Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
51
code (U.S. or Canada 1, U.K. 44, I reland
353, Australia 61, New Zealand 64). Next,
dial the area code and number. For exam-
ple, if y ou wanted to call the B ritish
Embassy in Washington, D.C., you would
dial & 001-1-202/588-7800.
To call Malaysia from Singapore, it is
not necessary to use IDD ser vice, as there
is a tr unk cable betw een S ingapore and
peninsular M alaysia. To place a call, dial
02 to access the trunk cable, then the area
code with the z ero prefix, followed by the
seven- or eight-digit local number . F or
example, to call the Malaysia Tourist Cen-
tre in Kuala Lumpur, dial & 02-03-2164-
3929. For calls to M alaysian Borneo, y ou
must still use IDD.
For directory assistance within S inga-
pore, dial & 100. Dial & 104 for assis-
tance with numbers in other countries.
For operator assistance in making a
call, dial & 104 if y ou're tr ying to make
an international call and & 100 if y ou
want to call a number in S ingapore.
For toll-fr ee numbers, be awar e that
numbers beginning with 1800 within
in Singapore. Before you do this, be sur e
that your mobile handset is able to accept
an alien SIM car d, as many phones ar e
locked b y pr oviders. I f y our cellphone is
locked, you can always find someone who
will unlock it for a few bucks on the sly at
either S im Lim S quare or L ucky P laza
shopping malls. Cellphones, both new and
used, are reasonably priced here. Consider
buying a new handset before paying exor-
bitant rental fees to an international rental
firm.
FYI: Singaporeans call their cellphones
“handphones,” and the local term for text
messaging is “SMS.”
VOICE-OVER INTERNET
PROTOCOL (VOIP)
If y ou hav e Web access while trav eling,
consider a broadband-based telephone ser-
vice (in technical terms, Voice-over Inter-
net pr otocol, or V oIP ) such as S kype
(www.skype.com) or Vonage (www .von-
age.com), which allo w y ou to make fr ee
international calls from your laptop or in a
cybercafe. N either ser vice r equires the
people you're calling to also hav e that ser-
vice (though there are fees if they do not).
Check the websites for details.
3
Singapore are toll free, but calling a 1-800
number in the S tates fr om S ingapore is
not toll free. In fact, it costs the same as an
overseas call.
INTERNET & E-MAIL
With Your Own Computer
Major hotels all supply high-speed br oad-
band I nternet access in-r oom, usually at
extra cost. S ome ne wer and mor e expen-
sive hotels will hav e Wi-Fi, wireless Inter-
net connections, in r oom, while others
will suppor t Wi-Fi thr oughout cer tain
public spaces.
In 2007, the I nfocomm D evelopment
Authority initiated the Wireless@SG pro-
gram, wher e sur fers can enjo y fr ee seam-
less wireless broadband access with speeds
of up to 512kbps at most public ar eas. As
of July 2008, there were more than 7,400
Wi-Fi hotspots in S ingapore. To connect
to the Wireless@SG wir eless br oadband
network, a user just needs a Wi-Fi-enabled
device, such as a laptop computer or a
CELLPHONES
Cellphones in S ingapore operate on two
mobile phone networ ks, GSM900 and
GSM1800—GSM, or G lobal System for
Mobile Communications, is a seamless
network that makes for easy cr oss-border
cellphone use thr oughout the world. Call
your wireless operator and ask for interna-
tional r oaming to be activ ated on y our
account, but expect to pay pr
emium
charges for all calls.
There are three mobile service providers
in S ingapore: S ingTel (http://home.sing
tel.com), M1 (www.m1.com.sg), and Star-
Hub (www.starhub.com). To sav e money
on calls, y ou can pur chase a pr epaid Sub-
scriber I dentity M odule, or SIM car d,
which will assign you a local number while
 
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