Which operators operate in Crimea. Mobile communications in Crimea: operators

Traveling to Crimea makes cellular network subscribers nervous. The thing is that there are no Russian cellular operators there; they (let’s hope - for now) do not work there. A SIM card for Crimea should provide inexpensive communication services when located on the territory of the peninsula. And our experts decided to find the best option.

The summer of 2018 is just heating up, the air and sea water temperatures in Crimea are constantly rising. It's time to jump in the car and go on vacation. But will the SIM card installed in the phone work in Crimea? It will, but not on the most favorable terms - they are described in our review.

Crimean tariffs from MTS

Apparently, MTS does not consider Crimea a legitimate part of Russia - and this is sad. Because attempts to find out the cost of calls and mobile Internet while on the territory of the republic led to nothing. The “Roaming” section on the official website is silent; searching for information on other pages did not yield any information.

Having already written this article, we learned from user comments that MTS provides fairly good communication conditions in Crimea. The comments themselves say this:

Arkady, June 14, 2018 MTS is complete nonsense. 100 rubles all over Russia+ and you can use your package just like at home. Checked personally. So MTS is the cheapest in Crimea.

Nikolay, June 18, 2018 MTS has additional services Home package Russia and Home package Russia+. Communication conditions are the same as in the home region. For the first package 15 rubles. per day when making calls and using mobile Internet, for the second package - 100 rubles. per month. I think it’s clear that it’s beneficial to use the Home Package Russia service for a short-term stay in Crimea, and the Home Package Russia+ service for a long stay, well, at least 2-3 weeks

For the sake of experiment, we went to the MTS salon and bought a SIM card with a smart tariff and the “Home package Russia+” option. The manager assured us that in Crimea the connection would work the same as in the home region and no additional expenses would be required. One of these days one of our employees will go to the peninsula on vacation and test MTS communications.

Offer from Beeline

The best prices are available from local mobile operators in Crimea. But many subscribers do not want to change their number. Beeline has prepared uniform prices for them. Incoming calls are charged at 2 rubles/min, outgoing calls within Russia – 2 rubles/min, SMS – 2 rubles/piece. The Internet is more expensive than MTS - the first three megabytes per day cost 3 rubles, then a package of 110 MB worth 200 rubles is activated. After it is exhausted, the cost of traffic is 2 rubles/MB. There are no modifier options on Beeline.

What MegaFon will offer

Among all Russian cellular operators, MegaFon turned out to be the most generous. If you go to Crimea, then only with him. MegaFon SIM cards are suitable for both the Internet and calls. Current rates:

• Incoming calls from Crimean numbers are free, any other numbers are 2 rubles/min.
• Calls to mobile and landline Russian numbers – 2 rubles/min.
• Outgoing SMS within the Russian Federation – 2 rubles/piece.
• Internet – 2.2 rub/MB.

The Internet is not the most profitable, but its cost is easily reduced by the “Internet in Crimea” option. For just 99 rubles you get a 60 MB package. This is enough for communicating on social networks and even making calls via instant messengers.

The “Crimea” option opens up an alternative tariff plan for subscribers. The subscription fee is 15 rubles/day, all incoming calls are free. But the cost of other services is skyrocketing - calls within Russia will cost 4 rubles/min, mobile Internet – 5 rubles/MB, sending SMS – 3 rubles/piece. MegaFon will offer its subscribers another option - “Unlimited incoming calls in Crimea”, the subscription fee for which is 30 rubles / day. Incoming calls become free, but the base cost of other services remains unchanged.

Offer from Tele2

Oddly enough, this operator turned out to be the most expensive. Although everything should have been exactly the opposite. The cost of 1 MB of traffic in Crimea will be 3 rubles, outgoing calls are charged at 3 rubles/min. Inboxes cost only 1 rub/min – less than competitors. Sending a text message to any phone in the Russian Federation costs 3 rubles.

