Telephones
To call Australia:
1. Dial the international access code: 011 from the U.S.; 00 from the U.K., Ireland, or New Zealand.
2. Dial the country code 61.
3. Dial the city code (drop the 0 from any area code given in this book) and then the number.
To make international calls: To make international calls from Australia, first dial 0011 and then the country code (U.S. or Canada 1, U.K. 44, Ireland 353, New Zealand 64). Next you dial the area code and number. For example, if you wanted to call the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., you would dial 0011-202-588-7800. You may want to invest in an international online telephone card such as ekit (www.ekit.com) which will allow you to call overseas at much cheaper rates. For example, calling from Sydney to the United States will cost around US5Ţ per minute plus a US60Ţ service fee. Cards are rechargeable online.
For directory assistance: Dial 12455 if you're looking for a number inside Australia, and dial 1225 for numbers to all other countries.
For operator assistance: If you need operator assistance in making a call, dial 12550 if you're trying to make an international call and 1234 if you want to call a number in Australia.
Calling within Australia: Each Australian state has a different area code: (02) for New South Wales and the ACT, (07) for Queensland, (03) for Victoria and Tasmania, (08) for South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia. You must dial the appropriate code if calling outside the state you are in; however, you also need to use the code if you are calling outside the city you are in. For example if you are in Sydney, where the code is (02) and you want to call another New South Wales town, you still dial (02) before the number.
Toll-free numbers: Numbers beginning with 1800 within Australia are toll-free, but calling a 1-800 number in the United States from Australia country is not toll-free. In fact, it costs the same as an overseas call.
Other numbers: Numbers starting with 13 or 1300 in Australia are charged at the local fee of A25Ţ (US20Ţ/UKţ10) anywhere in Australia. Numbers beginning with 1900 (or 1901 or 1902 and so on) are pay-for-service lines, and you will be charged as much as A$5 (US$4/UKţ2) a minute.
Pay phones: The primary telecommunications network in Australia is Telstra (www.telstra.com). Telstra pay phones are found in most city streets, shopping centers, transport terminals, post offices, and along highways -- even in some of the most remote areas of Australia. To find the nearest one to you, call tel. 1800/011 433 or look online at www.telstra.com.au/payphoneservices/index.htm. The cost of a local call from a pay phone is A50Ţ (US40Ţ/UK20p), either in coins or by using a phone card. Some phones only take prepaid phone cards, which can be purchased from newsdealers and other retailers in denominations of A$5, A$10, and A$20, and are good for local, national, and international calls. There are no access numbers -- you just insert the card and dial. Credit phones take most major credit cards. As well as pay phones in the usual booths, you may find some inside convenience stores and the like, called "blue phones" or "gold phones."
Cellphones
The three letters that define much of the world's wireless capabilities are GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), a big, seamless network that makes for easy cross-border cellphone use throughout Europe and dozens of other countries worldwide. In the U.S., T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, and Cingular use this quasi-universal system; in Canada, Microcell and some Rogers customers are GSM, and all Europeans and most Australians use GSM. GSM phones function with a removable plastic SIM card, encoded with your phone number and account information.
If your cellphone is on a GSM system, and you have a world-capable multiband phone such as many Sony Ericsson, Motorola, or Samsung models, you can make and receive calls across civilized areas around much of the globe. Just call your wireless operator and ask for "international roaming" to be activated on your account. Unfortunately, per-minute charges can be high -- usually $1 to $1.50 in western Europe and up to $5 in places like Russia and Indonesia.
For many, renting a phone is a good idea. While you can rent a phone from any number of overseas sites, including kiosks at airports and at car-rental agencies, we suggest renting the phone before you leave home. North Americans can rent one before leaving home from InTouch USA (tel. 800/872-7626; www.intouchglobal.com) or RoadPost (tel. 888/290-1606 or 905/272-5665; www.roadpost.com). InTouch will also, for free, advise you on whether your existing phone will work overseas; simply call tel. 703/222-7161 between 9am and 4pm EST, or go to http://intouchglobal.com/travel.htm.
In Australia, mobile phone company Vodafone (tel. 1300/365 360; www.vodarent.com.au) has outlets at Brisbane, Cairns, and Melbourne international airports, and at Sydney and Perth international and domestic airports and a store in Southport on the Gold Coast. They cost A$5 (US$4/UKţ2) to A$8 (US$6.40/UKţ3.20) a day, plus call charges and insurance, depending on the kind of phone and coverage you want. You can rent a SIM card for A$1 (US80Ţ/UK40p) a day or A$15 (US$12/UKţ6) a month.
In Australia -- reputed to have one of the world's highest per-capita rates of ownership of "mobile" telephones, as they are known here -- the cell network is digital, not analog. Calls to or from a mobile telephone are generally more expensive than calls to or from a fixed telephone. The price varies depending on the telephone company, the time of day, the distance between caller and recipient, and the telephone's pricing plan.
Buying a phone can be economically attractive, as many nations have cheap prepaid phone systems. Once you arrive at your destination, stop by a local cellphone shop and get the cheapest package; you'll probably pay less than $100 for a phone and a starter calling card. Local calls may be as low as 10Ţ per minute, and in many countries incoming calls are free.
Internet/E-mail
Without Your Own Computer -- To find cybercafes in your destination check www.cybercaptive.com and www.cybercafe.com.
Aside from formal cybercafes, most youth hostels and public libraries have Internet access. Avoid hotel business centers unless you're willing to pay exorbitant rates.
Cybercafes (called Internet cafes in Australia) can be found almost everywhere. In major tourist cities like Cairns and Darwin, there are whole streets full of them.
Most major airports have Internet kiosks that provide basic Web access for a per-minute fee that's usually higher than cybercafe prices. Check out copy shops like Kinko's (http://fedex.kinkos.com), which offers computer stations with fully loaded software (as well as Wi-Fi). They have stores in Sydney and Melbourne.
With Your Own Computer -- More and more hotels, resorts, airports, cafes, and retailers are going Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), becoming "hotspots" that offer free high-speed Wi-Fi access or charge a small fee for usage. Most laptops sold today have built-in wireless capability. To find public Wi-Fi hotspots at your destination, go to www.jiwire.com; its Hotspot Finder holds the world's largest directory of public wireless hot spots.
For dial-up access, most business-class hotels throughout Australia offer dataports for laptop modems, and some of them offer free high-speed Internet access.
Wherever you go, bring a connection kit of the right power and phone adapters, a spare phone cord, and a spare Ethernet network cable -- or find out whether your hotel supplies them to guests.
Australia's electricity supply is 240 volts, 50 Hz. North Americans and Europeans will need to buy a converter before they leave home, because Australian stores usually only stock converters for Aussie appliances to fit American and European outlets.
Online Traveler's Toolbox
Veteran travelers usually carry some essential items to make their trips easier. Following is a selection of handy online tools to bookmark and use.