In the Russian Federation some special rules for mobile phones apply. You should check them first to avoid frustration. Basically, you can't expect anyone to speak English in this country. So you might print out the offer in Russian before to show what you want. To make it easier, the most important words are shown in Kyrillic too.
Basics
It's next to impossible to show all prices for Russia, because their pricing is immensely complex. The Russian Federation consists of 81 "federal subjects" which can be provinces, territories, federal cities or other districs and are called regions in this article. For every region even the same provider has different prices. So we only give it here for the Moscow region (and St. Petersburg for Tele2). They are the highest in the country, in other areas you can expect to pay a little less.
Living in this huge country, the residents have mostly more than one SIM card. Like in the US, every SIM is locked to a specified provider and region too. All calls, text and even data traffic made outside of this region lead to domestic roaming surcharges even within the same provider. Furthermore, their are incoming roaming charges for calls from abroad or different Russian regions by the same provider too. So to try buy a SIM card at the place, where you are going to use it most.
The complicated dialling of phone numbers within Russia is explained in detail in this WIKI. For data, you can skip these rules, but be aware that there a two kinds of data packages: "domestic", valid only within the specified region of your SIM card leading to surcharges outside and "national" valid all over the federation.
Networks
Russia uses European frequencies throughout its country: 2G is on 900 and 1800 Mhz, 3G (up to HSPA+) on 900 and 2100 Mhz mainly in the cities and 4G/LTE on 800 and 2600 Mhz started in 2012/3 on all operators and is available for prepaid without surcharges in the major towns.
There are 4 national mobile operators active in Russia:
MegaFon (МегаФон)
MTS (MTC)
Beeline (by VipelCom)
Tele2 (joint venture with Rostelecom)
MegaFon has the best nationwide coverage and good speeds in the cities at the highest prices. It is consided by many as the premier network in the country and the only to cover all 83 regions. MTS is at the present the biggest operator with more than 100 million customers and licenses in 81 regions of the country. Beeline is the budget operator with the lowest rates active in 78 regions nationwide. Tele2 and Rostelecom are building a forth network active in 41 regions only (not in Moscow) and merged into a joint venture in 2014.
Buying a SIM card
There are two ways of buying a SIM card in Russia: the official and the unofficial.
In the shops of the providers, you will need to present your passport to get a SIM card. A foreign passport will usually work, but some vendors will only know how to deal with a Russian passport. This way is recommended if you have none or limited knowledge of Russian and need at least some help with setting up.
Another option is buying a SIM card in a kiosk at a subway entrance. That usually costs 100 Rub and some of that appears as a credit on the account. No ID required, these cards are pre-activated to someone's (possibly fictional) name. The worst that can happen: the card turns out to be blocked and you loose your 100 Rub. Usually it's okay though. There will be no support neither in English nor in Russian.
There are two different kinds of mobile numbers in Russia:
City number: The city one is a normal phone number of the city where you are based (for example, 555-##### in Moscow). It is as if you have a normal city phone and it is not recognizable from a standard fixed line number.
Federal Number: The federal cannot be accessed directly: you should dial it as if you are calling to another city: 8 wait for a tone, then a code of the network (i.e. 902, 903), and then the 7-digit number. Even if you are in Moscow and you are calling to a "federal" number in Moscow, you should dial the number through 8 tone code routine.
It is obvious that the city numbers are much easier to remember and to access, however, they are more expensive. With a federal number you can generally pay as you go, There are no monthly fees, while with a city number you have to pay a certain fixed fee every month on top of your calls (from 25 Rub). So most visitors will prefer federal numbers.
MegaFon (МегаФон)
Many users consider Megafon the best network in Russia for coverage and speed. It was the first to start 3G and 4G/LTE and is the only network which is available in every region of the country (coverage map). It considers itself as market leader, but it has the highest rates of all operators. The following prices are given for Moscow.
Availability
Their SIM is available at Megafon offices (салонов) (location map). This way you need an ID. But you can also buy an envelope containing a a pre-activated SIM card with this tariff pre-selected at a subway entrance. This way you don't need an ID, it costs around 100 Rub (same price at a mobile shop), is pre-activated and has some credit.
They offer different prepaid tariff lines without a monthly fee: Pass to ZERO (Переходи на НОЛЬ), Everything just (Все просто) or Warm Welcome(Тёплый приём +) which is their visitor line and here shown in detail.
To top up buy vouchers (Карты оплаты) available everywhere (typing *110#<top-up code> or top up online by international credit card here.
Warm Welcome (Тёплый приём +)
Set up price is 200 Rub. Calls to other MegaFon subscribers are free (limited to 100 min/day outside of Moscow). Calls to other providers in Moscow 2.5 Rub./min and outside within Russia 8.5 Rub/min. Calls to the CIS countries 5-10 Rub/min and SMS 2.5-5 Rub just to give you an impression.
