It is undeniable that international calling cards are one of the greatest technological innovations that have made our lives and chores easier and faster. With calling cards, communication became more convenient, accessible and cost efficient. For instance, a businessman can simply call India from Philippines to follow-up the supplies needed for his business. Likewise, a son can simply call India from United States to talk to his parents and tell them that he made it to the honor’s list.
Originally, calling cards have been developed for use in public pay phone booths. The user simply inserts the calling card into the pay phone and the machine can automatically read the available load balance. The user can then use the calling time corresponding to the available load balance. Earlier phone cards have a magnetic strip that contains important information such the available load balance and calling time of the account. Indeed, that magnetic strip serves as the data storage of the calling card. As technology advanced, innovations have also been introduced to calling cards. Some calling cards started to use optical storage instead of the magnetic information database. With the optical storage, the available load balance can already be reflected on top of the card for the user’s convenience. The most recent technological development among calling cards is the use of micro chips. Issues such as hacking threatened the use of micro chips but the problems were later solved with the use of highly-secured technologies.