Stationary connection. In order to make an international call from the stationary phone in Vladivostok, dial 8, wait for a beep, then dial 10 (code for international calls), then sequentially dial country code, city code, and telephone number. To make a long-distance call within Russia, you need to dial 8, wait for dial tone, and then dial the code of the needed city and the telephone number without pauses. If you make a call within Vladivostok, you don't have to dial city code.
Vladivostok has seven-digit city dialing, therefore, if you call here from other Russian city or from abroad, you need to dial the three-digit code - 423. For example, to call to Vladivostok from abroad, you must dial 0, wait for dial tone, then dial 0 again, then - 7 (code of Russia), 423 (code of Vladivostok) and the seven-digit phone number.
Besides stationary phones, you may use services of "Pochta Rossii" public telephones to make international and long- distance calls. They can be found in any district of Vladivostok.
Mobile connection. As a rule, upon arrival in Vladivostok, your cell phone will be automatically registered in the network of Russian cellular operators. If it doesn't happen, we recommend contacting your operator and ordering roaming service. However, roaming is pretty expensive in Russia's territory; therefore, it is more convenient to buy a local SIM-card.
There are three large cellular operators in Russia - MTS, BeeLine and Megafon. You can buy a SIM-card at the operating company's official representative office or one of mobile connection shops. You will need to show your passport and to name the place of your residence / stay in Vladivostok, in order to do this. Russian SIM-card costs about 10 € and, as a rule, the same amount is automatically credited to your account. It is possible to update your account using special terminals, which are easy to find just about anywhere in the city.
In order to make an international call with a cell phone, you need to dial +, then sequentially dial country code, city code, and telephone number. When you call a Russian cell phone, dial the number in the international format: +7 (code of Russia), then - code of cellular operator and cell phone number.
Public telephone. Two basic types of public phones are used in Vladivostok: local and all-purpose. You can use the local one to call within the city, and the all-purpose one - to make local, long-distance and international calls.
You can call from a pay phone with the help of a single Primorsky Krai's telephone card, which is available in call centers of "Pochta Rossii" and at distribution shops.
National operator of mail service in Russia is "Pochta Rossii" (literally: Post of Russia), which provides services on sending written correspondence, packages, parcels in and outside the country. Its offices can be easily found in any area of Vladivostok. They work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Cost of "Pochta Rossii" is rather low: for example, sending a letter to Europe or America costs about 1 €. However, the national postal operator of Russia has two major drawbacks - low delivery speed of mail and parcels (a letter to Europe is delivered on average in 2 - 5 weeks), and insecurity (letters and parcels often don't reach their destination at all).
Many international courier services of express delivery have their offices in Vladivostok; DHL, FedEx, TNT Express, UPS are among them. Their services are much more expensive, but the reliability of these companies is substantially higher too.
It is no problem to get an Internet access - both wired and wireless - in Vladivostok. Currently, the majority of city hostels and hotels of different level have Wi-Fi access points that give visitors an opportunity to enjoy high-speed Internet access. Many Vladivostok's restaurants and cafes are also equipped with Internet access points. There are also Wi-Fi zones at Primorye capital's train station and airport.
In addition, street internet is fairly common in Vladivostok. The Park of Honorary Citizens, the Park of Twin Cities at the intersection of Pogranichnaya Street and Semenovskaya Street, and the city's central square have free Wi-Fi access points.
You may also connect to the Internet with a cell phone, if your device supports GPRS, or one of 3G standards. In Russia, all cellular carriers provide the mobile Internet access. Thus, it's better to buy a Russian SIM-card upon arrival in Vladivostok - this will help to save on roaming.
Vladivostok also has a lot of internet cafes, which provide access to both, wired and wireless Internet. The cost of one hour work on the Web typically doesn't exceed 1-2 €.
