FOCUS ON PHILATELY
by Ingert Kuzych
Collecting Ukrainian telephone cards
Previous articles in this column have discussed collecting stamps, coins and postcards - hobbies that are hundreds of years old. Telephone cards have been in existence for only about 25 years and Ukrainian telephone cards are less than a decade old. I hope you find the following article concerning this new collecting area of interest.
- Ingert Kuzych
by Andrew O. Martyniuk
Telephone cards represent a relatively new area for collectors. I first encountered these cards when I went to Japan in the late 1980s. Telephone cards were first introduced in Japan in 1982 and by the time I discovered them, there was already an established telephone card collecting community in the country. However, it was in Italy six years earlier that the first telephone card was actually introduced in 1976.
Now, just over 25 years later, there are over 200 countries where telephone cards may be purchased and used, and one source estimates that there are as many as 2 million to 4 million telephone card collectors in the world today. Catalogues listing and depicting issued telephone cards exist for many of these countries, as does at least one international catalogue. Websites, Internet discussion groups and collectors' clubs dealing with telephone card collecting have also proliferated.
More in line with my own area of interest, independent Ukraine first began offering telephone cards for public use in 1994._1_
What is a telephone card?
A telephone card is basically a means to place a telephone call without the use of coins/cash, credit cards, or having telephone service that is billed to you (i.e., residential telephone service). The telephone card is issued by a company offering telephone service upon pre-payment of a designated fee - usually the "face value" or "nominal value" of the telephone card.
The primary reason for the development of telephone cards was probably convenience. However, the subsequent deregulation of the telephone industry in the United States and other countries, as well as the spread of the Internet, has allowed many smaller companies to offer telephone service over existing telephone lines or via cellular telephones. These companies often market their services through the use of telephone cards, where they offer very competitive rates for individuals who use their cards._2_
Generally, a telephone card is made of plastic or similar material and is about the size of a standard credit card. The front of the card usually depicts a picture, design or other artwork. The backside of the card usually lists administrative information such as directions for using the card, the initial prepaid value of the card, company issuing the card, etc.
Types of telephone cards
Basically, there are two types of telephone cards. The first variety is one purchased from a telephone service provider and is often referred to as a "remote memory" telephone card. The card has an account number on it that contains a certain value depicted in either monetary units, or minutes of telephone calls that can be placed - the prepaid amount. The card itself is not required for use. The user need only know the account number on the card and the access number that needs to be called in order to route a particular telephone call. The card may not even physically exist - it may be a virtual card purchased over the Internet. These kinds of telephone cards can generally be used with any telephone - public, cellular or residential units. The number on the card corresponds to an account maintained elsewhere that indicates the value or length of calls that can be charged against the account. With certain cards, the account can be supplemented - usually over the Internet with a credit card or by other means.
The second variety of telephone card is the so-called "smart" card. This type of card actually records the value of calls (time or money) that can be charged against it. In this way, the card itself can be considered "money." If the card is lost, the value remaining on the card is not available to the person who lost it. If a card is found and there is value remaining on it, the finder can easily use it to place telephone calls.
The "smart" telephone card actually serves a functional purpose. Because the value of calls is stored directly on the card, telephone calls can be placed only from telephones that have the means for reading the value on the card and adjusting the value of the card once the call is completed. The most practical application of such a card is for use in public telephones. The telephone card enables both local and long- distance calls to be placed from public telephones without requiring the person placing the call to continuously feed coins into the telephone. The telephone card thus offers a measure of convenience to the user. The card can be purchased in advance and carried conveniently in a wallet. Only the precise cost of a call is debited to the card. Finally, the card can be used repeatedly until its value is exhausted.
Although both varieties of telephone cards discussed above are used in Ukraine, this article will deal primarily with this second variety of telephone card - the "smart" card.
