Thread: What's the cheapest way to make a phone call to Russia

Hello

When you ask a number of a russian, they give you one that starts with 8.

I replace the 8 by a 7..

I don't understand why but that's what I have to do if I want the number to work.


I also want to know. If I call on a russian mobile from a european mobile... does the russian mobile pay for that? If yes, it sucks.

Anyway how do you call Russians from abroad?

8 = +7

Originally Posted by Mordan

Hello

When you ask a number of a russian, they give you one that starts with 8.

I replace the 8 by a 7..

I don't understand why but that's what I have to do if I want the number to work.


I also want to know. If I call on a russian mobile from a european mobile... does the russian mobile pay for that? If yes, it sucks.

Anyway how do you call Russians from abroad?

8 is because we got accustomed to domestic call so when we want to make a call from Moscow to St.Petersburg we have to dial 8 (to reach an inter-city commutator) then wait for a tone (or busy signal), then 812 (the code of St.Petersburg) then - the telephone number.

When you are calling from abroad, you have to dial 7 (the country-code of Russia or ex-USSR in some cases) then area code (or city code) then local telephone number.
(You don't have do dial 8 because after dialing 7 (or 007 in some cases) you're connecting directly to an inter-city commutator.

Some mobile operators provide their own "area code" or "service code" you have to dial instead of city code. So if you've given the number 8-903-...... then you have to dial +7-903....

When I was in Russia I had a Russian cell phone (mobile phone) and I had to prepay minutes (I think it was something like GSM lite). Whenever ANYBODY called me, I had to pay. It sucked big time. If someone called from Europe even more expensive... So I just used it for txt messages...

Two of my Russian (female) friends found a way to get by the system. I think the first 5 seconds are free, so they would call each other and quickly say two-three words and hang up. Then repeat.

On July 1st this year all incoming rings are free - caller pays. It has to do with a passing of a new law on communications.

Originally Posted by Ramil

On July 1st this year all incoming rings are free - caller pays. It has to do with a passing of a new law on communications.

Paying to receive calls is a bit weird.

In the UK we only have to pay to receive calls if we are abroad.

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by Ramil

On July 1st this year all incoming rings are free - caller pays. It has to do with a passing of a new law on communications.

Paying to receive calls is a bit weird.

In the UK we only have to pay to receive calls if we are abroad.

Russia is a weird country

Originally Posted by Ramil

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by Ramil

On July 1st this year all incoming rings are free - caller pays. It has to do with a passing of a new law on communications.

Paying to receive calls is a bit weird.

In the UK we only have to pay to receive calls if we are abroad.

Russia is a weird country

I know :P

You have to pay to receive calls on a cell phone in the US, but not with land lines.
If you're near a computer when you want to call, www.skype.com will allow you to place calls from your computer to regular phones anywhere in the world for very little money and from one computer to another for free. Its not as handy as a regular phone but I like the free part.

SKYPE is cool, my Masrterrussian net-pal talked for an hour free on MSN. Cost $+++ on my boss's phone to call +7.... CC

compare skype's rates with http://www.voipbuster.com/en/rates.html

Originally Posted by Layne

You have to pay to receive calls on a cell phone in the US, but not with land lines.
If you're near a computer when you want to call, www.skype.com will allow you to place calls from your computer to regular phones anywhere in the world for very little money and from one computer to another for free. Its not as handy as a regular phone but I like the free part.

this is crazy... to pay to receive phone calls?????

We don't have such robbery in Belgium

I would suggest 2 tin cans and some really long string...unlimited minutes of talk time.

Originally Posted by Mordan

Originally Posted by Layne

You have to pay to receive calls on a cell phone in the US, but not with land lines.
If you're near a computer when you want to call, www.skype.com will allow you to place calls from your computer to regular phones anywhere in the world for very little money and from one computer to another for free. Its not as handy as a regular phone but I like the free part.

this is crazy... to pay to receive phone calls?????

We don't have such robbery in Belgium

We are obviously more civilised in Europe.

I thought the US was supposed to be about "free speech" and shit. But you have to pay to RECEIVE calls and get them tapped by the government while you're at it :P

Originally Posted by TATY

I thought the US was supposed to be about "free speech" and @@@@. But you have to pay to RECEIVE calls and get them tapped by the government while you're at it :P

Hey! They weren't tapping them -- they just dialed the wrong number several hundred of millions of times...

Originally Posted by Бармалей

Originally Posted by TATY

I thought the US was supposed to be about "free speech" and @@@@. But you have to pay to RECEIVE calls and get them tapped by the government while you're at it :P

Hey! They weren't tapping them -- they just dialed the wrong number several hundred of millions of times...

Meh. I thought it happened all the time anyway. I don't care if the government listen in on my calls. They are not very interesting.

[America bashing]I also enjoy how most Americans seem to support attacks on Afganistan and Iraq to "make America safe", but you better not dare listen in on their phone calls![/America bashing]

Originally Posted by TATY

Meh. I thought it happened all the time anyway. I don't care if the government listen in on my calls. They are not very interesting.

We know. We've all seen your posts here.
/I kid, I kid...

Not to hijack this thread, but I personally find it silly to think that the US Government has an armada of people listening to every person's phone calls! Get real, they don't have the money or resources to listen to you talking to grandmother. They would only listen to suspicious people's phone calls. Like mine!

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Not to hijack this thread, but I personally find it silly to think that the US Government has an armada of people listening to every person's phone calls! Get real, they don't have the money or resources to listen to you talking to grandmother. They would only listen to suspicious people's phone calls. Like mine!

Well I was watching ABC news recently and it reported that the government had admitted to listening to non-suspicious people's phone calls.

Yeah, but 300 million of them? Maybe they have one guy listening to random calls? Non-suspicious just means their name was Al Jihady or something like that.