Those of you who are planning to come to Sochi for the Winter Olympic games may find “2GIS Sochi” (by DoubleGIS) to be a very useful free mobile app.

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Landline telephone code of Sochi is 8622, and all numbers are six digits. Telephone code of Russia is 7, so to call a number in Sochi you dial +7-8622-##-##-##.

Mobile operator’s codes are all different, and the numbers consist of three digit code and seven digits number. Here are telephone codes of major mobile operators in Sochi:

MTS (МТС): 918, 988
Megafon (Мегафон): 920, 930, 928, 938
Beeline (Билайн): 903, 905, 906, 909, 960, 961, 962, 963, 964.
TELE2: 902, 908, 952

Calls between operators in Russia are always more expensive than inside operator’s network, and there are no such thing as free long distance calls. So, if you’re planning to get local number, consider this: absolute majority of people living in Sochi have MTS numbers. This is due to the fact that several years ago MTS acquired major local operator «Kuban GSM».

Other Sochi quick facts »

MTS, Russia’s largest mobile telecom company, announced few days ago that it’s “technically ready” for commercial launch of 3G network in Sochi, as well as two other cities – Yekaterinburg and Kazan.

With the new 3G network, MTS will allow users to benefit from faster data transfer speeds (up to 3.6 Mbps) as compared to the current 2.5G EDGE network. Also, special 3G services will be offered, including video telephony, 3G roaming and mobile TV.

Read full press release »

The only other company I know that launched 3G in Russia is MegaFon, the third largest Russian carrier. Though right now, if I remember correctly, it is only available in St.-Petersburg, and they haven’t announced what other cities they are planning to expand it to next.