Phonecard payphones
The UK was one of the earliest countries to install cardphones, later renamed phonecard telephones, in 1981. BT introduced them first then Mercury Communications followed.
However, despite the apparent advantages of phonecards over coins to a telco, BT didn't seem all that keen on them, although they moaned about their coinphones being subject to vandalism a lot. I rarely saw anyone using Mercury's phones.
I remember seeing a letter from someone complaining about the scarcity of cardphones compared to coinphones in some parts of Heathrow airport, to which BT commented that cardphones were more expensive for them to buy. But surely the money would have been recouped by people buying high value phonecards to make international calls for one thing.
Italy was the first country to introduce cardphones, this was a question on a TV quiz once.
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