Issues with phone connections

[mox 298]

Sounds like experiences are all over the board. Weird, because everywhere I have called using cell service (Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine) there was always a 30 minute limit set by the European carrier.

What is most likely the issue is that the Russian telecom system has been decentralized (not in an organizational sense but in a "we just need to keep this stuff up and running" sense), so depending on which series of switches you go through is going to determine what kinds of technical limitations you hit up against. This is especially true if you're calling one of the zillions of off-the-beaten-trail villages, where the telecom equipment might still be barely post "patriotic war." It might be that your call burns out the paperclip keeping that circuit up, and after an hour or so it's just time to replace it.

[slim 1,523]

Sounds like experiences are all over the board. Weird, because everywhere I have called using cell service (Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine) there was always a 30 minute limit set by the European carrier.

What is most likely the issue is that the Russian telecom system has been decentralized (not in an organizational sense but in a "we just need to keep this stuff up and running" sense), so depending on which series of switches you go through is going to determine what kinds of technical limitations you hit up against. This is especially true if you're calling one of the zillions of off-the-beaten-trail villages, where the telecom equipment might still be barely post "patriotic war." It might be that your call burns out the paperclip keeping that circuit up, and after an hour or so it's just time to replace it.

My wife's "village" was like that. (Vladivostok. Hey, anywhere that has brownouts and no hot water for months at a time is a village.)