Talk:Telephone card/Archives/2012/January

US-centric focus
Does anyone agree that the article has a US-centric focus? I've added stuff to make it more internationalised.

Re: US-centric focus
Yeah, the article was very US, thanks for changing it... I love the French phone card ;) The article mentions buying phone cards online.  I searched and a lot of sites came up that don't have the same cards that I know from the stores in my neighborhood, also the sites are pretty ghetto.  Even if I do find one online, how do i know it's really a brand name one or not? (because i don't get the actual card)

--Taichiubg 14:00, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Many phone card sites make their own private label phone cards because it's more profitable than selling brand name ones. I travel a lot and I've used all kinds of prepaid calling cards. Brand names are good because they usually give you the option of having no maintenance fees, so they end up lasting longer without forcing the user to deplete them quickly. I have a review site that you should visit: www.callingcardreviews.org Basically, if you want to be sure, look at the access numbers and customer service numbers of your favorite in-store card and try to match them up with what is being sold online. Generally, I haven't heard of a phone card retailer trying to pass off fakes for originals. Some reputable sites that I use are callingcards.com and phonecarddepot.com (both of these cater to callers in the USA and Canada). The reason why prepaid long distance cards are so much cheaper than regular long distance rates is because calling cards usually go through the internet. Good luck, Taichiubg.

-TeddyBear555

Collectible phone cards
Collectible phone cards should be started as a new article since there's a lot of information about phone card collection that doesn't appear here. Different chip types / different companies / common fakes / who is in the business and more and more... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.166.183.105 (talk) 20:57, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Business model
This article does not explain the business model of included minutes, excluded minutes, forfeiture, top-up infrastructure, activation vouchers, gateway, call authorisation, VOIP, switching, billing software, settlement, multi-currency, tariff update, transaction ID, middlemen, stakeholders, wholesalers, data security, spectrum, hack history, toll algorithm, rounding, routing, expiry date enforcement,... How exactly does the phone network provider make money if the card is sold by independent retailers? Many retailers give vouchers not bills. So how is VAT computed and collected? Some network providers (like 3) refund partly for answering each call and replying text. How is this system implemented? Some contracts and schemes are tied to the "compatible" handset. How is this plausible? Anwar (talk) 09:54, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Article seems out of date
This whole discussion seems out of date to me - and largely irrelevant to how calling cards work these days. From the very first sentence, the focus is placed on physical cards which supposedly actually store value. I don't belive this is the case at all - maybe it was true at one time, but not true today - at least not in the United States. And regardless, an increasingly large share of calling card / phone card usage comes from virtual cards bought online. I believe this is true worldwide. These have no physical manifestation at all. There is also a significant movement towards VoIP-based calling cards and a blurring of the line between prepaid calling cards and prepaid calling plans. There is also no mention of calling card fraud, which is a pretty major problem, especially for physical cards. I would propose - and, assuming no objections, be prepared to do - a fairly large rewrite of this article intended to make it more relevant to how calling cards work today.

- John L. Kenney (talk) 17:04, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

International phone card
Can (referenceable) content from International phone card be merged here? It's unreferenced at the moment, and there seems to be a lot of overlap so far. Gurt Posh (talk) 14:03, 2 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Sadly, I don't feel that there is enough verifiable information there to merge. The "history" section appears to discuss the history of the telephone card, which may or may not be verifiable.  All of the rest of the article appears to be original research.  I have asked the article's author for citations, but I am not holding my breath.  WikiDan61 ChatMe!ReadMe!! 14:26, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Hello! My sources:



Is this bad? Thank you User:Gorcom
 * I've redirected the article here. Those references above might be useful in this article, but International phone card was just a WP:Content fork used mainly as a vehicle for linkspamming. Gurt Posh (talk) 11:48, 5 August 2011 (UTC)