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Mobile Phones in Ukraine?
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Posted by: Michael Blue

Many of you know my situation (at least as well as I understand it myself

), so I'll just ask this stuff right out...

How typical is it for someone to have a mobile phone in Ukraine?

IF I were to try to find a way to provide my girl ther with one, how would I go about it, how much would/should it cost, and is there any way to protect myself from over-use?

Thanks!

Posted by: gator70

Have you met the girl yet?

Posted by: Michael Blue

No, I have not met her in person yet, but we have been writing for several months, and have spoken on the phone.
I would be willing at this point to risk what little money would be involved in providing her with a phone, and filling a calling card from time to time, so that we could speak on a semi-regular basis.
We are not using a marriage agency ($$) or translator ($), so the money most people must spend on these things could be invested in this way instead to take full advantage of her excellent English and our mutual desire to speak on the phone from time to time. She has no phone otherwise, and scheduling with her friend is a major hassle.
"Don't send money, blah, blah, blah"...A few bucks for a phone isn't going to kill me, and if she doesn't get the phone with it, I will have learned quite a bit, won't I have...

Thanks!

Posted by: gator70

I made the mistake with a girl in the Ukraine. As soon as she got the phone she was gone. think about it?

Posted by: Michael Blue

I will definitely consider your thoughts.
However, if she would do this, I'd rather find out over a phone than once I've spent thousands going to see her.

Anyone know the costs?

Posted by: Jill

As I recall, mine cost around $200, but it was the "latest model" at the time that I bought it. I think now the same phone would cost around $100. My husband's phone was about $150 and it's actually much nicer than mine (but he got a discount because he bought it through an acquaintance).

I'd say you could get a decent but fairly simple phone for around $100, give or take.

There are two ways to pay for the calls. You can either sign up with company and pay them directly each month, or you can buy calling calls. I do the former, my husband does the later. Using a cell phone is actually rather expensive--there's still not a lot of competition, so prices for conection/service remain high (there are two main companies--Kyiv Star and UMC--as I recall, the president of Kyiv Star is Kuchma's daughter). There are some new companies starting up, though, so hopefully competition will start bringing down the prices (as in Moscow). We'll see.

Quote:

How typical is it for someone to have a mobile phone in Ukraine?

Very typical. Probably even more common than in the US (although I could be wrong--but still, common here).

Quote:

is there any way to protect myself from over-use?

Yeah, use the calling cards. That way there is always a limit.

Oh, one thing I should warn you about, most models of cell phones here will not work in the US. Only the most expensive models (usually around $400 or so) can do this. I don't really know why this is. My phone, for example, does not work in the US, even though I have roaming and it works in just about every other country (at least in Europe).

Posted by: Keystone

Mobile phones use three different bands to communicate with in the world. Basically the US and Canada uses one. Europe uses a different one. And Asia uses a different one. I own a tri-band phone so it will work anywhere in the world. On my first trip to Ukraine I brought my old mobile phone and about all I could do with it was to set the alarm and to play games on it.

Keystone

Posted by: ConnerVT

A litttle off topic, but a good time to mention it:

Beware of bringing your tri-mode cellphone out of the USA. Each time you turn it on (or you roam from one network to another), it will "phone home" and check if you have any voicemail. It will become a very expensive situation in a short amount of time!

Posted by: rtking

I purposely bought a quad-band phone (NEC 505) so it would be a "true" world phone. It uses the 800, 900, 1800, 1900 mhz bands, so it will be able to pick-up virtually service anywhere in the world.

ConnerVT offers sage advice. DON'T bring the phone unless you want outrageous fees. I purposely bought the NEC 505 because it has a SIM card that I can remove. Once removed, I can insert another card from the country I'm in and I'm in service. (I keep my address book on the phone and sync it up with the SIM card.)

Of course... this is how it's supposed to work in practice! I'll let everyone know when I go to Taiwan, Belarus or Ukraine to test it out. (Whichever country I visit first!)

Bob

Posted by: Castlestormer

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael Blue
"Don't send money, blah, blah, blah"...A few bucks for a phone isn't going to kill me,...

It sounds like you have already made up your mind. What else can be said?

Posted by: Jill

Wow, you guys are talking way over my head

I'm not a tech person, I guess

See what good advice you can get on this board?

But what I did want to add is this--Michael, if you want to set your girl up with a phone, it would probably be best to send her the money and hope that she does the right thing with it. Probably around $200 should be enough to get her started (a phone, and hook up and some minutes). But don't expect that this will mean that she will be able to call you or even receive calls from you very often--it is VERY expensive. Maybe once in a while, but probaly not every week. When I was in Poland recently, I received a call on my cell phone from Ukraine and just to receive the international call I was charged almost a grivnya a SECOND! Unbelievable!
You could probably send her SMSs, though.

I do think she would greatly appreciate the gift, since she doesn't have a home phone. But understand that she would probably use it more to call local friends than to call you, just because it is so expensive to call internationally. If she needs to call you internationally, it would be MUCH cheaper for her to go to the international calls office in Lugansk, and place a call from there.

Posted by: Michael Blue

Thank guys (and gal

)!

I think I'm going to just send her money to buy herself phone, get it started and get some minutes. I will find out what it costs for her to recieve my calls, and pay for those minutes, as well as mine to call her. She would of course be welcome to use it otherwise if she wants, it's her phone, but I would try and most just help with the minutes we use together.

