When I worked in the Vesti program, we were given $100 a month to pay for a mobile phone. This money was enough for personal purposes, too, so no one thought much about cellular tariffs. Until one day an incident happened. My colleague Larisa received a letter from the accounting department in which she was notified of a deduction of 30,000 rubles for overuse of a corporate number. So Larisa went on vacation to Greece – the cost of a mobile phone call exceeded the cost of a trip.
This story taught our entire department how to count money. We have become experts on tariffs, roaming, savings and various life hacks on the topic of mobile communications. And today I will talk about how to save on calls while traveling in Russia and abroad.
Why are calls when traveling in Russia so expensive?
Our country is big. Germany, Italy and Sweden will fit into the territory of the Irkutsk region and there will still be room for Monaco and Luxembourg. Huge distances lead to high communication costs. And also competition between federal operators. Here is an example of an offer from a “Regular Operator” in St. Petersburg:
Here, it would seem, is a free niche for business – connecting Muscovites to the “Regular Operator” through St. Petersburg. It wasn’t like that. All the benefits will be consumed by intra-Russian roaming. Mobile operators are mercilessly criticized for this – from ordinary users to State Duma deputies. But for now, mobile operators are holding their own. Although they did make some changes and introduced discounts on roaming.
Cellular operators make money from inattentive people
For mobile operators, inattentive people are one of the important sources of income. A mess of tariffs, exceptions written in small print on the website, various restrictions that are not discussed when purchasing a tariff — simple practice. A simple thing — connection of domestic Russian roaming service. Each operator has a similar option, but it must be activated separately. And then when you call, the cost of a conventional minute will not be 5 rubles, but 2 rubles. A certain percentage of clients will think of doing this. And the rest will pay the maximum.
Viber Out – an offer for smart people
I think you are one of those readers of the OneTwoTrip blog who guessed to enable domestic and international roaming. But there is another way to significantly reduce communication costs while traveling. This is Viber messenger with Viber Out features. With Viber Out you can call mobile and landline numbers in any country in the world. The call is no different from a regular call, and the subscriber has no idea that you are calling via Viber. It is important to remember that Viber works over the Internet.
To launch Viber Out, install the Viber application from the AppStore or Google Play. After launching the application, you will receive an SMS with a confirmation code and your account will be activated. That’s it, setting up Viber is complete. In your contact list you will see everyone who uses Viber. Or the Viber Out icon if the messenger is not installed.
Viber Out is a paid service. You can top up your account through iTunes or Google Play, using a Visa, MasterCard, American Express plastic card or from a mobile phone account. The security of payment using a plastic card is guaranteed by Worldpay.
Compare prices of mobile operators and Viber Out
And now the best part – tariffs for calls via Viber Out. For comparison, I have compiled a table of the cost of calls in roaming through Viber Out and a regular operator”))) in several directions.
| Days of completion | The cheapest Russian operator from the TOP5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Russia — mobile | 6.05 rub/min | 5 rub/min |
| Russia — stationary | 1.04 rub/min | 5 rub/min |
| Australia – mobile | 6.31 rub/min | From 15 to 65 rub/min |
| Australia — stationary | 1.34 rub/min | From 15 to 65 rub/min |
| USA — any | 1.21 rub/min | From 15 to 65 rub/min |
| Russia — stationary | 1.04 rub/min | 5 rub/min |
| Germany — any | 1.23 rub/min | From 15 to 65 rub/min |
| Greece – any | free!!! | From 15 to 65 rub/min |
| China — any | 0.83 rub/min | From 15 to 65 rub/min |
Prices in the table are shown without discounts. All operators offer various options for “saving” calls. The trick is that if the cost of the call decreases, then a daily subscription fee appears. Or you have to buy “packages” of minutes. And some operators come up with sophisticated schemes with discounts that are valid, for example, from the 2nd minute to the 5th minute, but there are no discounts from the 1st minute to the 6th minute. The confusion is terrible and only creates the appearance of choice and free will of the client. But in fact, we continue to pay more than we could.
You can check operator tariffs yourself, and then compare them with Viber Out tariffs. The link is clickable.
And calls to Greece are free
The choice in favor of Viber Out is obvious. On the side of mobile operators is laziness and inattention, which they have learned to monetize. But the experience of Larisa and our department shows that this happens until the first serious financial losses. When traveling to Austria, as soon as I “gifted” 6,000 rubles to my operator, I instantly learned how to count money while roaming. I wish the same for you 🙂