Telephone cards were first introduced in Ukraine in May of 1994._3_ These cards were produced for the U'tel Company_4_ by Autelca and utilized a magnetic system for recording the value on the card. The cards produced for U'tel were marked in U.S. dollars - $10 and $20. These two cards were first sold in the main post office in Kyiv and at a few Intourist hotels. The face of one of these first telephone cards is depicted in Figure 1.
Because these cards were issued with such a high nominal value, they were probably too expensive for most Ukrainians. Thus, foreigners were probably the primary users of these early U'tel cards. During this time, most of the public coin-operated telephones in Ukrainian cities could be used free of charge because inflation rendered Ukrainian coins essentially valueless and coins were pulled from circulation. In some cities, tokens were produced that could be used in these public, coin-operated telephones.
In the fall of 1995, over a year after the first introduction of telephone cards in Kyiv, a chip-based telephone card was introduced for public use in Dnipropetrovsk. In 1996 this system spread to Vinnytsia and finally Kyiv. Old public coin telephones in these cities were replaced with new public telephones that could "read" these chip-based telephone cards.
Due to the large size of the country and the high cost of standardizing all of the telephones in Ukraine to one specific system, each of the 40 municipalities represented by its own telephone company (branches of Ukrtelecom) instituted its own chip-based telephone card system. Thus, a card purchased in one city (e.g., Odesa) would not necessarily function in telephones in another city (e.g., Kyiv).
Today, depending on where you are in Ukraine, there are some public telephones that accept only telephone cards, others that accept coins and telephone cards, some that accept only coins, and in some smaller towns, telephones that only accept tokens.
Several different technologies have been employed for use on Ukrainian telephone cards since 1994. The following information should aid collectors in identifying types of Ukrainian telephone cards.
Magnetic telephone cards
The first telephone cards issued in independent Ukraine were magnetic type cards produced by Autelca for U'tel. Autelca is a Swiss company, and its cards are manufactured in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Korea and other countries. Autelca cards have an 11 mm wide magnetic strip (black in color) that runs along the bottom of the backside of the card. These magnetic cards could only be used in telephones specifically designed for them - in this case, U'tel telephones.
The first cards produced for U'tel were marked in U.S. dollars with 100UTS = $10 (U.S.) and 200UTS = $20 (U.S.). Between 30,000 and 38,000 of the $10 card and 18,000 to 30,000 of the $20 card were ultimately created._5_ In addition, one "test" card was also issued, but the quantity is unknown. These two cards were first sold in the main post office in Kyiv and at a few Intourist hotels. The face of one of these first telephone cards is depicted in Figure 1.
From 1995 to 1997, U'tel produced nine more telephone cards, all utilizing the magnetic technology discussed above. Between 20,000 and 50,000 of each card were produced. In December 1997 U'tel began issuing cards with chips, thus abandoning magnetic-type cards.
In sum, the black magnetic strip that runs along the bottom of the backside of the card can easily identify all magnetic type telephone cards. Additionally, only U'tel issued magnetic type telephone cards.
By far, the majority of telephone cards issued in Ukraine are of the chip variety. These cards are issued by Ukrtelecom (the state-owned telecommunications company), U'tel and about half a dozen other large telecommunications companies. There is a total of six different computer chips used in Ukrainian telephone cards as indicated below:
| Size of Chip | Color | Chip Maker | |
| Type 1 | 13 mm x 12 mm | Gold | Kvazar-Micro |
| Type 2 | 15 mm x 12 mm | Silver | Nemiga |
| Type 3 | 13 mm x 12 mm | Gold | Thomson |
| Type 4 | 11 mm x 9 mm | Gold | Siemens |
| Type 5 | 10 mm x 9 mm _6_ | Gold | Orga |
| Type 6 | 13 mm x 10 mm | Silver | Schlumberger |
Chip-type telephone cards measure approximately 54 mm by 86 mm - about the same size as a standard credit card. The card itself is approximately .8 mm thick. The chip is inset in a notch carved into the card so that the surface of the card and the chip are flush. The chip is usually visible on the backside of the card; however, there are instances where the chip is instead visible from the front of the card.
