Telephones and the Internet
Ringing home on your mobile telephone may turn out to be rather expensive when you are in a foreign country. Accepting a call from home may often turn out to be even more expensive. There are easy solutions to keep the phone costs down. And of course you can always e-mail someone.
Phones
You can ‘roam’ on a Dutch network with your own mobile phone. Please check with your current provider whether this is possible. Roaming is expensive and you also pay most of the costs when someone phones you. This is not only true for calls coming from other countries but also for calls coming from the Netherlands.
It is cheaper to buy a Dutch SIM card. Please check if your telephone is ‘unlocked’ because a locked device will not accept SIM cards from other providers.
Dutch telephone numbers have ten digits. The first three or four digits are the area code. The area code for Arnhem is 026 and for Nijmegen 024. Villages have a four-digit area code, for instance the municipality of Zevenaar is 0316. You only have to dial the area code when you make a call to a region with a differing area code or when you use a mobile phone.
Internet
Nearly everyone in the Netherlands has Internet at home and therefore the number of Internet cafes is low. Nijmegen has an Internet cafe at Eerste Walstraat 70 and Arnhem at Dovenetellaan 55. You often only have to pay a small fee for the use of Internet in public libraries.
A Hotspot is a place where you can obtain wireless access to the Internet on your mobile phone or laptop with the use of WiFi technology. Some cafés, hotels and restaurants offer wireless Internet, usually you have to pay for this extra service but sometimes it is for free. Here you will find the Hotspots of the Netherlands.
