A telephone card, calling card or phone card for short, is a small card, usually resembling a credit card, used to pay for telephone services. Such cards can either employ prepaid credit system or credit card style system of credit. The exact system for payment, and the way in which the card is used to place a phone call, depend on the overall telecommunication system. Currently, the most common types of telephone cards involve pre-paid credit in which the card is purchased with a specific balance, from which the cost of calls made is deducted. Pre-paid phone cards are disposable. When the balance is exhausted you simply buy a new card. Cards purchased online can often be refilled. The other main type of card involves a card with a special pin number printed on it that allows one to charge calls to a land-line telephone account.
There are principally two core technologies for phonecards. First is stored value, called so because the card itself contains the balance available. The balance is read by the public pay-phone machine, when inserted into the machine's card reader. The first stored value phonecard was issued in 1976 in Italy, manufactured by SIDA, using a magnetic stripe as information bearer.
Two other sub-systems of stored value phonecards exist; optical and chip or smart card. Optical phonecards get their name from visible marks left on the card, such as holes or lines, so that the card reader scans for such marks and determines the balance on the card. Optical cards, such as ones made by Landis & Gyr and Anritsu, were popular early phonecards around the world. Such technology is quite simple and easily hackable, thus for security reasons, among others, optical phonecards have been steadily phased out around the world. Optical phonecards are still in use in several countries, perhaps most notably in Japan.
The third sub-system of stored value phonecards is chip cards, first launched on a large scale in France in 1986 by France Telecom. Many other countries followed suit, including Ireland in 1990 and the UK circa 1994-5, which phased out the old green Landis & Gyr cards in favor of more colorful smart cards. The initial micro chips were easy to hack, but by the mid to late 90s, highly secure technology aided the worldwide spread of chip phonecards.
The second main technology of phonecards is remote memory, which uses a toll or toll-free access number to reach the database and check for balance on product. The first public pre-paid remote memory phonecard was issued in the United States in December of 1989 by Phone Line. As telecom industries around the world became deregulated, remote memory cards were issued in various countries. Remote memory phonecards can be used from any tone-mode phone and do not require special card readers. Since remote memory cards are more accessible and have lower costs, remote memory phonecards have proliferated.
Remote memory phonecards are in essence text; requiring an access number, a unique pin number and instructions. Therefore the instructions can be printed on virtually anything, or can be delivered via email or the Internet. Following the internet revolution, Nobelcom was the first company to deliver phonecards via email in early 1998 and followed by many online sites such as Startdialing.com. Currently many websites sell phonecards through email, whether be it in the US or in other countries.
Phonecards or calling cards are available in most countries in retail stores, retail chains and commonly corner stores. Generally, remote memory phonecards can be issued by many companies and come in countless varieties. They can focus on calling to certain countries or regions and have specific features such as rechargeability, pinless dial, speed dial and more. Phonecards may have connection fees, taxes and maintenance fees, all influencing the rates.
Account calling
In recent times, calling card service providers have gone one step ahead in reducing the costs and increasing convenience by introducing calling accounts. Calling accounts eleminate the need for printing of a physical card; accounts are available only in electronic form. Calling accounts can be purchased over the Internet using credit cards and are instantly delivered to the customer via email. This email contains the PIN and instructions for using the service.
Telecom companies have also taken advantage of phone cards to place advertising on them, or to feature celebrity portraits, artwork, or attractive photography to increase the appeal of the cards to consumers. This practice, combined with the disposability of the cards (encouraging individuals to purchase multiple cards), has led some people to start collecting phone cards as a hobby. Phonecard collecting has been a popular global hobby since the 90s and at its height in the late 90s, over 2 million people collected phonecards. Phonecard collecting is known occasionally as telegery in the USA or fusilately in the UK.
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