There are lots of payphone kiosks, especially at strategic or high traffic places. The telephones can be operated using coins, prepaid phone cards or both. Phone cards in RM5, RM10,RM20 and other values can be bought almost everywhere that advertise the respective services.

Public payphones in Langkawi are offered by Uniphone, Citiphone and TM (formerly Telekom Malaysia - the national operator. Hence, the phone cards are different for the different payphones offered by the three companies and are not interchangeable.

The following are some basics for calls from fixed lines:

Free international Internet calls  can be made from many Internet Service Centres that are equipped with headphones and microphones.

Call (discounted) back services using VOiP (Voice Over Internet) at very competitive rates enable cheap calls via VoIP-enabled equipments. Please enquire from the bigger centres about such services. However, for the moment it may be quite difficult to make calls using wi-fi broadband hotspots as there are not many available on the island. Perhaps, during emergencies you can hasten to the Starbucks gourmet coffee outlet at the Jetty Point Mall or the one at the airport, which offer free wi-fi service for its customers.

Mobile phone usage is very pervasive in Langkawi. Many companies provide cellular phone services. These include DiGi Telecommunications with operates on the 016 frequency, Maxis Communications operating on the 012, 017 and frequency, and Celcom, which is now in the TM stable of operations that operates the 019 and 013 bands. All of these services offer full SMS, GPRS, EDGE, Blackberry and 3G connections. International roaming is, of course, applicable in Langkawi, too.

For ship-to-shore telecommunications, the following are worth noting:

• Daily weather reports at 0730 on 14320 HF SSB and at 0740 on 10118 HF SSB.
• VHF: 69: Royal Langkawi Yacht Club / Rebak Marina / Telaga Harbour (working channel 72)

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