Internet Aircard

[ph101]

I will be in Saint Petersburg next week.  Can anyone recommend a company for roaming internet service I can use with an aircard plugged into my laptop computer?
 
Thanks in advance for your help.

[mendeleyev]

For just a week I'd purchase a SIM card and or dongle from a local phone company upon arrival. Go inside a real store, not a kiosk, to make sure it is the real deal. Three of the biggest are Beeline, Megafon,MTC.

Also check out this link: http://www.waytorussia.net/SaintPetersburg/Internet.html

[Anotherkiwi]

I'd go along with Mendeleyev on this one.  It's also VERY important to note that, in Russia, you do not always get same-price countrywide coverage through one provider as you do everywhere else.  I use Beeline as the example here because it's the company I used on my last visit.
 
Russia is so huge that, for example (as I found out to my cost), one type of Beeline SIM card sold in Moscow will give you cheap rates only for Moscow calls (landline or mobile).  Go somewhere else and your credit disappears in a big hurry.  The fact that you can recharge the card anywhere tends to mask the fact that you're suddenly paying three or four times the amount for what you think are local calls under the same provider.  You are now "roaming!"  Apparently each city or region's Beeline is actually a separate company under the overall brand.
 
If you will be going to other cities make sure that the card you get is a flat-rate NATIONAL card, not a discounted one-city-only card.  Unfortunately I had misunderstood the woman at the kiosk at Domodedovo and got the wrong type.  I would point out that this kiosk is totally independent - they sell cards for all the networks, and it seemed that they really do try to find the best fit for where you're going.
 
As for Beeline's customer service, I went into their main store in St Petersburg, where a young man explained all this to me in flawless English.  From my point of view I'm quite happy to stick with Beeline - next time I'll just take more care to get the right sort of card!
 
This doesn't apply to Ukraine, where I used MTS after consulting a fluent English speaker working in an independent shop in the central underground mall in Kyiv.  Coverage for all networks is totally national.

[ph101]

Thanks for the responses, but both of you wrote about SIM cards for a mobile phone.  I was interested in an Aircard to plug into my laptop so that I could access the internet while I am in Saint Petersburg.  By the way, I've used Megapon for my mobile telephone service in Saint Petersburg and got the local plan.  Maybe I'll need to visit a Megapon store and ask them about internet service?

[Anotherkiwi]

Thanks for the responses, but both of you wrote about SIM cards for a mobile phone.  I was interested in an Aircard to plug into my laptop so that I could access the internet while I am in Saint Petersburg.  By the way, I've used Megapon for my mobile telephone service in Saint Petersburg and got the local plan.  Maybe I'll need to visit a Megapon store and ask them about internet service?

If you have a good mobile phone you can use it as your internet aircard.  I'm assuming that you are not intending to carry your laptop all around St Petersburg and surf the internet while you're on a river cruise or similar. 
 
If you're staying in an apartment, talk to the agency - you'll usually find that the apartment will have either a wired or wireless internet connection available, where all you will need will be the network password, or else they can supply you with an aircard themselves (although it will probably be a bit more expensive than using a network aircard).  Any good hotel will have an internet connection of some sort.
 
By all means talk to Megafon - you're trying to get the best deal that you can.