Central African Republic, 1987

The Landis & Gyr optical card system was used from 1987 to 1993, and later replaced by chip technology. The cards issued in that period were 6, always in pairs of two values, 60 and…

Chad, 1988

Optical cards, only definitive with three values (30, 60 and 120 units), were supplied to Chad by Landis & Gyr. The first issues were without notch while later on they were reprinted notched. Then, in…

Comores, 1992

The first and only telephone system used in the Comoros Islands is the one working with chip cards, which was supplied by Schlumberger together with the cards, two values that show the OPT logo on…

Congo, 1992

There are very few cards issued in the Republic of the Congo. In 1992 a telephone system based on chip cards supplied by Schlumberger was installed and three cards were issued, with values of 25,…

Djibouti, 1989

Public telephone devices operating with a chip card were installed in 1989 and the first cards provided by Schlumberger depicted the OPT Djibouti logo on a white background. The same design will then be used…

Egypt, 1985

Egypt is actually using chip cards; previously magnetic cards supplied by Japanese Tamura and optical Landis & Gyr cards have been utilized, but up to 1991 the magstripe cards by Italian Urmet were in use.…

Equatorial Guinea, 1991

Chip cards were introduced in 1991 and are still in use. The first card was a plain white definitive, with chip in AFNOR position (top-left corner) and face value indicated in local value, while following…

Eritrea, 1997

The first series of three illustrated cards with landscape views was issued in 1997: the values were 25, 50 and 100 Birr, the currency of Ethiopia that until that year had also been used in…

Ethiopia, 2003

The first Ethiopian cards were made for the Armed Forces and therefore were not accessible to the public. They were issued by the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, and printed by F.N.M.T. Spanish, which provided three values,…

Gabon, 1985

Gabon too, like other African countries, initially used the magnetic telephone cards produced by Autelca, before moving on to the chip system. The first issue was a series of two values: blue 3100F, with a…