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cell phone likely wont work?

Way to Russia Talk Lounge Forum Index -> St. Petersburg

Author	Message
scottso69 Frequent Guest Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 30 Location: usa	Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:20 pm    Post subject: cell phone likely wont work? Hello-i will be visiting stp in september and have been told that my cell phone from the usa will probably not work.I contacted my carrier(t-mobile)and was advised that stp is not in their coverage area but other companies are.They said phone should work but no guarantee!Also said roaming is quite expensive.I wonder if i should just leave the phone home and get a phone card from way to russia?How would i use a phone card to call the usa?Is there phones around town?or can i use the card say from the hotel room?Thanks for your help.Scott B.
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danbrew Just Starting Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 8	Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:49 pm    Post subject: If you have a GSM phone, it "will work", but will be hugely expensive due to international roaming. AT&T/Cingular charged me something like $5.99 a minute. Ouch! If you have an unlocked GSM phone, you can simply purchase a SIM card in Russia and get a Russian phone number. Usin a Russian SIM card in your GSM phone is good for those local (calls in Russia) that you may wish to make (to other phones in Russia), but not so good for calls back home. Only you can decide whether you can live without your specific phone number - if you receive a lot of calls on your mobile, you may have no choice but to accept the high price. Consider, though, getting a Vonage / Skype solution as detailed below and then just forwarding your US cell number to the US Vonage or Skype number. My two cents, though, as a frequent visitor to Russia, go sign up for Vonage or Skype or something like that and use Voice Over IP (VoIP) to call back to the US. The last time I was in Moscow, I used Vonage on my laptop and talked for at least 30 minutes every day for the three weeks I was there. Then I did the same thing in Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Depending upon why you are traveling, email may suffice. Or you may need to check voicemail for work, communicate with your coworkers, etc. I've found Vonage to be really really great - and the "softphone" (as they call it) is something like $10/month for existing Vonage customers. It was very nice - and saved me a ton of rubles.
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scottso69 Frequent Guest Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 30 Location: usa	Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 4:05 am    Post subject: Great information. Hi-Thank you Danbrew-I appreciate your response to me.Scott.
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maarten1986 Just Starting Joined: 04 Jul 2008 Posts: 5	Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:36 am    Post subject: I think the mobile phone might be a problem. Europe uses another frequency band than the U.S., see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_ranges.
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scottso69 Frequent Guest Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 30 Location: usa	Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:25 am    Post subject: Thanks Maarten1986 I appreciate your response.I will check this out.Thank you.scott b.
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BrianR Frequent Guest Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 58 Location: Sydney, Australia	Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:25 am    Post subject: My advice if you don't have a GSM phone and you are visiting Russia for a reasonable period of time - buy the cheapest pre-paid phone you can find when you get there. Should be somewhere under US$100.
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DSKD01 Just Starting Joined: 15 Feb 2010 Posts: 1	Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:38 pm    Post subject: you won't be able to use your cell phone unless your service has a travel made SIM card you can use. Check www.rangeroamer.com they have tons of cell phones that you can purchase with sim cards for travel. You don't have to sign a contract either, you can have it for as long as you like.
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Anna Lounge Lizard Joined: 11 Apr 2004 Posts: 91 Location: St. Petersburg, Russia	Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:07 pm    Post subject: 2 DSKD01 Do you expect an answer from the person, who posted his question back in July 2008?
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tracybarb Just Starting Joined: 12 Apr 2010 Posts: 9	Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 6:07 am    Post subject: Thank you for your post...
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mobiper Just Starting Joined: 14 Jan 2011 Posts: 2	Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:37 am    Post subject: Mobiper.com People prefer China mobile phone because of the price in which you can save nearly half of what the original price.
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