Hawaii By Telephone

Prepaid phone cards are a common and relatively inexpensive means of calling abroad. Each one comes with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and a toll-free access number. To purchase prepaid phone cards, check online for the best rates; www.callingcards.com is a good place to start. Online providers generally send your access number and PIN via email. You can call home with prepaid phone cards purchased in Hawaii (see Calling Within Hawaii, below).

Placing International Calls. Dial:
1. The international dialing prefix. To call from Australia, dial 0011; Canada or the US, 011; Ireland, New Zealand, or the UK, 00.
2. The country code of the country you want to call. To call Australia, dial 61; Canada or the US, 1; Ireland, 353; New Zealand, 64; the UK, 44.
3. The city/area code. The city/area code for all of Hawaii is 808. When calling internationally, if the 1st digit is a zero (e.g., 020 for London), omit the zero when calling from abroad.
4. The local number.

Another option is to purchase a calling card, linked to a major national telecommunications service in your home country. Calls are billed collect or to your account. To call home with a calling card, contact the operator for your service provider in Hawaii by dialing the appropriate toll-free access number.

Company	To Obtain A Card:	To Call Abroad:
AT&T (US)	☎800-364-9292 or www.att.com	☎800-225-5288
Canada Direct	☎800-561-8868 or www.infocanadadirect.com	☎800-555-1111 or 800-646-0000
MCI (US)	☎800-777-5000 or www.minutepass.com	☎800-888-8000
Telecom New Zealand Direct	www.telecom.co.nz	☎800-248-0064, 800-659-0064, or 800-666-5494
Telstra Australia	☎+61 800 676 638 or www.telstra.com	☎888-464-0299

Placing a collect call through an international operator can be expensive, but may be necessary in case of an emergency. You can frequently call collect without even possessing a company’s calling card just by calling its access number and following the instructions.

Calling Within Hawaii

The simplest way to call within the country is to use a coin-operated phone. Prepaid phone cards (available at convenience stores and newspaper kiosks), usually save time and money in the long run. Phone rates tend to be highest in the morning, lower in the evening, and lowest on Sunday and late at night.

Cellular Phones

The international standard for cell phones is Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). To make and receive calls in Hawaii you will need a GSM-compatible phone and a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, a country-specific, thumbnail-sized chip that gives you a local phone number and plugs you into the network. Many SIM cards are prepaid, and incoming calls are frequently free. You can buy additional cards or vouchers (usually available at convenience stores) to “top up” your phone. For more information on GSM phones, check out www.telestial.com, www.orange.co.uk, www.roadpost.com, or www.planetomni.com. Companies like Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com) rent cell phones that work in a variety of destinations around the world.

Gsm Phones. Just having a GSM phone doesn’t mean you’re necessarily good to go when you travel abroad. The majority of GSM phones sold in the United States operate on a different frequency (1900) than international phones (900/1800) and will not work abroad. Tri-band phones work on all three frequencies (900/1800/1900) and will operate through most of the world. Additionally, some GSM phones are SIM-locked and will only accept SIM cards from a single carrier. You’ll need a SIM-unlocked phone to use a SIM card from a local carrier when you travel.

Time Differences

Hawaii has its own time zone— Hawaii Standard Time (HST). HST is 10hr. behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It is 5hr. behind New York and Boston (6hr. behind during daylight saving time), 2hr. behind Vancouver and San Francisco, 3hr. ahead of Sydney, and 2hr. ahead of Auckland (NZ). Hawaii does not observe Daylight Saving Time. The chart below gives the time in various cities around the world when it is midnight in Honolulu during the Daylight Saving months (second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November).

Midnight	3am	6am	11am	6pm	8pm
Honolulu	Vancouver Seattle San Francisco Los Angeles	Toronto Ottawa New York Boston	London (GMT)	China Hong Kong Manila Singapore	Sydney Canberra Melbourne

Midnight

3am

6am

11am

6pm

8pm

Honolulu

Vancouver

Seattle

San Francisco

Los Angeles

Toronto