NEWS / COMMENTARIES

Publisher's Note

Sorry that it has been so long between issues (4 weeks) - I was planning on publishing last week, but something happened on Sunday that prevented this: my daughter was born! Her name is Abigail, and she has her own web page, which is located at: http://www.cardmall.com/abby

E-cash Moneycards, The New Form of Money

By: Bruce Phillips (bphillip@caverock.net.nz)

While phonecard collecting drifts in the doldrums e-cash moneycards are slowly developing into what could become a very important collectable. Major participants in the emerging field of e-cash moneycards are forming alliances, memoranda of understanding are being signed, trials are being carried out, contracts being signed, processing centres planned and financed, timetables established and systems being installed. The hype of Atlanta and New York has been replaced by a low key approach to offering e-cash as an alternative to coins and banknotes.

E-cash moneycards are robust, attractive, easy to handle and manufactured to credit card standards. The cards are issued by major banks and some carry advertising from major brands that are already established collectables. The cards themselves also carry distinct e-cash branding such as Mondex or Visa Cash. This adds a unity to the e-cash concept. A lack of unity has been problem with the huge diversity of phonecard issues.

At the present time there are about 300 different disposable and reloadable e-cash cards available worldwide. It is still possible to aim at a complete collection. It would be a challenging but rewarding task. Collections can be established on the basis of countries, banks, themes or brands. The cards issued from 1994 to date have the potential to become the world classics over the next decade.

The most recent issues have been in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In December 1999 Bank South Australia issued 2 disposable Visa Cash cards for the South Australian Cricket Association(SACA). The cards were for use at the Adelaide Cricket Ground. There were 2500 of each card, the denominations were A$25 and A$50, they were manufactured by Orga. The $25 card expired at the end of January 2000 and featured

cricketer Greg Bluett. The card is given added colour by using a sunset at the Adelaide Oval as a partial background. The background is completed by an image of the world's greatest ever batsman, Sir Donald Bradman.

The cards were sold in small folders sealed in cellophane. The attractive card holder is also of interest as it features an enlargement of the card and a second cricket scene on the reverse, where a Coca Cola advertisement can also be seen. The $50 card expired at the end of February 2000. This card features the cricketer Darren Lehmann. The background illustrations include a part of the Adelaide Oval, a cricket ball, a cricket jersey bearing the Australian logo and the scoreboard with the names of England and Australian test cricketers such as Stewart, Atherton, Hussain, Taylor, Waugh,

Ponting and Healey.

On January 7, 2000 Westpactrust Bank issued a NZ$20 disposable Visa Cash card in Wellington, New Zealand. E-cash is in use throughout the newly completed sports stadium. This card also features a scene from a cricket match between Australia and New Zealand. The expiry date is January 2001.

In late January 6 banks in Singapore began issuing Visa Cash moneycards. The first issue is a $20 card common to all banks. The banks involved with this issue are DBS Bank, Keppel

Bank,OCBC Bank, Overseas Union Bank and United Overseas Bank. Over the next few years many banks will start to replace magstripe technology with chip technology. Debit and credit cards will carry e-cash and standalone cards will also be available. However in many countries banks will face increasing competition from telcos that issue smart chip based phonecards that can also function as e-cash moneycards. Australia and the Netherlands are leaders in this area. A third group of e-cash issuers is emerging from the smart ticketing systems being developed for the mass transport market. The same e-cash brands will appear in all systems. These are exciting times for collectors of e-cash moneycards.

PRESS RELEASES

PHONETIME COMPLETES $4 MILLION FINANCING

Mississauga, Ontario, March 20, 2000 Phonetime Inc. (PINC:CDN) announced that it has completed a private placement of 8,000,000 Special Warrants to arm’s length investors for total proceeds of $4,000,000. First Delta Securities Inc. was the agent for the offering.

Wayne Silver, Phonetime’s President said, "We are very pleased to have completed our financing in such a short time frame and for $1 million dollars more than we originally anticipated. The new capital will jump-start our ability to execute the next phase of our business plan, shortening the time required to complete our network build-out. The proceeds of the offering will be used primarily to further build-out our North American long distance network, combining VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology and private line capacity. We are also planning to invest in the expansion of our national sales and marketing activities to enable us to grow our market share and increase our corporate profile. Our expansion plans include a number of strategic acquisitions that are currently under consideration. Resources will be allocated to enhance our Internet presence and expand our efforts to "brand" and sell a new selection of telecommunications products and services.

