| As with most countries in
Europe the phone card is what you use to access the public telephones.
Sure, there will be some phones in Europe that will take coins but the
majority are run on the phone card. You can purchase these at any "tabacs"
or "tabachi" stores, or most super markets. The "tabac(hi)"
is a store that sells a variety of things such as newspapers,
cigarettes, books, gum, and phone cards. They are a very common
store in towns. |
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One note about phone cards especially ones from France is they
have a collector value. Many of the French phone cards are worth much
more then there original price. Some are printed in limited quantity and
like other collectibles such as coins and baseball cards, there value
increases dramatically. Some phone cards are neat because they have
interesting pictures of local towns or other sights and attractions. I
bought several inexpensive phone cards just for the neat pictures of
quaint French towns on the front of the card.
Most of the phone cards will have a creased corner. This will need to be
bent and removed before you can use the card. This is something that if
not done will cause you much anguish and frustration towards the phone
card, the person who sold it to you, and the phone booth! When entering
the card into the thin slot in the phone insert the card with the long
rectangular strip facing up.
To call someone who lives outside of Europe you would dial
"00" which is the international access code, and then add the
country code of the country you are trying to call (again in the United
States this code is "1"), and lastly type in the area code and
the local number. Note: the rate extremely expensive for calling
overseas from a public telephone in Europe. You can change phone cards
in the middle of the a phone call but it gets a bit confusing. If you
know you are going to be making a long distance phone call to another
country using a public telephone you may want to purchase a more
expensive phone card, which contains more minutes.
Here is a helpful chart listing several countries "country
codes". As a last result of finding your country code if it isn't
listed on a sheet in the phone booth, or in the phone book, from Europe
you can always dial "12" and try to communicate to the
operator that you need a particular country code.
| Andorra 376 |
Australia 61 |
Canada 1 |
| Hong Kong 852 |
Germany 49 |
Japan 81 |
|
India 91 |
Ireland 353 |
New Zealand 64 |
| Singapore 65 |
South Africa 27 |
England 44 |
|
|
United States 1 |
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For a complete list of country codes
visit:
www.davestravel.com/links/countrycodes.htm
If you have a cell phone that allows you to roam on your home country
network, be very very careful. Roaming charges abroad can be
exorbitantly priced and you may be hit with a very high cell phone bill
upon your return - even for sending and receiving SMS. If your phone is
not unlocked - find a way to get it unlocked. You can then purchase a
SIM card in the country you are in or for Europe a Sim Card that allows
you to have access for most of Europe. This will probably be much
cheaper than paying your home provider roaming charges. |
