phone use in Russia

We have always taken small unlocked phones and gotten sim cards elsewhere in Europe but we now have an Iphone with Tmobile and are thinking of using their international service. Has anyone done this in Petersburg and if so how did that work.

I used my Verizon iPhone with Verizon service and it worked just fine. Paid $40 for 100 minutes + 100 txt messages + ?? amount of data. No big deal. It probably wasn't the cheapest way to go, but it definitely required very little/no thought on my part. I don't travel to Russia to yak on the phone or surf the net on my phone anyway so it was plenty of resources. And while using your hotel's free wifi you can surf or facetime all you want on your phone without using your own data.

thanks. We will be in 4 countries and so the cost of getting lots of sim cards adds up and we don't use the phone much so think we will try what you did.

You'll have to call Verizon to enable your phone + add on your international plan. Speak with the Global Services department as they are the experts. You may encounter a "regular" Verizon employee who will want to take it upon themselves to enable all of your international services...don't do it. The only time I've ever had problems was after dealing with the "regular" people who seem to really enjoy attempting to keep you from "bothering" the Global Services people. Don't fall for it. Insist on speaking to the experts.

We used our T Mobile phone in St. Petersburg last week--it works the same as at home. The plan we're on has a $.20 per minute international voice calling. There are no 2 year contracts or any commitments either.

you can buy a simple phone for 20$ and a simcard for another 3-4 $ with 2-4 gigabyte and some hundred minutes to talk.