After crossing the border, one of the first things I did in Ukraine was check my mobile to see if it had booked itself into a local network. Like a lot of people nowadays I take being always connected for granted. Not being able to make and receive calls is simply not an option anymore.
Since I had a GSM phone [insert link to article about network standards] this turned out to be no problem – my phone had automatically chosen one of several available networks. Still, I hesitated before making my first call. International roaming rates are often bordering on the insane, and a few minutes of calling might well have mean racking up more costs than my average monthly bill. The solution to this problem was obvious – I had to get a local SIM card as soon as possible.
Fortunately, this turned out to be an amazingly quick and uncomplicated process and I was up and running within a couple of hours. The following articles will tell you everything about how you can get connected quickly once you are in Ukraine, as well as giving you some general information connected with mobile communications here.
Starter package instructions
Phone shops are almost as common as the omnipresent ‘Produkty’ (general food shops) and ‘Aptjekas’ (pharmacies). In addition to that there are countless street sellers for phone cards.
To get a starter package, you should pronounce the name of the mobile and the phrase ‘startovyi packjet’ somewhat understandable. A friendly ‘pashalusta’ (‘please’) can’t hurt either. A Kyivstar starter package will set you back 25 UAH ($ 5), which buys you the SIM card and 10 UAH of credit
Why Kyivstar?
First of all – no, we don’t have an endorsement, cross-promotion or any other deal with Kyivstar.
We just thought that it would be easiest to provide instructions for just one operator instead of for everybody on the market. And probably have little interest in pouring over the details of dozens of calling plans. You probably just want to get started and have a phone that works.
Kyivstar works. It is the biggest Ukrainian mobile network provider with very good coverage and a reliable network.
Call rates are neither much better nor worse than that of other operators for an average use scenario – with the exception of international call rates (using the ‘815’) prefix, which are probably the best available for a pre-paid contract.
Getting started with Kyivstar is a very easy process:
1. Getting the starter package
Phone shops are almost as common as the omnipresent ‘Produkty’ (general food shops) and ‘Aptjekas’ (pharmacies). In addition to that there are countless street sellers for phone cards.
To get a starter package, you should pronounce the name of the mobile and the phrase ‘startovyi packjet’ somewhat understandable. A friendly ‘pashalusta’ (‘please’) can’t hurt either. A Kyivstar starter package will set you back 25 UAH ($ 5), which buys you the SIM card and 10 UAH of credit.
2. Setting up your phone
The SIM card still comes in the old large-size format, so the first thing you’ll want to do is break out the modern, small card inside that. That is unless you have a phone older than any I’ve ever seen in Ukraine.
Insert the SIM card into the phone. The preset PIN is ‘1111’. Once the phone has booked itself into the network it may take a couple of minutes until the number is fully activated, but then you’re ready to go.
Your new Ukrainian phone number is printed on the back of the larger part of the SIM card, but it’s probably best to create a new contact in your phone and enter it there. This is probably the most useful place when you want to give it to your new Ukrainian friends and contacts.
3. Calling in Ukraine
Ukrainian phone numbers always start with a ’80’ when you call from a mobile phone. Next comes the city code or one of the network codes for mobile phones, then a seven-digit number.
Some older local numbers are still six-digit or even five-digit, which works fine when you call them from a local landline. When making a distance call to that number, or calling from a mobile, however, you have to fill up the number to seven digits. So the local Dnipro number ‘123456’ becomes ‘8056-2-123456’.
Call rates vary depending on whether you call a landline phone, a number within the Kyivstar network or one in the network of another operator, but generally don’t exceed 1.50 UAH ($ 0.3) a minute. If you are in the country for longer, and once you know the profile of your phone usage here in Ukraine, you might think about switching to a different calling plan.
4. Calling international numbers
The regular calling prefix for international numbers is 810, which is just put before the number you want to call. Call rates vary depending on the country called and the time you make the call, ranging from 7 UAH to 17 UAH ($ 1.5 – 3.5) a minute.
Kyivstar offers much lower rates, however, if you use the prefix ‘815’ before your calls. Here an international call can cost as little as 0.95 UAH ($ 0.2) a minute to the US – which makes using your mobile one of the cheapest, and certainly the most convenient, way of calling home.
5. Topping up your credit
Even though call rates aren’t especially steep in Ukraine, the 10 UAH credit that come with your starter pack won’t last long. The starter package you bought operates on the principle of pre-paid credit. No credit – no outgoing calls. Ingoing calls and receiving SMS on the other hand don’t rely on having credit, and the number doesn’t get deactivated for a full year once you have no money left on it.
Getting money on your mobile account is done via cards that you can buy pretty much everywhere. In addition to the mobile phone shops and the street sellers, a lot of small food shops, kiosks as well as banks plus a surprising number of other shops carry the cards.
The phrase ‘Kyivstar na xx, pashalusta!’ should get you a card. Of course, xx should be replaced by the value of the card that you want to get, namely:
– djecet – 10
– dwatsetpjat – 25
– petisjat – 50
– sto – 100
‘Sto’ might be both the easiest thing to pronounce and a reasonable amount to buy for a stay of a few days.
Once you have the card, scratch off the rubbery coating that covers a strip close to the upper border. Underneath there is a 14-digit number. On your keypad type *123* followed by the number, add a final ‘#’ symbol and hit ‘send’ or your call key, depending on the model of your phone. If you’ve entered everything correctly, then you’ll receive a SMS a few seconds later announcing the amount of credit added and giving you your current credit balance.