Chip cards are sold in a wide variety of values. The number of units for each card is designated with a "TO" number - also called units. Cards are also listed with the number of minutes for calls within a certain region - usually within a city. For calls placed within the region (local calls), 28 TO = 1 minute. This information appears on the backside of the card.
The most common values appear to be the 90-through 240-minute cards. According to one source, the 960-minute card is quite rare. Some of the more bizarre values for cards, such as 1320 TO, 1708 TO, 2640 TO, and 4508 TO, probably relate to the specific chip used in these cards. All of these used Type 2 (Nemiga) chips. The odd values may be a function of the chip capacity, coding, etc.
To use the chip-type telephone card, a user first inserts the card into a slot on the proper type of telephone._7_ A portion of the card remains outside the slot, allowing the card to easily be removed once the user has finished using the telephone. The TOs/units remaining on the card appear in a window. The caller then picks up the receiver and places the call. When the connection is made, the telephone begins to decrease the TOs/units appearing in the window. The speed of decrease depends on the nature of the call. If the call is within the local region designated, then the 28 TO = 1 minute standard applies. However, if the call is to another region, or even another country, then the TOs/units decrease at a faster rate. Once the caller has completed the call and hangs up the receiver, the TOs/units remaining as displayed in the window are "written" onto the card, thus decreasing the available TOs/units for future use._8_ Unfortunately, there is no way to know how many TOs/units remain on a telephone card without inserting it into a telephone._9_
Additional information that appears on the backside of chip type telephone cards includes the name of the company issuing the card, instructions for using the card, serial or control number of the card and information identifying the region of the card (e.g., Kyiv). Many of the later cards also indicate the month and year the card was issued and the total number of cards issued. This information may appear on the front or the back of the telephone card.
U'tel chip-type cards (post-1998) continue to be valued in UTS (units) instead of TOs. It is not clear how many minutes each UTS corresponds to. U'tel chip-type cards are issued in values of 50, 100 and 200 UTS. UMC (Ukrainian Mobile Communications) also produces chip-type cards, however, these are valued in TOs. Values include 40, 90, 200 and 400 TOs. Again, it is not clear what is the corresponding standard between the TOs and minutes.
In sum, chip-type telephone cards can be easily identified by a computer chip visible on either the face or the backside of the telephone card.
GSM and remote memory cards
In addition to the two main types of telephone cards identified above, magnetic-type and chip-type, there is one hybrid-type card (GSM), intended for use in cellular pay telephones, and numerous remote memory-type cards used in Ukraine today.
The GSM card is a hybrid between the chip-type card and the remote memory card. In Ukraine these cards are issued by Golden Telecom, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) and possibly others. They feature a removable chip that can be punched out if not required. Figures 2 and 3 depict the front and back of a UMC card.
This card is the same size as other chip-type telephone cards, measuring approximately 54 mm by 86 mm. These cards also approximate the thickness of the chip-type cards, measuring approximately .8 mm thick. The punched-out slot measures approximately 27 mm at its widest and 18 mm high.
As mentioned previously, little will be said about remote memory cards as the number of companies in Ukraine that have issued such cards number more than 100. Many of these companies offer Internet-based international telephone service. The size of the card and thickness is approximately the same as chip-type telephone cards. A user of such a service dials a local number and the operator then uses a computer to contact an operator on a computer at the destination who then places the call. Often, the quality of these calls is not as high as those placed through standard telephone lines, however, for international calls they are comparatively less expensive. As an example, a remote memory card issued by Kyivstar, one of the larger telecommunications companies, is depicted front and back in Figures 4 and 5.
Collecting Ukrainian telephone cards
All one needs to get started collecting Ukrainian telephone cards is an interest in the topic. In this section, I will focus primarily on the collecting angle of Ukrainian telephone cards.
