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St Petersburg's communications system ranges in quality from the delays of the archaic state-run post office to the latest mobile and internet communications technology. Keeping in touch is never difficult.
 | Post |
Although the regular postal system in Petersburg is not particularly reliable - letters to Europe can take up to a month to arrive, and often get lost in transit - the fact that the city is so close to the border with Finland means that there are several privately run alternatives that won't break the bank. Both the Grand Hotel Europe and the Nevsky Palace offer a letter dispatching service through Finland which costs under $3 to Europe and the US. There are also plenty of courier companies in the city, both Russian and international.
If you do decide to risk the Russian postal service, then your best bet is to try the main post office at 9, Pochtamtskaya Ulitsa. If you wish to send parcels, then you have to bring the contents unwrapped for inspection, and it will be wrapped for you there.
| Email & Internet Access |
Email is, of course, the easiest way to keep in touch with your nearest and dearest back home, or the office if you have to. Many hotels offer internet access, as well as connections for laptops in rooms. Some Russian mobile network providers also offer WAP services. If you don't have either option, then you may want to use one of the many internet cafes in the city center. See below for our recommendations.
| Fax & Phones |
Most large hotels will, of course, have landlines in the rooms. If you have this option, you should check at reception how much calls will cost, as they can be expensive.
Apartments will normally be equipped with telephones, although your landlord may only allow you to make calls within St Petersburg, which are free. If the intercity/international service is not available, then you will need to buy phone cards, which are readily available from kiosks in metro stations or underpasses, and also from large computer stores. The best known brands are Zebra telecom, Westcall and Peterlink. If there is no telephone in your accommodation, then you will be able to call from telegraph offices, either with a card or - the cheaper option - by paying the operator in advance for a specified amount of time.
Faxes can be sent from any post office, costing a little less than $2 a sheet. Make sure that you write the full number with correct dialing code. Unfortunately, you won't get any confirmation of sending.
On the street there are a number of payphones of different kinds. Most metro stations will have at least one payphone that takes coins, and these are probably the easiest for visitors to use. Alternatively, there are card phones, the most common being the green and white SPT variety. You can buy cards for these from kiosks in metro stations and from post offices.
If you are calling to a land line within the city, then you will just have to dial the seven-digit number. To call a different city within Russia, you need to dial "8", wait for the tone and then dial the city code and number (to call St Petersburg: 8…812 plus seven-digit number, to call Moscow: 8…095 plus seven-digit number). To call out off Russia you need to dial "8", wait for the tone, and then dial "10" followed by the country code, city code (with no zero at the beginning), etc.
| Mobiles |
If you bring a European GSM mobile phone with you on holiday, the chances are it will work in St Petersburg, although it's certainly worth checking with your network provider before you leave. Calls will be expensive, however, and if you are staying in the city for any length of time you may want to buy a Russian SIM-card for your phone. If you're coming from the US, then you will need to bring a tri-band phone with you, or buy or rent one from a local dealer in Russia.
Most of the tariff plans available to foreigners in Russia require you to buy a SIM-card and then top-up cards for more talk time. The networks offering the best coverage are Megafon and MTS. Cheaper services from Tele2 and Beeline suffer from patchy coverage. A SIM-card should cost around $10, and should have some talk time included.
Most mobile phones have what is known as federal numbers. These are normally ten digits long. The first digit is either "8" if you are calling from a landline, or "+7" from another mobile. Some more expensive tariffs have a seven-digit city number which can be called free from landlines. If you need to send an SMS to a phone with a city number, you will need to add "+7812" to the seven-digit subscriber number.
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