“Zabugorische” is an option for traveling abroad, is it really that profitable?

Any person who uses mobile communications understands that the costs of international roaming significantly exceed the costs of communications within the home region. In order to save money, you can limit yourself to CMC messages instead of the usual calls, or you can buy a SIM card for temporary use during the trip in the country where the subscriber went on a trip. However, changing your number, although temporary, causes a number of inconveniences. The MTC “Zabugorische” tariff allows you to always stay in touch without changing SIM cards and without spending a lot of money.

"Smart Zabugorishche" from MTS: tariff description

Please note that until April 2021, the MTS “Smart Zabugorishche” tariff was opened for connection, the description of which differed slightly depending on the region, but boiled down to several parameters:

1. Weekly subscription fee (175-250 rubles/week).
2. Large weekly packages: 7 GB, 350 minutes and SMS.
3. Unlimited within the network.
4. The main advantage is the opportunity to use paid package services abroad, paying an additional 290-390 rubles/day.

Additional fees are charged only for those days when the client is outside the Russian Federation. There is no need to connect or disconnect anything.

However, you must admit that not everyone needs large packages of traffic and minutes, while inexpensive foreign roaming is of interest to many. It is for such cases that the company has developed an option of the same name, and the “Zabugorische” tariff has been relegated to the archival category.

What is the MTS “Zabugorishte” tariff intended for?

Even after the first meeting with the name of the new offer from MTS, you can easily guess what is being discussed in its terms. This is a new generation roaming tariff that provides the company’s customers with even more favorable conditions for using cellular communication services abroad. Now, while abroad, subscribers can not only communicate via text messages and voice calls, but also use the mobile Internet in virtually the same way as they do at home, while in the region of connection.

It is noteworthy that this is not only a tariff, but also an additional option. That is, it can be connected either on a permanent basis or as an additional service that needs to be deactivated upon arrival home.

Option “Zabugorische” from MTS: description of the current service

The new tariff of MTS “Zabugorishche” (although it would be more correct to call it an option) in its structure reminds us of the already familiar ]“Zero without borders”[/anchor]. And the terms of provision depend on which country you are going to.

Within the framework of MTS, he divided all states into 2 groups: popular countries and others.

The first category includes: Armenia, Great Britain, Australia, Hungary, Spain, Greece, France, Egypt, Abkhazia, Lithuania, Germany, Israel, Norway, Finland, Italy, Portugal, Canada, Thailand, Denmark, Qatar, India, Latvia, Romania , Switzerland, the Netherlands, UAE, USA, Ukraine, Taiwan, Malta, Turkey, Czech Republic, Estonia, Sweden, South Korea.

To the second, all the rest, except: Cuba, South Ossetia, Tunisia, Jamaica, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Andorra, Panama, Seychelles, Bermuda, Northern Mariana and Bahamas, Iran, Madagascar, Oman, Tanzania, Guam, Philippines, Algeria.

Also, the conditions do not apply to places where the satellite system operates or communications are provided by ships and aircraft. Pay special attention to this point, as you risk being left without communication and without money! Tested by personal experience!

The conditions for providing the option will depend on which country you are traveling to. Let's figure it out.

How much does it cost to visit popular countries?

While in the territory of any of the countries included in the group of popular ones, you will receive:

• 100 minutes of free incoming calls per day. Each subsequent call will be charged at 39 rubles per minute.
• All minutes of outgoing calls to the Russian Federation will be consumed from your tariff package.
• Mobile traffic is also consumed from your package. But there's a catch.

At maximum speed, you will be able to work only for the first 500 MB, and then a speed limit of 128 Kb/s is activated until the end of the day according to the time of your home region.

Terms of service in other countries

If your destination is not included in the list of popular countries, do not be upset! The conditions for being in international roaming are still quite pleasant.

• The first 10 minutes of incoming calls are free, but each subsequent one will cost you 39 rubles. Please note that the total amount of free minutes per month cannot exceed 200 minutes. Once this limit is exhausted, all subsequent incoming calls will cost you 39 rubles per minute.
• As for outgoing minutes, everything is about as confusing. 2-5 minutes of outgoing calls will be priced at 39 rubles per minute, but the 1st and starting from 6 - in accordance with your roaming tariff.

• With the Internet it's even more complicated. Here the MTS company has identified as many as 4 groups of states and set its own quota for each of them. Within this quota, access to the World Wide Web is provided free of charge.

What kind of countries are these and what limits apply there, see for yourself:

1. Austria, Bangladesh, Albania, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Belarus, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Georgia, Indonesia, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Cyprus, China, Cambodia, Kuwait, Macedonia, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Tajikistan, Morocco, Singapore, Mongolia, Poland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Montenegro, Serbia, Malaysia, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Slovakia, Croatia, Sri Lanka, Japan. For this group, the amount of Internet is not limited, but after you use 100 MB per day, the speed will be limited to 128 Kb/s until the end of the day.
2. For Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan, the quota is set at 30 MB.
3. Cape Verde, Bhutan, Angola, Brunei, Guyana, Guernsey, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Iceland, Venezuela, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Lebanon, Gibraltar, Mauritania, Chad, Macau, Maine, Cameroon, Nepal, Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe, Faroe Islands limited to 1 MB.
4. In other countries - 5 MB.

