The next company to get a piece of the calling card pie was New York’s Regional
Bell Operating Company (NYNEX). In 1990, they came out with a much simpler phone
card: the first non-magnetic-based calling card in the U.S. NYNEX’s prepaid cards
used personal identification numbers (PINs) that identified the cardholder. This
made international phone cards even more convenient. All the cardholder had to do
was dial an 800 number and enter his PIN to make a long distance phone call. This
allowed callers to make calls from anywhere in the U.S.
calling card