COMMUNICATING BACK HOME 

We also communicate, but you probably need to talk your strange language with folks back home ! Get civilized and speak our language soon...! 

TELEPHONES 

India has some of the best communication facilities in the world for the traveller.

The ubiquitious STD/ISD booths ( subscriber trunk dialling and international subscriber dialling ) offer the facility to telephone from almost all parts of the country to anywhere in the world from almost every street corner in India.

This facility is better than that in any country since you can pay cash to the booth owner and do not need a credit card or a phone card.

The STD/ISD booths are yellow coloured booths by the roadside with STD/ISD  written on them in bold in black Go inside , make the call; an electronic counter displays the bill once the call ends. There is a two rupee service charge.

Be cautious before you call from your hotel room - the markups are terrible; as high as thirty percent in the five start hotels. Some hotels do not have a markup only a two rupees service charge. MAKE SURE BEFORE YOU CALL.

INTERNET TELEPHONES

Many Internet centres now offer computer to phone calling facilities for rates varying from Rs 4.5 per minute to Rs 10 per minute depending on the destination country. The regular rates are Rs 24 per minute or more.

From an Internet centre you can also do a pc to pc voice chat on Yahoo Messenger/MSN Mesenger for the price of  Internet browsing. The usual charge for Internet is Rs 20 to Rs 30  per hour. This chat would have to be pre- arranged.

Manycall folks back home for a minute and then settle in for a lovely one hour chat on Messenger for only Rs 30 or say 60 cents for an hour.

INTERNET FOR EMAILS AND BROWSING

It is very easy to send emails…you will see signs of Internet available 64kbps or 128kbps ISDN line . Sometimes only a single dial up line is available.

Early morning ,many booths offer an incredible Rs 10 per hour.  In Mysore, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore there are many DSL centres that offer Rs 10 per hour the whole day.

In large cities the normal rates are a maximum of Rs 25 per hour, in smaller cities upto Rs 30 per hour. It costs more in small cities as the scale of operation is usually smaller.

In the better booths you can browse quite comfortably at speeds that are very good. There are many centres that are airconditioned too.  

Dishnet DSL and Satyam are two national chains having high speed Internet lines and excellent ambience that includes airconditioning. The charges are upto a maximum of Rs 25 per hour in these booth.