Prepaid data in Russia - St Petersburg

drama queen · 21-04-2011, 05:53

Just an update....I am now in St Petersburg and have a working Russian SIM.

I signed up with MTS(MTC). It was a totally painless process. The guy in the phone shop on Nevsky Prospect spoke English and knew exactly what I was looking for. I just had to show him my Passport and he printed out a pre-completed form for me to sign. Probably the easiest SIM sign up process I have seen anywhere outside of Ireland(where you dont even need a passport).

It seemed like the phone company had figured out that short-term tourists are a specific market and packaged a solution and trained staff to meet this specific type of customer?

The tariff plan is pre-paid 400 roubles initial sign-up cost (€10). This gives you 400MB to be used over 30 days, or less if you use some SMS/voice. If you run out, you can top up at vending machines which are located everywhere. I reckon 400MB will be plenty for 1 week as I also have WiFi free in hotel.

Setting up the SIM was relatively easy-no PIN needed. Voice/text worked straight away, but I had to go into the settongs menu on my phone to set up a new APN - address: internet.mts.ru username:mts, password:mts

So far, 3G service seems good here, and I have also managed to do VOIP and SKYPE over 3G.

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drama queen (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 65 Join Date: 02 May 2010 Country:	21-04-2011, 05:53 Just an update....I am now in St Petersburg and have a working Russian SIM. I signed up with MTS(MTC). It was a totally painless process. The guy in the phone shop on Nevsky Prospect spoke English and knew exactly what I was looking for. I just had to show him my Passport and he printed out a pre-completed form for me to sign. Probably the easiest SIM sign up process I have seen anywhere outside of Ireland(where you dont even need a passport). It seemed like the phone company had figured out that short-term tourists are a specific market and packaged a solution and trained staff to meet this specific type of customer? The tariff plan is pre-paid 400 roubles initial sign-up cost (€10). This gives you 400MB to be used over 30 days, or less if you use some SMS/voice. If you run out, you can top up at vending machines which are located everywhere. I reckon 400MB will be plenty for 1 week as I also have WiFi free in hotel. Setting up the SIM was relatively easy-no PIN needed. Voice/text worked straight away, but I had to go into the settongs menu on my phone to set up a new APN - address: internet.mts.ru username:mts, password:mts So far, 3G service seems good here, and I have also managed to do VOIP and SKYPE over 3G.