pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

001 North American Payphones
027 South African Payphones
030 European Payphones
044 British Payphones and Booths
- 044 BRITISH PAYPHONES
- BRITISH PHONE BOXES
061 Australasian Payphones
081 Japanese Payphones
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South African Payphone- PLESSEY MIDORI CARDPHONE (1998)

Introduced in 1998, the Midori cardphone replaced earlier Telkor card telephones after Tellumat secured Telkom’s contract. Accepting prepaid smart cards through a front-mounted reader, it featured electronic call control, an LCD display and vandal-resistant construction. Mobile phones soon rendered this advanced public telephone obsolete.

Name	PLESSEY MIDORI CARDPHONE
Date	c. 1995
Manufacturer	Plessey Tellumat (formerly Plessey Tokai), South Africa Telkor lost the card phone contract and they were replaced by this Plessey model – a Midori.

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

PLESSEY MIDORI CARDPHONE (1998)

Manufacturer: Tellumat (formerly Plessey Tokai), South Africa

Introduced in 1995, the Midori cardphone replaced earlier Telkor card telephones after Tellumat (formerly Plessey Tokai) secured Telkom’s public cardphone contract. The robust electronic telephone accepted Telkom prepaid smart cards through a front-mounted reader and incorporated an LCD display, electronic call control and vandal-resistant construction. Installed throughout South Africa in wall-mounted and booth configurations, it formed part of Telkom’s strategy to expand cashless public telephone services while reducing maintenance and coin-handling costs. Similar technology was used in Europe and the United Kingdom, reflecting international trends in intelligent public telephony. Although technologically advanced, the Midori enjoyed only a relatively short service life before mobile phones rapidly reduced demand for public payphones.