Post Office Opening Hours
Opening hours vary from branch to branch and are displayed at the entrance of the post offices .
Some post offices in larger cities are open at night, on weekends and on public holidays, however with a restricted range of services.
Postal Charges
From Austria to countries abroad there are two mailing possibilities:
"Priority" (express service) and "Economy" (cheaper, but takes longer)
There are also two categories: Europe and World.
Standard letters weighing up to 20g are automatically mailed "priority" worldwide without any surcharges.
Charges for standard letters and postcards
Priority
up to 20 g: 0.65 Euro for Europe, 1.40 Euro for World
up to 50 g: 1.30 Euro for Europe, 2.05 Euro for World
Economy
up to 50 g: 1.15 Euro for Europe, 1.40 Euro for World
For letters within Austria there is no difference between "Priority" and "Economy".
Charges for domestic mail
Standard letters up to 20g and postcards: 0.55 Euro.
up to 50g: 0.75 Euro
Postage stamps are available in all post offices.
Mail boxes are painted yellow; red stripes indicate that they are emptied also on Sundays and public holidays.
Telephoning
Telekom Austria offers a broad range of tariffs.
For card and coin operated pay phones of Telekom Austria there is only one local zone and no time scale for entire Austria. Phone cards are available in post offices and at tobacconists.
There are numerous other providers in Austria, both for landline and mobile services, with varying 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 cafés 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 cafés and pubs , if your laptop is WiFi enabled, you can simply connect and surf without paying anything.