For data, internet package XS is automatically activated by default giving you 70 MB/day domestic (in Moscow!) for 30 days at 64 kbps for free. Outside internet use is expensive by default (10 Rub/MB). So change to one of their packages.
Data-only SIM
MegaFon sells a data-SIM mainly for tables or modems. It is called MegaFon-online (МегаФон-Онлайн). Set up price is 200 Rub and any regular SIM can be changed to this tariff by typing *510*1#
It only gives a better default rate with 1.90 Rub/MB and hourly rounding to 150 KB! So you should better buy a data pack.
Data feature packages
For all SIMs the same data packs are available, only default rate differs.
Both daily packages are national, overuse with standard pack is charged with 0.5 Rub/MB, Pro pack will be throttled to 64 kbps. Max. speed is 3 MBps on standard and unlimited 4G on Pro. All packs renew themselves automatically.To deactivate type *105*264*0# or *105*224*0# respectively.
monthly packages
Интернет
Price
Data Volume
Activation
Deactivation
Internet XS
190 Rub
70 MB / day
*236*0#
*236*0*0#
Internet S
390 Rub
3 GB
*236*1#
*236*1*0#
Internet M
690 Rub
*236*2#
*236*2*0#
Internet L
990 Rub
15 GB
*236*3#
*236*3*0#
Internet XL
1290 R.
style="text-align: right; " 30 GB
style="text-align: right; " *236*4#
*236*4*0#
While the XS pack has only domestic data, all other packs have national data (see General, above). All packages have full 4G speed where available, throttled to 64 kbps when quota is reached. You can check data volume by typing *925# You can buy the packs S-XL for 3 months with 10% discount, for 6 months with 20% discount and for 12 month for 30% discount.
You can add further high speed volume by theses extension packs:
for daily rates and Internet XS: another 70 MB for 19 Rub valid for the rest of the days.
for monthly packs S-XL: 1 GB for 150 Rub. or 2.5 GB for 300 Rub valid for the rest of the month.
Activation is by typing *925*3#
Domestic-only data packages can be extended nationwide by the Internet Russia (Интернет по России) option for a setup price of 30 Rub and a additional daily fee of 10 Rub. So you better buy a national package, if you travel within Russia.
More info
APN: internet
All given prices are valid for Moscow only, other rates may apply in other regions.
Beeline offers unlimited internet for 295 Roubles.
Just get any prepaid SIM card (you can buy it at any Cell Shops, which are plenty at big cities, names are Euroset, Sviaznoy and other). Ask for a SIM without prepaid data or calls. Add money to a prepaid card (you can do it at very convinient value adding machines, they are everywhere and even have english interface).
Then ask to turn on unlimited internet for 295 roubles. It will operate at home city only (I.e. Moscow if you buy in Moscow, Petersburg for Petersburg), and is valid for one month. At other cities there will be quite cheap home-network roaming (around 8 roubles per megabyte).
Plan "Go!" offers 3G (up to 2Mbps) and EDGE. (iPhone and android is suitable, and thethring is allowed)
First 500MB ar at 2Mbps speed, and after that the speed drops to 64kbps.
Limitations: when daily traffic exceeds 100Mb, data speed reduces to 128Kb/sec until the end of current day.
Valid in any Russian region whereever you bought the SIM.
Data Feature Packs:
The operator, have some prepaid datapacks on your portifolio:
200mb (for 30 days): 450 Rub
300mb (for 30 days): 600 Rub
450mb (for 30 days): 800 Rub.
Unlimited internet at Night (30 days) - Happy hour time with unlimited traffic quota from 1:00 am to 8:00: 450,00 rub
Excess and oddpack:
3.45 Rub/mb - From 12:00am to 08:00am
8.45 Rub/mb - From 8:00am to 12:00am
Max speed: Up to 8mbps.
Other information:
Off-net and fixed landline:
1-5 minutes of call on day: 3,95 Rub/min
From 6 min on: 0,19 Rub/min
On-Net:
1-5 minutes of call on day: 3,95 Rub/min
From 6 min on: 0,17 Rub/min
Do not forget to turn off Push Messages in your Message settings. Otherwise you would be non-stop bothered with commercial offers.
Avaliability:
In some shops and MTS kiosks.
Teethering:
(Officialy) Allowed for the almost dataplans (excluding some post-paid dataplans).
iPhone/iPad specific information:
Unavaliable.
SIM information:
Regular Simcards avaliable
Micro Simcards (3FF) available
Check Balance:
100#
TELE 2
Yet another mobile operator (discounter, EDGE, 3G).
Site: http://www.en.tele2.ru/
Not present in Moscow.
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