pay phone story

Payphone Story – illustrated international encyclopaedia of payphones

Brazilian Payphone- Daruma CARD Payphones

Daruma manufactured card payphones for Brazil’s public telephone network. Using prepaid inductive cards, officially introduced nationally in 1992, they replaced token payment with electronic credit deduction. The illustrated black and blue examples feature pushbutton keypads, instruction panels and armoured handset cords; several include displays showing callers their remaining telephone credit.

Name	Daruma CARD Payphones
Date	Late 1990s
Manufacturer	Daruma Payphones
Credit	With thanks to- https://acervo.institutofuturos.org.br/ Images copyright Musehum, Museum of Communications and Humanities (Brazilian Telecommunications Museum)
Link	PDF explaining Brazil phone cards (in Portugese)

Above- standard black version

Development of the Daruma TPI Tamura Payphones in Brazil

Daruma’s card payphones formed part of Brazil’s modernisation of public telephony during the 1990s. They used prepaid inductive telephone cards, officially introduced nationally during Eco-92 in June 1992, replacing the familiar telephone tokens. The examples shown include black and blue housings, with different arrangements of keypads, instruction panels and displays. Armoured handset cords and substantial wall-mounted cases suited public use. Electronic displays allowed callers to monitor remaining credit, while printed instructions explained operation. These instruments illustrate successive designs within Brazil’s cardphone era, when locally manufactured equipment supported public access to telephone services in streets, transport facilities and other shared spaces.

These used Brazil’s inductive telephone cards, with credit stored in tiny metallic circuits within the plastic.

Reading credit: the telephone used magnetic induction to detect intact circuits, each representing one credit unit.
Deducting credit: a stronger electrical pulse induced enough current to burn through a tiny fuse in one circuit, permanently spending that unit.
Remaining balance: intact circuits represented the unused credit. The card could be removed and used again until exhausted, but could not be recharged. jcis.sbrt.org.br

The card stayed stationary inside the reader and needed no direct electrical contacts. It could be inserted either way round or either face up. This reduced moving parts and maintenance—a practical advantage for public payphones.