Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!bionet!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: tuvie!iiasa.local!wnp@relay.eu.net (Wolf PAUL) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Polish Payphones Revisited Message-ID: <15105@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 29 Nov 90 08:53:14 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Wolf PAUL Organization: Intl. Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria Lines: 41 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 856, Message 10 of 12 In article <14999@accuvax.nwu.edu> KLUB@maristb.bitnet (Richard Budd) writes: >While staying in Wroclaw (Breslau), Poland, there was a news item on TV that >the city had installed the nation's first public telephones >activitated through credit cards. I couldn't understand the fine >details because it was in Polish. From what my host explained to me, >the credit cards are issued by the telephone company and you insert >them into a slot in the telephone and then dial the number. No word >yet how successful people have been with their calls. Actually these probably don't accept credit cards, but pre-paid phone cards such as are used in several West European countries as well. Austria, Belgium (I think) and the UK use phone cards where the information is stored magnetically; Germany uses phone cards with a tiny chip on them. Their main attraction is in countries with a low density of private phones, where most people use public phones most of the time. Credit cards would be impractical since there would not be a home phone account to charge them to. I also doubt that credit cards would find much public acceptance in the recently-liberated societies of Eastern Europe. You buy them in stores (different depending on country) and they come in denominations such as 100 units, or 200 units (Austria), or UKL 5 or 10 (UK), etc. The cards even from the same system, such as UK and Austria, are not compatible: it seems they do contain some coding difference, or else have a PTT identifier code readable by the equipment. Thus, a UK card will not work in Austria and vice versa. Of course the German Microchip cards don't work anywhere else either, nor would one expect them to. W.N.Paul, Int. Institute f. Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg--Austria PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465 INTERNET: wnp%iiasa@relay.eu.net FAX: +43-2236-71313 UUCP: uunet!iiasa!wnp HOME: +43-2236-618514 BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@awiuni01.BITNET