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The phone company for San Francisco is Pacific Bell (http://www.pacbell.com). To set up a local service, simply dial 0 on the phone and asked to be transferred to new accounts. You will be asked a variety of questions including residential address and social security number in order to set up your account. Phone information for a local number: 411.

When dialing a phone number in your local area, you simply dial the 7 digit number. The telephone numbers beginning with the area code 800 , 888 or 877 are free.
To dial internationally, dial 011+country code+number. For the long distance calls, there are reductions from 35 to 60 % between 5 pm and 8 am and during the weekend.

In addition, you may want to set up a long distance service. Again, you could simply dial 0 on the phone and ask to be transferred to one of the companies. Each company has different rates and plans depending on where you will be calling the most. The most famous national companies are:

• Var Tec Telecom, http://www.vartec.com/ (1 800 544 1510)
  You just need to dial 10-10-811 and you will have discount rates (e.g. France is 6c/minute)
• Delta Three, http://www.deltathree.com/
  You must download a program and use you computer to call (e.g. France is 4c/minute)
• Univance, http://www.univance.com/
• AccuLinq, http://acculinqcallingcard.com/ (e.g. France is 4.8c/minute)
• IDT, http://www.idt.net/ (e.g. France is 7c/minute, US is 5c but you must pay a monthly charge of $3.65)
• Impact, http://www.communicationimpact.com/ (e.g. France is 11c/minute, US is 7c but NO monthly charge)

Also, more well known but not the cheapest:

• Sprint, http://www.sprint.com
• AT&T, http://www.att.com

You can compare rates with the website: http://www.abtolls.com/

You can also buy calling cards to use a landline (DeltaThree, AccuLinq... sell them on the web or http://www.us-phone-cards.com)

The phone companies can also serve as your internet service provider.

If you've got problems with a provider, you can write to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco.

Phone directory: http://www.anywho.com/wp.html