Page 234 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Prague

232  SUR VIV AL GUIDE

Communications and Media regular notes, and the
engaged signal has short
The main Czech telephone service is called Telefónica O2 and rapid notes. All Czech
Czech Republic. O2 provides a comprehensive digital network phone numbers have nine
of phones across the country and, along with Vodafone and digits, and Prague numbers
T-Mobile, constitutes the Czech mobile market. Wi-Fi zones start with a 2.
and Internet cafés can be found all over Prague; the latter
are often in courtyards or on the first floor of buildings. Mobile Phones
Česká Pošta remains an efficient postal service within the Czech mobile phones operate
Czech Republic and overseas. on a GSM band of 900/1800
MHz, the same standard in
use throughout Europe, but
different from that used in the
United States. US cell phones
will work provided they are
tri-band phones and that
the service provider allows for
international roaming. To avoid
high roaming fees, you can
obtain local pay-as-you-go
SIM cards, which give you a
temporary telephone number
and allow you to make calls and
send text messages on the
local network.
Pay-as-you-go cards are
very well priced. You pay for
credit but the SIM card is free.
The three main mobile-phone
operators are Telefónica O2
(www.cz.o2.com), Vodafone
O2 phone boxes in Prague (www.vodafone.cz) and
T-Mobile (www.t-mobile.cz).
Public Telephones of day you phone. The cheapest Czech mobile numbers start
Despite the growing use of way to call abroad is via an inter- with a 6 or 7.
mobile phones, there are still national call office.
many public phones in the You can buy phonecards Internet Access
Czech Republic; indeed, there (telefonní karta) from tobaccon-
are more phone boxes here than ists (tabáks) and newsstands, Most hotels offer guests some
in most European countries. and from post offices, super- form of in-room internet access,
O2 public phones accept markets and petrol stations. through either a wire less or
cash (euros and Czech crowns), Two popular cards are Karta X, a LAN connection. Wireless
credit cards and phonecards. a pre-paid calling card that per- connections may not be
Depending on which phone mits you to make national and reliable, depending on how
you find, you can send a text international calls from any far your room is from the
message and an email as well phone; and Trick, a multi fun- router. If Internet access is
as make a call. In hotels, you ctional card that can be used important to you, it’s best
can usually get a direct line, to pay for telephone calls and to mention this at the hotel
but commission charges on Internet services. reception when checking in
the calls are often exorbitant. On all phones in the country, and request a room with a
Remember also that interna- the dialling tone is a short note strong wireless signal. Most
tional calls can be extremely followed by a long one; the hotels will usually also have
expensive, no matter what time ring ing tone consists of long a public computer terminal
for guests to surf the Internet
or, failing that, they will allow
Reaching the Right Number
guests to quickly check their
• Czech directory enquiries and operator 1180 emails on the hotel computer.
• International directory enquiries and to make a The receptionist should know
collect call 1181 the location of the nearest café
• International call followed by the country code 00 with Wi-Fi access.
• In case of emergencies (Police) 158 Traditional internet cafés
• Emergency operator (English) 112 across Prague are being
replaced by cafés with a

232-233_EW_Prague.indd 232 22/03/2017 12:30