Amsterdam Communications

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Amsterdam Communications

Telephone: A hard thing to find in Amsterdam and when you do trying to get it to work is another thing. Most do not accept coins so you need either a credit card or a phone card.

There are two types of telephone boxes on the streets: cash and phone card but finding either is difficult. With the payphones, one must insert money before dialing. Phone cards can be bought in various denominations from railway stations, tobacconists, post offices and shops displaying the PTT Telecom card poster. Recorded messages in Dutch are often followed by an English translation. A full IDD service is available; the discounted rate is from 8pm to 8am daily

Mobile phones: British and Australian mobile phones work in Amsterdam, but North American mobiles do not. Mobile phones can be hired at Schiphol airport on arrival. Prinafoon, the Post Office telephone shop, hires mobile phones from 6 different locations in Amsterdam (tel: (06) 0402). PTT Telecom (tel: (020) 653 0999) also hires mobile phones or you can visit one of the mobile shops and buy a card which should make your mobile work.

Post: Postage stamps are available from all post offices as well as a lot of small shops which sell postcards and souvenirs. Mailing from within Europe takes approximately three to five days. Post offices are open 0900-1700 Monday to Friday. The main post office is located at Singel 250-256 (tel: (020) 556 3311) and is open 0900-1800 weekdays (until 2100 Thursday) and 1000-1330 Saturday. The post office at Oosterdokskade 5 (tel: (020) 622 8272) is open 0900-2100 Monday to Friday and 0900-1200 Saturday.

Courier services: UPS (tel: (06) 099 1300), DHL (tel: (06) 0552) and Federal Express (tel: (06) 099 1300) all pick up from hotels.

Internet access: Amsterdam is a pioneer in the Internet world. There are Internet phone booths at various points throughout the city, including on the Spui, by the Westerkerk, by the Van Gogh Museum and Central Station; visitors can use them to access the Web and send e-mail, but not at present - to receive e-mail. The cost is Euro 1 per 90 seconds and a phone card is required to use one.

E-mail can also be checked at one of the many Internet cafes at Korte Nieuwendijk 30 in the Old Center (tel: (020) 620 0902, e-mail: visitor1@café.euronet.nl ; web site: <http://cybercafe.euronet.nl>). It is open 1000-0100 daily and costs Euro 3 per 30 minutes. Free access is available at the Internet Reading Room in the café at In De Waag, Nieuwmarkt, in the Old Center (tel: (020) 557 9844; web site: www.waag.org).

Press: There are several daily newspapers all in Dutch , De Telegraph, De Volkskrant, Het Algemeen Dagblad and NRC Handelsblad (an evening paper). English and other foreign newspapers are available in newsagents (WHSmith at Kalverstraat 152 and American Discount Book Center at Kalverstraat 185) and hotels, with the day's British nationals normally available by about 10 am and others later in the day. There is an English-language guide, What's On, published by the tourist office biweekly, which is available from the tourist office and most hotels. Amsterdam also has several weekly English speaking papers The Amsterdam Times out every Friday and The Weekly published on Wednesdays.

TV and radio: The national TV channels are Nederland 1, 2 and 3, RTL 4 and 5, SBS 6 and Veronica. Broadcasts are mainly in Dutch, but English-language programs have Dutch subtitles. There are international television stations on the Amsterdam cable, including American (CNN) and British (BBC1 and 2).

Some of the more popular radio stations are Hilversum 1, 2 and 3, Sky, Veronica, Radio 10 Gold, Radio 3 FM, Radio Noord Holland and Kink FM. The following frequencies for the BBC World Service and Voice of America are correct at the time of going to press, but do change from time to time.

BBC:

MHz 12.10, 9.410, 6.195, 0.648

A service is also available on 648 kHz/463m and 198 kHz/1515m (0100-0500 GMT).

Voice of America:

MHz 15.25, 9.760, 7.170, 1.197,

Dialing Codes

City code: 020 (when dialing from outside The Netherlands, the initial zero is dropped)

Country code: 31

Outgoing international code: 00

Directory enquiries (in English): (0900) 8008

International directory enquiries: (0900) 0418

Operator (in English): (0800) 0410