Tariff “Zabugorische” from MTS: cost per month or per day?

Most subscribers are accustomed to calculating the cost of a tariff per month, but in the situation with Zabugorishche on MTS it is worth talking about its price per day. After all, it is for this period that the fee is charged. The daily fee for using the option in popular countries will be 350 rubles. But being in other countries will cost you 390 rubles a day!

Please note that this amount will be charged to you automatically when crossing the state border. And it will also turn off automatically as soon as you return to the territory of the Russian Federation.

Another interesting feature related to the price of the tariff. If you move from a popular country to some other country during your trip, you will be charged as many times as you cross the border. Keep this in mind when planning your trip budget!

What tariffs are available from MTS?

It would seem that all the conditions have already been described, the limits and restrictions are known, take it and use the tariff. But no. Another obstacle between the subscriber and connecting the option arises in the form of conditions for interaction with other tariffs and options:

• You will be able to activate the “Zabugorische” option only if you have one of the following tariffs: “Tariffische”, “Our Smart”, “Smart”, “Smart+”, “Smart Unlimited”, “My Unlimited”, “X”, “ Smart Top" and "Ultra". On all other tariffs, unfortunately or fortunately, this option is not available;
• Another point that we would like to draw your attention to is interaction with other services. If you have connected “Zero Without Borders”, “Free Travel”, “Bit/Maxi/Super Abroad”, then as soon as you submit an application to connect “Zabugorische”, they will all be disconnected. And a similar rule applies in the opposite direction.

Therefore, carefully consider which service you need first.

Service cost

For using the “Zabugorische” option, a daily subscription fee of 390 or 410 rubles is charged. The size of the fee is influenced by the degree of popularity of the country where the client is traveling. You will not need to pay money to activate and deactivate the functionality, since these are free procedures.

FOR EXAMPLE. I'm going on vacation to France for 7 days. I will need to pay 390 rubles. every day? No. For example, you can use the Internet, call home and answer calls only 3 days out of 7. And you will pay 1170 rubles only for these 3 days.

The list of world powers that are most popular includes Abkhazia, Australia, Armenia, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Egypt, Israel, India, Italy, Spain, Canada, Qatar, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, UAE , Portugal, Romania, USA, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Estonia, South Korea:

The rest include the remaining states. The exception is those where the functionality is not possible. The list of inaccessible ones includes: Turkmenistan, South Ossetia, Iran, Tanzania, Andorra, Madagascar, Philippines, Oman, Cuba, Algeria, Panama, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Aruba, Guam, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, Anguilla, Montserrat, Haiti , Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Maldives, Cayman and Mariana Islands.

Internet outside the Russian Federation

MTC takes care of its customers when traveling abroad, providing them with access to megabytes of traffic. The options are described below:

Cost of communication and SMS when traveling abroad

All calls and CMC when the function is activated are charged at the following cost:

How to connect Zabugorishche to MTS?

If you have read all the terms and conditions of the service and are completely satisfied with them, it’s time to find out how to connect Zabugorishche on your phone. It's very easy to do. To apply for connection:

• Send your request to *111*771#.

• Use your personal account on your PC or in the application to switch to the Zabugorishche tariff.
• Call the hotline and ask the operator to connect “Zabugorishte” for the duration of your trip.
• Visit the company's sales office and ask for help in switching to the teller option.

Important! You only need to activate the option once. In the future, it will automatically turn on on your phone as soon as you cross the border.

Why does the service turn on automatically, how to disable it

Most messages are of the same type and indicate that users have a paid option and funds will be debited daily. Many are glad that they managed to turn it off before the money was directly debited from their mobile account.

In fact, this service is written off only when the user is in another country and thanks to it, the client has the opportunity to gain access to the Internet abroad under similar conditions with a home tariff.

It is important to understand that operators cannot activate this service without the knowledge of the owner of the number. However, this option is included in the initial service packages and when switching to new tariffs it will be automatically activated. Such tariff offers include “Our Smart”, “Smart”, “Tariffishche”, “Smart+”, “Smart Unlimited”, “Smart NonStop”, “My Unlimited”, “X”, “Smart Top”, “Ultra”, “My Smart”, “All MTS”, “All MTS Super TV”.

In other words, no over-connection and debiting of funds for the purpose of deceiving users does not occur, and this service is simply provided automatically at certain tariffs. Regarding the debiting of money, it occurs only if you actually used mobile communications and the Internet abroad.

How to disable Zabugorishche on MTS?

When thinking about the question of how to disable Zabugorishche on MTS, first of all answer the question: why are you doing this? If you have returned to Russia and want to turn off the service before your next trip, then this is not necessary. The service will be automatically turned off the moment you cross the border.

But if you want to turn it off for the sake of calming yourself or choose something more suitable for yourself, then you can use one of the following methods:

• Dial the already familiar combination of numbers *111*771#;

• Go to your personal account or application and deactivate the option there;
• Call the operator or visit the point of sale;
• Or simply activate any other service with similar functionality.

