When I first arrived in the US, I was searching for public telephones to call home.

With the help of a friend, I located the public telephones. The Public telephones in the US are different from the ones we had in our home country.

Public Telephones are normally referred as payphones. Clear instructions are written on these instruments on how to make a local, long distance and even international calls with the operator assistance. Generally, payphones do not receive incoming calls and this is marked on the phones. The number of the payphone is printed on the top left corner.

A US phone number always consists of 10 digits (123) 456 7890. The first three digits within parenthesis are called area code and remaining seven digits are the telephone number. When you make a local call (a telephone number with the same area code as that of yours), you do not dial the area code. Any number with 800, 888, 877 as area code is called a toll free number. You need not pay anything when you call a toll free number. Most companies/organizations, especially for reservations and customer service have toll free numbers.

Once you gain knowledge about the usage of pay phones, they could be the most convenient method of calling.