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WPD News Service |
Issue 65. 03/10/01
Summary
-Feature: phonecard magazines
-Special feature: Phonecard Colelctors EXPO, Orlando
-Phonecard, smartcard and telecom news from countries: Belgium, Canada, Israel Lesotho, Mauritius, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Swaziland, USA
-Other news:
Thanks to the contributors of this issue: David Levin, Moty , Klaus Warschkow, Joe Wong
Special news:
The first phonecard in the world found at Naples fair! Diego Garcia Cable and Wireless is the first phonecard in the world!
Issued in April '76 for the US military. No "D" in control number. Looks exactly the same as "D1" from MVCard catalogue.
Cable and Wireless at top of of card with old logo. "Helps the world communicate" White background. The card is for sale. For more information email [email protected]
Phonecards:
Phonecard Collectors EXPO 2001
-Phonecard and Telecom news:
Bell South is the first Baby Bell (Regional phone company, formed from a part of old AT&T) that will cease its payphone operations. Hundreds of thousands of payphones either will be phased out or will be sold to other companies. It remains to be seen what will happen to NON-US phone and phonecard operations, such as Peru, Ecuador and other places. Bell South has been producing chipcards for those countries.
-News from Canada:
Thanks to the hard work of Dan Deslauriers and other collectors, Bell Canada will continue to make available all of its phonecards to collectors through the internet. This was a very hard battle, but definitely gives a huge boost to the North American hobby!
-Smartcard Newsflash:
American Express will every student's American Express credit card to a AMEX Blue chip credit card. The new cards will be sent out in early March.
-News from New Zealand:
HAS THE COLLECTOR BEEN ABANDONED BY TELECOM NEW ZEALAND? The Telecom New Zealand phonecard website is no longer accessible. This used to be a great source of information and a search engine allowed the visitor to list the cards in many different ways. Unfortunately, the number of visits to the site was very low and Telecom couldn't justify the expense of maintaining it. Telecom New Zealand have produced 7 Chinese New Year cards to date and 2001, the Year of the Snake, we were expecting the usual $50 limited edition and much sort after card. Well, the New Year has come and gone and still no sign of the card. It is possible that a New Year card will be produced in the future. It is interesting to note that Telecom have not produced a limited edition card since the Chinese New Year card released 12 months ago. NEW ISSUES: There have been no new cards since my last newsletter. The next general issue set is due for release in June, the theme unknown at this stage.
-News from Africa:
Here are the latest cards from Lesotho and Swaziland:
A
new version of the 'telecommunication tower' (LES1
in Peter Snows Africa catalogue) telephone card from Lesotho. Now with new chip module (M35Fo in the TKJ catalogue) and control number
LTCAA00000000. I am afraid I don't know how many cards have been printed.
To see more visit Klaus's database: http://home.intekom.com/kw
-Great news from Israel:
The
NEW first CHIP CARD, is issued now days in Israel, by BEZEQ. In the future, all
public phones in Israel, will be operated by CHIP cards only. Until all public
phones will be replaced from the old method (magnetic cards), to the new one,
Bezeq will continue to issued, 2 types of cards: Magnetic and Chip.
/Contributed by Moty Eyal, dealer/
-News from Singapore:
Release Date : 4th December 2000
Christmas 2000
Design: Joyful Angels
Denomination: $3
Card Mintage: 3,000
Control Prefix: 252SIGA2K
Design: Peaceful Home
Denomination: $3
Card Mintage: 3,000
Control Prefix: 252SIGB2K
/Singtel/
-SHOW US YOUR CARDS!
Intele-CardNews International, the only magazine devoted to prepaid telecommunications and services, wants your prepaid card samples for the SUMMER issue.
Send us your card samples and a brief description today for consideration in
TALK ABOUT CARDS
DEADLINE to receive materials: April 25, 2001
Please direct card information, artwork and questions to: [email protected]
or via fax to: (281) 847-5909.
For more information about the magazine, check out our website @ www.intelecard.com
.
/Intelecard-News/
The "WPD news" is the free weekly news service of the Worldwide Phonecard Database (WPD). Copyright WPD 1999-2001