Prepaid data in Russia - St Petersburg

[drama queen]

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.

[kuba.g]

Good to hear! I hope I will be able to manage it as well in Kaliningrad this summer.

Can you confirm that you have been sold a prepaid simcard using the tariff "МТС Коннект-4"? That would make sense as they charge 1 rouble per MB: ??? ???????-4 - ?????-?????????, ????????????? ??????? so if you initially had 400 roubles that would indeed make 400MB.

[drama queen]

Originally Posted by kuba.g

Good to hear! I hope I will be able to manage it as well in Kaliningrad this summer.

Can you confirm that you have been sold a prepaid simcard using the tariff "МТС Коннект-4"? That would make sense as they charge 1 rouble per MB: ??? ???????-4 - ?????-?????????, ????????????? ??????? so if you initially had 400 roubles that would indeed make 400MB.

Yes - it is the Connect 4 prepaid tariff. Tomorrow is the last day of trip and I have only used 30% of my quota During that time, I have been using Google Maps continuously, making all the phone calls I needed (on VOIP or Skype), browsing, email etc, except at hotel where I have WiFi. It is so useful to be able to browse the museum guides online when visiting museums and palaces.

I almost never lose HSPA signal, but occasionally when I do, it reverts to a good EDGE signal, which is still good enough for most things except VOIP.