Communication
If you are in Kiev and you need to contact someone, you can use one of the widely developed means of communication in Ukraine: telephone, mail or the Internet. In addition, to send or receive package, you can use the services of delivery, so called express delivery; there are also a lot of them in Kiev.
Express Delivery
While in Kiev, you can send or receive a package by using the services of a courier delivery services. These services provide you the opportunity to send a package to anywhere in Ukraine and beyond. The network of courier services in Ukraine is very highly developed; in Kiev there are many foreign companies’ offices such as FedEx, Post Express, DHL Express and many others. You can order the service by telephone or over the Internet; the prices of a package vary depending on weight of a package and its destination.
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Internet
The most convenient and the fastest mean of communication is the Internet; and in Ukraine it has become an accessible and very common service. Internet cafes, and clubs can be found throughout the city, most of them working around the clock. The most popular clubs are the Vault, City, Cyber Cafe, Club Diver, and others. In addition, in some public places such as cafes and entertainment centres, you can use wireless internet WiFi, if you have a laptop or handheld computer.
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Post
If you need to send a package or a letter, you can use the post. Post offices exist in each district of Kiev; they operate from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a lunch break from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The central post office is located in the heart of the city at 22, Khreshchatyk and operates on Sundays as well. Here you can mot only send mail, but also buy stamps for letters and postcards, send a fax and make international calls.
To send a letter, you have to purchase the appropriate stamp (its value depends on the destination country). Please, remember that mail from the Ukraine to other countries goes quite long (it may take several weeks), so if you need to send a letter or package urgently, you should use International Express Mail Service which ensures mail delivery within 3-4 days.
You should know that you cannot send money, checks, credit cards, and so on by post. If you send them, they may be forfeited by post officers.
Telephones
If you need to contact someone on the phone, you can use a landline or cellular phones. You can use a fixed phone in your hotel, on the street (using the public telephone) or in the offices of the company OJSC «Ukrtelecom» which is the largest fixed communications operator. To use public telephone you will need a prepaid card, which you can purchase at the Ukrtelecom offices.
To use the service of international telephone calls, you should dial «8», wait until you hear continuous tone, and then dial «10» (the code to connect the international channel), dial the country code, city code and phone number. You can make calls to other countries from your hotel, but remember that in this case the service costs much more.
You will be able to use cellular phones if purchase a start package of one of the many mobile operators, which are widely represented in Ukrainian market. The biggest among them are Kyivstar, MTS, Beeline, Golden Telecom, Life. A start package includes the SIM-card, which must be inserted in the cellular phone and on the account of which there is a prepaid amount of money. The standards GSM 900 and GSM 1800 operate on Ukrainian territory.
It is important to remember that the quality of coverage among different mobile operators may differ significantly. Such Ukrainian operators as Kyivstar and MTS have the largest coverage within the territory of the country. The key indicator while using cellular phone, which affects the quality of communication, is the distance from your phone to the nearest station of mobile communication. In addition, remember that if you’ don’t use your start package for a long period of time the expiration date might terminate.
If you want to know how to call in or out of Ukraine, please click here