The Rapid Growth of the Calling Card Industry

An associate with Florida Gold Dist., Sanjay Paharia has worked extensively with prepaid telecom products. In the recent past, Sanjay Paharia was involved in the calling card industry.

The prepaid phone card got its start in Europe in 1975 as a means of fighting a coin shortage and reducing the vandalism rate in pay phones. The prepaid phone cards used a magnetic strip that could be read by some pay phones, though the cards were initially thin and frequently jammed in the reader.

In 1990, the phone card known today made its debut. NYNEX introduced its PIN-based calling card, which required the user to dial a toll-free number and enter a PIN before making a long-distance call. 

All major regional and long-distance providers adopted this system by 1992, and by 1996, calling card sales had become a billion-dollar industry. By the 2000s, calling cards could be found in stores, vending machines, and online.