In the first ofthese articles,RALPH ADAM outlinedthe development oftelephone cards inFrance up to thearrival of the chipcard. This month, hedescribes the featuresof the typical Frenchphonecard - as viewedfrom both its sides

20Anatomy of aTeleca~[j he most obvious feature on

the front of the card is, ofcourse, the design: FranceTelecom discovered early on

that this could be a major selling pointwith the result that some very attractivecards have been produced. Indeed,several are works of art in themselves,having been commissioned fromfamous artists in conjunction withgalleries.

ThemesA wide range of themes has been used -although restrictions exist concerning thetopics th.\;Itcan be shown. The 'banned'list includes tobacco and alcohol: drinksads managed to get through the net onlyin 1988 and 1989 when three cardswere produced for Kronenbourg lager,and one each for Gordon's Gin and J&BWhisky, making this, perhaps, thesmallest collectable French theme!

In 1989, when the law changed,collectors were caught on the hop: Whyte& Mackay were running a competitionwhich included, among the prizes, alimited-edition phonecard. Unfortunately,the ban on booze ads came in at thesame time and collectors who wereeagerly awaiting their special cardsreceived, instead, a 50-unit definitive -albeit in a Whyte & Mackay's souvenirpocket. Repeat protests from collectorsto the competition's promoters were, ofcourse, to no avail.

There are also restrictions onpolitical and religious topics, as well as aban on anything likely to give a negativeview of France Telecom. Even a cardsponsored by a collectors' club managedto fall foul of this last restriction: itshowed a prisoner drawing 'five-bargates' on the wall of his cell as he usedup his units during a call. Finally, heexclaims: "Must finish: I've only got fiveunits left!". FTconsidered that themessage might be misconstrued. So thefive-barred gates were replaced by heartsand the message made 'warmer':"There's time for only one more heart - tosay 'I love you'!".

Value indicatorThis is enclosed in a box and follows thelabel 'Telecarte' - a name which FranceTelecom had the foresight to register asa trade mark (earlier cards were labelled'Phonecard' and 'Carte telephone').

sameline as the issue date on the

reverse; others (including theexperimental cards which were supposedto be returned after use) can often bespotted only by recognising the moduletype or the chip series number, These

The ISOmoduleposition

ChipsThe part of the module you can see hasthe gold contacts linked to the tiny micro-processor in the silicon chip where allthe information is stored. Aspects of itwhich produce collectable varieties are:

1.Module position. This can be eitherupper left, the traditional position set byAFNOR,the French national standardsauthority, or the newer centre-leftlocation specified by the InternationalOrganisation for Standardisation (ISO).Some cards which went throughdifferent printings during thechangeover period (1993) can havetheir modules in either position.

Modul, withoutbackground; small arrow

2.Module type. About thirty differentmodules have been used so far. Thesehave come from five manufacturers, ofwhich three (Gemplus, Schlumberger andSolaic) are at present contracted toproduce cards.A new generation chip was introduced inJanuary 1996 after a long test period. Itis known as the 'T2G' and identificationcan require expertise: the productioncards mostly have 'T2G' inscribed on the

cards can be used only in specially-adapted telephones.

It is probable that the earlier chipcards will all expire on 31st December1999, as no one thought to programmethe chips to work in 2000 !

3.Background to the module. Thereare two things to watch for here: the sizeof the module's background and the sizeand shape of the direction arrow(showing which way to insert the card)have both varied.

The Reverseo Number of units. Apart from therecently-introduced five-unit promotionalissues, only three card values have sofar been issued: 40 units (until 1987),50 units (from 1987) and 120 units.

f) Type of card. Different sales anddistribution conditions distinguish thevarious categories of card: private (not

for sale), public (can be sold only ifsealed or if purchased from a vendingmachine) and five unit (cannot be ,exchanged or refunded). Note: cards frommachines are never sealed; except inrare cases they are catalogued as'excellent used' and, consequently, areof less value than mint cards boughtelsewhere.

