Cell phones in Ukraine

I’m leaving in 7 days, but this time I’m not stressed at all! I know what to expect, I know what to pack, and, most importantly, there is an end in sight. My packing list is very short – just bare necessities to get me through these couple of weeks in Ukraine.

Many people asked me about the cell phones use in Ukraine, and I’ll be happy to share my observations. People use their cell phones everywhere! Which is not a big deal, right? Everybody in America is doing the same thing, but not quite the same. For example, if my cell phone rings in a middle of the dinner with several people, I would either not take the call, or excuse myself to go outside to talk. Not in Ukraine! People would just answer the phone and start a conversation, oblivious of the other people at the table! Same thing in public transportation – I heard too many loud private conversations in marshrutka bus that I really didn’t care to hear :) Even in official places people don’t stop talking on the phones! Once Oleg and I were in the regional inspector’s office along with several other people. One woman had a phone call – she accepted it and started talking right there! I was mortified! Oleg and I couldn’t understand it – why is it so hard to call back later? But then we finally got it: all incoming calls in Ukraine are free, so if somebody calls you, it’s a free call, and you better take it. Otherwise you’ll have to pay to call back!

There are phone plans, but in most cases people just buy minutes as needed. They are readily available everywhere at the stores, markets, on the street corners from vendors, etc. You can buy phone cards for any amount, I think you can start as low as 15 grivnas or buy as much as 200-300. It’s very easy to check the amount of grivna available: Dial *101# then press the “call" button and wait a few seconds. The amount of grivna will be displayed.

I tried to find out how much is one minute by checking the amount of grivna before and after the call, and then dividing it by an approximate number of minutes I talked, but I still didn’t figure it out :) Here are some observations for those of you ready to go:

- It’s much cheaper to call from one cell phone to another. I would say it’s approximately 0.2 – 0.4 grivna a minute, depends on the provider. Sometimes it’s even cheaper to call if both phones are from the same provider

- It’s more expensive to call from the cell phone to the landline phone – about 0.7 – 1 grivna a minute. But if you still need to call, make sure to dial an area code. For example, if the landline phone in Kiev is 555-5555, then to call from the cell phone, you should dial 8-044-555-5555 (where 044 is Kiev’s area code) Same rules apply when calling from one cell phone to another – you need to dial 8, then area code, then a phone number. The only case when you don’t need to dial the area code is when you call from one landline to another in the same city.

- Calls to USA are about 2 grivna a minute (maybe more).

- As I said before, all incoming calls are free, so it makes sense to give your phone number to friends and family in the States and have them call you.

- You can transfer grivna from one cell phone to another. Dial *150*number*amount of grivna# and press the “send" button. You’ll see the confirmation number on the display. For example, if you’d like to transfer 20 grivnas to the phone number 8-099-555-5555, you should dial the following:

*150*8-099-555-5555*20#

Then to confirm your transaction, dial *150*confirmation number