For the Internet, we recommend the useful option “Unlimited Internet in Crimea.” It costs as much as 300 rubles per day and provides an unlimited amount of traffic. True, only the first 200 MB are available at maximum speed. Further, the access speed is limited to 128 kbit/sec. On days when the connection was inactive, the subscription fee is not charged.

What's the result?

Our mobile operators make trips to Crimea expensive. Even the Federal Antimonopoly Service cannot help. On the one hand, prices have decreased slightly. But on the other hand, the abolition of roaming should represent a complete preservation of home prices. In the near future this will become a reality - all you need is. For now, we recommend going to sea with MTS SIM cards.

MTS was pleased that it has its own towers in Crimea and all communications on the territory of the peninsula operate according to the laws of domestic Russian roaming, which means you can get away with either an expensive tariff, in which, when traveling around Russia, services are provided on the terms of your home region. Or connect to the “Home package Russia+”.

MegaFon is more expensive, and the most expensive were Beeline and Tele2 (here's a discounter for you). There is an alternative option - we come on vacation, buy a local SIM card and install it as a second one, using inexpensive communications and cheap Internet.

And the best thing is to give yourself a real relaxation and break away from your smartphone - you can post fresh photos on social networks in the evening by connecting to one of the public (and free) Wi-Fi points. In addition, in the near future, Russian operators will have to adapt to it.

UPD: Our employee traveled to Crimea with an MTS SIM card, as we described above, by activating the “Home package Russia+” option. As practice has shown, indeed, MTS does not count the subscriber’s presence in Crimea as roaming and Internet and the minutes are debited from the package, but no money is spent.

Hello everyone, my dears! I don’t like to write about the negative, but it’s better to be prepared for the bad than to unexpectedly face it. Today I will tell you what cellular communication is like in Crimea, why everything is bad with it, and what a tourist should do.

Let me make a reservation right away that our trip took place in May 2015, but at the time of writing the article the information remains relevant. So...

In this article:

What is the main problem of communication in Crimea

When we went to Crimea, we didn’t suspect that buying a card would be SO bad. Yes, and this is the main problem we encountered: to buy a SIM card you need to try very hard.

We disembarked from the ferry onto the peninsula at night. At the same moment, our beeline stopped working. All communication shops in Kerch are, of course, closed. We decided that we would buy a SIM card in Sevastopol, but when we arrived there, we had to look for SIM cards for about 2 hours!

How it was.

We stopped in a fairly busy place: a small shopping center, many shops, a vegetable market. By a certain logic, we decided that somewhere in all this diversity, SIM cards should be sold. Well, simply because in such places we always have a small cell phone store, counter or something similar.

I'm not even talking about the fact that in such busy places there can be several of them in different salons at once.

But this was not the case here. We went into shops, salons with telephones, pavilions at bus stops. NOTHING. We asked sellers where you can buy a SIM card. They were just thinking and couldn’t say anything, but at the same time everyone had a smartphone in their hand. The question “where did you personally buy your SIM card?” also remained unanswered.

But we couldn’t give up; we had to contact the owner of the guest house where we later lived.

I remember that we went to the Technopoint store, where they sent us to a shopping center, which was located on the ground floor of a neighboring house. Here we found a point that, in addition to the main goods (electronics and other things), sold SIM cards. True, we had to wait until the seller returned from lunch, but this did not scare us.

As a result, after half an hour the card was in our hands, or rather, in our phone.

Then, when we got to know the city better, we noticed that there were cell phone stores, but there were really few of them. After this, I want to bow to the owners of the Svyaznoy network, Euroset, MTS and others, for the fact that they are 5 minutes from my house and any stop. This is a real thank you to you.

But let's go back to the moment where we were near the pavilion and purchased a SIM card. We were offered a choice of 2 operators: MTS and WIN. Let me tell you briefly about each.

Which operators are currently working in Crimea

1. MTS

I’ll say right away that I haven’t seen MTS stores in Crimea, but instead of them you can meet people on the streets who sell SIM cards directly from the table. During the season they can be found on Nakhimov Avenue and Lenin Street.

