Chip-type cards were introduced in Romania as early as 1991, and the first of these, with a circulation of only 1,000 copies, was used during a field trial in Bucharest. The first large series of…
Malta, 1991
For a few years, apart from a couple of illustrated, only ordinary cards were issued in Malta. The first was a 50-unit orange card (run 157,700), issued together with a 100-unit blue one (run 97,900):…
Greece, 1992
Following a period of experimentation started in 1987, during which several systems were tested, the first public cards were distributed just in 1992, at the International Fair of Thessaloniki. For the occasion, some chipcard-based phones…
Czechoslovakia, 1991
This nation no longer exists since January 1, 1993, but before the split between Czech Republic and Slovakia, some chip cards were issued. The first two appeared in May 1991, on the occasion of the…
Nepal, 1999
The Nepal Telecommunications Corporation issued only 5 chip cards from 1999 to 2003, before moving on to the remote memory system. The first card issued was 200 Rs (Nepalese rupee) and 10,000 were produced.
Iraq, 2003
Chip cards have been used in Iraq since 2003, issued by ITPC (Iraq Telecommunications and Post Company). The first, with face value of 5,000 Iraqi dinars, was issued shortly before the fall of Saddam Hussein…
Iran, 1991
The first cards in Iran appeared in April 1991, produced by the French company Solaic. The drawing depicted a telephone receiver, a dove and stylized flowers and was used for most of the subsequent cards,…
Mongolia, 2003
The Mongolian Telecommunications Company issued the first telephone cards in 2003, using the chip system developed by Gemplus. These were 4 landscape cards, of which the first two values shared the same image: 60, 150,…
Palestine, 1998
The State of Palestine used its first telephone cards in 1998, issued by Palestine Telecommunications Company P.L.C., a company founded in 1995 when only 3% of the Palestinian population owned a telephone. The first issue…
Lebanon, 1992
Two chip cards from Inteltec telephone company, a 30 and a 100 units manufactured by Schlumberger, have been issued in 1992, but had a scarce diffusion and they are now not easy to get. The…