With telephone cards, an unused card is one that has the full, original prepaid value still on it. In other words, the card has never been used to place a call. Likewise, a used telephone card is one that has had its prepaid value depleted or had been used for placing even one telephone call. Is the distinction important?
As discussed above, without actually placing a telephone card into a telephone, it is not possible for the collector to ascertain if a card still retains its prepaid value. Nevertheless, a pristine unused card commands a much higher price among collectors. Used cards present other issues. Not only has the prepaid value been depleted, but frequently the card itself has become scratched, faded and otherwise marred by use. The sliding of the card into the telephone can leave long scratch marks along the card, often ruining the artwork pictured on the card. Additionally, the chip itself becomes scratched from constantly rubbing against the connection it must make while used in a telephone. Finally, carrying the card around in a wallet, taking it in and out, etc. can bend the card and scratch the surface, particularly if it comes in contact with other plastic cards in a wallet. However, it is possible to find used cards in acceptable condition for collectors. Therefore, the choice of collecting used or unused telephone cards is ultimately left up to the collector.
Many Ukrainian telephone cards are available for collectors. In Ukraine, new telephone cards can be purchased at post offices and all kinds of stores. Production rates for some of the newer telephone cards run as high as 200,000 and 300,000. However, earlier Ukrainian telephone cards may be more difficult to obtain and also command a higher price, when available.
One major difficulty involves finding cards before about the middle of 1997 that are in good condition. This is because the cards were intended for repeated use. When purchasing one of these early cards, the buyer had to pay not only the prepaid value of the card, but a deposit (pawn fee) on the card itself. Thus, many of these early cards were used over and over again. The pictures have become faded, the cards themselves often contain many scratches, and the wording on the backside of the card has begun to rub off. Also, fewer of each card were produced, thus aggravating the situation concerning availability.
Early trial cards and test cards are in high demand among collectors. Test cards were issued for some, and possibly all, of the different types of telephone cards issued in Ukraine (magnetic, chip, etc.). These cards were few in number and often not available for public sale. Naturally, these cards command a premium in the marketplace.
Telephone card varieties
Independent Ukraine began introducing telephone cards in 1994. Since then over 700 different cards have been released in Kyiv alone. That is, 700 different pictures on cards. Each pictured card is often issued in a variety of values, thus greatly increasing the number of unique cards to collect. Finally, although many of the same pictures appear on cards from various telephone regions in Ukraine, they are still identified with their local region, thus again increasing the number of cards. In fact, there are literally thousands of different Ukrainian telephone cards that can be collected.
The backside of each card also provides an area for specialization. Prior to May 1997, there was a great deal of variation concerning the display of information on the back of telephone cards. After May 1997, at least for Ukrtelecom cards, the backside of telephone cards was standardized for all telephone regions. There are at least 51 different varieties of these standardized backsides. For example, some cards provide directions in English and Ukrainian; others provide directions in Russian; still others provide information in Ukrainian only.
Moving away from the issue of detail, there is a wide range of topics that should satisfy any collector. What I am referring to here is the topic of the artwork or picture that appears on the front of the card. Topics include, but are not limited to: historical buildings and statues, commemorative cards, sports figures, flora and public-service-type information. A selection of these types of cards is depicted in Figures 6-15.
Cards bearing advertising have also flourished. There are a wide variety of industries, products, etc. depicted on telephone cards. Not surprisingly, a good many of these advertisements deal with telecommunication services - as this entire article has dealt with this industry, I have omitted those cards in the gallery below. It is not a free for all with respect to advertising. All ads have to be approved by Promizviazok Administration, the government agency responsible for regulation, control and oversight of telephone card production. Nevertheless, beer, liquor and cigarette ads abound, as do ads for health care and beauty products. A small selection of such cards is depicted in Figures 16-18.
Storing and preserving telephone cards
Although telephone cards have been around for over 25 years now and there are a lot of collectors in the world, telephone card collecting is fairly new in America. Also, standards concerning storage and display have not been widely addressed. Therefore, a few words on this topic are probably in order here.