Now about the prices. MTS seemed to us more profitable at that time for calls within Russia than its competitor. The tariff was called “Super-MTS” Krasnodar region:

• a SIM card costs 50 rubles and they immediately appear on your account
• calls within Crimea and Krasnodar 20 minutes a day free, then 0.5 rubles per minute
• calls to Russia cost 10 rubles per minute, but you can activate the “Favorite Country” service for 50 rubles per month, and calls will cost 3.5 rubles per minute
• As for the Internet, here you also need to connect a package, otherwise it’s expensive.

I don’t know if it’s possible to buy MTS in advance in Russia, go to an MTS communication store and find out there. I admit honestly, I tried to find out this issue through the support service, but:

• MTS does not distribute information about tariffs in Crimea on its website.
• To get through to them, I had to hang on the line for 1.5 hours, after which the call was interrupted, this is really tough.

2.WIN

The salons of this operator can be found on the streets of Sevastopol. Not very often, but still. You can view the rates at his official website.

Below I will briefly list the cost of calls to Russia using the “Freedom of Communication” tariff:

• a SIM card costs 50 rubles and this amount appears on the account
• Calls to Russia cost 9.5 rubles per minute, but you can activate the “My Russia” service, which costs 15 rubles one-time + 2 rubles subscription fee per day, but calls will cost 2 rubles per minute.
• Calls to Krasnodar region and Crimea cost 1 ruble per minute
• Internet is 10 rubles per 1 MB, but you can connect packages with a subscription fee of 3 rubles per day.

In general, if I chose this operator, it would be only because of the Internet. He has an interesting tariff called “Fast and Furious,” which we didn’t pay attention to at the time. Pay 400 rubles per month and you have 5 GB of daytime and 5 GB of nightly Internet, that is, 10 GB of Internet! You can simply call on Skype, Viber and connect via social networks. But calls in this case will be expensive.

3. Beeline

Beeline for Crimea offers to connect the “My Country” service. Naturally, you need to connect it in advance, before entering the peninsula. So, how much does roaming cost:

• connecting to the service costs 25 rubles
• incoming calls for 1 minute cost 3 rubles, for subsequent calls - free
• outgoing within Russia - 3 rubles per minute
• SMS within Russia - 3 rubles per minute

In addition, you must have a certain amount of money in your account to roam. If my memory serves me right - 500 rubles. But in my opinion, for calls this is one of the best and easiest options. As for the Internet, everything is not so rosy here - 10 rubles per 1 MB.

Let me summarize briefly. If it is important for you to be in touch immediately after crossing the bay, you need to worry about a SIM card in advance: either it will be MTS or Beeline with roaming. If this is not important for you, you can buy a SIM card on the spot, in the salon. At the moment, I would prefer the Internet tariff from WIN.

Here's a review, my dears. I really hope you found this article helpful. I'm waiting for your comments and questions, ask, we'll figure it out together. In addition, I suggest you read the article about

Fortunately, the territory of Crimea is regarded as domestic and not international, so you do not urgently need to buy local SIM cards. The most popular all-Russian operator there is MTS, so if you have its number, you just need to contact the company’s employees and find out which tariff plan is best for you.

Due to changes in the country's policies, there is a possibility of a complete cancellation of roaming, so stay tuned for news and browse operator websites, because tariff prices also change regularly.

As for the mobile Internet, here it does not catch everywhere and not always. Perhaps the reason is also that the terrain significantly reduces the signal received from telephone towers.

The cost of Internet traffic is the most optimal from the same MTS. Other operators that consider Crimea as a roaming option may have quite high Internet prices, so it’s best to find out in advance.

If you are staying at a hotel, you can use free wi-fi. In most hotels this service is included in the price of your stay. This point can also be clarified before booking a hotel.

