Communications in Guam

Though Guam is part of the United States, some U.S. long distance plans and courier services list Guam as an international location. As a result of Guam's being added to the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1997, calls made to the U.S., Canada, or other participating countries from Guam (or to Guam from other NANP locations) only require the caller to dial a 1 followed by the area code.^[1] In this way, only domestic charges are incurred between the US and Guam on most carriers. Before Guam's inclusion, calling the U.S. required dialing the international 011 first, thus resulting in higher long distance rates and less frequent calls to the U.S. by relatives in Guam. Prices of long distance calls to these destinations have dropped significantly to the point where now calling the U.S. from Guam or calling Guam from the U.S. costs the same.

Some companies in the U.S. mainland still treat Guam as a foreign country and refuse to sell and ship items to Guam. However, if an item is shipped via USPS, shipping costs to Guam are the same as coast-to-coast shipping costs within the US.^[2] Many others will ship to Guam but will charge the shipping as an international destination. This is mainly because the company is using a private shipping company like UPS, FedEx, or DHL for its shipping.

Much of the mail to and from Guam routes through Hawaii and awaits cargo space on Continental Airlines which is contracted to deliver mail between Hawaii and Guam. Continental Airlines has slightly improved their service between Hawaii and Guam by buying newer airplanes and finally replacing their aging fleet in recent years.

Telephones - main lines in use: 85,000 (2007)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 98,000 (2007)

Telephone system:

domestic: GTA: ~70,000 local access lines,dial-up and DSL, Internet, long distance service, TDMA and GSM wireless services

international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); submarine cables to United States, Japan and Australia.^[3]

international access code: +1.671 (in the North American Numbering Plan, Area code 671)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 7, shortwave 2 (2005)

Radios: 300,000 (2007)

Television broadcast stations: 8 (2007)

Televisions: 200,000 (2007)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): ? (2007)

Country code (Top-level domain): GU

See also : Guam

References

1. ^ J. N. Deak (1996-08-05). "PL-NANP-004". North American Numbering Plan Administration. http://www.nanpa.com/pdf_previous/08_02_99/pl_nanp_004.pdf. Retrieved 2010-10-12. 
2. ^ "Postal Zone Charts". US Postal Service. 2010-06-07. http://postcalc.usps.gov/Zonecharts/. Retrieved 2010-10-12. 
3. ^ http://www.pipeinternational.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=45