pay phone story

Payphone Story – illustrated international encyclopaedia of payphones

Chinese Payphone- Function International

Taiwan’s Function Group established its main manufacturing operation in Huizhou, Guangdong, in 1997. Trading internationally through Function International, the group offered coin and chip-card payphones for both landline and mobile networks. Surviving catalogues and certification records document Huizhou’s manufacturing role, while the extent of deployment within mainland China remains unclear.

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 in China

Function International was the overseas sales arm of Function Group, a telecommunications manufacturer founded by Edward Ho in Taipei in 1979. In 1997 the group established its main manufacturing operation in Huizhou, Guangdong, under the name Function ATI (Huizhou) Telecommunications Co., Ltd. The Huizhou operation became the mainland Chinese base for a payphone range aimed at international markets.

The Huizhou catalogue illustrates how much variety a single manufacturer could offer. The F-130 was a line-powered payphone that accepted coins and chip cards, with a backlit display that could present instructions in several languages. The FW-860 also accepted coins and chip cards but connected wirelessly. In 2009, Function ATI obtained US equipment authorisation for another wireless model, the FW-C2080 CDMA coin payphone. The filing preserves photographs of the cabinet and internal components, along with the user manual.

Above- Yellow and light-coloured Function International examples with a similar layout, including a display, function keys and a card slot at the bottom. The yellow phone is shown in an open-sided street shelter with a red canopy near Yuting Bridge, Beijing. The maker and model are unconfirmed.

Function’s range shows how the public telephone adapted as mobile networks expanded. Operators could offer a familiar coin or card service at a fixed location, even where running a telephone line was impractical.