It’s that time of the year again here in Prague. The 2006 – 2007 phone books are here!
Walking around town, you’re bound to notice locals carrying bright yellow plastic bags with Zlaté stránky (Yellow Pages) written on them. In the Czech Republic, everyone has to pick up their own copy of the Yellow Pages when the time comes. How do you know when that is? Well, if you’re a Telefónica O2 (formerly Czech Telecom) customer, you’ll receive an odběrní lístek (pickup slip) with your monthly phone bill. This happens at different times of the year in different cities. In Prague, new phone books are distributed in the fall (September 4 – 15 this year). Your pickup slip is issued in your name and lists the dates and times during which you can collect your phone books, as well as a list of distribution points (these are located at major Prague subway stations). The distribution points are usually “manned” by perky young girls clad in bright yellow Zlaté stránky outfits. You present yourself, hand over your odběrní lístek, collect your yellow bag and off you go. Pretty easy, ain’t it?
Still, having your phone books dropped off at your doorstep with zero effort required on your part can’t be beat.
A remembrance of a life in a country where convenience is king
Hi Dana!
Do Czech phone books have cell phone #s too?
Do many people still have land lines in the Czech Republic?
Thanks!
Ted
P.S. Your whole web site is great!
What do you do if you have a cell phone and not a land line?
Convenience as king? Oh my. 🙂
Ok, I open a phone book about once a year when I’m unable to find a number online, so I had to do a bit of research to find the answers.
I looked in the phone book that has Prague residential listings and saw that some people (very, very few) had their cell phone numbers listed instead of their land lines, which I assume they don’t even have. Otherwise, it’s all land lines. All 919 pages, which is about 380,000 people. And that’s just those who chose to be listed. So yes, many people still have land lines in the Czech Republic.
In the Yellow Pages business listings, it seems pretty common to also list fax and cell numbers, as well as email addresses and URLs.