Mobile (Cellular) Phones
in Saint Petersburg, Russia

No permission or declaration is required to bring a mobile (cellular) phone into Russia or to use one.

There are very good mobile communication networks in Saint Petersburg operated by various mobile and cellular providers:

MTS

BeeLine

MegaFon

Delta Telecom

Fora Communications

PetroSvyaz

SkyLink

Tele2

If you intend to use your existing phone and SIM card first check that your provider has an international roaming agreement with one of them, and ensure you have international roaming enabled.

The mobile/cellular phone network types available in Saint Petersburg include GSM 900, GSM1800, NAMPS and CDMA. Numerous mobile phones are multi-band and automatically detect and select the required one but visitors from US and Japan that have problems can rent mobiles from various enterprises, or for longer term it may be more cost effective to purchase a phone and SIM card package.

Purchasing a local SIM card is relatively simple - the difficulty comes in choosing a package offered by the providers. Providers are fiercely competing for more customers and almost continually change prices and packages to challenge their rivals.