Why prepaid calling cards are so successful?

Jun 23
06:38

2008

Feras Shoukeir

Feras Shoukeir

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Today, prepaid calling cards are a rising business. The idea of prepaid calling cards came into being for the first time by a vending machine manufacturer in Italy in 1975. During that, there was a scarcity of coins for use in pay phones. However, it was 1976, when the first phone card was launched.

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Today,Why prepaid calling cards are so successful? Articles prepaid calling cards are a rising business. The idea of prepaid calling cards came into being for the first time by a vending machine manufacturer in Italy in 1975. During that, there was a scarcity of coins for use in pay phones. However, it was 1976, when the first phone card was launched. It was made of skinny printed cardboard with magnetic strips. This car was inserted into the phone where it would deduct minutes from the card. The first batch of phone cards came across numerous problems, just like any novel product. The cards were excessively slim and easily stuck the pay phone. However, its new thought spread across the world and was implemented by European countries in 1977 the first of which were Austria, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In 1982, Japan, who was also facing with coin scarcity dilemma, implemented the phone card system to solve the problem.

Together with the adaptation of the phone cards by these countries, the quality of the stuff used progressively enhanced. In 1984, France pioneered the first chip-based “smart card.” After, phone cards were introduced to the United States whose quality was superior to Europe’s “smart card.” The U.S. created a card with magstripe, a technology equivalent to that of the magnetic strip. The U.S. was the first country to mass-produce these phone cards.

In 1990, New York came with non-magstripe phone cards, which is akin to prepaid phone cards today we are using. The latest system requires dialing a toll free access number and using a personal identification number, or PIN, to lay charges on your account. The system was regarded the most resourceful among the phone cards. The new system permits used with several types of phones.

The phone card industry has continued to flourish over the years. In 1992, telecommunication tycoons released their own brand of phone cards without the magstripe and fully switched to an access number and PIN.

Over the years, the prepaid calling card business blew up and has turned out to be a very productive business. In this new millennium, it has turned into a multi-billion industry in view of its diverse marketing and limitless client potential.

Prepaid calling card is economical as compared to regular phone service. You can save a good buck on your long distance calls by using prepaid phone cards. In the past, making an out of the country call to a friend or family member was very expensive and unaffordable. These days, rates have significantly gone downward and anybody can purchase prepaid calling cards that allow access from anywhere.

The main advantage that the prepaid card calling services offer is expediency and suppleness. It aids consumers and end-users to efficiently plan and devise a financial sketch for their long distance calls.

The arrival of advance technologies for instance the Internet and mobile phones, which services pose some restraining factors, prepaid calling card is certainly not going away.