| 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. |
| 1976: |
The first prepaid 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: |
Prepaid calling 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 phone card. 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
phone card 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 card 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 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 |
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