Telecommunications

Where can one make a call? First of all, many small shops offer local call services for a 20 tenge charge. To ask to make a call in Russian you should say: "Mozhno pozvonit'?" Secondly, you can make local and long distance calls from any payphone in the streets. Cards for a different number of units can be bought from newsagents and kiosks. One unit goes for one minute of a local call. You do not need a card to call the following emergency services:

• fire brigade (01)
• police (02)
• ambulance (03)
• gas service (04)

Almatytelecom (public voice operator in Almaty) has a lot of service offices around the city where you can make telephone calls and send/receive a fax. One of them is on 129 Panfilov St. and Karasai Batyr St. (tel. 2729451). Central office is on 100 Zhibek Zholy St., on the hill opposite TSUM (tel. 060). They accept only cash. The same services plus Internet are available on the first floor of Ramstore (Furmanov St., across the road from the President Palace).

Almaty telephone code of is 727. To make a call within Kazakhstan or to some CIS countries dial: 8 - (city code) - (telephone number). For Moscow, for example, dial 8-495-(number). After dialling 8, wait for a long beep, then dial remaining digits. To make an international call dial 10 after 8, then country code, city code, and the number. See the list of city and country codes.

There is a 50% discount for long distance calls made from 12 p.m. through 6 a.m. and a 25% discount for the same time interval at weekends. For country, city codes and discount information in Russian call 070 . To order a long distance call call 071 or 079.

Almaty has two free Russian language telephone information services: 09 and 080. 09 does not give information about businesses and private companies. More information is available from Betsi service at 080. 088 service has the most complete database but their services are chargeable, although very cheap.