pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

Taiwan Payphone- Function International

Function International was the international arm of Function Group, producing electronic payphones for worldwide markets. Its extensive range included conventional landline, GSM, 3G and VoIP models accepting coins, chip and magnetic cards. Many featured rugged steel construction, graphical displays and remote management, allowing operators to monitor and reprogram phones centrally.

Name	Function International Payphones
Date	C. 1995 – 2005
Manufacturer	Function International
Link	https://functiongroup.weebly.com/ Brochure F-800 Coin Payphone Brochure G-855 Coin Payphone

Development of Function International

Function International was the international sales arm of the Function Group, a Taiwanese telecommunications manufacturer founded by Edward Ho in Taipei in 1979. The group established manufacturing in Taiwan in 1984, an Atlanta office in 1988, and later expanded into Hong Kong and China. Its main manufacturing operation, Function ATI, was established at Huizhou, China, in 1997. Function International itself was established in the United States around 2000, principally to serve Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Function specialised in sophisticated electronic public telephones for conventional landlines and later GSM, 3G and VoIP networks. Its extensive range included coin, chip-card, magnetic-card and combined-payment models. The same basic cabinets were adapted to different networks: for example, the 800-series appeared as F-series landline, G-series GSM, S-series VoIP and W-series 3G versions.

The F-800/810/815 family featured steel vandal-resistant construction, electronic coin validation, multilingual graphical displays and remote management. The F-810 accepted chip cards while the F-815 additionally accepted magnetic cards.

The later GSM G-855, G-860 and G-865 incorporated quad-band GSM/GPRS, remote programming and even compatibility with solar-powered installations. Their RAMS-IP management system allowed operators to remotely change tariffs, download software, monitor alarms and collect call records.

Function therefore represents an interesting late generation of payphone manufacturer: rather than producing one national telephone company’s standard instrument, it offered a modular international platform adaptable to different networks, currencies and payment systems.