Italy and the Prepaid Calling Card

The idea of the first prepaid card was made in 1975 in Italy, because the vending machine they 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 an alternative from the lack of coins they witnessed.

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 the prepaid phone cards. Since then, companies strive for continuous improvement in the quality of the phone card. Smart Card was the 1st 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 USA. 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 Bell Operating Company was the 1st who created the non-magstripes phone cards. This card have PIN (personal identification number) and it require dialing toll free access number. The card is more versatile than phone cards. It can be used with any phone nationwide.

The Phone card continues to prosper.  Some companies, such as BBG Communications, prefer to use the card with an access number and pin than the magstripe. Major telecom companies released their own style phone card. Sales continue to grow. Its sales reached extremely high levels because of its growth 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 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.