Way to Russia Talk Lounge

hamby_7

I am in America, and I have friends in Russia that I would like to text message with or even call on their cell phones, but can't seem to get anything to go through. Is there a special code I need to dial? I have no problems calling on their land line, but can never get their cell phone numbers to go through. Anybody have any ideas? Thank you!

ashton · Lounge Lizard Joined: 08 Apr 2004 Posts: 80 Location: US

I have had this problem too. I believe that there is a section on this site that explains this better than I can. One problem is that not all US phone companies recognize the city codes of cell phones in Russia, especially if they are different from the city codes for land lines. I have a friend who is in Moscow and has a different city code than a landline phone, however I can only get through when I use the regular city code. There are also two types of cell phone numbers in Russia. One is the typical country code+city code+phone number and the other is much longer. I think it is really intended for calls within Russia. Here is the link to the info on this site http://www.waytorussia.net/Practicalities/Business/Mobile.html.

I have never been able to call cell phones in Russia unless it is one of the usual city codes. Hopefully you will have better luck.

wavetossed · WayToRussified Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 337

Phone numbers in Russia have a 10 digits just like the USA. Mobile phone numbers begin with a 3 digit federal code beginning with a 9. When someone writes down a Russian phone number in proper international format it looks like one of these: +7 (095) 555-1212 or +7 (903) 555-1212. All punctuation marks and spaces are ignored EXCEPT the plus sign which signifies that the number begins with a country code. Russia is 7, the USA and Canada share 1, UK is 44, etc.

If you use a landline to make a call you start by dialling an international code then the country code and then the rest of the number. In the USA and Canada the international code is 011 so you might dial 01179035551212. But if you are in Europe you would dial 0079035551212 because 00 is the international prefix used in Europe.

Now, cellphones/mobiles are simpler because you can simply dial the plus sign. Normally you have to press and hold the star key until the * changes to a +. On some phones it may be the zero key that does this. If you record a number like +70955551212 in your phone it will work perfectly well whether you are inside Russia or not. That's because when you are in Russia the local mobile operator knows that you are in country code 7 and ignores that part.

The only problem with all of this is that some operators check the number format for you before they try to make the connection. If they think that a city code is invalid because their database is not up to date they may refuse to connect. The only thing you can do is to complain to them and, if necessary switch to another company.

kman301k · Just Starting Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 2 Location: tulsa

hi, i was wondering if there were anyway to reverse lookup a moscow cell phone number. the 1st 4 digits are 7916. i left off "0", by design. i need to find the carrier name

thanks

shawn14505 · Just Starting Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 3

If their carrier is beeline, use this website, http://www.beeonline.ru/portal/english/eng_sendsms
or, if you want to send it from your cell phone, type this in for the address: 1234567@sms.beemail.ru where 1234567 is their phone number. You can also just compose an email and email it to this address and it will get to their phone.

Shawn

kman301k · Just Starting Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 2 Location: tulsa

thanks shwan...i think the service she uses is http://www.mtsgsm.com

thanks for the help