It's hard to imagine new world of communications without calling cards. During the 1970-s international phone card were developed in different states, also in United States of America. The evolving of phone cards brought to their use in many countries. In our days, it is arduous to seek a state who doesn't use calling cards.

In this composition you'll seek information about development of prepaid phone cards since 1970 to today. In 1975 the telephone establishments have faced the obstacle of scarcity of coins and of robbery in the pay telephone systems.

The most advantageous way out of the obstacle proposed by provider of vending machines, they invented calling cards. SIDA was the first firm that proposed this technology.

The first country which started to apply international phone card was Italy in 1976. In 1977 the point of states which used phone cards significantly rose, among them: Austria, France, Sweden and United Kingdom. These cards were so comfortable and convenient in employment that they quickly became popular among the users, soon the rest of Europe started to get acquainted with calling cards. By early 1982, people from all over the world became acquainted with international phone card. Prepaid calling cards emerged in Asia.

In Japan this discovery was applied in not ordinary context, people settle by means of them for services in Subway. During the year 1987 these calling cards began to apply in the Western world. Siemens and General Electric Company invented the first magstripes technology. Nowadays, magnetic stripes are used in almost all types of prepaid phone cards.

The world of international calling card was entered by AT&T, a big communication corporation, in 1989. This company started to provide services connected with cheap prepaid cards from Korea to Taiwan, first to Hawaii and than they acquainted other part of U.S with these cards. During the year 1990 these cards began to apply on magstripes based. The growth of prepaid phone cards began to rise during this time. The first utilize of PIN numbers, long distance calls, and a lot of other services continued to grow in Western world.

In the year 1992 popularity of phone cards has reached the highest points. All major telecommunication companies began to create phone cards. In these years creating of phone cards achieved another level because small telecommunication establishments started to manufacture the phone cards of their own. During only 2 years sales have doubled, compared with the past years, they have achieved the level of twelve million dollars. The interest of majority companies was caused by amazing leap in sales in 1993, the sales of international calling card achieved 25 million dollars.

In the year 1995 continued development of phone cards, appeared another invention, phone cards with chip instead of magnetic stripes. It caused a tremendous growth in sellings. They reached 650 million US dollars.

Today sellings account for more than billion dollars. Telephone cards found their usage to settle for different services: online phone cards, send a fax, to deposit a fixed phone or even mobile phone.