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| Main Spiritual Guides Page > Main India Page > Practical Info > Phone, Mail and Internet | ||||
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Phone, Mail
and Internet Phone There are three different billing rates for long distance calls in India. Normal (8 am to 7 pm), half rate (7 pm to 10 pm and 6 am to 8 am), and quarter rate (10 pm to 6 am). On Sundays and Holidays calls are half rate between 6 am and 9 pm and quarter rate between 9 pm and 6 am. Calls to other countries are the same rate all the time. To get a telephone number, dial 191 for Directory Enquiry. To get the operator (assistance), dial 199. There is also Home Country Direct service that enables you to reach your home country operator. You can then make a collect (reverse charges) or credit card call. The numbers for the countries that you can call this way are: Australia
- 0006117 The codes for some important cities are: Bangalore 080, Bhubaneswar 0674, Mumbai 022, Calcutta 033, Jaipur 0141, and New Delhi 011. To dial internationally from India first dial “00,” then dial the country code, then the area code, and then the telephone number. The codes for some frequently called countries are Argentina 54, Australia 61, Bangladesh 880, Belgium 32, Brazil 55, Canada 1, Chile 56, China 86, Denmark 45, Germany 49, Singapore 65, France 33, Guyana 592, Hong Kong 852, Hungary 36, Ireland 353, Italy 39, Japan 81, Spain 34, Sri Lanka 94, Sweden 46, Switzerland 41, Thailand 66, Kenya 254, Malaysia 60, Mauritius 230, Mexico 52, Russia 7, United Kingdom 44, and United States (Excluding Hawaii) 1. If you dial from your home country to India, you dial an access code before the number, then 91 (the India country code), then the area code and number. Some numbers are Australia 0011 91, UK 00 91, USA and Canada 011 91, Ireland 00 91, and New Zealand 00 91. You
can use an AT&T calling card to call America from India by dialing
000-117. This enables you to use your calling card or call collect. Their
addresses are as follows: Warning
Be careful about making phone calls at hotels. The service charges can
be outrageous. If the normal rate to call America is Rs 75 a minute,
you may be charged Rs 300 a minute when you use a phone in your hotel
room. Foreign air mail rates are Rs 11 for a letter, Rs 6.50 for aerogrammes, and Rs 6 for postcards. Letters mailed within India cost Rs 2, and postcards cost Rs 1. When you send things in India, you must make sure the letter or postcard is stamped right in front of you. The major reason why letters are not delivered from India is because the postal employees steal the stamps that are not canceled, and resell them. Also, if you send postcards with nice pictures of Krishna, etc., they could be stolen just to get the photograph. You can purchase aerogrammes with stamps printed on them from the post office, which you do not have to worry about being canceled. You can purchase stamps in larger hotels. Speed Post Service is much faster and secure. If there is a delay in delivery you are supposed to get a refund. It costs Rs 200 to send a 200 grams letter to the United States. In most of the big cities there are courier services run by international companies such as DHL. This service is fairly expensive, but is usually more reliable that the postal system. Stick to well-known names, even if it means paying more. Poste
Restante Poste restante letters can be pigeonholed under the first initial of either your first or last name, so ask for both. Poste restante letter are held for one month, after which, they are returned to the sender The
address should be written like: You can have your poste restante letter forwarded from
the place where it will arrive. You go to the place where the letter
is being sent and fill out an instruction slip with the forwarding address.
American Express allows their customers to send letters to their offices. To send a parcel, you first take it to a tailor and have him stitch cheap linen around it and seal the seams with wax. The parcel is supposed to be pressed with a seal that cannot be copied. If you have nothing else, a foreign coin will do. Many times, there is someone outside major post offices that do this. You can also have the person that you purchased the goods from arrange to seal and pack the package. It is not a good idea to have them ship the goods, unless you know them extremely well. Take the parcel to the post office and fill out the customs declaration forms. You write your passport number, nationality, and the words “bona fide tourist” across the top of both forms. You are also supposed to list the contents of the package. To get lower duty when sending a package, it is best to write that it is a gift. If the parcel costs more than Rs 1000, you are supposed to show an encashment certificate, so you may want to write down the value as less than Rs 1000. Have the parcel weighed, and make sure they cancel the stamps in front of you. Each package shipped has to be less than 10 kilos. A small packet (less than two kg) can be sent as a “packet” instead of a “parcel,” which is a much cheaper way to send it. The packet should be small. You can send books and printed materials at bookpost
rates, which is much cheaper than parcel post. The package has to be
packed in a certain way. The postman has to be able to see that there
are only printed materials inside. To protect the book you can wrap
it in clear plastic first. You do not need a custom form to mail books.
The maximum weight for a bookpost parcel is 5 kg. To send 2 kg of books
by sea costs Rs 210 and by air it costs Rs 363. There are many places to get Internet connections in Paharganj (much cheaper) and Connaught Place in Delhi. Some of the places in Paharganj charge only Rs 20 per hour. In Mumbai there are many Internet places in the Colaba and Fort areas that charge around Rs 40 per hour. It is usually easier to get connected before 8 am and after 10 pm. If you have a notebook computer with you, Compuserve has many access numbers in India. You can get a VSNL Internet account that allows you to have access to the internet for 100 hours for Rs 2500. If you know of a informationthat is not correct or if you would like to help update our listings, please e-mail us at:
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