A few words about local operators

As we have already said, you can easily find MTS SIM cards in Crimea. However, remember that in this case Crimea will be in the roaming of the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygea, and this may affect the cost of communication.

Here are some interesting offers from MTS:

• The Smart mini tariff will cost you 200 rubles. For this you will receive 1 GB of Internet traffic, 1000 minutes for calls to MTS operators throughout the country and 200 SMS to local MTS numbers. Calls to numbers from other operators will cost 12 rubles per minute, and for one SMS you will have to pay almost 2 rubles. Incoming calls are free.
• If you plan to call numbers of other operators, the Smart Unlimited package is suitable for you - calls outside the region will cost from 2 to 5 rubles per minute.

One of the popular operators there is considered "Volna Mobile"— you will pay only 90 rubles and get 2 GB of traffic for a month. If this is not enough for you, you can connect to unlimited for 150 rubles, but the speed there is not very high. Or a package with a volume of 10 GB of traffic worth 300 rubles. Here the speed will be much better.

"Win-mobile" ideal for short trips. It also offers services for using 3G and 4G. You can activate the option for 30 rubles, and pay 3 rubles for every 50 MB. This is enough for you to look at your mail or use a city navigator.

You can also purchase 2.5 GB packages for 150 rubles, and 4 GB for 200. We recommend checking with the operators themselves for more accurate information.

"Krymtelecom" appeared relatively recently and, presumably, belongs to the local authorities. Their speed is not very good, sometimes it is difficult to find SIM cards, and navigating the site is inconvenient, but the prices are very reasonable. You can pay 5 rubles per day, receiving 150 MB per day at a good speed, and for 300 rubles you will be given as much as 150 GB, and the speed will also be very good.

"Sevmobile" belongs to Sevastopol operators and is not suitable for a holiday on the peninsula. However, if you are planning to stay in Sevastopol, we recommend that you take a look at the website of this operator; their rates are also quite reasonable.

As a result, at the beginning of 2018, almost the entire territory of the peninsula has 3G, and in large cities - 4G.

How to save on Internet traffic

First of all, download all the necessary information to your phone in advance so that you don’t have to run around looking for the Internet later. This is especially true for interactive city maps. If you can use them offline, why not take advantage of it.

It is better to use popular instant messengers for calls and messages. Not only will the calls be inexpensive, but also the traffic consumption will be minimal.

Don’t forget to promptly disable all additional options that are connected to you so that they don’t charge you extra money. The same goes for your SIM card. It is better to subscribe to the most convenient package in advance than to spend a lot of money on communications later.

When purchasing a local SIM card, make sure that you are not connected to any additional unnecessary options. After the end of your vacation, do not forget to properly liquidate your SIM card so as not to remain in debt.

Before returning home, make sure that there is no debt on your account, call the operator and ask to disable the SIM card. Those who are especially careful can go to the office and write a statement, then you will definitely not have any unexpected debts.

Other operators in Crimea

Remember that on the peninsula, communications work somewhat differently than in our country. There are no such operators as Tele2, Megafon or Beeline there. You won't be able to buy their SIM cards or connect to local plans. You will be roaming within the network, and this can significantly increase communication costs.

Therefore, we will tell you which packages may suit you.

Megafon and Tele2 have special functions for Crimea. Beeline’s “7 days of Internet for traveling around Russia” option will not work here, nor will the “My Country” package.

Megafon will charge you almost 10 rubles for 1 MB if you are roaming. The Crimea option will allow you to pay 5 rubles per 1 MB, including a daily subscription fee of 15 rubles.

As for Tele2, they have an option for Crimea, as we said above, but it basically only removes the charge for incoming calls. For 1 MB you will also have to pay 5 rubles.

Thus, if you plan to spend a long time there, we recommend that you do not use this type of communication.

Let's sum it up

As you probably already understood, Crimea occupies a special place regarding communications. Even the largest Russian providers are still forced to use the equipment of local operators.

