Calling Card ReviewsInformation You Can Use

B asked:


I was just wondering…if I got a calling card to make long distance calls on my cell phone will it still take minutes off my cell phone or will it just use the minutes from the card?

Thanks for your help!

Peggy Pena

Vanessa A. Doctor asked:




Although international prepaid calling cards have become a powerhouse technological system generating billions of dollars, you might be surprised to know that it was first developed three decades ago. The history of prepaid calling cards is as interesting and amusing as other modern invention stories that you may have heard before. The cards were originally made in Europe then reached America after a decade. Today, almost every nation in the world has a variety of international prepaid calling cards available.

The 70′s

In 1975 SIDA, a producer and distributor of vending machines in Italy began experimenting with the idea of making calling cards. The idea was to replace coins being used for payphones since medal coins were in shortage and theft and vandalism was rampant. The first batch of made prepaid calling cards were released into the market in 1976.

These were very slim cards from cardboards and got stuck on more than one occasion. They operated via a magnetic strip at the back of the card that can be scanned by new special phones upon insertion of the card. The idea of paying per minute was already incorporated in this pioneer batch.

In 1977, the popularity of the new prepaid calling cards rose after one year and nearby countries in Europe like Sweden, France, the United Kingdom and Austria also started using the system and manufacturing cards. The magnetic strip validation was the key trait of the cards. A year later, Nelson G. Bardini from Brazil used inductive technology to improve international prepaid calling cards. There are sequences of coils that identified how much is used up in the card.

The 80′s

The new cards using inductive technology was presented at the national inventors’ exhibition in 1982. Japan also began manufacturing prepaid calling cards which sold several thousands daily. The Nippon Telephone and Telegraph company was the first in Japan to adapt to the new system. In 1984, France developed the technology by using chip-based “smart cards”.

Three years later, World Telecom Group, Siemens and General Electric manufactured magstripe cards which contained information. This is the same technology used by credit cards today. In 1988, the first catalogue of telecards was released in England by Dr. Steve Hiscocks. In 1989, AT&T invested in the system as well producing several thousands of cards daily.

The 90′s

In 1990, the non-magstripe calling card was made by Regional Bell Operating Company in New York which involved dialing a toll-free access number. The caller would then input the Personal Identification Number or PIN. This new system started the rise of international prepaid calling cards since it was very versatile and allowed access to any phone in the world. By 1995, over six hundred million dollars in sales were made from international prepaid calling cards.

The 2000′s

Sales continued to soar well into the 21st century counting in the billions. The system replaced most collect call systems and coin payphones and continued to develop with other gadgets as well like cellular phones and the internet. With its continuous success, international prepaid calling cards are definitely here to stay.

Phillip Kelly

Vilius Stanislovaitis asked:




Calling Cards business is one of the most common business models in VoIP industry. Starting a Calling Card business is a great source of generating revenues and also a very lucrative venture. In this article I will briefly introduce you the basic steps to quickly start a Calling Card business.

Firstly you need to set up your own infrastructure for your prepaid calling card system to run on. With a solid infrastructure, you will able to spend most of the time on marketing your product. As billing software is the essence of the calling cards business – choosing a reliable billing software is the main step in starting your business. MOR Billing is powerful and effective, yet simple and easy to use – that’s why it is so popular among startups. MOR Billing is all-in-one solution with integrated pre-paid, post-paid and flat fee accounting that also gives you complete control over your calling cards, including PIN generation, usage fees, expiration dates, and much more. MOR Billing is a vital component for developing an infrastructure for your successful VoIP business. In order to use a billing software you need a server for it to run on. It is recommended to choose a CPU Quad Xeon, 4 Gb RAM with HDD as fast as possible.

Secondly you will need phone services and internet services which is the backbone of your calling card network. While choosing right internet services you should ask your Internet provider what kind of redundancy is available in case their service goes down . If your Internet provider does not have a fail-over plan, you may want to consider selecting a second Internet service as a backup.

The third step is choosing the a long distance provider. It is usually best to select multiple carriers – to have an A-Z long distance provider that can send your calls to anywhere in the world and also a regional long distance provider that focuses only on the region of the world that you are targeting in order to get cheaper tariffs in this region. Furthermore you will need to find a DID provider. It is your choice how to look for providers but I suggest to visit www.voip-info.org – it is a great source of various long distance and DID providers and I am sure you will find the one that fits for you. But keep in mind that price is not the only criteria – you should also consider quality, reliability, and capacity.

Now you have set up an infrastructure, chosen long distance and DID providers so the only thing left is to start marketing your products. As making tariffs is one of the main parts of marketing, you should consider different fees to increase your revenue. There are such additional fees as activation fee, connection fee, maintenance fee and billing increments that can make you one step ahead of your competitors. After you have made your tariffs you can choose two different types of marketing – let’s name them physical and virtual. Physical marketing is selling through retail stores. You will need to print your calling cards and distribute them among retail shops. By virtual marketing I mean e-commerce. You will need to create your own website to sell your calling cards online. There are hundreds of ways how to market your products via internet – affiliate marketing, banner ads, Google AdWords or other PPC advertising, social networking, press releases, email marketing, search engine optimisation and etc.