By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Dulaney]John Dulaney The Kingdom of Netherlands, usually known as The Netherlands, is a part of Europe and consists of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. The country is a constitutional monarchy and is situated in northwestern Europe, with the North Sea to the west and north, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The Netherlands is often mentioned as Holland, which is not terminologically correct. The north and South Holland are two of the provinces out of the twelve that the country has. At the time the King of Spain ruled the land, what now constitutes the Low Countries, the revolt in the 16th century by the Dutch against the authority of the King of Spain, succeeded in the Northern provinces, which later came to be known as the Netherlands. The Dutch Republic was established in 1648, but it fell to the French, when the army of the Revolutionary France established a pro-French government in the land. France annexed the Netherlands in 1810, but with the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 to 1815, the Dutch state was taken back and became officially to be known as the Kingdom of Netherlands. Belgium was a part of this land before, till it gained independence in 1830. The Netherlands a densely populated country and geographically it is a low lying region, with half of the land mass lying below the sea level. With global warming, the Netherlands would be in danger with the polar ice melting and the sea level coming up to an alarming level. The land further to the east lies somewhat at a higher level and it is flat with gentle rolling surfaces. Most of the land in the Netherlands is used for agriculture with few forest and heath remaining. The population in the country in 2003 was estimated by the United Nations to be 16,149,000, out of which 89% lived in urban areas, and this placed the Netherlands at the 58th most populated country in the world. The capital city of the country is Amsterdam, which had a population of more than 1.5 million in that year. The metropolitan area of Rotterdam had 1.2 million inhabitants. The population in other major cities were - The Hague, 444,242; Utrecht, 231,231; Eindhoven, 192,895; Groningen, 168,702; Tilburg, 158,846; and Haarlem, 149,474. The Netherlands is made up of 12 provinces, Zeeland, South Holland, North Holland, Friesland, and Groningen, all of which border on the North Sea; and North Brabant, Limburg, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe, and Flevoland. The western part of the country lies below the sea level and comprises of areas which have been reclaimed from the sea since the 13th century. The Rhine is the major river in the Netherlands. It flows from Germany with its several arms, like the Waal and Lek rivers, the Maas, which is a branch of the Meuse River and the Schelde, flowing from Belgium. The modern Dutch society believes in equality of all people. The Dutch are generally modest, having much tolerances and self reliance. They are entrepreneurial people with value ambition, education, hard work, and personal achievement. The Dutch avoid ostentatious behaviour and while making money is a good habit, spending is considered to be a vice, a kind of attitude of a show-off. The Dutch are very proud of their heritage and culture, their rich history in art and music and they like their involvement in international affairs. Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands, is a seaport and the principle city of the Western Netherlands. It is the country's constitutional capital and the government headquarters are situated near The Hague. The city of Amsterdam is divided into 90 islands by canals, which are joined by 400 bridges. It sits on a foundation of piles, which have been driven into peat and sand into a firm substratum of clay. Since the 17th century, Amsterdam has been an important center of culture in Europe. The city has many varied attractions, such as, the National Academy of Art, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and the University of Amsterdam, which dates back to 1632. The art center Rijksmuseum holds one of the largest collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings in the world. The Stedelijk Museum features a wide range of modern works. The Vincent van Gogh collection of the 19th century can be found in Van Gogh Museum, which includes 800 such works. The renowned 17th century painter Rembrandt had his home in Amsterdam. The concert hall Concertgebouw, which was completed in 1883, is in Amsterdam. Its world class acoustics makes it one of the best concert halls in the world. The architecture found in the city of Amsterdam, dates back to the 16th and 17th century. The two churches, Oude Kerk, the Old Church, built in the year 1300, and Nieuwe Kerk, the New Church, built in the 15th century, still stand proudly in Amsterdam. The city's center features the Royal Palace, which was originally built in the 17th century as the town hall. When you are in the Netherlands, you will need your cell phone for you would want to be in touch with the world and make yourself available to the ones who want to get in touch with you. It was different matter before cell phones became available. When you went abroad on business trips or for a holiday, you had to depend on the telephone in your hotel room. You had no option but to use that phone to keep in touch with your associates, friends and also with your family back home. The charges came out to be pretty high, but it just could not be helped. When cell phones were available, you took your cell phone with you on roaming, the next time when you went abroad for a visit. Air time usage on roaming are always expensive and likewise you had paid roaming charges for your outgoing and incoming calls as well. In providing you with the roaming facility, your service provider has entered into a business contract with the network operator of the country that you are visiting. This contract allows you to use the services of the foreign network operator. When ever you make or receive calls, you are utilising the services of the network of the country that you are in and each time you do so, your home service provider pays the foreign operator. Therefore, all your incoming and outgoing calls are charged at roaming rates which is much higher than the normal. This reflects in your bill that you receive at the end of the month. Roaming is no doubt very expensive. www.planetomni.com provides you with a solution. A pre-paid SIM card for the Netherlands will save you up to 80% of your expenses in cell phone usages. The calling plan has been especially designed to provide you with maximum monetary benefit when you visit a country abroad. When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Netherlands, you get a local number and all your calls are charged at local rates. More-over, all your incoming calls are free, no matter where they generate from. You do not pay any roaming charges. You do not need to enter into any contract with any service provider and you do not receive any bill at the end of the month. When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Netherlands, you get a small talk time credit. This enables you to use your cell phone right away as soon as you have reached your destination in the Netherlands. To replenish your talk time credit, you simply buy a recharge voucher or coupon, which is available in practically any shop in the cities of the