How phone charges in Turkey increased 320 times In Turkey you can use a smartphone brought from abroad on the local network for 120 days. After that, you must register an IMEI in the country's database, for a fee. Without it, the phone is blocked. How the fee has changed:
2018 - 170 pounds, then 500.
2021 - 2,006.
2022 - 2,732.
2023 - 6,091, then 20,000.
2024 - about 32,000.
2025 - 45,614.
2026 - 54,258 pounds (≈ $1,260) The amount is added automatically every January. One phone can be registered to a passport once every three years, and the SIM card must be registered to that person. The collection is only half of the plan. iPhones in Turkish retail are accumulated in a cascade: 1% in favor of the Ministry of Culture, 12% in favor of the state television and radio TRT, 50% from a special consumption tax and in addition 20% VAT. All in all, the taxes exceed the price of the phone itself. The iPhone 17 Pro in Turkey costs about 2,600 dollars, 2.2 times more expensive than in the United States. This is the most expensive iPhone in the world. The import fee was chosen so that the bypass becomes meaningless: an iPhone from Dubai, together with the registration, costs almost the same amount as in a Turkish store. Buying a new phone in installments using a credit card is prohibited. The Ministry of Digital Development proposes to introduce mandatory IMEI registration for smartphones imported to Russia starting in the spring of 2027. For now - free. And then? Dimitri Nicotin.