Making a call
To call abroad from your home phone, let alone your mobile might be quite costly. Most people use the prepaid phone cards that you can buy on the street or at post offices and kiosks. To find the best card we'd recommend asking the guys who sell them on the street because different cards have different rates for each country so it is best to say where you want to call and they'll advise you. In any event, here is how to dial abroad without a card:
| Calling Abroad |
Example |
| dial 810 |
calling from Kiev to Prague |
| dial country code |
Czech Republic code +420 |
| dial city code |
Prague code 2 |
| dial number |
dial 810 420 2xx xx xx |
| |
|
| Calling to Ukraine |
Example |
| dial int'l calling code |
calling from Prague to Kiev |
| dial 380 (Ukraine) |
Ukraine code +380 |
| dial city code |
Kiev code 44 |
| dial number |
dial 00380 44 xxx xx xx |
| |
|
| Calling within Ukraine |
Example |
| dial 8 for intercity |
calling from Kiev to Kharkov |
| wait for tone |
intercity code 8 |
| dial city code |
Kharkov code 0572 |
| dial number |
dial 8 0572 xx xx xx |
Mobile phones
Here are the leading mobile operators in Ukraine. Kyivstar and UMC are the strongest and well established in Ukraine. Roaming is available from all operators, for contract customers comes automatically. Top up cards available at street stands, kiosks and at the operators' stores.
Kyivstar
Kyivstar's prepaid service Ace&Base offers cards for 25, 50, 100 or 300 UAH. Starter pack and the cards are available in any Kyivstar or mobile phones shop. To sign a contract you'll need to go to the shop and bring your passport, payments start at 200 UAH for set up and from 5 UAH a month.
This is the filial of Kyivstar. Djuice propose only prepaid service. Starter pack and the cards for 25, 50, 100 or 300 UAH are available in any Kyivstar or mobile phones shop.
MTC ( UMC)
Recently UMC has switched the brand into MTC. The tariffs proposed to UMC subscribes stay the same, additionally new conditions from MTC are available.UMC's prepaid service SimSim offers cards for 30, 60 or 120 UAH available in all UMC shops. Contracts start from 40 UAH a month. There is also the Unlimited tariff where you pay 600 UAH a month and than call as much as you want. Bring your passport to sign up for a contract.
Life:)
A relatively new GSM operator which enjoys major success. They offer all types of subscription from prepaid cards to business contracts. With Magnificent Three service you can select 3 life:) numbers to make calls, SMS and MMS at special price. Flat tariff offers the same minute price to all national directions. Life:) world tariff plan is for subscribers wanting roaming in 465 networks in 181 countries. Connections like WiFi and EDGE.
Beeline
The latest arrival on the Ukrainian market of mobile operators. You won't miss the adverisement in the city - anything with yellow and black stripes, the 'bee colors', is them. Beeline is a major operator in Russia.
3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology, after 2G (Most of the mobile operators in Ukraine use exactly this standard). 3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.
The most significant feature of 3G mobile technology is that it supports greater numbers of voice and data customers — especially in urban areas — and higher data rates at lower incremental cost than 2G.
3G uses 0.6 MHz channel carrier width to deliver significantly higher data rates and increased capacity compared to 2G networks. So now customer can easily browse through Internet, see each other during talking on mobile screen, watch movies and TV programs on mobile phone.
The main standards which 3G uses are:
- UMTS (or W-CDMA)
- CDMA2000
Ukraine also started to use this new technology. Currently 3G is represented by two companies:
- CDMA (founded in 1996), Klovskiy Uzviz 12a or Biloruska 8 - People.net (founded in 2006), Krasnoarmejskaya 18
|