country that you are visiting. These coupons are available in different denominations, which allow you to choose the right value of credit that you would want for your talk time. Since you pre-pay for your calls that you make, you are in absolute control of the money that you are spending on your cell phone usage. In this way you can maintain your budget that you have set for the purpose. For more information on pre-paid SIM card for Netherlands, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_sim.shtml A SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is of a size little smaller than a postage stamp, which goes in a slot at the back of your cell phone. It is visible as you take off the back cover of your cell phone. It is a smart card, forming the intelligent module in your cell phone. The SIM card enables you to make and receive calls and lets you send SMS (Short Messaging System) messages. It is a printed circuit board, which has a microprocessor with memories. It holds your unique information, such as, your identity, your service plan, your SIM card number, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of your cell phone and other security details. When you switch on your phone, the information is transmitted to the nearest tower of the city that you are in while visiting the Netherlands. This information is then matched with the operators database. When it matches and clears all required security checks, your cell phone is logged into the network. These are all transparent to you and you do not realise any delay in connectivity. A SIM card also holds your address book, where you would store the names and the telephone numbers of the people that you frequently get in touch with. It also logs your incoming and outgoing calls, including the ones that you fail to answer. These are logged along with the relevant time and date of the calls. The cell phone that you are taking with you to the Netherlands have got to be a GSM handset. If you have a GSM cell phone, it is highly unlikely that it will work with the network frequencies in the Netherlands, unless you have a multiple frequency bandwidth phone. The networks in North America, Canada and a few other countries in the Americas work on 850MHz and 1900 MHz GSM frequency bands, where-as, the networks in the Netherlands operate on 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM bandwidths. It may be clearly seen that the two GSM regions use entirely different frequency bands. The GSM bandwidths used in North America, Canada and few other neighbouring countries are practically exclusive to this region of the world and this sets apart these countries from the rest of the GSM regions. Cellular phone is available in different frequency specifications. The Quad-band phone is compatible with all GSM frequency bands and can work in any GSM regions of the world. The Tri-band phone is compatible with 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands, and operates in most part of the GSM countries. There is the Dual-band which works with 800MHz and 1900MHz GSM frequency bandwidths.
If you are a frequent traveller, going abroad quite frequently, it is recommended that you buy a multiple frequency bandwidth phone, which is compatible with the network bandwidths of the countries that you visit. If you are not a frequent traveller, the most economical way would be for you to rent such a phone, which will work in the country that you are visiting. For more information on buying or renting a phone, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_gsm.shtml Whether you are taking your own cell phone, buying or renting one, there are two aspects that you should take care of. Firstly, the phone that you are taking with you to the Netherlands should be compatible with the network frequency bands in that country and second, that your GSM phone has to be SIM unlocked. GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) is the first digital mobile communication technology and is called the second generation (2G) system. It has a open structure design and replaces the old first generation (1G) analog system. GSM technology is used in over 214 countries and has 80% of subscribers within the total cell phone users in the world. It is a standard, which embraces all areas of technology, providing you with seamless connectivity from just about anywhere in this planet. The GSM networks operate on four frequency bandwidths and these are, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, and 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz, which are distributed to the different GSM regions. Some of these bandwidths are commonly used by certain GSM regions. The GSM cell phone that you would be taking along with you to the Netherlands has got to be SIM unlocked. SIM locked phones will not work with your pre-paid SIM card for the Netherlands or any other for that matter and would work only with the SIM card that is it is meant for. There are reasons why a cell phone is SIM locked. When you sign a contract with a service provider, one of the terms binds you to use the services of that particular service provider for a definite period of time, which could be one year. In return you receive a cell phone, absolutely free of cost to you and a SIM card. The phone that you have received is SIM locked and would only work with the SIM card that came along with it. This is done to ensure that you do not decide and start using the SIM card of your choice while you are still bound by the contract. At the end of the contract period, the service provider helps you to have your cell phone SIM unlocked. Then onwards you are at liberty to use any SIM card that you like. A pre-paid SIM card for the Netherlands is not only affordable but a great saving too. It saves substantially on your cell phone usage by providing you with saving features not found in others. With your pre-paid SIM card for the Netherlands, you get a local number and you pay for your calls as the locals do. You do not pay for roaming and you do not receive any bill at the end of the month. Since all the calls that you make are pre-paid, you have a control over the money that you are spending on your air time usage. Cell phone use overseas.
In 99% of the world the local cellular service standard is called GSM. We use this in the states as well. When combined with a SIM CARD (which usually goes under the battery of the phone) the phone is able to communicate and the SIM CARD also holds the telephone number and memory for pre-paid credit. Rates can be extremely low using this system. For example in 99% of all SIM CARDS incoming calls are free and calls to the states can cost a trifle. Such as, from the UK to the USA 7 cents/minute, from Israel 22 cents, from Australia 27 cents. Yes, USA Dollar cents! There are today even prepaid service providers in the USA offering rates of 10 cents per minute to call anywhere in the US to any type of phone. No contracts, no credit card checks, no bills. Pre-paid always means no minimums no contracts, no obligations. You only pay for the calls made. You'll need an unlocked GSM tri-band or quadband UNLOCKED phone. You can buy factory unlocked phones and sim cards for more than 170 of the 193 countries on earth from http://www.planetomni.com Tel. # 800-514-2984 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Dulaney http://EzineArticles.com/?Pre-paid-SIM-Card-for-Netherlands&id=391962 cheap generic ambien
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