Post and Communications
¤ Indian Postal Facilities
The Indian postal and poste restante services are excellent compared
to other countries. Letters expected and sent by you will almost
always reach their destination. Send valuables only by Registered
Mail, if at all. Airmail service to Europe, Africa and Australia takes
more or less a week and a little longer for America. Speed Post is
available in all major towns. All decent sized towns have courier
services.
Upon landing in Delhi check the nearest GPO for details on the poste
restante services and how you are supposed to route your mail as you
along, and so on.
Piece of advice: tell everyone who might possibly write to you to put
your name and surname in big bold clearly legible capital letters on
the envelope. This should be followed by the poste restante, GPO, and
the city or town in question. Secondly, when asking for your mail,
check under both your surname and your name. Letters sent by post
restante are kept for a month, after which if unclaimed they are
returned to sender.
¤ Telephone
The telephone network in India is considerably reliable, with even
the most remote areas connected with STD/ISD services.
To make international calls dial 00 (international access code from
India) + country code (of the country you are calling) + area code +
local number. Some places may offer call back services too (ring your
friend, give them the phone number of the booth for them to call
back).
¤ Telegraph
The Central Telegraph offices/Telecom offices in major towns and
cities are pretty competent. Some of these offices are open round the
clock.
¤ Fax
Fax facilities are available at all main telegraph offices that are
open 24 hours. It’s also possible to receive faxes at these
telegraph offices. Many of the STD/ISD booths strewn all over India
also have fax facilities for public use, but they invariably cost more
than the government offices.
¤ Email
There are several places in cities from where you can now send and
receive email. Also a number of Cyber Cafes offer internet access all
over the country.
¤ Telegram
Telegram facility, the best way to send message from places where
STD/ISD services are not available, is available in all post offices
of India.
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