e Logo. The illustrations show the threemain 'France Telecom' logos. Earliercards were worded 'PTITelecommunications' .o Card numbers. The numberingformat has changed several times overthe years. The card illustrated showshow numbers have typically appearedsince 1994.Of the two numbers, the upper one isthe batch (or control) indicator and itsinitial character represents themanufacturer (shown by the prefix letter-in this case '8' for Gemplus: othermanufacturers' codes are 'A' for Solaic,'C' for Schlumberger and '0' forOberthur); the first two digits give the

year and month of production (theillustration shows '55' - 1995,May): October, November andDecember are shown as 'A', '8"and 'C' respectively. After thiscomes a five-figure production-run/machine indicator, normallypreceded by a '0' or a '1'.

The lower number is one ofseveral security devices designed to

Au Iii des saisoons,les horizonscommeles sensationschangent.Cetteemotion,vouspouvezlacommuniquerIe plus lacilementdu monde.

Telecarte120 unitesCette carte ne peut etre vendue

~ que sous emballage scelle ou par~ distributeur automatique

~§§ '~France TelE=com

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Regie TLa communicatio sur la Telecate133av, des Champs - Elyses75409 Pans Codex 08

protectcollectorsfrom fraud: itis the samenumber asthat containedin the chip'smemory andcan be verifiedby inserting thecard in a reader.On Schlumbergercards thepositions of thetwo numbers arereversed.

o RegieT'saddress. Regie T isa company created in 1986, half-ownedby France Telecom. Its functions are topromote and sell advertising space 9nphonecards, to distribute the cards,devise marketing strategies, collect dataand develop overseas markets for theFrench system. In some countries, suchas Mexico, Regie T has created localsubsidiaries.

Regie T's address, which is not adistribution point for collectors, haschanged several times over the years.The layout of the address may vary fordifferent printings of the same card. Atone time, limited-run private versions ofpublic cards could be distinguished by a'deliberate error' in the spelling of theaddress!

oInnovatron'ssymbol.RolandMoreno isregarded a the'father' of thechip: in 1974he patented amemory cardand, in the earlyeighties,developed theintegrated-ci rcuitmicro-chip card.Moreno'scompany,Innovatron, holdsthe patents forthese inventions

and, as a result, every organisationusing Moreno's devices is obliged tocarry his trademark. Whether forphonecards, parking permits, healthrecords, controlled-entry cards or anyother type of microchip card (though itis sometimes very hard to spot - as with

Phonecards are often used topublicise France Telecoms'services:

three way calls

Dutch phonecards, forexample).

The symbol is foundthroughout the world, wherever alicence or permit is in use. Twoversions of the Innovatron symbolhave so far appeared on Frenchphonecards, but its future may notbe long: since the end of 1995,Schlumberger Industries havedropped it on the grounds that theyconsider the technology to be in thepublic domain (as their own licences forFrance have expired). The situation isunclear and other manufacturers havenot, so far, followed suit.

G Reverse of the module. One way ofidentifying the manufacturer of a card isby looking for the back of the module. If itis visible on the reverse of the card (itappears as a round 'window'), theproducer will have been Schlumberger.Collectors distinguish between threesizes of 'window' they can be 6mm, 7mmor 11mm in diameter.

o Date. Since October 199.0, Frenchcards have carried a production date: an

innovation which has proved veryhelpful to collectors. Some issueshave had several print runs and thevarious dates create major varietiesin themselves.

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"{\etot1\G ffante e followseJ the date and gives aglobal figure for a single printing ofall cards with an identical face. Thefigure can, therefore, include both50 and 120 unit cards, as well aswhole series of production datesand several modules. Currentpublic issues can have print-runsranging from 15,000 to five million,but a large run may includedifferent varieties - with an averageof, perhaps, only 30,000 cards oJ:each type. It is important to notethat the production figure on theback of a card may differ from thatgiven in a catalogue. This isbecause editors often obtainprinting breakdowns for eachvariety and it is these figures thatthey quote (if no breakdown isavailable, it is conventional to showthis by a percentage - % - symbol).

In this article I have summarisedthe main features of Frenchcards. Next month, I shalldiscuss errors and varieties.