How Phone Cards Came To Be…
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AT&T Sim Card Brand New Unactivated Sale Price: $0.01  |
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SKU #71234 - Brand New - Unused - Unactivated - Replace a lost or damaged card - Use as backup - or even with PrePaid! Retail Price at AT&T Store - $24.95! Brand New Never activated / unused / unpunched AT&T 3G 64k Sim Card - The Latest & Greatest Sim Card From AT&T! You can replace your existing AT&T sim card with this sim card, or use it to activate new service with AT&T! Use this sim card to replace your lost/damaged sim and still keep your existing phone number... |
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LG GS500 Cookie Plus Unlocked Quad-Band Cell Phone with 3 MP Camera, Touchscreen, Bluetooth, MicroSD Memory Card Slot - International Warranty - Black Sale Price: $82.50 |
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The LG GS500 Cookie Plus, a 3G touch screen feature phone is the spiritual successor to the original LG Cookie. The Cookie Plus sports a new graphical user interface that has a focus around social network connectivity... |
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Motorola EX115 Unlocked Dual Sim, Full QWERTY, 3 MP Camera, FM Radio, Micro SD Slot, International Version - Unlocked Phone - No US Warranty - Titanium Sale Price: $94.99 |
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With dual SIM cards, high speed web browsing, a 3MP camera and 32 GB of expandable memory, the Motorola EX115 is a feature rich phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and a hi-res screen. Package includes handset, battery, wall charger, and wired headset. |
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Kingston 8 GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card SDC4/8GB Sale Price: $6.60 |
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Starting at 4GB, microSDHC cards offer higher storage for more music, more videos, more pictures, more games ¿ more of everything you need in today¿s mobile world. The microSDHC card allows you to maximize today¿s revolutionary mobile devices... |
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SanDisk microSDHC 8GB Card with SD Adapter (SDSDQ-8192) Sale Price: $6.03 |
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This SanDisk 8 GB MicroSDHC / TransFlash Card w/SD Adapter is for you to expand the memory capacity for your compatible device like cell phone, PDAs, digital camera, music players, and more cool device that is with a microSD card slot available... |
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Speck SPK-A0333 CandyShell Card Phone Case for iPhone 4, Fits Verizon and AT&T Models - 1 Pack - Retail Packaging - GrapeEscape Purple Sale Price: Too low to display |
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Leave your wallet at home with this convenient and ingenious iPhone 4 card case! The CandyShell Card is a protective, one-piece iPhone case that lets you stash up to three credit-card-sized cards inside its built-in rubberized slot... |
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Speck SPK-A0332 CandyShell Card Phone Case for iPhone 4, Fits Verizon and AT&T Models - 1 Pack - Retail Packaging - NightDrive Grey Sale Price: Too low to display |
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Leave your wallet at home with this convenient and ingenious iPhone 4 card case! The CandyShell Card is a protective, one-piece iPhone case that lets you stash up to three credit-card-sized cards inside its built-in rubberized slot... |
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LG Optimus GT540 Unlocked GSM Quad-Band Phone with 3 MP Camera, Android OS, Touch Screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth - Unlocked Phone - No Warranty - Black Sale Price: $124.99 |
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The LG Optimus (LG GT540) is a smart choice for the first-time Smartphone users with access to the exciting world of Android apps without compromising on style as the handset boasts a distinctive design that is both sleek and soft and is available in black and silver... |
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Kingston 2 GB microSD Flash Memory Card with SD and miniSD Adapters SDC/2GB-2ADP Sale Price: $4.49 |
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Useful in multiple devices, Kingston's microSD card with an extra miniSD and full-size SD adapter is a simple and practical, cross-platform storage solution. The adapters transform the microSD card into either a miniSD or full-size SD card, making it extremely versatile... |
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Kingston 4 GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card SDC4/4GBET Sale Price: $6.49 |
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Kingston and Amazon.com have teamed up to offer this item in Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging, a recyclable, easy-to-open alternative to traditional packaging. A Frustration-Free Package comes without excess packaging materials such as wire ties, hard plastic "clamshell" casings, and plastic bindings... |
The Bretton Woods system of international monetary management established the exchange rates between western nations up until 1972 when there was a return to convertibility with the breakdown of the agreement.
The subsequent inflation created a shortage of coins in Italy which lead to a very high incidence of payphone vandalism and theft. To counter this the first prepaid phone card was developed to use in payphones that did not use coins but only phone cards.
These cards were made by SIDA a vending machine manufacturer. They were thin and had a magnetic strip on the back of the phone card.
The idea soon picked up and spread to other European countries in 1977. The phone cards didn't work very well, they kept getting stuck or jamming. Nippon developed Japan's first pre-paid phone card which worked very well and was adopted more widely.
The next big development step came when World Telecom in the USA developed a reliable phone card with Siemens and General Electric in 1987. Two years later AT&T also entered the market in the USA when they released their first pre-paid phone cards in Hawaii.
Phone cards were first introduced into Australia in 1989 when Telecom Australia (now Telstra) carried out a trial Victoria. About 300,000 phone cards were printed for 6 different cards. They were $1.50, $3 and $6 denominations. Telecom New Zealand also trialled phone cards in Christchurch in the same year.
It was in 1990 that NYNEX in the USA developed the first pre-paid phone cards based on a PIN (Personal Identification Number) as a means of identification rather than reading a magnetic strip. They used a free phone 800 number for their access number.
Since then pre-paid phone cards sales volumes have grown steadily to more than $5 billion per year globally.
Chip based smart phone cards were first experimented with in France in 1984 but didn't really reach the market substantially until Sprint developed its "Foncard" product in 1995. PIN based phone cards have dominated the market because they are much cheaper to manufacturer.
Six years ago the first prepaid mobile phone - phone card combo was first produced.
More recently there has been the rise of shops such as www.ephonecards.com.au that sell phone card ePINS. ePINS are phone card PINS delivered electronically over the internet. They also allow the customer to compare phone cards and choose the best phone card for their call.
It is anticipated that newer technologies such as VOIP or free services like SKYPE will take over from phone cards. VoIP has not made a great impact on the phone card market yet. This is unlikely to happen until about 2012 to 2015 when broadband and internet connections are more widely available throughout the world. Until that time phone cards remain cheaper than VOIP off-network calls.
Oh and by-the-way, Italy sorted out inflation and its coin shortage by switching to the Euro from the Lira!
To enable you to select the cheapest phone card for you phone calls be sure to use www.ephonecards.com.au who have an in depth knowledge of the phone card market and are experts at comparing phone card quality
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