This can be explained very simply: until the hype around this territory subsides, the road here is closed to local operators. Otherwise, the European Union may impose huge fines.

However, companies are working on this and promise to provide their subscribers with high-quality and inexpensive communications in the near future.

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Although Crimea is now part of Russia, mobile communications there do not work the same as in other parts of our country. In Crimea there are no Beeline, Megafon, MTS, Tele2, Yota networks, but there are Win Mobile, Krymtelecom, Volna Mobile networks, so all SIM cards of Russian operators work in roaming mode in Crimea.

For all Russian operators, except MTS, roaming in Crimea is quite expensive - calls, SMS and megabytes of traffic cost 5-10 rubles. MTS package tariffs, operating throughout Russia, also work in Crimea through Win mobile roaming. There is no additional charge, but there is one unpleasant feature - MTS free roaming only works in 2G mode. Internet speed is on average 0.1 Mbit/sec.

Win Mobile has 3G and 4G networks, but for some reason MTS is only allowed on 2G. Apparently, that's what they agreed on.

I asked several residents of Crimea and even SIM card sellers about mobile networks in Crimea, but to my surprise they knew nothing, talking only about MTS. I had to figure it out myself.

In Yalta, the networks of three operators are caught.

In the Internet S Tariff Plan, 100 MB of traffic costs 5 rubles. The “Youth” tariff plan has a subscription fee of 100 rubles per month, which includes 3 GB of traffic and unlimited calls to Krymtelecom numbers. Calls to Russian phones - 5 rubles per minute, SMS - 2 rubles.

The third network 25060 2G/3G belongs to the operator Volna Mobile (KTK-Telecom), which has not yet launched.

The cheapest option from MTS is a tariff with the strange name MTS Smart Unlimited, a SIM card with which you can buy in Moscow for 200 rubles. Every day in the first month, 12.9 rubles will be debited, for which you will get unlimited Internet, 200 minutes and 200 SMS per month. Upon return, the tariff can be changed to any tariff without a subscription fee, for example Super MTS. Let me remind you once again that the Internet in Crimea with this SIM card will be very slow - only 2G.

P.s. Important advice. If your mobile Internet does not work while roaming, even though everything is configured correctly, just turn off the phone (do not put it in airplane mode, do not overload it), wait a minute and turn it on again.

2016, Alexey Nadezhin

It is still impossible to buy a Tele2 SIM card in Crimea at the beginning of 2019 from official representatives. Today, roaming tariffs apply to all Tele2 subscribers on the peninsula. In Crimea, Tele2, like other cellular communication providers in the Russian Federation, fulfills its obligations to subscribers through the Win Mobile operator.

How the connection works

It is difficult to ensure a stable connection through roaming. Many subscribers complain about . Despite this, the cellular communications of the Tele2 operator on the peninsula have a large unofficial service area. Officially, the Republic of Crimea is not included in the Republic of Crimea, however, the operator fulfills its obligations to subscribers. You can reach or call from almost any part of Tavrida. It is worth noting that in 2017, Tele2 communications in the region, according to subscriber reviews, worked worse than in the previous year.

Tariffing of calls and SMS messages on the territory of the republic

In 2019, the Tele2 operator in Crimea has the following cellular prices:

The company offers its subscribers to save on incoming calls while roaming with the “Like at home in Crimea” discount. Under the terms of the option, all incoming messages will be free, and the cost of the service will be 6 rubles. per day. Read further in the article for more details.

An operator with “Other rules” for its subscribers provides free calls within the network throughout the country. How much will it cost to connect to Crimea on Tele2 from your home region? Completely free. After all, the company provides its subscribers with unlimited communication within the network, including the territory of the peninsula.

Mobile Internet

As already mentioned, mobile Internet costs 3 rubles. for 1 megabyte of Internet traffic. The 3G and 4G coverage area is quite small. Local operators have much better access to the network. To connect Tele2 Internet on the territory of the republic, you need to enable the “data roaming” option in the settings.

