Phone Cards,
Prepaid, India Phone Cards, India, International
Prepaid
phonecards were invented in Europe in the mid Seventies. Calling
cards took another 11 years to reach the US. Since then
the calling card and phone card industry has grown exponentially
worldwide. Today, phonecards are sold in over 185 countries
across the world.
1975:
Phone cards were invented in the fall of 1975. The
company involved, SIDA, was not in the telecommunications industry,
but was a manufacturer and supplier of vending machines
India Phone Cards.
1976:
The first prepaid India Phone Cards. were
produced and put on the market in Italy to combat payphone vandalism.
In fact there
was
a shortage of coins in Italy at the time and payphone
theft was common. Cards were introduced with a magnetic
strip on
the back
for use in special phones to combat the coin shortage.
The first cards were too thin and jammed frequently.
1977:
India Phone Cards using magnetic strip
authorization spread to the rest of Europe. In
particular to Austria,
Sweden, France, and The United Kingdom. They
became reasonably popular.
1978:
Inductive technology was invented in 1978
by Nelson G.Bardini in Brazil. The system
uses a series
of coils
embedded in the
card including on which blows when the card
is used up. The card was
first shown at a national inventors' exhibition
in 1982.
1982:
Japan's Nippon Telephone and Telegraph
introduced the first Japanese pre-paid
India Phone Cards.. Japanese
commuters had
to use a large
coin to operate payphones on their subways.
The Japanese card was considerably more
convenient and was sold
to tens of thousands
of daily subway riders in Osaka and Tokyo.
1984:
France experiments with chip-based "smart cards".
1987:
World Telecom Group is the first
company to launch a significant
phone-card product
in the United
States.
GPT, a
consortium formed
by Siemens and GEC (General Electric
Company), developed and issued
cards with their own
magstripe technology.
This is now
among the
most widely used magstripe cards.
1988:
The first catalog of telecards
for India Phone Cards
collectors was published by Dr.
Steve Hiscocks,
in
England.
1989:
AT&T enters the prepaid
calling card market. The
first remote telecards
appeared
in Hawaii.
1990:
NYNEX (New York's
RBOC or Regional
Bell Operating
Company) offers the
first non magnetic
based calling
card in the U.S.
These were prepaid
calling cards that used a PIN
(Personal Identification
Number) as a means
of identification.
Nynex's India
Phone Cards permitted
the cardholder to
dial an
800 number and
enter his PIN
to make long
distance phone calls.
This method permitted
the caller to make
phone calls from any telephone
anywhere in
the U.S. without
the need for coins
or incurring
hotel
surcharges, encountering
call-blocked numbers,
or any of the other
additional items
routinely used to
bloat public phone bills.
1992:
All of the
major regional
and long distance
phone companies
including
Sprint,
and many of
the smaller carriers
were offering
pre-paid phone
cards. Industry-wide revenues
reached $12 million
with projections
calling for double
that over the
next several
years. This projection
proved to be
radically short of
things to come.
1993:
Phonecard
sales exceed
$25 Million,
more than
double that of
the previous
year.
1994:
Displaying
exponential
growth,
calling card
sales
exceed $250 Million.
1995:
Sales
hit $650 million.
US West provides
the first chip-based
prepaid India Phone cards.
Sprint releases "FONCARD" and
Bell Atlantic
temporarily discontinues
its calling
card efforts.
1996:
Calling card
sales reach
an unprecedented
$1 Billion.
American Express
experiments with
a trial prepaid
calling card.
1997:
Sales reach
over $2
Billion.
2000:
Sales of
over $3
Billion are
achieved with
no end
to the
expansion in
sight. Projected
sales for
calling card
industry reaches
10 Billion
dollars per
year by
the year
2010.
2001:
The first
disposable combination
cellphone/calling cards
make their
appearance.
|
