In Mexico city, public phones were everywhere and a local call cost 20 cents
since I remember. anyway, in 1985 after the devastation of the earthquake of
September 19th, the service was re-established like 1 month after, and the calls
were free of charge.
Telmex, the only company that operated in those years, was sold to private
investors, and the free service finished. This great service was interrupted
by the apperance of a public card phone, in 1990 or 1991, the first type of
phonecards were the ones without the chip, and there were also some for credit
cards.
After some years, Telmex-Ladatel, the company that produces the phones and cards,
changed the phones and the cards, now, the are like this, and the cards have
chips.
This is a very brief history of how do we got phonecards, anyway, this section
will be expanded with some words of the members.