Cyprus with five SIM cards: whose roaming is cheaper

With the introduction of special roaming tariffs and options, mobile operators in one voice began to assert that communication in roaming is no longer a luxury for ordinary tourists. Billboards, banners, flyers and TV spots promise conversations abroad "for zero" rubles almost all over the world. Finally, the time of the May holidays and summer holidays has inevitably brought up on the agenda the question of the actual cost of calls and other communication services in roaming. All this led me to take advantage of my own leave for good purposes and to do a little research on the general drop in international communication tariffs by operators and the actual, rather than advertising, cost of calls in roaming.

So, I decided to conduct the following experiment: take a vacation with me, apart from a suitcase with things, SIM cards of different operators, put 700 rubles on the balance of each and make a number of outgoing and incoming calls. And find out in the end, with which of the operators I will “stretch” longer. The report will be quite voluminous, but this is required by my chosen approach to the experiment.
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To begin with, before departure, I phoned all operators and directly asked: what needs to be done in order to save as much as possible in roaming. MTS, MegaFon and Beeline told about the presence of each special additional services that allow you to minimize the cost of roaming. MTS suggested connecting the option “Zero without borders”; MegaFon - “Around the World”; and Beeline - "Multipass". In addition, I learned that all the operators of the Troika, having found your device abroad, send an SMS message to it with information about all the available ways to save on calls in your country of residence. Once in Nicosia, I did not fail to take advantage of all the offers of operators to minimize my communication costs.

A few words about the rest of the experiment. For several years already, during my foreign trips, I have been taking with me a specially designed tourist sim card, and if necessary I stay in touch using my usual number, I set up call forwarding from my Russian operator. Before the introduction of the roaming tariffs of the Big Three, the savings were more than palpable. So, incoming calls to the Tursimka number and then cost me zero rubles. Now I have to check whether it is possible to talk with a tour user cheaper; if so, how much, or the tariffs of Turksims are more or less equal to the heavyweight operators. Having discovered on the website the difference in tariffs for a couple of directions, I added the map of the tourist operator Teletai to my usual Simtravel map. I did not notice significant differences in tariffs with other operators of Turksimok, therefore I limited myself to the two listed.

Both operators, Simtravel and Teletay, also suggested that I additionally activate the “European” package, which lowers the base tariff in European countries, including Cyprus. However, it makes sense to connect it when you go at least for a week and make many calls to EU countries, but my trip lasted only 3 days, and I didn’t spend more on connecting any additional options. As for the Troika operators, communication in the usual mode without connecting the services offered by them for roaming would obviously leave me without means for further existence.

So, I arrived at the scene in the entourage of a secret agent from a comedy: hung with phones and gadgets. 3 days passed in the merry company of five SIM-cards with 700 rubles on the balance of each. Below I summarize the overall results of the experiment by day, by minute, and by all operators. However, for the purity of my experiment, I will also draw up a general table and attach to the review the details of the conversations.

1st day

On the first day I made six outgoing calls with an average duration of 3 minutes from each of the SIM-cards: 2 calls to the phones of my native operator in Moscow and St. Petersburg (that is, from Beeline to Beeline MSK and SPB, from MTS to MTS MSC and SPB, etc.); 2 calls to city numbers in Moscow and St. Petersburg; 1 call to a landline number in Belorussia; 1 call to the number of a non-native operator (for example, from MTS to Teletay or from Beeline to Megafon). In addition, I received incoming calls. Total for the first day came out:

Outgoing calls only

MTS: 13 min. and 676.40 +19 rubles. service activation + subscription fee 19 rubles / day = 714.40 rubles.
MegaFon: 18 min. and 447 rubles. + 15 rubles. service activation + subscription fee 09 rub./day = 471 rub.
Beeline: 20 min. and 300 rubles. + 0 rub. service activation + subscription fee 10 rubles / day = 310 rubles.
SIMTRAVEL: 20 min. and 187.55 rubles. (no additional services).
Teletay: 18 min. and 167, 40 rubles. (no additional services).

Accounting for all calls (both outgoing and incoming)

MTS: 19 min. = 714.40 rub.
MegaFon: 25 min. = 513 rub.
Beeline: 28 min. = 350 rub.
SIMTRAVEL: 23 min. = 187.55 rub.
Teletay: 21 min. = 167.40 rub.

