Internet in Montenegro. Mobile communications and Internet in the resorts of Montenegro. Drimsim cards - profitable or not

Local SIM cards for tourists in Montenegro cost quite reasonable money. For only 10 euros you can get a card for 10 GB of mobile internet.

It is not so easy to find Montenegrin SIM cards for tourists. It is best to purchase them immediately at the airport at the post office.

In Budva, cards are sold in covered stalls and newsagents or at the company's office, but there is always a queue there during the high season. We'll have to walk around and ask the locals. There is a Telenor office in the city center, where you can buy these cards. But even on the official website of the company, the exact address is not indicated 🙂

If you're lucky, you can use the services of the M-Tel operator. In 2019, they offer great internet rates:

• 500 GB for 15 days: € 5
• 1000 GB in 30 days for 10 €

It is unrealistic to use such an amount of Internet, but if you distribute the phone to the whole family and sit together on Youtube, then you can try 🙂

Roaming cost

Roaming service offered by Russian cellular networks paid by the day on its use.

Prices on paper look quite hefty, but multiply the amounts shown by the number of vacation days you need to use your card, social media, or read the news.

Features of the plans:

• Tinkoff offers the most attractive roaming rates in Turkey:
  • For subscribers with a permanent number
    • 149 rubles for 100 MB internet per day + 11.90 rubles / minute of conversation
    • all traffic on messengers is not included in the traffic limit
    • background ads are disabled by default
    • all Tinkoff apps are out of limit
    • +1000 rubles for number porting and doubling the first payment
  • When buying a new SIM card:
    • PROMOTION until July 31, 2019: 1 GB of free traffic in Europe and Turkey ()
    • unlimited messengers (49 rubles / day)

• Megafon makes it possible to pay after the fact for roaming services. Calls to Russia will cost 99 rubles. Internet 10 rubles for 1 MB.
• In MTS, you can refuse the Internet and pay only for calls. Or buy only the Internet for 450 rubles / day.
• In Beeline for 1800 rubles they give 15 GB of the Internet and 3000 minutes of calls for 30 days. Based on 7 days of vacation, it comes out only 257 rubles per day.

7 days of using roaming will cost 1800-2400 rubles.

SIM cards for use in roaming

To save yourself on vacation from looking for a local SIM card once, it is better to buy Get yourself one and use it in almost any country in the world at very attractive rates.

If, while vacationing in Montenegro, you do not want to spend a fortune on talking with loved ones, this article is for you. Collected information about mobile communications for tourists Oleg Obukhov.

I see and read how tourists are straining with SIM cards of Montenegrin operators and connecting packages. In the review I will consider two operators: T-Mobile and M: tel.

Montenegrin operator T-Mobile
Buy a SIM card for 3 € with a balance of 3 €. Ideally, it should be registered in your name, while filling out the registration form at the outlet does not guarantee that it (the form) will reach the operator's office.

During the season, operators block unregistered numbers after 15 days from the start of use. Hence the conclusion - you rest 15 days or less, do not pay attention. More - contact the T-com office in your city and fill out the registration form.

Card in standard format with a notch for micro-sim. You need nano - saw it yourself or go to the place where mobile phones are sold and repaired.

The T-Mobile card is protected by a pin code (I hope this technology is familiar to you). After inserting the card into the phone, first of all, turn off the data transfer. This is important until the end of the setup, because the smartphone loads a lot of data in the background and can instantly spend the balance of the card.

You can replenish your balance after activating the card in terminals and newspaper stands. This is called "electronska dopuna". The minimum amount is now 2 euros.

So, we put the card, entered the pin code, registered the card on the network. To activate, make one call (without connection) or send SMS. That's it, the card is active and ready to be configured.

Balance check * 111 #. This USSD command is called "Super-menu" and with its help you can view your tariff, change it, activate packages.

Before activating the options, be sure to turn off the data transfer, without the connected options it is the Internet traffic that spends the money. Then choose any of the options provided. You can choose any two of the three. Connecting one option for the first time is free.

In my opinion, the Internet option (3) is relevant, where for 2.90 € you get 1.5 GB of traffic for 7 days. Less money is spent on voice calls and you can use instant messengers.

To connect, you need to use the ussd-menu * 111 # or send an SMS with the text SURF (for 3 options) to number 1467. To connect other options, you need to send an SMS MI or SVI to the same number.

Only after setting up the package enable data transfer on your phone. Also, do not forget to keep track of the remaining traffic and the expiration of the package.

