Instead of carrying a bulky Lonely Planet travel book while travelling, an Australian-based manufacturer has developed what is claimed to be the first interactive phonecard featuring the tips from the travel experts, Lonely Planet guide.
"Typically, you can't put bar codes and numbers on the back of a CDROM, by developing this we've added value to a regular phone card. " eoz e-commerce Customer Service Manager Tracy Moore said.
The CDCard - a business card sized CDROM - allows the cardholder to make international phone calls from up to 23 countries worldwide.
The user can also put the card in the CDROM drive of a computer and search for comprehensive travel information including maps, hyperlinks and health information from Lonely Planet.
The phonecard acts independently from the CDROM. You just put in a pin number when making a call.
"Travellers can also search for destinations instead of carrying around a Lonely Planet book," Moore said.
According to Moore, the multimedia phonecard can get up to four volumes of the yellow pages on one card, plus five minutes of video.
The phonecard has been rolled out by Optus and is available from post offices throughout the country for a cost of AU$70.
