GSM mobile phone network to launch operations in Irkutsk

WWW Irkutsk Newsletter
May 31, 1999

The GSM-900 standard digital mobile telephone network
will be available in Irkutsk starting in June 1999. Beginning
11 June 1999, subscription SIM cards can be purchased from 
BaikalWestCom (www.sotel.org, Tel. 432851), one of the cell 
network operators that have been operating the NMT analogue 
cell network (also widely used in Scandinavian countries) for 
the past several years.

Now that Irkutsk has joined the worldwide GSM network, the 
city's visitors can use their normal mobile phones in 
Irkutsk. International roaming will be possible in summer
1999. For now, the city's visitors can use their phones to 
call the emergency services under 112, the worldwide 
emergency number. To make other calls, they can purchase 
the prepaid SIM subscription card from BaikalWestCom and 
plug it into their GSM mobile phones.

The GSM cell network was built by the American company 
NorTel.-- 

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