APN settings for Internet access in the photo. The password is 38267.

For those who cannot imagine a vacation without the Internet, there are also sets on sale: a usb modem and a SIM card with a certain amount of GB of Internet. Not a bad alternative to ADSL, in principle.

Advantages of T-Mobile: stable network, better internet quality in CG and good coverage in the northern regions of Montenegro.

Montenegrin operatorM: tel
In terms of registration, replenishment - the rules are exactly the same as for T-Mobile, so read the first part.

M: tel-ovsky SIM cards come across to me without a pin-code. I do not know if this is 100% or not, but, in general, you will figure it out. Just like with a competitor, after registering on the network (call or message to any number) before the end of the setup, turn off Internet access in order to save your credit on the account.

Since June 2016, the Mtel operator has introduced new conditions for the Mgou Tourist prepaid tariff. Now the SIM card costs 5 €, and in this package you get 500MB of already included internet and 2 € on the balance for voice and SMS.

The Internet package is valid for 3 days, but for each next replenishment of the balance (at least 2 €), the user receives another 300MB for 3 days. This 300MB is activated at midnight after a top-up. And you can freely spend the replenished balance on SMS and voice calls. If you have the Internet enabled on your smartphone, then the unlimited package must be connected, otherwise your money will turn into a pumpkin at midnight.

To activate the above service, you need to send sms turist to 14555 or activate in the ussd-menu * 105 # and only after activation (!) Turn on the data transfer service on your phone.

This tariff also provides 50% discounts on voice calls to the countries from which the bulk of tourists come. The service is activated via ussd-menu * 105 #.

Features of M: tel: there are always cheap roaming offers for Serbia, if you plan to travel there, a good coverage area on the seaside. Of the minuses: the northern part of Montenegro is poorly covered and during the season there is a problem with the mobile Internet in the seaside.

The cheapness of mobile communications in Russia has been discussed many times. Recently, after MTS threw out a feint with increasing the subscriber to Smart mini up to 400 rubles. a month, I ventured to notice that our cheap communications are beginning to become a thing of the past. However, this process will be quite lengthy, because the "margin of safety" in Russia is still enormous. Communication and the Internet are now really worth a penny.

For the sake of interest, I looked at the rates of the leading operator Telenor for my favorite Montenegro in terms of leisure. Why Montenegro? Because the standard of living of people there, like ours, is very mediocre, this is not Germany, where the prices for communication are justified by the high income of the population. Montenegro lives mainly on tourism and housing rentals. They practically do not produce something of their own there. Many locals go to work abroad, because in their homeland they are not able to feed themselves. Many Serbs live and work in the country, and if activity is still noticeable in Budva in winter, then purely tourist places (for example, Becici) turn into ghost towns. Rented apartments (in which even hot water is only in boilers) are closed, the locals leave for the winter in the same Serbia. By the way, unlike us, their authorities are trying to do at least something for their citizens, and when they leave for a while, the locals pay mere pennies for the rent. the most expensive thing in Montenegro is electricity.

Let's move on to tariffs and look at a few examples. 1 euro will be considered at the current exchange rate of 70 rubles.

Postpaid

Tariff PRENESI PLAY + XL

• Subscription fee: 35.9 € / month(RUB 2513)
• 600 minutes to all local networks
• Unlimited within the network. Whether the unlimited is considered separately from the package - I have not found, the limitation is up to 5000 minutes per month.
• 3000 SMS
• 3000 MB internet (round up to 100 KB)
• 4 "digital services" with additional Internet that does not take into account the main traffic package (messengers?).

In general, the point is not in petty misunderstandings of the tariff, the main thing now is to get the big picture. I deliberately started with a tariff for 600 minutes, tk. it is closest to the now popular MTS “Smart for our friends”. It turns out that in "SDS" we have a subscriber of 200 rubles. per month (2.86 euros) also with an Internet package not 3, but 10 GB, and Telenor's offer is only almost 13 times more expensive than ours.

The most budgetary postpaid option (without "digital services"):

Tariff PRENESI I SURFUJ + S

Such a package costs 5 euros, 1 euro is on the account.

You can call to Russia by adding by * 123 # [call] the option of international calls (Add international calls) 99 euro cents for 7 days. At the same time, 0.049 euros (3.43 rubles) was announced for a minute to 44 countries of the world. Without this option, I could not find the cost of international services, in addition to Serbia, bloggers write something about 80 euro cents / minute.