6. Checking your credit balance
To check your credit balance at any time, just type *111# on your keypad and hit send. You’ll receive a text message stating your balance.
With a prepaid system it is quite easy to be caught without any credit in your phone when you really need to make a call – and there is nobody selling any cards nearby. To avoid this situation, it might be a good idea to save the code from one card with the control code (*123*, # at the end) as a number in your phonebook.
The UA phone market
Ukraine is a fast-changing country. Unfortunately, this does not extend to the landline phone business. Here the former state telephone company, now reorganized as Ukrtelecom, a stock company in which the state holds a majority of the shares, still has a de-facto monopoly. Getting a phone line installed can be a lengthy process (think months, not weeks) and is quite costly. Out in the country, some parts of villages are not covered at all. The mobile phone market on the other hand, established after the collapse of the USSR and in times of at least some early sort of capitalism, is open to competition
Ukraine is a fast-changing country. Unfortunately, this does not extend to the landline phone business. Here the former state telephone company, now reorganized as Ukrtelecom, a stock company in which the state holds a majority of the shares, still has a de-facto monopoly. Getting a phone line installed can be a lengthy process (think months, not weeks) and is quite costly. Out in the country, some parts of villages are not covered at all. The mobile phone market on the other hand, established after the collapse of the USSR and in times of at least some early sort of capitalism, is open to competition.
Like in other countries with the same situation, such as Mexico, this has led to mobile phones being much more widespread than landlines, and to almost universal ownership of mobile phones. Businessmen and farmers alike rely on them for their communication, and people without mobiles can almost only be found among the very young and the very old.
There is a large number of mobile service providers, with four of them operating their own GSM networks and several resellers. Competition between these has led to call rates that are very competitive by international comparison and reasonably low by local standards, especially when calling subscribers within the same network.
Third-generation mobile telephony is just being introduced, but is slow to penetrate the market and presently mostly marketed for data connections.
Ukraine is mostly GSM country. GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is the most widely used standard for mobile telecommunications worldwide. The USA and Japan are the only two major markets to use differing technology, and in the USA GSM has made inroads with some newer networks. Unless you have an American or Japanese handset, chances are that you have a GSM phone. Ukrainian operators use 900 and 1800 Mhz, which is standard for GSM, so your phone will probably work here.
Be aware that providers in many countries SIM-lock subsidised handsets so that they only work with a SIM-card from this provider. Getting your phone unlocked in Ukraine should not be a particularly difficult thing, however, and unlike in some other countries this is perfectly legal here.
There are are also CDMA networks in Ukraine, but they are only licensed as landline replacement services (i.e. you are not allowed to use them as mobile phones), and coverage is patchy around the country.
In case you do not have a phone that is compatible with Ukrainian networks, or need to keep your foreign number active while in the country, buying a phone is not particularly expensive. Basic models start at about $ 50, and used phones can be had for even less at most markets and even at many street corners.
Phone etiquette
The same rules apply as everywhere countries:
Nobody is glad to hear your side of a conversation about the latest workplace gossip or the details of the last family row – but you constantly hear these things, or worse, on public transport or while sitting in a café.
Theatres, cinemas, lecture halls and churches are places where mobiles should be turned off – yet quite often part of some popular song blares loudly from the pocket of the person next to you, and chances are he is not even going to be.
The same rules apply as everywhere countries:
Nobody is glad to hear your side of a conversation about the latest workplace gossip or the details of the last family row – but you constantly hear these things, or worse, on public transport or while sitting in a café.
Theatres, cinemas, lecture halls and churches are places where mobiles should be turned off – yet quite often part of some popular song blares loudly from the pocket of the person next to you, and chances are he is not even going to be embarrassed.
So we kindly ask you to set an example by choosing a proper time and place for your phone calls. Set an example to those around you – it is not that difficult.
Two phones
A man sitting three rows ahead of me on the tram is squinting at the screen of one mobile, typing a number from there into another handset. He pockets the first one and starts chatting away happily on the second. When I get off the tram 20 minutes later, he is still talking, as if money were not an issue.
Quite likely it is not much of one. Ukrainian mobile phone providers offer much cheaper rates for calls within their networks, or much larger monthly minute packages for them. In addition to that there often is a friends & family package which allows you to call a certain amount of numbers at even lower rates or for free – all as long as it stays within the same network. Other networks on the other hand can be quite costly.
Since hardly anybody chooses his friends according to the network they are using, it makes sense to have SIM cards from the service providers that a lot of your contacts are with. You often see somebody change SIM cards before making a call, and reverting back to their main network afterwards. This fiddly procedure is done with an amazing skill and speed, but it still is an inconvenient process. Taking into consideration this customer group, the Ukrainian market has recently seen the introduction of phones that hold two SIM cards that the user can switch between.
A lot of people solve this problem by simply having two phones so that they can both make cheap calls and are reachable on two networks. Occasionally there are even especially active communicators with three phones. What phone you use then depends on who you call.
Personally, I still have just one phone. A German acquaintance here once answered me when I asked her how long she had already been here: “Long enough to have two phones by now.” By that measure I’ve hardly arrived in Ukraine.
Text by Alex Gödde, Germany
