pay phone story

Name	SS card phone
Date	1990s
Manufacturer	Not known, possibly Taiwanese

The SS card phone

This interesting early Chinese coin-operated public telephone is preserved in the Beijing Telecommunications Museum. Probably dating from the 1980s or early 1990s, it has a yellow handset, armoured cord, metal push-button keypad and sloping instruction panel. A coin inlet sits above the keypad, with a return tray below. Its substantial metal cabinet provided protection for the telephone mechanism and coin storage, while a large hinged door allowed maintenance access. The manufacturer and model remain unidentified. The example illustrates the robust construction of unattended public telephones during China’s transition from staffed telephone services to widespread automatic street telephones, before card-operated equipment became dominant..