Where to get a russian SIM card
September 25, 2013 8:51 AM Subscribe
Where to get a prepaid SIM in Moscow with a good data plan?
Headed to Moscow in a month or so for work, and would like to get a SIM for the duration of my stay (a couple of weeks), mainly for mobile data. The hotel WiFi looks to be shockingly expensive (like $30-40/day - yikes), my employer is too cheap to spring for a work phone, and going without Internet isn't an option for me - my wife is stateside so we do a lot of Skyping. I travel fairly regularly for work (usually in Western Europe), and have generally had good luck doing this in the past but have heard that SIM cards are harder to get in Russia if you're a foreigner. Additional caveat: I don't speak a single word of Russian beyond "da" and "nyet".
Any good suggestions? I'll be staying in central Moscow (somewhere around the Tverskaya Street area I think) so something in that area is certainly a plus.
Headed to Moscow in a month or so for work, and would like to get a SIM for the duration of my stay (a couple of weeks), mainly for mobile data. The hotel WiFi looks to be shockingly expensive (like $30-40/day - yikes), my employer is too cheap to spring for a work phone, and going without Internet isn't an option for me - my wife is stateside so we do a lot of Skyping. I travel fairly regularly for work (usually in Western Europe), and have generally had good luck doing this in the past but have heard that SIM cards are harder to get in Russia if you're a foreigner. Additional caveat: I don't speak a single word of Russian beyond "da" and "nyet".
Any good suggestions? I'll be staying in central Moscow (somewhere around the Tverskaya Street area I think) so something in that area is certainly a plus.
Response by poster: Proof of residency? Even for a prepaid?? I hope not.
I did some Googling and found a few people mentioning in travel forums, etc that they were able to get prepaid SIM cards in Russia with just a passport (none of this registration nonsense) but I have no idea where they went (mobile store? other vendor? newspaper kiosk maybe?). Here in Germany it was a snap - you can buy SIMs practically anywhere and they're ready to go out of the box (no registration, etc required) so maybe I've just been spoiled.
posted by photo guy at 1:28 PM on September 25, 2013
I did some Googling and found a few people mentioning in travel forums, etc that they were able to get prepaid SIM cards in Russia with just a passport (none of this registration nonsense) but I have no idea where they went (mobile store? other vendor? newspaper kiosk maybe?). Here in Germany it was a snap - you can buy SIMs practically anywhere and they're ready to go out of the box (no registration, etc required) so maybe I've just been spoiled.
posted by photo guy at 1:28 PM on September 25, 2013
When I was in Moscow last year, I just walked into an MTS store, gave the clerk my passport, and walked out 5 minutes later with a SIM card for a data plan. As far as I recall, it was amazingly cheap and had unlimited data, though it slowed you down to 2G speeds after 50 MB per day. For my uses this was perfectly fine.
posted by haykinson at 11:58 PM on September 25, 2013
posted by haykinson at 11:58 PM on September 25, 2013
My last trip to Moscow was several years ago so @haykinson's information definitely beats mine.
posted by rada at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2013
posted by rada at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2013
Yes, you just go to any mobile store (MTC, Beeline, etc), and can get a SIM card after they register with your passport. That's it. I did it 6 months ago.
posted by peachtree at 12:09 PM on September 26, 2013
posted by peachtree at 12:09 PM on September 26, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Sounds easy enough, I only need it for email and Skype so 50MB or so is plenty. Will look for a mobile store after I arrive.
posted by photo guy at 1:30 PM on September 26, 2013
posted by photo guy at 1:30 PM on September 26, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
Your best bet is going to be internet cafes. There are quite a few around Tverskaya street and they are relatively cheap ($2-10 per hour). Keep in mind that city center is quite a bit smaller than it looks on the map so you should be able to find several cafes within 10-15 minutes walking distance.
posted by rada at 10:00 AM on September 25, 2013