Access to the worldwide network is provided through roaming from the Win Mobile operator. Most smartphone manufacturers, in order to save their customers money, have introduced a separate function that does not allow the device to access the Internet while roaming, without the user’s permission.

The operator itself has developed a separate service “Unlimited Internet in Crimea”. Under its terms, the subscriber receives:

• unlimited Internet access;
• the first 200 MB are not limited in speed, then no more than 128 Kbps;
• only on the day of going online.

The service costs 300 rubles. in one day. The first connection is free, for re-activation you will have to pay 300 rubles.

Service management:

• activate — *143*51#;
• disable — *143*50#;
• status check - *143*5#;

“Like at home in Crimea” service

Tele2 offers the option “Like home in Crimea”, this offer cancels the fee for incoming calls, unfortunately, other prices do not change. Thus, you can communicate with loved ones completely free of charge, since calls to the peninsula are free of charge. This service from Tele2 makes mobile communications in the republic area much cheaper.

For each activation of the service you need to pay 30 rubles, subscriber. the option fee is 6 rubles. per day.

Service management:

• to connect, dial the combination *143*61# and call;
• for the reverse operation use the code *143*60#;
• check the status *143*6#.

Service “Zero Everywhere”

Cancels charges for incoming calls when traveling within the Russian Federation. The cost of outgoing calls to all Russian numbers will be 2 rubles. per minute of communication. This option costs 3 rubles/day and is valid throughout the country, except for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. When traveling to the peninsula, it makes no sense to activate this service; upon arrival on vacation, it will not work.

Tariffing of other operators

For comparison, we will provide a table of the cost of services of other communication providers in the Crimea.

Communication prices are significantly higher than in your home region. Therefore, some operators provide additional tariffs for trips to Tavrida. Choose the best deals.

* — The guest tariff is intended not only for the Republic of Crimea, it is valid throughout the entire Russian Federation.

**- To use the Internet, you must subscribe to the “Super Bit Smart” service, which gives 3 gigabytes of traffic per month for 10 rubles. per day.

The table shows that the most favorable Internet tariffs are provided by Tele2 and Beeline, both with and without a special option. Making calls in the region is more profitable for MTS subscribers with the Guest tariff; without it, Beeline will be the most economical.

Tele2 charges calls from the 3rd second of a conversation, and Beeline counts the entire first minute of communication. The most profitable SMS are from Megafon and MTS.

Only MTS does not have a subscription fee or the cost of connecting additional services. Operators Beeline and Yota decided not to provide their subscribers with discounts and promotions when traveling to the peninsula.

Local operators

Regional cellular providers operate on the peninsula. They offer services at their own rates.

1. Volna provides TP "Sea":

• Mandatory payment 150 rub. per month;
• 300 minutes for all operators within the peninsula and Krasnodar region;
• in Russia 3 rubles. per minute, free incoming.

For online communication, the “Wind” tariff is provided - 10 GB for 300 rubles.

1. Win Mobile provides a contract for vacationers - “At Sea”:

• free inbox;
• outgoing to all numbers in Russia 3 rubles/min;
• 10 rub. for 100 megabytes of traffic.

For the modem there is a “Fast and Furious” tariff: 15 gigabytes of Internet for 400 rubles.

• the first 30 minutes within the network are free, a minute of outgoing calls within Russia is 5 rubles;
• SMS 1.5 rub. along the peninsula and 2 r. in the Russian Federation;
• 200 rub. for 10 gigabytes of Internet at high speed.

Conclusion

This season, Tele2 and MTS received quite acceptable reception on the peninsula, which was not observed with other Russian cellular service providers. You can top up your Tele2 balance in the republic by bank transfer. The operator does not support electronic refill terminals, and there are no official points of sale. You can top up your account through banking systems or electronic wallets. You can use the promised payment option. Transferring money to a mobile account is carried out in any form convenient for you, but only in electronic format.