2nd Motoreiter. Wifi more trouble than it's worth for sure. Mobile data is cheap, I don't even think about it. I do see people constantly complaining about wifi not working and getting frustrated.
Personally, I use my Android phone as a hotspot for my laptop. Tablet with a SIM will work for lots of people

Agree with this ... In fact the main purpose of the thread was to point out that mobile data is insanely cheap here. 36 GB for about 12 bux a month. My previous trips I have used a wifi hotspot from my phone to enable my laptop to do everything it needs to do online.

I would be interested to hear what package you are actually buying eather in english or russian (as i can speak and read russian also in some level)

I have tried twice to get russian sim card. First one was 2013 when i tried to arrange it through finnish guy who works near Moscow and he and his company staff didnt understand what kind of mobile sim card i want to get (prepaid, sim data traffic card)

Also last year when i was in Spb with my russian female friend and we went to Beeline shop to do second attempt as she naturally speak russian better than me :). Sales people in Beeline didnt understand neather what card i try to get. And that was in Nevsky Prospect center of 2nd largest city of Russia and not in some remote destination.

I did get in Nievky Novgorod i think 2012 one sim card what my friend from there bought it to me and put it into his name (as they wanted to get address to sim card owner). But it was regular sim and not Microsim what i needed to my mobile. Unfortunately i did not keep contract papers as attempt to cut card into correct size failed.

Not sure I understand the problems you run into. I have gotten 3 or 4 SIM cards from a number of operators in the last couple of years. It's just a matter of walking into any operators store with your passport and getting a card. My Russian isn't great and I managed easily. They understand SIM card, gigabyte and worst case you point at a map of Russia and make a circle motion, indicating you want roaming for all of Russia. What else could you possibly want walking into a phone store?

Usually the data plans are clearly posted and even if you don't read Cyrillic it is simple to figure out from the numbers. It has always been a 10 minute affair at a tiny shop near a border crossing in the provinces. I have used Beeline, MTS and one other operator. Same procedure everywhere and 0 hassle.

If you have problems getting a micro SIM card, just get an ordinary one and cut to size. It works. The only difference between a normal SIM card and a micro SIM card is the amount of filler plastics around the chip.

I got a Megafon sim data in Moscow. Using data all over Russia so far. Paid for 2 months and great. Finding it hard to top it up for roaming text messages


No man is truly married until he understands every word his wife is NOT saying.