After collecting even a few telephone cards, one of the first hurdles faced by the collector is how to store them. When I received my first batch of telephone cards, they were packed in groups of 25 in empty cigarette packets. My first step was to decide how to store these cards. I started with a cigar box. However, I quickly realized that this would not do, as each time I took the cards out, they would rub against each other, adding more scratches and damage to the cards. I soon realized that telephone cards could be easily stored and displayed in clear file folders designed for holding business cards. These "albums" can be purchased at any office supply store and the loose-leaf variety allows one to add pages when needed. A word of caution: before purchasing these clear business card files, it is prudent to first check and make sure that the cards will easily slip into the file without tearing out a seam. A standard business card is slightly smaller than a telephone card. Also, Ukrainian telephone cards are quite a bit thicker than business cards. However, many business card files are designed to be a bit larger to facilitate slipping cards into and out of the file. I have found files that accept Ukrainian telephone cards quite nicely. No additional protection is really required as the cards are made of plastic, so they are not subject to the dangers posed by humidity and high temperatures.
Conclusion
Since independent Ukraine issued its first telephone card in 1994, the number and variety of available cards has increased greatly. As nearly every country in the world now issues telephone cards, a large telephone card collecting community has developed worldwide. The Internet has helped to bring these collectors into contact with one another and to facilitate identification and availability of telephone cards.
Unique telephone cards from Ukraine now number in the thousands, with more being produced on a continuing basis. Although older Ukrainian telephone cards may be difficult to come by, newer ones are readily available. I hope you find this new area of collecting as exciting as I have.
Andrew O. Martyniuk is executive vice- president of the Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society and resides in Cincinnati. He may be contacted at: [email protected]. The author would like to thank Val Zabijaka and Dr. Irene Martyniuk for their assistance in providing information and first-hand accounts concerning telephone card usage in Ukraine.
1. The Kirshankov catalogue states that the first telephone card was introduced in Ukraine in May 1994. However, http://members.tripod.com/~ivh/ukraine.html identifies the date as April 1993. Both sources provide similar details for the cards issued and vary only as to the date and number of cards issued. According to http://members.tripod.com/~ivh/ukraine.html, in 1989 two telephone cards were issued by Soviet authorities in Yalta for use in pay telephones at the Yalta-Intourist and Oreadna-lntourist hotels. These cards carried nominal values of 20 rubles and 50 rubles. [Back to Text]
2. Companies selling prepaid telephone cards usually buy wholesale minutes from major telecommunications carriers. [Back to Text]
3. See comments in note 1. [Back to Text]
4. U'tel is a telecommunications company that is a subsidiary of state-owned Ukrtelecom. [Back to Text]
5. Sources differ as to the number of cards produced. Kirshankov indicates that 30,000 of each card were produced, while http://members.tripod.com/~ivh/ukraine.html indicates that 38,000 of the $10 card and 18,000 of the $20 card were produced. [Back to Text]
6. Measurements for the Orga chip (type 5) are approximated from an image of the chip taken from the Kirshankov catalogue. [Back to Text]
7. As previously noted, there are several different manufacturers of telephones in Ukraine and each one uses a unique chip-type telephone card. Thus, a U'tel card can only be used in a U'tel telephone. [Back to Text]
8. It is not obvious from available sources as to when in the process the new decreased value is recorded onto the telephone card. Most if not all telephone cards have incorporated anti-fraud devices and it is quite possible that the timmg of the "write" process is proprietary in nature. [Back to Text]
9. In other countries, such as Japan, the telephone actually punches a small hole in the telephone card when a call is completed. The location of the hole relates to a scale correspondmg to the total value of the card. However, the hole itself is only a guide to the user. The actual value remaining on the card is recorded magnetically on the back of the card. The hole-punch process is made possible by the fact the card is only approximately .27 mm thick. [Back to Text]
References
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 2, 2003, No. 9, Vol. LXXI
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