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How do you make phone calls to russia
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Posted by: lechef

I have ventured into the next stage with a Lady I meet and now we are at the point where she would like to talk to me over the phone. How do I make a call to her? I do not understand the phone number she sent me. Here is a random number as I do not want to post her number but you can get the just of the sequence of number she sent me. She also said I can send her a SMS through her cell phone...whats that?

00 4 6 068 458 73 65

Posted by: rtking

Hi Lechef,

OK... if you know her mobile phone provider (such as Kyivstar), you can go to their website and send a SMS using her region code and telephone number.

Also, if you go to Time and Date (www.timeanddate.com), it'll show (toward the bottom of the page) how to dial the number. For me to dial Olga, I call the international number + region code + her number. So it would look like:

011 + 380 + 97 + 123-45-67

Send me a PM if you'd like help. I'd be glad to help out.

Bob

Posted by: lechef

Thanks my friend

Posted by: rams

Don't try calling directly from your phone, it will cost a fortune! Get a phone card, you should be able to call for about 3-4 cents a minute.

Posted by: mtbclay

lechef,

I mostly communicate with my GF with SMS text messages. My cellular provider costs .25 for each international text message. I think they cost about the same for her. So obviously I send her more text messages than she sends me. For me buying her a cell phone was among some of the best 100 bucks I have ever spent.

Clay

Posted by: That1Guy

Hi Lechef,

I use my cell phone. I added a service called Cingular World Basics for $3.99/month and the rate is .20/minute to call Siberia.

Guy

Posted by: novotul

I use cytus.com now, instead of phone cards. The rates are as good, and I can top up the amount from time to time over the internet. There are probably other similar good service providers.

My effective rate to Novosibirsk is about six cents a minute. Phone quality is often good, always adequate. The sound quality is better than with many phone card companies I've used.

Posted by: rtking

I recently switched to Vonage (Voice over IP.) I'm very happy with the sound quality and my calls to Ukraine almost always go through. What's odd is that it may "ring" up to a minute, but I guess that's just the system trying to make all the connections. No phone cards, low monthly phone bill (all calls in the US and Canada are included) and I pay $0.15 per minute to a cell phone in Ukraine. That's what I was paying with Nobelcom but I kept having to pay $2.00 to "buy" another calling card and the clock started when it tried to make the connection (not when Olga picked-up the phone.)

Bob

Posted by: That1Guy

I better check these other services...doesn't seem Cinular's doing me any huge favors.

Thanks!

guy

Posted by: tonton

Go to www.skype.com

Download the free software, buy youself a PC headset with microphone and call Russia for 2.7c per minute.

I call from Australia, and if she downloads the software you can make free phone calls computer to computer.

The phone companies are in trouble with technology such as this.

Posted by: ShermanAtlanta

We were spending too much on phone calls so I just sent money for a computer and internet access. Now we talk for free using Skype.
Sherman

Posted by: wavetossed

Nobody directly answered lechef's question yet. To call Russia from any country, you dial the international dialling code, followed by 7, the code for Russia, followed by the 10 digit Russian phone number.

All Russian phone numbers are exactly 10 digits.

From Canada and the USA that would be 011 7 (10 digit number)

Now let's look at what lechef's girl sent him. She made two common errors in giving him her number. lechef wrote this:
00 4 6 068 458 73 65
to obfuscate the number but the girl realy sent this:
00 7 8 095 xxx xx xx
She lives in Moscow, a European city, so she wrongly included the European international dialling code 00. This works from Europe, but from North America you need to use 011. She correctly gave the country code of 7 but then she incorrectly included the 8 that Russians must dial to make a long distance call. If you happen to be in Russia, you do have to dial 8 followed by the 10 digit number. But from overseas, you don't use the 8 at all. It is the rough equivalent of the 0 used to dial long distance in Europe or the 1 used to dial long distance in North America.

There you have it. How to call Russia. And by the way, if her 10 digit number begins with a 9 that means it is a cellphone. In fact, there are cellphones that begin with 911 because that is not used for emergency services in Russia. And another oddity is that in Moscow, a lot of people have 905 cellphone numbers. So if she says that her number begins with 905 don't assume that she mistyped Moscow's 095 area code. She probably just gave you her cell number.

