In the mobile phone era tourists use their mobiles to call home. However, if they so prefer, they may call from telephone boxes which may be found without any problem all over Poland. Those phone boxes belong to Telekomunikacja Polska – the former monopolist and the largest telecom in Poland. In order to use them, you must buy a phone card which may be found without any problem in newsagent’s kiosks, shops or at filling stations. Calling from hotel phones is quite expensive and not cost-effective. The list of country codes (for persons calling from landlines and mobile phones) may be found at http://peru.numer-kierunkowy.pl/ . In order to reduce the costs of calls, you may also use internet telephony (Skype, Tlenofon and many others) or pre-paid cards (such as Telegrosik or Telerabat), which may be purchased from similar places as traditional phone cards.
Local and trunk calls
Depending whether you are calling from a mobile phone or from a landline, the method of calling is different. You should also remember that regardless whether we want to make a local call or a trunk call, we always have to dial the area code of the particular town. The table below illustrates the rules for making calls.
Type of call Calling method Example
From a landline to a mobile phone 0 – number called 0 – 123 456 789
From a landline to a landline 0 – area code – number called 0 – 58 – 123 45 67
From a mobile phone to a mobile phone number called 123 456 789
From a mobile phone to a landline area code – number called 58 – 123 45 67
Post office
Poczta Polska (Polish Post Office) is the national post office operator in Poland. Its offer includes two basic services – priority and economy letters. Priority letters are delivered on the next business day after the dispatch if sent before 3.00 pm. Priority letters sent after 3.00 pm are treated as sent on the next day.
Foreign priority letters are delivered within 3 business days in Europe and within 5 business days to any place in the world (in the case of some states this period may be longer). The Polish Post Office pricelist (Polish, English and French version) may be found at http://www.cennik.poczta.lublin.pl/index.php.
Both priority and economy letters may be sent as registered letters (with recorded dispatch). It does not happen often, but letters may get lost, so it is better to send important letters by registered mail.
