French Revolution: Anatomy Of A Telecard

20

In the first of these articles, RALPH ADAM outlined the development of telephone cards in France up to the arrival of the chip card. This month, he describes the features of the typical French phonecard - as viewed from both its sides

Anatomy of a Teleca~

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he most obvious feature on the front of the card is, of course, the design: France Telecom discovered early on that this could be a major selling point with the result that some very attractive cards have been produced. Indeed, several are works of art in themselves, having been commissioned from famous artists in conjunction with galleries.

Themes A wide range of themes has been used although restrictions exist concerning the topics th.\;Itcan be shown. The 'banned' list includes tobacco and alcohol: drinks ads managed to get through the net only in 1988 and 1989 when three cards were produced for Kronenbourg lager, and one each for Gordon's Gin and J&B Whisky, making this, perhaps, the smallest collectable French theme! In 1989, when the law changed, collectors were caught on the hop: Whyte & Mackay were running a competition which included, among the prizes, a limited-edition phonecard. Unfortunately, the ban on booze ads came in at the same time and collectors who were eagerly awaiting their special cards received, instead, a 50-unit definitive albeit in a Whyte & Mackay's souvenir pocket. Repeat protests from collectors to the competition's promoters were, of course, to no avail. There are also restrictions on political and religious topics, as well as a ban on anything likely to give a negative view of France Telecom. Even a card sponsored by a collectors' club managed to fall foul of this last restriction: it showed a prisoner drawing 'five-bar gates' on the wall of his cell as he used up his units during a call. Finally, he exclaims: "Must finish: I've only got five units left!". FTconsidered that the message might be misconstrued. So the five-barred gates were replaced by hearts and the message made 'warmer': "There's time for only one more heart - to say 'I love you'!".

Value indicator This is enclosed in a box and follows the label 'Telecarte' - a name which France Telecom had the foresight to register as a trade mark (earlier cards were labelled 'Phonecard' and 'Carte telephone').

Chips The part of the module you can see has the gold contacts linked to the tiny microprocessor in the silicon chip where all the information is stored. Aspects of it which produce collectable varieties are: 1.Module position. This can be either upper left, the traditional position set by AFNOR,the French national standards authority, or the newer centre-left location specified by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). Some cards which went through different printings during the changeover period (1993) can have their modules in either position. 2.Module type. About thirty different modules have been used so far. These have come from five manufacturers, of which three (Gemplus, Schlumberger and Solaic) are at present contracted to produce cards. A new generation chip was introduced in January 1996 after a long test period. It is known as the 'T2G' and identification can require expertise: the production cards mostly have 'T2G' inscribed on the

The ISO

same module line as the issue date on the position reverse; others (including the experimental cards which were supposed to be returned after use) can often be spotted only by recognising the module type or the chip series number, These

Modul, without background; small arrow

cards can be used only in speciallyadapted telephones. It is probable that the earlier chip cards will all expire on 31st December 1999, as no one thought to programme the chips to work in 2000 ! 3.Background to the module. There are two things to watch for here: the size of the module's background and the size and shape of the direction arrow (showing which way to insert the card) have both varied.

protect collectors from fraud: it is the same number as that contained in the chip's memory and can be verified by inserting the card in a reader. On Schlumberger cards the positions of the two numbers are reversed.

for sale), public (can be sold only if sealed or if purchased from a vending machine) and five unit (cannot be , exchanged or refunded). Note: cards from machines are never sealed; except in rare cases they are catalogued as 'excellent used' and, consequently, are of less value than mint cards bought elsewhere.

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Logo. The illustrations show the three main 'France Telecom' logos. Earlier cards were worded 'PTI Telecommunications' .

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The Reverse

Card numbers. The numbering format has changed several times over the years. The card illustrated shows how numbers have typically appeared since 1994.

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Number of units. Apart from the recently-introduced five-unit promotional issues, only three card values have so far been issued: 40 units (until 1987), 50 units (from 1987) and 120 units.

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Of the two numbers, the upper one is the batch (or control) indicator and its initial character represents the manufacturer (shown by the prefix letterin this case '8' for Gemplus: other manufacturers' codes are 'A' for Solaic, 'C' for Schlumberger and '0' for Oberthur); the first two digits give the year and month of production (the illustration shows '55' - 1995, May): October, November and December are shown as 'A', '8" and 'C' respectively. After this comes a five-figure productionrun/machine indicator, normally preceded by a '0' or a '1'. The lower number is one of several security devices designed to

f) Type of card. Different

sales and distribution conditions distinguish the various categories of card: private (not

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Telecarte 120 unites

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Regie T's address, which is not a distribution point for collectors, has changed several times over the years. The layout of the address may vary for different printings of the same card. At one time, limited-run private versions of public cards could be distinguished by a 'deliberate error' in the spelling of the address!

Cette carte ne peut etre vendue ~ que sous emballage scelle ou par ~ distributeur automatique

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RegieT's address. Regie T is a company created in 1986, half-owned by France Telecom. Its functions are to promote and sell advertising space 9n phonecards, to distribute the cards, devise marketing strategies, collect data and develop overseas markets for the French system. In some countries, such as Mexico, Regie T has created local subsidiaries.

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Innovatron's symbol.

Dutch phonecards, for example).

Roland Moreno is regarded a the 'father' of the chip: in 1974 he patented a memory card and, in the early eighties, developed the integrated-ci rcuit micro-chip card. Moreno's company, Innovatron, holds the patents for these inventions and, as a result, every organisation using Moreno's devices is obliged to carry his trademark. Whether for phonecards, parking permits, health records, controlled-entry cards or any other type of microchip card (though it is sometimes very hard to spot - as with Phonecards are often used to publicise France Telecoms'services: three way calls

SAMEDI DIMANCHE ET FETES

The symbol is found throughout the world, wherever a licence or permit is in use. Two versions of the Innovatron symbol have so far appeared on French phonecards, but its future may not be long: since the end of 1995, Schlumberger Industries have dropped it on the grounds that they consider the technology to be in the public domain (as their own licences for France have expired). The situation is unclear and other manufacturers have not, so far, followed suit.

G Reverse

of the module. One way of identifying the manufacturer of a card is by looking for the back of the module. If it is visible on the reverse of the card (it appears as a round 'window'), the producer will have been Schlumberger. Collectors distinguish between three sizes of 'window' they can be 6mm, 7mm or 11mm in diameter.

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Date. Since October 199.0, French cards have carried a production date: an innovation which has proved very helpful to collectors. Some issues have had several print runs and the various dates create major varieties in themselves.

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follows the date and gives a global figure for a single printing of all cards with an identical face. The figure can, therefore, include both 50 and 120 unit cards, as well as whole series of production dates and several modules. Current public issues can have print-runs ranging from 15,000 to five million, but a large run may include different varieties - with an average of, perhaps, only 30,000 cards oJ: each type. It is important to note that the production figure on the back of a card may differ from that given in a catalogue. This is because editors often obtain printing breakdowns for each variety and it is these figures that they quote (if no breakdown is available, it is conventional to show this by a percentage - % - symbol).

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In this article I have summarised the main features of French cards. Next month, I shall discuss errors and varieties.