I did not realize it cost money to recieve an international call...I will have to have her find out what her friend will be charged for my call to her Tuesday.

Thanks again!

Posted by: Jill

Quote:

I did not realize it cost money to recieve an international call...I will have to have her find out what her friend will be charged for my call to her Tuesday.

Generally, you must pay for all incoming calls, both local and international. It depends on the plan you buy--there are probably a dozen different plans around and each one has a different set of rates; you buy the one that best matches your needs (if you call more on evening and weekends, if you call long distance frequently, if you don't call very often but you send a lot of SMSs, etc.). Incoming calls are cheaper than outgoing calls, but it can still add up. So you need to check all the rates that correspond with the calling plan that you have.

Posted by: Keystone

Quote:

Originally posted by ConnerVT
A litttle off topic, but a good time to mention it:

Beware of bringing your tri-mode cellphone out of the USA. Each time you turn it on (or you roam from one network to another), it will "phone home" and check if you have any voicemail. It will become a very expensive situation in a short amount of time!

Well I quess I will still just have an alarm clock with my phone. How expensive is expensive. I own and run a small business and I had hoped to stay in contact with my business while visiting ukraine. The phone is paid by the business and I do need to keep in touch. I signed up for a world-wide plan and yes the per minute is quite high at $4.00. My last trip in January I was very unprepared for phoning back to the states. I made a couple of short calls for my hotel room and I think I was charged more than the $4.00 per minute. It didn't matter to much as I had to make these calls. My upcoming june trip will be for 16 days and I will have to sort out what I can do to call back to the states.

Keystone

Posted by: neil277

Hello.

In the Ukraine people do have mobile phones but before we say if its right or wrong to buy your friend a phone? in Russia your lady has to pay a charge for you calling her so her credits on her phone wont last long.

I know its hard if your lady does not have a phone and has to wait for her friend to let her use the phone?

I would say book flight to see your lady if you are sure about her and please Ukraine is a nice Country but you have to be careful.

If you are still sure about this lady the cost of a home phone is about $100-$200

Regards

Neil

Posted by: ConnerVT

Quote:

Originally posted by neil277
If you are still sure about this lady the cost of a home phone is about $100-$200

Trust me, it can cost a LOT more than this.

Currently my wife's family is in the planning/negotiation phase of getting a telephone installed in their home (in a city of over 1 million people). There is no phone service on their street, and the current estimate for installing telephone service is around 25000-30000 pyb (or roughly about $1000 USD). Each of the eight families on the street would be paying this amount.

Posted by: Andy

Quote:

Originally posted by Jill
Generally, you must pay for all incoming calls, both local and international. It depends on the plan you buy--there are probably a dozen different plans around and each one has a different set of rates; you buy the one that best matches your needs (if you call more on evening and weekends, if you call long distance frequently, if you don't call very often but you send a lot of SMSs, etc.). Incoming calls are cheaper than outgoing calls, but it can still add up. So you need to check all the rates that correspond with the calling plan that you have.

I read somewhere where one guy gave his girlfriend a cel phone and when calling her, it cost nothing. (I thought this was in Ukraine, but I could be wrong). When she called him, it was expensive, so they had a code where she'd call him, let it ring once/twice/? and then hang up. This was his cue to call her. I imagine that it's a LOT cheaper to call Ukraine from the UK than to call the UK from Ukraine (of course I've been wrong many times in the past

).

As far as buying her the phone ... my opinion (everyone has one, and you know what they say about opinions)
I'd buy her the cel phone. You're right; you're not paying much to communicate with her (in comparison to many other situations) and she didn't ask you for one. This is unsolicited.
Worst case she takes the money and you don't hear from her again. How much cheaper was that than flying to see her? My guess is quite a bit cheaper. Plus, it's not a bad test of her character. I confess that I'm concerned about scams, but I think many are far too triggerhappy to say 'don't send money.' This is a special situation.

All the best,
Andy

Posted by: Jill

Quote:

I read somewhere where one guy gave his girlfriend a cel phone and when calling her, it cost nothing.

Yeah, I heard that this changed recently: now all incoming calls are free.

Posted by: neil277

Hello

I think incoming calls are only available at Christmas well this was the case when i was in Odessa last December.

For the phone at home i was told the price is between $100-$200 for my lady so i could contact her and this was by my translator/agency who lived in England but born in Odessa.

I brought Mobile for my lady.

Regards

Neil

Posted by: fly4fun

Ok, here's what I'd like to do and perhaps someone can explain if and how it can be done.
I'm planning a trip to the Ukraine and take my cell phone with me.
The plan is to only have calls made to me from my business in the US to keep in touch while I'm away.

If possible I'll turn off checking for messages automatically.

I'm currently with Verizon Wireless but could get another phone if that was a better option.
What specs should the phone have to make this possible?

There's been mention of incoming calls to Ukraine cell phones being free. Is this true as another option might be to just get a cell phone for use in the Ukraine and give the number to my business office.

In the event I have to call the USA, is this also possible from the Ukraine? I've seen mention of plug in cards but know nothing about them..

Sorry for what might end up a long thread..
Bob

Posted by: rtking

I call Olga daily in Kiev. Her incoming calls are free, but it costs her money to call other people (except for this month where other people on the same "djuice" plan can call each other from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM for free.)

Sending SMS to each other in Ukraine is free, but sending MMS costs money.

Bob