have had problems with Telsim in the past when accessing my voice mail box. The UK end doesnt recognise it as my phone and asks for my access code which it doesnt recognise either! So if you do use a UK phone and it picks up Telsim, I recommend manually switching to Turkcell to get UK functionality. What ever phone you use there is frequent network congestion at certain times of the day, but just keep trying.