2nd day

On the second day I made outgoing calls again. But now a little different. 2 calls to the number of the local operator (Cyprus), calls to non-native operators and fixed-line telephones in St. Petersburg. All conversations lasted for about 2 minutes. I made 6 calls from each SIM card (as on the previous day). Also received incoming. Total for the second day dripped:

Outgoing calls only

MTS: according to the results of the first day, this participant dropped out of the marathon, as the balance went into a minus, and the number was blocked.
MegaFon: 12 min. and 72 rubles. + subscription fee 09 rub./day = 81 rub.
Beeline: 12 min. and 180 rubles. + monthly fee of 10 rubles per day = 190 rubles.
SIMTRAVEL: 12 min. and 122,76 rub. (no additional services).
Teletay: 14 min. and 107.26 rubles. (no additional services).

Accounting for all calls (outgoing and incoming)

MTS: balance minus 14, 40 rubles.
MegaFon: 15 min. = 99 rubles
Beeline: 17 min. = 215 rubles.
SIMTRAVEL: 19 min. = 122.76 rub.
Teletay: 17 min. = 107.26 rub.

3rd day

On the last day, I decided to check the cost of calls to any other region of the Russian Federation besides Moscow and St. Petersburg and called my friend in Pyatigorsk on the MTS, as well as his city number. Then, with each SIM card, I made a call to a landline in Moscow and finally managed to make one call from MegaFon to Beeline, after which there was not enough money on the balance for outgoing calls. With SIMTRAVEL and Teletay I made several outgoing calls to the numbers of my native operator. I planned to make four calls from each number lasting 2 minutes each, but in fact somewhere it turned out more, somewhere, on the contrary. As a result, for the third day it turned out:

Outgoing calls only

MegaFon: 12 min. and 72 rubles. + subscription fee 09 rub./day = 81 rub.
Beeline: 7 min. and 105 rubles. + subscription fee 10 rubles / day = 115 rubles.
SIMTRAVEL: 22 min. and 182.90 rubles. (no additional services)
Teletay: 13 min. and 97.65 rubles. (no additional services).

Accounting for all calls outgoing and incoming

MegaFon: 12 min. = 81 rub. (there were no calls on this day)
Beeline: 9 min. = 125 rub.
SIMTRAVEL: 27 min. = 182.90 rub.
Teletay: 13 min. = 97.65 rubles. (there were no calls on this day)

Let's summarize and see what 700 rubles were enough for each of the operators, and how much money is left on the balance after 3 days of roaming:

What conclusions can be made on the basis of the experiment?

Mts
On the very first day, the first participant, MTS, dropped out of the improvised marathon. Later, it became clear from the received call detailing that the balance of the MTS "killed" the call to Belarus, and outgoing calls in general for 59 rubles in the first minute of this operator to the obscenity of the road compared to even his colleagues (Beeline, MegaFon). Special mention deserves VAT - in its reports, MTS indicates the cost of calls without VAT, which is why it seems that there is still money on the balance sheet, when in fact there is already a minus on the account. In addition, the report does not show charges for connecting additional. options.

For 2 minutes 46 seconds, the conversation with Belarus had to pay 387 rubles. (with VAT) or 327, 97 rub. (without VAT). But even if we call exclusively on Russian numbers, the first minute of an outgoing call from MTS will cost 59 rubles. (with VAT) or 50 rubles. (without VAT). It is necessary to call your loved ones for a minute to report that you flew and you are fine, and immediately get on the money. Suppose that the next minutes are already 8.90 (price with VAT), but who cares? As a result, a three-minute telephone conversation will cost you 76 rubles 80 kopecks (including VAT).

As for incoming calls, they are really free. But this zero is worth 19 rubles. per day (subscription fee for the Zero without Borders service) plus activation of the service 19 rubles at a time.

Megaphone
Roaming MegaFon works on the principle of call-back (callback) in the same way as in the case of tourist SIM-cards Simtravel and Teletai. This means that when you dial the number you want to call, the operator accepts the call request and sends an SMS message that the request is accepted. If you can connect, then the caller’s phone receives an incoming call from the called party. If the connection failed, then an SMS message arrives indicating that the subscriber is not responding.

