Currency code: NLG; EUR

Exchange rates: euros per US dollar - 1.0659 (January 2001), 1.0854 (2000), 0.9386 (1999); Netherlands guilders per US dollar - 1.9837 (1998), 1.9513 (1997), 1.6859 (1996)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Netherlands Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 9,132,400 (1999)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 4,081,891 (April 1999)

Telephone system: general assessment: highly developed and well maintained

domestic: the existing system of multi-conductor cables is gradually being replaced by fiber-optic cables; the density of cellular telephone traffic is rapidly increasing and further modernization of the system is expected in the year 2001, with the introduction of the third generation of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)

international: 5 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean), 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions) (1996)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 58, shortwave 3 (1998)