Posted by: Colochef

I just ran into the same situation, does this advice hold for Belarus IE 011-7 then the number or is there a different country code. 011-?

Posted by: lester

This link is helpful.

http://www.countrycallingcodes.com/

Posted by: Colochef

That does make it easy, Thank You!

Posted by: povlhp

00 is the international prefix. Americans are different with 011 I think.

46 is the country code of Sweden (Russia has 7 instead).

08- as the next two would mean Stockholm.

If she wrote you 00 7 913 ... we could determine the name of her cell phone provider from that. This is the beginning of th cell phone of Larisa.

her landline is 00-7-383 which can be tracked to Barnaul, Siberia.

As for phone calls, my landline is now purely IP like SipPhone/Vonage, and I pay $1.25/month subscription fee, and < $0.10 to call Russia (cellphone or landline).

We also SMS when she is not at work (where she has e-mail), but that is expensive. I can callher 5 minutes for the price of one SMS (around $0.50).

I live in Denmark, Europe.

Posted by: dakotaridge

A lot of people use Skype but I gave it up. It's unable to connect about 85% of the time. I use OneSuite (http://www.onesuite.com). Ukraine is 9 cents per minute and Russia is 6.5 cents per minute; Moscow is 3.5 cents per minute. You can find fluctuations in these rates with other companies but I've had by far the most reliable service with OneSuite.

Posted by: San Diego Rick

As far as calling Russia I use the 10 10 system. ..ie..
10- 10- 834- (enter code 211593) then enter your calling codes and phone number. The rate is 11 cents per minute. though it takes about five months for the charge to show on your phone bill
Best of luck on calls.

San diego rick

Posted by: BrianinAZ

Hi all

Ive made a few calls to Ukraine and the connections have been horrible. I dont know if its the carrier Im using or just poor infrastructure. Any comments or suggestions on getting a clear connection would be appreciated.

Brian

Posted by: mtbclay

Could be both. The infrastructure is not good andsome of the carriers have problems too. So far I have had the best luck with Cingular calling direct from my cell phone for .25 a minute. Little expensive yes but it works most of the time though with decent quality. Check out some of the previous posters have used.
I have used Jupiter with some success .17 a minute, but I still prefer my cell.

Clay

Posted by: Pin Boy

i have used a champion card from masterbell.com with good success to both odessa and kiev.

pb

Posted by: BrianinAZ

Thanks

Posted by: nmnative

I use PINGO. I call Saint Petersburg a couple of times a week with good, clear connections. You can register several phones, (land line or cell) where you do not have to dial account codes. Just the toll free pingo # then the phone #. I will also use them when I am in Saint Petersburg next month to call home.

Posted by: povlhp

I don't understand all the trouble you guys are going thru. Switch to IP telephony, using an adapter like Sipura SPA-2000, and select any reputable VoIP provider. Then just pick up the old phone and call as usual.

Here in Denmark, I still pay DKK 0,48 = 8 cent/minute to any number in Russia. And that price inludes 25% sales tax. So 6.4 cents + tax.

Quality is perfect. It is actually better than ordinary analog telephone. Guess the call might be digital for a longer part of the trip.

Posted by: nmnative

povlhp -obviously you are a little nearer to Russian time zones. I am 11 hrs earlier than my girl so I must use my cell phone to call her as I call during my working hours and I can't run home and jump on the computer.

Posted by: povlhp

OK - I got an extra number for that. costs me another $1.25/month (the subscription fee including 25% sales tax for a public phone number).

I call that number, enter my pin-code, and can dial out on my VoIP account. And it is just a local call to call my dial-out number.

Posted by: cockatoo

Wavetossed, I would like to thank you for your info about calling to Russia. I have a cell phone with sprint and it isn't cheap but the connection is clear. I tried a couple of the computer things and couldn't get them to work. Again thank you

cockatoo

Posted by: RobCub

I'm from the UK and I registered online with 18866.co.uk
Calls to my girlfriend's landline are 2p per minute. Maybe there's a 1p connection cost and maybe there's tax.

Mobiles would probably cost more.