MTS responded to a WhatsApp message about paid options in Zabugorishche

Not long ago, a publication appeared on WhatsApp that all MTS users are offered to visit their personal accounts and study the service packages that are provided to them for an additional fee. The author especially carefully suggested studying the “Foreign” option, which for many is activated automatically. In his opinion, money is debited from the account for this service and he recommends disabling it immediately.

Representatives of the mobile operator responded to this message and stated that this service is indeed automatically activated in certain tariff plans, but funds will be debited only if it is used outside our state. Customers located within the Russian Federation will not be charged additional fees.

Pitfalls of the “Zabugorische” tariff/option

It would seem that there are a lot of free minutes, there is Internet, calls seem to be relatively inexpensive, use it and enjoy life. But no. Everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. When connecting Zabugorishche to MTS there were some pitfalls. Although the impression is already being created that the company lives by this.

What you should pay attention to:

• The number of free and cheap minutes is limited.
• The same can be said about the Internet. And the point here is not only the daily quota (although it is periodically absurd - 1 MB), but also the fact that the speed is limited, even if the Internet and the traffic package are not exhausted.
• SMS and calls above the presented package are paid in accordance with the roaming tariff. And it's not cheap.
• You won’t be able to add “GPRS roaming ban” to all the delights of life. This means your phone can automatically go online and spend traffic.
• If it turns out that your funds are not enough to charge the subscription fee, the company will deduct money from your account for a whole week as soon as it appears on the LAN.
• Another good way to be left without funds in your account is to cross the border of popular and other countries several times. After all, for each you will be charged a subscription fee for a full day: 350 or 390 rubles, depending on the state.

Pros and cons of the Zabugorishche option, is it worth connecting?

Like other tariff plans of a mobile provider, the “Zabugorische” option from MTC has its positive and negative sides. The advantages of this option:

• Cellular communications and traffic when traveling abroad are provided on more convenient terms in comparison with other similar offers.
• Accrual and collection of fees occurs exclusively when making a call, as well as when accessing the World Wide Web outside the Russian Federation.
• Services not spent during the billing period are not lost;
• For tariff offers Smart MTC, Smart+, Smart Unlimited, Smart Top and Ultra, the functionality is activated with the same parameters during the period of stay abroad.

This is not a complete list of advantages, but they may only be of interest to a limited number of users.

Among the negative aspects of the “Zabugorische” tariff, we highlight:

• During the day, the user can receive up to 100 incoming minutes for free. For time exceeding this limit, calls are charged at 39 rubles. in a minute.
• In certain countries, daily traffic is limited to only 1 megabyte;
• The cost of CMC and communications in excess of the provided package is based on roaming rates, and this causes significant damage to the budget.
• Activation of the “Ban GPRS roaming” option is not available. Therefore, the smartphone can involuntarily log into the network automatically and spend all available megabytes.
• If there is not enough money on the balance to pay the subscription fee, the next time the account is replenished, funds will be immediately debited for a week-long period during which the client did not even use the service.
• By crossing the Russian border multiple times, you can lose a significant amount of money. For each crossing, a daily subscription fee of 350 or 390 rubles is charged, depending on which country’s border was crossed.
• When the tariff is activated automatically, the Smart ringtone package is also connected.

Of course, not all of the above disadvantages are critical. Particular attention should be paid to the first two points to avoid excessive communication costs.

What to do if you run out of traffic?

If it so happens that, while abroad, you have exhausted all limits on Internet use. No need to be nervous, just connect yourself to one of the “Turbo Buttons Abroad”. As part of a special offer, MTS will provide you with 100 MB for 24 hours or until this limit is exhausted (whichever comes first). True, such a connection will cost you as much as 250 rubles.

By the way, please note that you can use not just 1 “Turbo button”, but several at once. With this use, the traffic provided will be cumulative.

In order to activate the “Turbo button”, dial *111*458# on your phone. After this, all you have to do is wait for the SMS confirmation.

So is it really profitable?

Here, to a large extent, it all depends on how often you use the mobile Internet.

If we consider the benefit between Foreign countries and “BIT abroad”, then the difference between them will be 120 rubles. in a day. And this is not in favor of the latter.

And if you only call abroad, then it will be much more profitable to activate the “Zero without Borders” option. The difference with Foreign countries will be 195 rubles. in a day.

But when adding up both options, Zabugorye is the winner. For “Zero Without Borders” and “BIT Abroad” you will pay 575 rubles. per day, while Foreign countries cost 320 rubles. in a day. The difference is 255 rubles. per day or 1875 rub. in Week .

And this has its own benefits.

You can save up to 2 thousand rubles with the Zabugorishche tariff, but keep in mind that the volume of traffic at maximum speed will be limited.

I don't think it's a big loss. After all, there is always Wi-Fi, and for downloading websites or communicating in instant messengers, 500 MB per day is quite enough. Otherwise, this is an excellent tariff for connection.

( 4 votes, overall rating: 3.75 out of 5)