Making a phone call to the Netherlands
Dial the international access code for your country followed by 31, being the country code for the Netherlands. Then you dial 9 digits, which is the standard 10 digit telephone number in the Netherlands, less the first zero.
Making a phone call from the Netherlands to your own country
Dial the international access code 00, and then your home country code, followed by the number without (mostly) the first zero.
Landlines:
There are three options for making phone calls from the Netherlands to your own country using a landline:
Collect call. - Dial the collect call number of your country and then the number you want to call. This is pretty expensive; €1-2 per minute charged to the person your are calling.
Public pay phone and a telephone card - Calls are around €0.30 per minute for international calls. You can buy ‘telecards’ for €5, €10 or €25 virtually anywhere in the Netherlands. Some public phones even take coins or credit cards, but be aware of the high costs of credit card phone calls - up to €9 per minute.
Private phones - Calls from this kind of phones are subject to different rates and typically tend to be higher in the morning, lower in the evening, and lowest on Sunday and late at night (€0.10 to €0.60 per minute). But if the private phone is in a hotel, this could be as high as €6 per minute.
Cell phones:
The standard used for cell phones in Holland is the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). Having a GSM phone does not necessarily mean that you can phone when you are traveling abroad. Some GSM phones operate on frequencies (1900) different from international phones (900/1800) and so they cannot work abroad. Tri-band phones work on all three frequencies (900/1800/1900) and can operate throughout most of the world. Using a Dutch prepaid SIM card is much cheaper (€0.20-€0.30 per minute) than using the one from your own foreign network provider. Incoming calls are frequently free. When you use up the prepaid time, you can buy additional cards or vouchers (widely available) to “top up” your cell phone.
Internet
Internet coverage in Holland is one of the best in the world, with about 90% of the population using the internet on a regular basis. Cable is the most popular form of Internet access, covering 41% of the total subscriptions, followed by various forms of DSL and Fiber. At the end of 2011, fiber optic internet access was available in 280 of the 408 municipalities.
You can bring your laptop to Holland and call over the internet using, e.g. Skype. There are many Wi-Fi hotspots in hotels, (fast-food) restaurants, shopping malls, etc. You can also use computers with internet access in public libraries. Sometimes they charge a few Euros per hour, but it is usually free. More expensive are the Internet cafes. Check this network shortly before your departure, as these places come and go on a regular basis.
