When the first prepaid phone cards were introduced in 1975 they were the brainstorm of SIDA a vending machine company located in Italy. They developed alternate ways to operate pay phones other than having to use coins. It was out of necessity as there was a shortage of coins across Italy. Also vandalism of pay phones was rampant and if there was another way that did not use coins then the money could not be stolen. The first phone card was released in 1976.
Cards were on very thin cardboard that had a magnetic strip. All a user had to do was to insert the card in a pay phone and minutes would be subtracted from the balance. These first phone cards were not without problems. They tended to get stuck in the pay phones, as they were too thin. Never the less by 1977 countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria and France had adopted this new technology in pay phones. 1982 saw the cards expanding into Japan when they face a coin shortage similar to Italy’s. Japan issued their cards in subways in Osaka and Tokyo.
Over time companies in Japan and Europe worked to make improvements on the quality of the cards. The first smart cards, cards with chips, were introduced in 1984 in France. In 1987 World Telecom Group brought the phone cards to the US with General Electric and Siemens distributing the cards. They developed the magstripe, which was an upgrade on the smart cards with the chips. The magstripe contains information that includes the card number, your name, address and other information.
AT&T joined the market in offering prepaid calling cards in 1989. RBOC, Regional Bell Operating Company of New York developed the first non-magstripe calling card in 1990 and this card is similar to the cards used today. With these cards you have to dial a toll free number and enter your personal identification number or PIN to place a call and the minutes from your card will be used. This method proved to be a more versatile method that the magstripe cards. With these new cards you could use on any phone anywhere.
As the popularity of these new phone cards grew by 1992 all major telecommunications companies offered their own brand of calling card. By this time there were no more magstripe cards and all phone cards used an access number that required a PIN. During this time the revenues from the phone card marked reached twelve million dollars. These sales reached six hundred-fifty million by 1995 and with sales over three billion between the years 1996 and 2000. This has led to even small telecommunication companies releasing their own brand of card. You can find phone cards for sale in super markets, the post office, gas stations and convenience stores.
Is 2001 the first prepaid cell phone was offered that worked similar to the prepaid phone cards. With these phones your minutes and phone are prepaid and you can recharge and add minutes to the phone.