Prepaid Internet (packages)

With the rates of data transfer on prepaid tariffs, I am somewhat confused. This link provides the following package table:

Advise, what kind of wi fi to spend in Stoliv (Bay of Kotor), so that it is cheaper, and you can not pay when no one is at home? Was in T-Mobile, they said that 12 euros will cost monthly ADSL + 30 euros for the Internet itself. And if you don't want to pay, you need to come to them and suspend the account, and so on every time. Somehow expensive and dreary.

What is all this for? This article appeared in my mind after a discussion on our forum about the advisability of using multiple SIM cards. I mentioned the use of several SIM cards for their daily use in order to maximize savings on calls to local numbers. The topic was continued. As a result, some people considered my statement offensive. Sorry! Did not want. I wrote what I think and how I think. With a question price of less than 3 Euros per month, it is ridiculous to think about reducing this amount down to zero (and wasting time on this). We have spoiled ourselves in Russia with such prices for communication and the Internet and already stubbornly do not want to pay for this service at least some tangible amount for our budget. We have developed a mentality that paying for a mobile phone should be as easy and invisible as buying yourself a glass of ice cream in the summer. Despite the fact that the operator uses the most complicated and expensive equipment in its work, and our claims to the quality of communication only grow from year to year. Therefore, look at how other people live with incomes that are also small by world standards and rejoice at your current communication rates.

Cellular communication in Montenegro

In Montenegro today, there are three operators that provide largely similar service packages. These are Telenor (069), T-Mobile (067) and M: Tel (068). Of these, only the last company is local, which does not prevent it from successfully competing with the first two. Cellular communication in Montenegro is available practically throughout its entire territory (over 90%), with the exception of remote mountainous regions and river canyons.

Purchase and registration of a SIM card

You can buy a local SIM card anywhere - both in official dealerships and in most kiosks and newspaper stands. In this case, in any case, you need to register it at the nearest branch of the company. Of course, you can do this at the point of purchase, but this does not guarantee that the information will go into the database. Yes, in offices you will have to stand in line (from 5 to 15 minutes), but there you can immediately connect the tariff plan you need and set up your phone so that you do not have to pay for air. At your request, an employee of the company will enter the necessary combinations of numbers and turn off data transmission, which eats up the lion's share of Internet traffic.

Important! Unregistered numbers will be disabled by the operator shortly after activation.

But even if you did not contact an official representative, and your registration data was successfully entered into the database, you should pay special attention to the services to which you are connected. Usually newsstands sell so-called “tourist” fares with extremely disadvantageous terms.

A warning! Although there are notches for the micro format on Montenegrin maps, you will have to adjust them to the size yourself - or go to a specialized store where such services are provided.

Montenegrin operators

In order to come to the office with a clear understanding of what exactly you need, first familiarize yourself with the proposed packages. Here is a link to the sites of all three Montenegrin operators:

Each site has an English version, so it won't be difficult for you to find your way around. Before connecting to the service, find the section with tariff plans and choose the one that suits you the most.

PRE-PAID

If we are talking about pre-paid tariffs, that is, prepayment (only this format is available to tourists), then today the following situation is observed here.

T-mobile offers 4 main packages: MI, SVI, SURF and STOTKA.

Each of them will cost you 2.90 euros, while MI means 500 free minutes of phone calls on the network, 500 SMS (also on the network) and 1 GB of Internet. SVI offers 100 free minutes and the same amount of SMS to all local destinations plus 500 MB of internet. SURF will provide you with 1.5 GB of internet and another 2 GB of traffic for using social networks Facebook, Twitter and FB Messenger. STOTKA offers a loan of 100 euros for all available services. All settings are available by dialing * 111 # - this combination will take you to the corresponding menu. And remember that connecting options and choosing the appropriate tariff are free only the first time - you will have to pay in the future.

Telenor offers 2 main prepaid packages: Telenor Besplatno and Start.

Telenor Prepaid 2017 implies a free connection to the Telenor Besplatno tariff, which offers 100 free minutes to all Montenegrin destinations, as well as 1000 minutes on the network and 1 GB of Internet - all these services are available within 7 days after activation. After that, the client has the opportunity to activate the Start tariff for 3 euros, which will include all the advantages of Telenor Besplatno, as well as favorable conditions for calls within Montenegro and Serbia. All settings can be made in the service menu by dialing * 123 #. However, the tariff plan can be changed no more than once during a calendar month.

M: Tel offers 3 main pre-paid packages: Hello, M: Go and Turist.

