The first telephone cards used in Rwanda were not public, but were provided to the UN peacekeeping forces that operated in the country from 1993 to 1996. They were two magnetic cards provided by the Australian Telstra and made by Anritsu, of the same type of those that had been issued for the Christmas Islands the previous year, but these on the back were marked “Rwanda” and the face values, $ 20 (circulation 8,000) and $ 50 (circulation 5,000). About a decade later a public telephone system was installed that used chip cards, but only three cards were issued.
