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bgd7
Just Starting
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:46 pm Post subject: Cell Phone advice |
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I am from the US and will be living in St. Petersburg for 10 months beginning in October. I am wondering whether it is better to get an international phone here in the states and buy a Russian SIM card here, or wait until I am in Russia to get a cell phone. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I would like people from the US to be able to call me, and I would like to be able to call friends in Russia frequently.
If you have any advice on phone companies or where I should buy, I would appreciate it!! Thanks
beth |
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waytorussia
Frequent Guest
Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 12:20 am Post subject: |
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Hi, I think it's better to buy a phone in Russia, when you arrive. There's a great choice of models here, and they are inexpensive too.
As for the operator, MTS has the best quality, and the highest prices. Megafon has the lowest quality, the lowest prices and is the only company that has support in English (one of the tariffs offers calls to USA for something like $0.30 / minute). BeeLine is somwhere in the middle. All operators have extensive coverage.
Also, you can get a direct number and a federal number. A direct number is Moscow or St. Petersburg and it will be cheaper for your friends from abroad to call you (it will be more expensive for you to get a direct number), the federal number is cheaper for you, but slightly more expensive for your friends to call to.
More information at http://waytorussia.net/Practicalities/Business/Mobile.html
Mobile rental: http://waytorussia.net/Services/Extra.html |
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windmoonstar
Frequent Guest
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 6:09 am Post subject: |
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Hi, definately buy a cell phone in Russia. I was in St. Petersburg recently and there are cell phone stores on just about every street corner. The prices for cell phones are cheaper in Russia and the selection in the stores is amazing. How long are you going to be in St. Petersburg? If you are just there for a week maybe you should consider renting one. You can also find lots of second hand phones for bargain prices.
Personally I disagree about the post on MTS and Megafon. I was in St. Petersburg and Megafon had the best reception (second maybe to Skylink which is way more expensive). MTS was cheaper and not quite as good a connection. Megafon also has some good deals like White Nights where you can call another person who has Megafon for free from midnight til 8am in the summer months. BeeLine is the cheapest but also the worst connection (it doesn't work in the metro).
There's another advantage to buying a phone in Russia: the keypad will have both cyrillic letters and roman alphabet that way you can send text messages in both English or Russian. Just make sure you get a phone that is a World Phone so that it will work when you go back to the US. I made this mistake becaue when I got back my Russian phone did not work because of the different connection speed.
Hope this helps. I personally bought my phone at Svyaznoi on Nevsky. The staff are very nice and didn't complain about my accent and tried to understand. |
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a_medico
Frequent Guest
Joined: 29 Dec 2003
Posts: 40
Location: India
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:01 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Megafon has the lowest quality, |
i guess megafone has the best quality and stronger coverage as compared to mts and beeline. |
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Muppet
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 105
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 2:19 pm Post subject: SMS |
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Hi, My GF in St P just got a Skylink phone, and though I can call, all my SMS just bounce back. It's a 901 number so I use +79013XXXXXX to send from UK.
Anyone got any ideas?
Spasiba!  |
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waytorussia
Frequent Guest
Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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| a_medico wrote: | | Quote: | | Megafon has the lowest quality, |
i guess megafone has the best quality and stronger coverage as compared to mts and beeline. |
That's because you live in St. Petesburg. I'm talking about Moscow 
But now we know the real situation, so it's good. |
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waytorussia
Frequent Guest
Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:30 pm Post subject: Re: SMS |
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| Muppet wrote: | Hi, My GF in St P just got a Skylink phone, and though I can call, all my SMS just bounce back. It's a 901 number so I use +79013XXXXXX to send from UK.
Anyone got any ideas?
Spasiba! |
I thought their codes were 501, not 901. Are you sure? Anyway, it's quite possible your operator doesn't have an SMS exchange with SkyLink, that's why it can't work properly.
If you really need to send her an SMS, go to http://www.skylink.spb.ru/eng/ and click "Send SMS" in the bottom left corner. |
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Muppet
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 105
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| Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for that one. I'd found the Skylink page and SMS sender since posting, but now that's stopped working and messages aren't delivered any more...  I appreciate the help though.  |
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scholar
Frequent Guest
Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:58 am Post subject: |
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What documents are needed to set up phone service?
According to Svyaznoy.ru:
Для подключения Вам необходимо иметь:
Паспорт (копию паспорта) с пропиской или действующей регистрацией на территории Российской Федерации. |
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