Hello for 5 euros means 4 GB of internet, and you can order an additional 5 GB for 4.9 euros. Otherwise, the prices for calls practically do not differ from other operators: 0.22 euros for all Montenegrin destinations, 0.85 euros for all international numbers. The advantage of the tariff is the Friends and Family service, in which the price per minute of conversation is only 9 cents.

M: Go for the same 5 euros, it offers 100 free minutes and 100 sms along with 10 GB of Internet, which you must use 7 days after activation. Also for 6 months you will have free access to social networks Facebook, Viber, Instagram, Twitter, What "s App, Wikipedia and Mondo GO. At the same time, the cost of a call is lower in the future than in the previous package: 0.149 euros to all Montenegrin numbers , although international calls will cost you the usual 0.85 EUR / min.

Turist(unchanged 5 euros) will provide you with 10 GB of Internet and average prices for calls and SMS: 0.22 euros / min for a call to any Montenegrin number, 0.059 euros for an SMS to any local operator. The advantage of the service is that with each new payment you get your initial 10 GB of Internet.

As for the M: Tel settings, it is better to implement them directly at the official points, since the company actively uses the SMS system, in which it is easy to get confused. For example, to switch from prepaid Hello to post-paid Send Hello, you will need to send a message with the text "pp send" to number 100. To return to the previous tariff, you will need to do the same operation, but with the text "pp hello", in this case, the tariff can be changed no more than once a calendar month. In general, it is easier to go into the office and set everything up with the help of a company employee. Or study the information on the official website of the operator very carefully.

POST-PAID

Post-paid in Montenegro are available only to local citizens or persons permanently residing here (which must have supporting documents). Therefore, if you have come for a couple of weeks, then this information is unlikely to interest you.

Telenor offers its customers 4 post-paid packages, the minimum of which costs 12.9 euros, and the maximum - 35.9 euros. Internet - from 1 to 3 GB, telephony - from 125 to 600 minutes in all local directions (calls within the network are not limited) and the number of SMS from 125 to 3000.

T-mobile split its post-paid line into 5 sectors - from € 9.90 to € 55.90. The number of free minutes increases from 100 to 1200, while calls within the network are not limited. The number of SMS varies from 100 to infinity, and Internet traffic - from 1 GB to unlimited.

M: Tel offers 4 tariffs: Urban S (10.90 euros), Urban M (15.90 euros), Urban L (25.90 euros), Urban XL (29.90 euros). Accordingly to the price, the number of provided minutes, sms and gigabytes also grows, including unlimited access to social networks and various mobile applications.

THE INTERNET

To use instant messengers, mobile Internet will be enough for you - local 3G coverage has very good coverage and is available almost everywhere, not counting remote areas and sometimes "pits". All settings can be registered by employees of the company you contact, but if this is not possible, then here are the necessary data:

Telenor... Name: Telenor MNE Internet. APN: internet. Username: gprs. Password: gprs. Proxy IP: 192.168.246.005. Proxy port: 8080 or 9201.

T-mobile... Name: GPRS. APN: tmcg-wnw. Username: 38267. Password: 38267. Proxy IP: 10.0.5.19. Proxy port: 8080.

M: Tel... Name: mtelinternet. APN: mtelinternet. Username: internet. Password: 068. Proxy IP and Proxy port: by default.

A great option is free WiFi, available in almost any cafe. Hotels provide this service by default, in addition, most of the private apartments recently also have Internet access.

As for the tariffs for pre-paid Internet packages, they are as follows in Montenegro:

• Telenor- from € 9.95 (4 GB) to € 49.95 (15 GB + USB modem). The service is valid from 15 days (the most budgetary package) to 30 days from the date of activation.
• T-mobile- offers only two packages for tourists: for 9.90 and 19.90 euros, respectively. The duration of both services is 10 days; the only difference is that in the second case, a usb modem is attached to the sim card. In the future, you can replenish your account repeatedly according to the following scheme: 1 day (1 GB) - 1 euro, 5 days (5 GB) - 7 euro, 10 days (unlimited Internet) - 10 euro, 30 days (20 GB) - 20 euro ...
• M: Tel- the only Hello Net package is currently available, which includes 4 GB for € 5 for the first top-up and € 4.9 for every additional 5 GB.

SUMMARY

As mentioned above, local tariffs do not differ in a wide range of prices: calls within the country will cost you an average of 0.16-0.22 euros per minute, sms - from 4 to 6 cents. That being said, there are special offers in which one of the options looks especially tempting. You just have to choose what is more important for you - cheap SMS or a certain number of free calls.