pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

South African Payphone- TELKOR CHATTERBOX 1995

Introduced in 1993, the Telkor Chatterbox was a supervised tabletop payphone designed for shops, cafés and other attended locations. Based on an electronic exchange telephone, it accepted old and new South African coins and featured an LCD display, volume control, language selection, last-number redial and programmable tariffs set by the owner.

Name	TELKOR CHATTERBOX
Date	c. 1995
Manufacturer	Telkor (TMSA – Telephone Manufacturers of South Africa Ltd.), Springs, South Africa

Information and images with special thanks to Mark Van Der Heever and Peter Van Almelo

Development of the TELKOR CHATTERBOX 1995

Introduced in 1993, the Telkor Chatterbox represented a modern revival of South Africa’s supervised tabletop payphone, intended for use in shops, cafés, hotels, service stations and other attended public locations. Unlike conventional outdoor payphones, the Chatterbox was based on a standard electronic exchange telephone, providing the convenience and functionality of an executive desk telephone while incorporating a secure coin-payment system. It accepted both the older and newer South African coin series, allowing a smooth transition during changes to the national currency.

A distinctive feature of the Chatterbox was that the owner or tenant could set their own call tariff, enabling businesses to earn revenue from customer calls while recovering telephone costs. Advanced for its time, the unit included an LCD display, electronic keypad, adjustable speaker volume, multilingual operating instructions, last-number redial and programmable call charges. Although equipped with most executive telephone features, it did not include hands-free operation. By placing the instrument in supervised environments, Telkom and Telkor reduced vandalism, theft and maintenance costs while providing reliable public access to the telephone network. The Chatterbox was one of the last significant coin-operated payphones developed in South Africa before prepaid phonecards and mobile telephony rapidly reduced demand for traditional public telephones.