Post and Telephone

Here is all the information you need for keeping in touch.

Post Office Opening Hours

Post office opening times vary from branch to branch and are displayed at the entrance.Post Offices

Some post offices in the larger cities are open during the night, on weekends and on public holidays, although they may have restricted services.

Postal Charges

There are two main ways of posting letters abroad:
Priority (express service) and Economy (cheaper, but with longer delivery time)
There are also two categories: Europe and World.
Standard letters weighing not more than 20g are automatically sent as Priority post, with no supplementary charges.

Charges for standard letters and postcards

Priority
up to 20 g: 0.55 Euro for Europe, 1.25 Euro for World
up to 50 g: 1.10 Euro for Europe, 1.75 Euro for World

Economy
up to 50 g: 1 Euro for Europe, 1.25 Euro for World

For letters within Austria there is no difference between "Priority" and "Economy".

Charges for domestic post

Standard letter up to 20g and postcards: 0.55 Euro.

Postage stamps are available in all post office branches.
Post boxes are yellow, and those with red stripes also have additional collections on Sundays and public holidays.

Telephoning

Telekom Austria offers a variety of tariffs, with call charges dependent on time of day and distance.

Card and coin operated pay phones from Telekom Austria have one rate for the whole of Austria and call charges do not vary according to time of day. Telephone cards are available in post offices and tobacconists.

There are numerous other providers in Austria, both for landline and mobile services, with a variety of tariffs.

Mobile phone access

Austria has a well established GSM network which operates in the 900MHz or 1800MHz bands, the standard network for most of Europe . If roaming is enabled on your mobile, you should be able to pick up a provider automatically.

Many mobile providers also offer UMTS, which enables high speed internet surfing via your mobile phone (if your handset has this feature). Newer technologies also available for fast downloads include HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Service for Global Evolution).

Austria has had comprehensive GPRS access since August 2000, when mobilkom austria launched the world's first full-coverage GPRS network.

If you want to save on high roaming charges, another option is to buy a pre-paid sim card. These are available from numerous providers in mobile phone shops, post offices, bookshops and some supermarkets – with call prices starting at well below 10 cents a minute for calls within Austria.

Internet Access

Internet cafes are reasonably priced and widely available in Austrian cities, although if you have a laptop, there are many places with free wireless LAN access. From Vienna International Airport to countless cafes and pubs, if your laptop is WiFi enabled, you can simply connect and surf without paying anything.