Izzet's phonecards corner

Go to... EXPERIMENTAL CARDS (1989) LANDIS & GYR OPTICAL CARDS (1986-1997) BAR CODED CARDS ( 1991-1992) CARDS WITH 9 mm NARROW BLACK BAND ( 1993) CARDS WITH 15 mm WIDE BLACK BAND(1992-1995)

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Türkce icin buraya basin

My name is Izzet Kirbas and I live in Istanbul - Turkiye. I'm an electrical engineer, working in Siemens, Cerberus Division - Istanbul. I'm  44 years old. I collect used phone cards all over the World, preferred with some themes. My favourite theme is butterfly phonecards. Please visit my butterfly cards link above and I guess you like it.

I have started to collect phone cards on February 1998 with 20 cards. Now I have nearly 6000 cards. Due to the huge amount of phone cards issued all over the World, I collect only following themes:

Trains, military and civil aircraft's, space and satellites, ground station satellite antennas, cosmos, planets, flowers, animals ( especially butterflies and tigers ), Christmas and New Year, Coca/Pepsi Cola, Disney's, UNICEF, Europe Union, Formula 1 and Racing cars.

General information about phone cards issued by PTT and Türk Telecom:

First phone cards have been appeared in September 1986. They have been issued by PTT and they were Swiss Landis & Gyr optical cards. They are produced between 1986 and 1992. Beginning from 1989, optical cards changed to Belgian Alcatel-Bell type which are thin magnetic cards. On April 24th, 1995; the operation rights of the telecommunication system in Turkiye handed over to Türk Telecom Company.

Alcatel cards are produced 3 different versions: 30 units, 60 units, 100 units and they are most widely used cards in Turkiye. A special point of the Alcatel cards used in Turkiye were : The cards  retained by the phone when the credit expired to re-charge and re-sold them until summer 1999. For this reason it is difficult to find the cards issued before summer 1999.

Smart chip phone cards are not produced and used in Turkiye. First widely used smart chip phone cards issued on May 1996 by Netas Telephone Company during the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements,Habitat II City Submit, 3-14 June 1996 in Istanbul. They were 100 and 350 units and 44.000 and 36.000 pieces issued each one's respectively.

At the beginning of the 1998, Türk Telekom introduced new  "Kuresel Kart".  They are prepaid remote call cards.  They are sold in a sealed envelope with hidden pin code on reverse side. Only three different cards issued up to now: 100, 200 and 400 units. Their units are different from the magnetic cards and 1 unit of a pre-paid card = 2 unit of a magnetic card, so we can say in fact they are 200, 400 and 800 units. Unfortunately this system did not widely accepted my users and already out of operation.

In September 2000, Turk Telekom demonstrated its new smart chip cards and new public phones in Bilisim 2000 CeBit fair. Some different chip cards are distributed in that fair to show and demonstrate new chip operated phones. Beginning from January 2001, these new chip operated public phones installed at the different districts of Istanbul, as a pilot region. New public phones accept both smart chip and credit cards for calling. At the moment, both new chip and Alcatel magnetic cards are in use, but they will all replaced by chip operated after a few years transition period.

New smart chip cards came with a 16 cards series : "Great Turkic States in the History".  Series completed at December 2001. Images can be seen at the relevant link above.

And here a some photos about me & my family:

MY FAVORITE LINKS:

  YOUR PHONECARDS STORE   
 
  Please visit and give a heart for Petra
Thurid Cseke - Norway
Andrea Lughi's home page
Early Turkish phone cards from Klaus Warschkow
Peter Novak's home page

Marileno Biasci home page
Abdulmnem Al Shizawie, UAE phonecards on-line catalogue