2 hours is 2.42GBP!

Posted by: Chrismc

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobCub

I'm from the UK and I registered online with 18866.co.uk
Calls to my girlfriend's landline are 2p per minute. Maybe there's a 1p connection cost and maybe there's tax.

Mobiles would probably cost more.

2 hours is 2.42GBP!

Robcub.try here they have a few at 1p/minute http://niftylist.co.uk/country_180.html

Chris

Posted by: Keith In Kodiak

For US to Russia calls, I've been using the phone cards available at: http://phonecards.waytorussia.net/

For $20 I get 5 hours of calling time to Izhevsk Russia - 4 cents a minute. Calls to Moscow or St. Pete are less than 2 cents per minute.

It's very convenient. You purchase the pin number and 800 access online, and then recharge it with more cash as needed. The quality of the connection is just fine - considering that Izhevsk is still 1000 miles of copper wire from Moscow! At any rate there's no difference in quality between the .4 cents a minute phone card calls, and my old .25 cents a minute AT&T calls.

Every once in a while the line will go dead, but I had that with AT&T as well. This is something to do with the Russian phone system, not with the means of connection.

Anyway, I've been very happy with this service.

Keith in Kodiak

Posted by: cockatoo

Keith do the phonecards work on a cell phone(sprint)? I had a land line with Verizon but they ticked me off one to many times so I told them to stick their line where the sun doesn't shine.

Posted by: Keith In Kodiak

Sure, the phone cards will work on a cell.

They give you a personal 800# to dial to make the connection, then you dial the Russian ph#. The minutes are automatically subtracted from your account.

I guess it will depend on your cell plan whether it will be economical for you - do you pay for minutes on an 800 number?

Keith in Kodiak

Posted by: Keith In Kodiak

To expand on this - they also offer economical Russia calling cards for Canada, UK, Ireland - anywhere you can think of.

Posted by: ConnerVT

Quote:

Originally Posted by cockatoo

do the phonecards work on a cell phone(sprint)? I had a land line with Verizon but they ticked me off one to many times so I told them to stick their line where the sun doesn't shine.

If you have broadband Internet, you may do well with getting VOIP telephone service. My wife direct dials Russia for $0.07/min (Moscow much cheaper). I no longer have my Verizon POTS either.

Feel free to drop me a PM, so I don't sound like a commercial...

Posted by: RobCub

Hi Chrismc

Just saw your post replying mine with the link
http://niftylist.co.uk/country_180.html

Will definitely give it a go. Thanks a million!

Regards,

Rob

Posted by: golek

Once my wife got here, she liked to call home a alot and we were using the phone cards like nobelcom and masterbell. We had better success with masterbell, but it was still costing me about $60 in cards a month plus the cost of the phone.

We've since replaced the land line with Packet8 VoIP phone http://packet8.net/. The phone works exactly like a normal phone except that I have to dial 10 digits for local numbers. We now pay a flat $49/mo. for their international Europe plan and she can talk to her mom in Moscow or any of her friends in Europe, Canada or the US 24/7 for free! Of course, every so often there is a dropped call, but that's ok since we are saving so much money.

We still have a Masterbell phone card for backup.

Posted by: clever1

Hi Golek,
If her friends and family have a pc, you could call for nothing with Skype, its an internet VOIP programme.

John

Posted by: povlhp

Antoher VoIP solution is sipdiscount.com - You need to deposit 10� minimum (good towards calls). You can call all of Russia for 0.01� per minute. Can call most of Europe + all USA for free. UK is 0.01�/min though.

Russian cell phones are 0.03� per minute.

I use them all the time, combined with my other VoIP provider (where I have my "real" phonenumber for people to call me).

VoIP is killing the old telephones, which we are also seeing here in Denmark. The former national telecom TDC is also offering VoIP. But their product is the most expensive in any way (monthly charges, call charges etc), but gives them rights to brag that the offer it. Last I heard they had 300 customers

Posted by: golek

Yes, I know about Skype, but my mother in law doesn't have a computer and wouldn't know what to do with one if she had! She represents probably 90% of the calling.

Posted by: so cal rick

I use the 10-10 number prefix
Costs $6 per hour. Works for me