Forum Discussion
Smarty in Turkey
Hi folks, just after a bit of advice please for an upcoming holiday in Turkey in July.
I'm currently on Smarty's 200gb plan, but understand that roaming in Turkey will NOT be included as part of this. I've read through the price plan PDF and think I've managed to grasp that I'll need to buy an out-of-plan add-on for data in Turkey. But this is where I'm getting confused.....
On average, I'm using around 10gb of data in a typical week... the price guide suggests the cost of data in Turkey is 10p/MB, which by my calculations suggests I would need around £1,000 in data add-ons to cover 10gb!
Is this correct - or am I completely missing something?!
I've never used an e-sim before, but "WorldSim" offers a Turkey e-sim with 10gb for £4.76, or 20gb for £6.66, so I'm baffled with the staggering difference in price if I want to stay with Smarty while I'm abroad.
I appreciate that the usage would probably not be as high when I'm on holiday anyway, and that using local Wifi is the best option, but I know from experience the Wifi around the area I'm going is pretty patchy and poor, so any advice/guidance/suggestions would be great.
Thanks!
5 Replies
chavs Everything you say makes sense!!
1 Gigabyte = 1024Megabytes which means that at 10p per Megabyte, you will pay £102.40 per gigabyte and therefore £1024 for your 10Gb usage. (I don't think that they would let you do that anyway as I think it exceeds limits)
A travel Esim is the way to go for those with sufficiently modern phones. There are many on the market and so it is worth doing some comparisons. Some offer fixed data for a fixed period while others are more PAYG and take money from your credit at different rates in different countries.
These travel Esim companies specialise in this as a business whereas for Smarty, it is probably a tiny part of their business and so not worth the aggro of setting up contracts worldwide (they cover EU which is the main roaming activity anyway)
I have had a few holidays outside the EU and have used a combination of wifi where available plus an esim and it has all worked well for me as a low-volume data user.
Hope this helps.
Hi MSF, and thank you for your reply, much appreciated.
I've never used eSIM before, but have been doing a bit of research this afternoon just to try and understand how they work. If I'm correct, I'm thinking the best option would be to install an eSIM but with DATA ONLY (ie not one that offers calls/texts) and then when I arrive in Turkey, set the roaming data option to the eSIM, and disable it on my normal Smarty SIM. Using an eSIM that doesn't come with a separate phone number should also avoid any possible conflicts with Whatsapp, which is obviously connected to my main Smarty number, and is the app I use more than anything else.
chavs Generally speaking, Esims are data only - that said, a few do offer calls with a number. The one I currently use is Roamless and they offer calls via the web app, but it would not show your usual number. They are just starting a service where you can have a number, but that is something different and I have not researched it.
Yes, you turn the esim on for data and turn Smarty off and all should be well.
As far as WhatsApp is concerned, I understand that your mobile number is purely an identifier and is not used to connect as such. There should be no conflict and I have used it without issue on more than one occasion.
