The first public card-operated telephones were supplied to Qatar Telecom in 1984, together with the first supply of cards to be used as field trials. These were two values, 100 and 200 QR (the local currency, riyal of Qatar) and there were printed respectively 50,000 and 40,000. In 1989, following the issue of two more cards with the same design, with values of 20 and 50 QR (1987), Qatar Telecom changed its name to Q-Tel and began to issue regular cards with various and colorful subjects. The use of the Autelca magnetic system continued until 2001, and the following year the system was switched to chip cards.