While our goal is to remain Canada’s premier pre-paid long distance calling card company, we believe there are other significant opportunities for Phonetime to grow as a facilities based telecommunications carrier in both the wire and wireless marketplaces."

The distribution of the Common Shares will be qualified by prospectus. Phonetime intends to file a preliminary prospectus in Alberta and Ontario within 120 days. If receipts for the (final) prospectus are not issued by the Securities Commissions on or before the expiry of 120 days from the closing of the private placement, Phonetime will be required to issue an additional 800,000 Common Shares to the investors.

Phonetime is an emerging telecommunications company with a Class A International Carrier license and has received approval from the CRTC to proceed with its application to become a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC). The company incorporates state-of-the-art VoIP, a high capacity switching platform and an international network of carriers. Phonetime also operates a multilingual, 24-hour seven-day-per-week call centre dedicated to customer service and client satisfaction.

Phonetime chooses Cisco to enable Best-of-Class Communication Services

MISSISSAUGA, ON – March 23, 2000 – Phonetime Inc. (CDN: PINC) and Cisco Systems Canada Co. (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the company has chosen the Cisco VCO/4K open, programmable switch to enhance their network, expand their infrastructure and provide scalable growth to deliver price/performance to North American customers through innovative telecommunications products and services.

The VCO/4K open, programmable switch enables scalable, cost-effective networks that support the rapid deployment of wireline and wireless voice services and enables delivery of enhanced voice services over both circuit and New World packet-switched networks. The VCO/4K switch is the basis for some of the most innovative applications on the market today, such as prepaid calling, voice/fax messaging, intelligent 800-number routing, voice-activated dialing, personal assistant services and Web-initiated conferencing. In addition, it can support core switching functions such as tandem switching, Internet PRI offload, base station control, mobility management and wireless local loop.

Wayne Silver, Phonetime’s President said, "To handle the growing demand for our telecommunications and Internet services, we chose to work with Cisco Systems. The Cisco VCO/4K 4088 port switch provides a quantum leap in technology. We have employed a telco-grade switch with a smaller footprint and an open, scalable, intelligent architecture at a fraction of the cost of competitive offerings. We are very excited about our growing relationship with Cisco and will be working closely with them to deploy their VoIP technology over the next few months, as we build our network across North America."

"We are delighted Phonetime chose a Cisco solution," said Yves Laliberté, director, service provider line of business, Cisco Systems Canada Co. "Enhancing today’s networks and building tomorrow’s infrastructure places new demands on service providers. The VCO/4K open, programmable switch, one of our many best-of-class products, has the largest single programmable switch capacity in the industry. Emerging telecommunications companies like Phonetime are leading the way in providing managed services, wholesale network time, technical support and call centres and Cisco is proud to support their endeavors."

With the Cisco switch, Phonetime has grown from their existing platform with 1,152 ports to a total of 5,280 ports. The T1 capacity has grown from 48 to a total of 208. Phonetime processed over 100 million minutes of time in 1999 with revenue of almost $17 million. "The Cisco solution will allow us to process an additional 400 million minutes of time and give us the capacity to grow our business to over $50 million dollars," said Silver.

PROMOTIONAL NEWS

Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray 30 minute phone card. Send in 2 labels from 16 ounce Ocean Spray juices or blends with the form. No cash register tape required. No expiration date. No limits noted on the form. It appears that the form can be copied, but I can't vouch for that.

From: Ginger Gragg

Mr. Turkey

MR. TURKEY (which in the past offered cards featuring baseball stars) is now offering a 30-minute phonecard for sending in 2 proofs-of-purchase (UPC's) from a 9, 12 or 16

ounce package of their luncheon meats. (No special order forms or receipts are required).

Along with the UPC's, you must send 50 cents in cash, check or money order (made out to "Hillshire Farms") along with a 3x5" card with your name, address & daytime phone #, to: Mr. Turkey Phonecard, P.O. Box 7042, Lees Summit, MO 64064. It will take 2-8 weeks to receive, with a limit of 1 per family/address.

From: Jim Chudnow

Brothermall

will received a free ten minute collectable calling card with your purchase. Quantities limited.

From: Gayle Geisenheimer

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.

This newsletter is distributed free of charge, and available two ways.

1) On-Line on the World Wide Web. The address is: http://www.cardmall.com/pol - All back issues are archived at the web site.

2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: phoneline@cardmall.com

If you wish to unsubscribe from POL, you need to send a message to the

following address: pol-request@coin-auctions.com

In the Body of the Message: address, just type UNSUBSCRIBE