Communications system in Ukraine

TELEPHONE:

Ukrainian telephone network has been expanding. Below you can find a step-by-step description for calling to and from Ukraine. How to call to Ukraine from abroad: Dial international access code in your country, then dial 38 (international code of Ukraine) + city code + city number. For calls within Ukraine, dial 8, wait for the tone, and then dial the city code and telephone number. It is sometimes necessary to go through the operator when calling a small town or village. For an inter-city operator, dial 071.

EMERGENCY AND OTHER IMPRTANT NUMBERS:

Fire station - 01

Police - 02

Ambulance - 03

Gas Emergency - 04

Telephone Information - 09

Train Schedule - 005

MOBILE PHONE NETWORKS

There are five major cellular companies in Ukraine:

UMC - National operator of cellular connection.

Standard: GSM 900

Kyivstar GSM - National operator of cellular connection. The coverage is less extensive than of UMC's, but rates are lower.

Standard: GSM 900/GSM 1800

DCC - covers Kyiv, Odesa, Crimea, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrivsk, Zaporizhzhya and some other regions of Ukraine.

Standard: D-AMPS

Golden Telecom - covers Kyiv and Odesa.

Standard: GSM 1800

WellCom - covers major cities all over Ukraine.

Standard: GSM 900

International roaming is quite expensive in Ukraine. If you wish to stay available for calls in Ukraine and your cell phone supports standards GSM 900 or GSM 1800, a prepaid package can be purchased. The package contains a Sim-card - a chip for plugging into the phone and a voucher for the prepaid time. You can add funds to your phone account by purchasing new vouchers. This package is provided by UMC, Kyivstar and Golden Telecom and is available at small shops located throughout cities.

INTERNET:

Internet is developing fast in big cities of Ukraine. Plenty of cyber cafes and clubs provide Internet connection at 1-2 USD per hour.

MAIL AND DELIVERY SERVICES:

Services of the Ukrainian State Mail are inexpensive and pretty reliable. Usually it takes 2-7 business days to deliver packages within Ukraine and 5-12 business days to deliver international packages.