Prepaid Calling Cards – Its History
The idea of the first prepaid card was made in 1975 in Italy, because the vending machine that use was operated by coins, this vending phone was either destroyed or stolen.
Because of this, few months later they released the first phone card. The card they use was made from a thin cardboard with a magnetic strips. They used this as the substitution from the shortage of coins they experienced.
The user of the pay phone card will insert the card from the pay phone machines and in an instant you could make your call and its automatically deducting minutes from your payphone card. They encounter problem with the first phone card because they are so thin and can jammed the payphone machine. In the succeeding year the France, Sweden, Austria adapts the new phone card.
Prepaid phone cards were introduced in Japan on 1982. Having the same problem of coin shortage, the Nippon Telephone and telegraph was the first to the released prepaid phone cards. Since then, companies continuously improve the quality of the phone card. Smart Card was the first chip base introduced in France in 1984.
A decade after the eastern world used the phone card successfully. The world telecom group introduced it to United States. The General Electric and the Siemens are the one who distribute the cards. With their technology they created "magstripe" This magstripe are the magnetic strip on the backside of the card. This magstripe contain information on card number address including your name.
The Card development continues to grow. In 1988 the first calling card was distributed to prepaid phone card collector in England, the following year AT & T joined the prepaid calling card. They produce mass production of the card.
The New York Regional Bell Operating Company was the first who created the non-magstripes phone cards. This card has PIN (personal identification number) and it requires dialing toll free access number. The card is more versatile than phone cards. It can be used any phone nationwide.
The Phone card continues to prosper and they prefer to use the card with an access number and pin than the magstripe. Major telecommunication companies released their own phone card. Sales continue to grow. Its sales reached unpredictable high because of its high in demand. As of today the sales continue to rise soaring over 3 billion of dollars. Even small business and companies had released their own phone cards. There are websites you could select on what kind of calling card you prefer.
The industry changes again in 2001 that they released the first prepaid cell phone. This card have similar work with calling card, but the minutes and phone call are prepaid, This card are available in any store, groceries, malls and websites in the internet.
Eliza Maledevic Ayson