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Thursday, 30 May, 2002, 10:40 GMT 11:40 UK
R.I.P. Phonecards
Phonecards
, passed away unmourned and in near-obscurity in phone boxes all over the UK, aged 21.
It was a humble and anonymous death for something which had once been heralded as The Future. Sales in 1991 were as high as 74m, but they slumped to just 7.2m last year.
To be able to use credit-card style payment revolutionised things for many, not least cub scouts who had been conditioned always to carry a coin in case they needed to make a telephone call. The subsequent discovery by mischievous schoolboys that credit levels on phonecards could be tricked by the cunning application of masking tape may have been one of the factors leading to the introduction of "smart" phonecards. The colourful designs used by telecom companies led to the development of an enormous market for collecting phonecards. The highest price ever paid for a BT phonecard was £3,000 (dwarfed by a Taiwanese card which sold for £28,000). Even now, vast areas of the internet are being used to celebrate their life, many collectors unaware of the British phonecards' untimely death.
Perhaps the final insult came with the arrival of mobile phones which are themselves the size of credit cards. The epitaph reads: "Insert more coins." No flowers. I'd love to write a long tribute, but my mobile's ringing...
Card expired
ET text home
What's to become of shady prison economies the nation over?
Add your tribute, using the form below Disclaimer: The BBC will put up as many of your comments as possible but we cannot guarantee that all e-mails will be published. The BBC reserves the right to edit comments that are published. |
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