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communications |
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You should experience no problems with communications either within
Britain or calling from abroad; the only difficulty you're likely to
encounter is queues at the post office. The mail service is quick and
generally efficient, public payphones are numerous, and the outlets
offering internet access are ever increasing
Phones
Most public payphones are operated by BT and, at least in the towns, are
widespread. Many payphones take all coins from 10p upwards (minimum
payment 20p), although an increasing proportion only accept phonecards ,
available from post offices and newsagents displaying BT's green logo.
These cards come in denominations of £3, £5, £10 and £20; many phones
also accept credit cards .
Inland calls are cheapest at weekends and between 6pm and 8am on
weekdays. Reduced rate periods for most international calls are 6pm-8am
from Monday to Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. A cheaper way to
call is from one of the number of independent telecom centres , though
you're likely to find these only in the major cities.
Throughout the guide, every telephone number is prefixed by the area
code, separated from the subscriber number by an oblique slash, which
can be omitted if dialling from within the area covered by that prefix.
However, some prefixes relate to the cost of calls rather than the
location of the subscriber, and should never be omitted: numbers with
0800, 0808 and 0500 prefixes are free of charge to the caller; 0845
numbers are charged at local rates and 0870 up to the national rate -
irrespective of where in the country you are calling from. Beware of
premium-rate numbers, which are common for pre-recorded information
services - and have the prefix 09; these are charged at anything up to
£1.50 a minute. Mobile phone numbers are prefixed 07
Email
A useful way of keeping in touch while travelling is using one of the
free internet email sites that can be accessed from anywhere, for
example YahooMail and Hotmail - accessible through and . Once you've set
up an account, you can use these sites to pick up and send mail from
anywhere that provides internet access - cafés, hotels, libraries, etc.
You'll find internet cafés (£3-5/hour) in the major towns and cities;
some public libraries now offer free access, but you'll need to book
this in advance.
Mail
Virtually all post offices are open Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm, Sat 9am-12.30 or
1pm; in small communities you'll find sub-post offices operating out of
general stores; these are open standard post-office hours, even if the
shop itself is open for longer. Stamps can be bought at supermarkets and
newsagents, as well as from post office counters, in books of six or
twelve. A first-class stamp for letters and postcards to anywhere in the
British Isles currently costs 27p and should - in theory, at least -
arrive the next day; second-class costs 19p and takes from two to four
days. Airmail weighing less than 20g (0.7oz) to European countries costs
37p and elsewhere overseas from 45p for 10g, and 65p for 20g. Pre-stamped
airletters conforming to overseas airmail weight limits of under 10g can
be bought for 40p from post offices only. For more information about
Royal Mail postal services, call 08457/740740. |
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