This technology can significantly reduce the cost of not only incoming but also outgoing calls. However, in contrast to the same Turksimok, MegaFon only works with callbacks for calls to Russia. If you try to call to Belarus or another country outside the Russian Federation, the call will be carried out as usual and the conversation will cost you a lot of money. In my example, a conversation with Belarus, which lasted 2 minutes and 54 seconds, cost me 357 rubles. But all incoming and outgoing calls for calls to Russia or the host country cost 6 rubles per minute, which is quite acceptable. However, as in the case of MTS, you still have to pay for zero - every day, 9 rubles a day is charged a subscription fee for the Around the World service and a one-time connection fee of 15 rubles. MegaFon employees assured me that the monthly fee is charged daily, but in fact it turned out to be wrong. The subscription fee was written off from me as soon as I arrived in Moscow, in one amount. In the report provided there are no data on charges for connection of the option and monthly fee.

Beeline
Beeline, frankly, the most adequate report. It shows all the costs. Every day, a subscriber who is connected to the Multipass service is charged 10 rubles each, the connection of this service is free, which is undoubtedly pleasant. The operator reports that with the “Multipass” service the incoming minute costs 5 rubles, and outgoing to Russia, to local numbers and numbers of other countries - 15 rubles per minute. From the report it is clear that it is. calls are made as usual.

Tursimki
SIMTRAVEL and Teletay are clearly leading in my marathon. The minus of the Turksims is that they can only be used abroad, they do not function on the territory of Russia. Plus - all incoming calls to them in my case were free after the fact and by default, no additional options are needed for this, and the monthly fee is also not charged. Calls from Turksimok are made according to the principle described above Call-back.

If during the trip I need to receive and make calls from my usual number of the Russian operator, but at the same time use the opportunities and tariffs of Simtravel or Teletay, I simply connect the service of saving the Russian number. In fact, I bind the number of my SIM card to the number of my home operator, so that when making a call, the subscriber at the other end of the line can see the number that he knows - my number. At the same time it is possible to reach you by the number of a tourist SIM card, as well as by the usual Russian number. It is curious that several Russian numbers can be tied to both tour cards.

In the case of charging and connecting the service “Saving Russian numbers, there are two important nuances. The first is that the cost of incoming calls to a Russian (!) Number becomes paid for you and amounts to $ 0.15. per minute for Simtravel and 0.49 cu / min. at Teletay. That is, even taking into account the connected Russian number, the cost of an incoming call from my Simtravel (4.65 rubles) is cheaper than the same Megaphone or MTC with 6 for one and 5 rubles for another for incoming calls, respectively. If you tied a SIM card number to a Russian number, but at the same time they call you exactly on a tursimka number, then no additional charging takes place. The billing of outgoing calls service is not affected by billing of outgoing calls. However, the linking of a regular number to a torsimke (this is the second important point that is worth paying attention to) can only be done on the territory of the Russian Federation, that is, before you crossed the border. Details of the connection is better to read on the websites of the companies Simtravel and Teletai . The cost of an outgoing call from Simtravel from the Turksimka is the same as with Teletai and is 8.99 rubles / minute, however, it does not depend on whether I call to Russia or to some other country (with rare exceptions such as a call to St. Vincent and the Grenadines from the Czech Republic for 0.44 USD). With this cost, we can only compare Megafon with its 6 rubles, but, as I said, Megafon has a single tariff not only for outgoing, but also for incoming calls.

Tours are remarkable also by the fact that both Simtravel and Teleti offer cheap communication within the network, which is advantageous, since you are not going to travel alone. In this case, subscribers can be in different parts of the world and still pay 7 rubles. 44 kopecks for a minute of conversation.

I did not immediately understand why the prices for calls from Simtravel and Teletie are specified in USD. - As it turned out, the conversion into rubles depends on the method of replenishing the balance. Now the minimum replenishment rate is 31 rubles. for 1 cu (when replenishing the card).

PS

I hope my mini-study will be useful to you when choosing an operator with whom you want to spend your vacation. But do not forget that all of the above events took place on the territory of Cyprus, and in each individual country, operators may have different rates and conditions. But in my purely personal opinion, based on a comparison of tariffs for Cyprus with other countries, this report reflects the average temperature in the hospital at least for EU countries and currently popular tourist destinations such as Egypt, Turkey, etc. The identity of tariffs for these countries on the websites of operators and Comparison of the declared tariffs with what I eventually observed in the course of the “Cypriot” experiment shows that the situation is likely to be very close to the one described above.

Also take into account the fact that I tried to put all operators in equal conditions. There may be minor inaccuracies in the calculations, but you can check everything yourself by looking at the details and reports from the operators participating in the experiment on google-documents:

SIMTRAVEL | Beeline | MegaFon | MTS | Teletay

Cheap talk to you! :-)