At present, the TOT (The Telephone Organization of Thailand) network of about 12 million telephone lines is composed of up-to-date digital switching and long distance telephone equipment. Its nation-wide services cover basic telephone as well as many other value-added services such as telefax, paging, cellular, on-line data, public telephone with coin or card, common based radio telephone, videotext and ISDN - to cite some examples.

There are a number of different types of public payphones in Thailand -

Regular coin-operated phones: These can be used for local or long. Coin phones (either blue or the newer silver in color) are available for local and long-distance calls (with rates from 6B/15¢ per min.). You will need a pile of 5 baht coins and can observe your running total on the meter, putting in more coins as needed. For information within the Bangkok metropolitan area, dial tel. 1133, or find an English-language copy of the Greater Bangkok Business Listing.

Telegraph services, including fax service and telegram service, are offered in the telephone and telegraph office of the GPO, open daily 24 hours. The same services (except for telegram) are offered at the telephone and telegraph offices at Don Muang airport. A fax to the United States costs about 400B ($9.75) and must be prepared on the official form.

Card-phones: These are orange in colour and can usually be found next to the coin-operated pay phones. You can purchase a phone card from convenience stores, such as 7-Elevens, at a post office and Telephone Authority offices.

Blue and yellow international payphones can be found on the street, in shopping malls and in airports. These take some credit cards and Lenso phone-cards which are sold in the post office and by agents displaying the Lenso logo. Blue and yellow Lenso phones can be used for international calls only.

All major hotels and most guesthouses offer international dialing services but will add a surcharge of 30-40 percent. Business centres in small towns offer fax and phone services which are accompanied by high surcharges. Bangkok Central Post Office on Charoen Krung (New) Road and some major post offices around the country have a CAT centre which can arrange reverse-charge and credit card calls. In Bangkok these are open from 7 a.m. to midnight, with reduced hours in the provinces.

To call overseas from Thailand, one needs to dial the international direct dial (IDD) access code, which is 001, followed by the relevant country code (001 + country code + area code + phone number), e.g. UK (44), so you would dial 001-44-... Alternatively, dial the international operator on 100. Full rates are charged from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a 30 percent discount between midnight and 5 a.m., and 20 percent discount at other times.

Domestic calls can be made from blue and silver coin phones or green card-phones. All coin-operated phones accept one baht and five baht coins; and some of them will also accept ten baht coins. Hotel phones may accept only five baht coins. Local calls (within the same area code) cost one baht a minute. There are also some red coin phones, from which it is possible to make only local calls, but these are being phased out.

The long-distance domestic service covers Malaysia and Laos as well as regional Thai calls. These countries can be dialed directly using the appropriate area code.

Green card-phones can be found in department stores and airports throughout the country. Cards for these can be bought at most post offices, bookshops and hotels, and come in several denominations: 50 baht and 100 baht.

Comprehensive telephone directories are published by Shinawatra. An English edition can be found in major hotels and most restaurants in Bangkok. Such directories are to be found in most province capitals but outside these there is unlikely to be an English edition available. Phonebooks in Thailand are sorted by first name.