• First Montreal Exposition
• LA Times story update
• Offer with a catch
• Press Releases
• Promotional Offers

Ebay

NEWS / COMMENTARIES

First Montreal Exposition

First Montreal Exposition with an exclusive focus on Telephone cards and chip cards of all kinds. November 8, 1998, 9-5pm. An auction is at 4pm. This show will be held at:

Hôtel Ruby Foo's

Salle Singapore / Singapore Room

7655, boul. Décarie - Montréal

TEL: (514) 731-7701

FAX: (514) 731-7158

LA Times Story Update

A number of people wrote and mentioned that the link to the LA Times story last week was not working. When I published the newsletter, I checked to make sure it was operational. Unfortunately, just after I published it must have disappeared.

Offer with a catch

This was submitted by Ginnie Katchur

Just purchased box of Fiddle Faddle Carmel Popcorn (.89) at Albertson's. This was specially marked box with FREE $10.00 phone card inside (printed inside of box-cardboard). Thought this was a great buy!! Not so!!

You call 1-800-294-7051 to activate card & receive your pin number. Unless you give them your credit card number or your phone number for billing. Seems you have to switch to Tel3 NeTel Communications to receive your 60min free.

PRESS RELEASES

Gazelle Telecard

UllCards, a German phonecard company owned by Ulf Helmke, wanted to provide German students participating in the 1998 Exchange with a means of calling home to Germany while staying in the US, as well as a unique collectible for the event. The card produced provides for 30 minutes of calling time to Germany.

Smart Card News

MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 10, 1998--Frost & Sullivan has named

Siemens the leader in smart card IC sales worldwide in 1997. The high-tech market research firm's ``Worldwide Smart Card ICs Market'' report states that Siemens accounted for some 43 percent of smart card IC market last year.

``Siemens is delighted that its worldwide leadership in smart card ICs has

been confirmed,'' said Ulrich Hamann, president of the Security and Chip Card IC division at Siemens Semiconductors, Munich, Germany. Hamann said that he agreed with the Frost & Sullivan report that the market has slowed to a virtual crawl over the past year.

``But the turnaround may come sooner than we had expected,'' he noted.

Siemens expects that the smart card IC sales will begin to accelerate before the end of 1998 and that overall market growth could return to the 20 to 25 percent range in

1999. ``We are already witnessing an overall increase in demand in the market due to new projects on the horizon. We predict strong growth worldwide in demand in SIM cards for GSM phones, in banking and electronic commerce, in electronic signature and in government identification cards.''

Siemens also expects to see a quick transition to high-end microcontroller

cards, including 16- and even 32-Kbyte cards. ``The new controllers will allow card suppliers to provide multi-functional cards, such as combination purse, debit/credit

and transit,'' Hamann said. ``But the real value of these high-end chips lies in their ability to provide sophisticated security features that can be written in popular, open software platforms.''

PROMOTIONAL OFFERS

Corel Phonecard

From: Steve Eyer

Until Next Time,

Alan

Distribution

Phonecards On-Line© is published by Alan Cohen. It is a weekly newsletter devoted to phonecards - Current news, viewpoints, and reviews of new issues.

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