Hello, perhaps you can help:
My family are now at a cottage in a village outside Moscow, where they are staying for weeks due to the hot weather. The telephone number there contains less than the usual number of digits (6 instead of seven). For some reasons calls cannot get there from North America, although they can call here. The problem seems to be with the US, as I don't even get a Russian dial tone, but a North American one followed by an English-language message saying that there is no such number and to try again.
Is there any trick to dialing such numbers and getting through? There is freakish discrepency between the cost of calling from there (a couple of dollars per minute) versus from here (cents per minute with calling card), so I would prefer to be the one doing the calling.
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
BM
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is the _name_ of the village? Let's begin by examining what _you_ show is the correct dialing string. Often times, I have found that you have 'country code' then 'city code' (like a USA area code) then the local number. Many times, the 'city code' part has an extra digit or two, to make up for 'less than seven' digits in the local number part. Tell us the correct name of the village and what _you_ think is the dialing string. Are you actually in Russia trying to make the call, or in the USA trying to make an international call? Some of our experts here will be able to figure it out, I am sure. If in the USA trying to call do not be alarmed if an intercept recording comes back in _English_ instead of in Russian. Telco has some trick where if they (telco) knows that an intercept message is on the way, they yank the connection and return with an 'American' recording instead often times. Your turn, tell us more specifics please. PAT]