Edition: U.S. / Global

Phoning Home

Published: July 23, 2000

To the Editor: In her interesting article on ways to call from Europe, ''So Many Ways to Dial Home'' (July 9), Betsy Wade did not mention one of the easiest and cheapest: use the ubiquitous phone booths. This applies to countries such as France and Germany, where the booths are spacious, silent and comfortable. You need to buy prepaid phone cards. Coin phones are almost nonexistent.

When you insert a card, the readout will immediately tell you how many units are left on your card. Dial the international access code, which is 00 (instead of the 011 used in the United States), then dial the country code (1 for the United States), area code and phone number. Your party will answer -- no operator or language problems!


New York, N.Y.