July 17, 2012 at 13:48Access to the French alternative to the Internet is closed: Minitel network retires
The final departure to the history of the French video tex Minitel system ( Médium Interactif par Numérisation d'Information TELéphonique ) is an event that went undeservedly unnoticed. How many people know about this development of the late 70s, which in France became the forerunner of the modern Internet and even slowed its penetration?
The commercial story began 30 years ago - in 1982 the Telenet network was launched, access to which was via subscriber terminals - Minitel, consisting of a monitor, keyboard and modem. Later they evolved, models with a color screen (Minitel 1 Couleur) appeared, with the ability to set a password for the terminal (Minitel 2), which did not overcome the prototype stage of Minitel Photographic and others.
Access to resources was carried out by telephone lines - for this it was necessary to dial the "number" of the corresponding service. The number could be found from the "yellow pages" issued with the device for free, or in the phone book of the system itself (it has become the most popular service by request frequency). Companies placed the code for their pages on the network in advertising, just as they are now writing the address of the site. The data transfer rate was 1200/75 bit / s (V.23 standard ).
The number of pages in the Minitel system reached 25 thousand, users were offered a wide variety of services: train, airplane and ticket schedules, stock exchanges, tournament standings for sports competitions, exam results, email, recruiting, etc. There was even a “red light district” - Minitel Rose Here's what chat in adult chat looked like:
By zero, the Minitel subscriber audience was 40% of the French population (25 million subscribers, 9 million terminals).
Initially, there were 2 tariff plans : hourly (20 francs or 3.05 euros / hour) and the actual services rendered. In 1984, a “combined” scheme appeared, in which France Telecom spent 20 francs or 3.05 euros / hour, and service charges amounted to 40 francs or 6.1 euros. (Not sure if the authors of Wikipedia correctly convert francs into euros - all the same, the gap is 15 years).
CNN leadsfigures for 2001: access to the France Telecom network - from 2 cents / min., access to resources - from 5 to 120 cents per minute of connection, depending on the type of content (all in US dollars). That is, from about 57 kopecks per minute (at the rate of 28.85 at the time of CNN publication). To make it clear the distribution of income - as of 2001, Minitel's revenue amounted to $ 614 MUSD, of which $ 391 MUSD - contributions to service providers.
While all over the world the Internet brought new business opportunities, sales channels, development directions, in France, on the contrary, it became a competitive technology for companies that already made good moneywith Minitel. The Internet was considered mainly as an advertising platform and image component, while through Minitel the income was more transparent and tangible. So, in 1997, the French meteorological service refused to post forecasts on the Internet - you had to find out the weather in Paris for free through Yahoo! California And France Telecom did not want to miss a significant income item - even in 2002, Minitel services brought the company more revenue than Internet access. Users were also in no hurry to abandon the familiar and simple technique - while computers needed time to download, Minitel connected instantly. Access to resources was also faster - for example, to buy a train ticket through Minitel took only 3.5 minutes, while ordering through the site took 4.5.
And despite the fact that already since 1996, the dynamics of revenue and traffic began to decline, until the last global Internet, it was not possible to completely replace Minitel: a year ago there were 670 thousand work terminals and 1880 commercial services in the system.
Finally, Orange officially announced the termination of network support from June 30 this year, leaving the FAQ for the latest subscribers on the site - today you can use the terminal for its intended purpose only for connecting two terminals (Minitel Dialogue). Everyone can donate their devices to Orange (or sell for 30 euros on ebay).
For fans of Minitel, the American museum site http://www.minitel.us/ is functioning .
The commercial story began 30 years ago - in 1982 the Telenet network was launched, access to which was via subscriber terminals - Minitel, consisting of a monitor, keyboard and modem. Later they evolved, models with a color screen (Minitel 1 Couleur) appeared, with the ability to set a password for the terminal (Minitel 2), which did not overcome the prototype stage of Minitel Photographic and others.
Access to resources was carried out by telephone lines - for this it was necessary to dial the "number" of the corresponding service. The number could be found from the "yellow pages" issued with the device for free, or in the phone book of the system itself (it has become the most popular service by request frequency). Companies placed the code for their pages on the network in advertising, just as they are now writing the address of the site. The data transfer rate was 1200/75 bit / s (V.23 standard ).
The number of pages in the Minitel system reached 25 thousand, users were offered a wide variety of services: train, airplane and ticket schedules, stock exchanges, tournament standings for sports competitions, exam results, email, recruiting, etc. There was even a “red light district” - Minitel Rose Here's what chat in adult chat looked like:
By zero, the Minitel subscriber audience was 40% of the French population (25 million subscribers, 9 million terminals).
Initially, there were 2 tariff plans : hourly (20 francs or 3.05 euros / hour) and the actual services rendered. In 1984, a “combined” scheme appeared, in which France Telecom spent 20 francs or 3.05 euros / hour, and service charges amounted to 40 francs or 6.1 euros. (Not sure if the authors of Wikipedia correctly convert francs into euros - all the same, the gap is 15 years).
CNN leadsfigures for 2001: access to the France Telecom network - from 2 cents / min., access to resources - from 5 to 120 cents per minute of connection, depending on the type of content (all in US dollars). That is, from about 57 kopecks per minute (at the rate of 28.85 at the time of CNN publication). To make it clear the distribution of income - as of 2001, Minitel's revenue amounted to $ 614 MUSD, of which $ 391 MUSD - contributions to service providers.
While all over the world the Internet brought new business opportunities, sales channels, development directions, in France, on the contrary, it became a competitive technology for companies that already made good moneywith Minitel. The Internet was considered mainly as an advertising platform and image component, while through Minitel the income was more transparent and tangible. So, in 1997, the French meteorological service refused to post forecasts on the Internet - you had to find out the weather in Paris for free through Yahoo! California And France Telecom did not want to miss a significant income item - even in 2002, Minitel services brought the company more revenue than Internet access. Users were also in no hurry to abandon the familiar and simple technique - while computers needed time to download, Minitel connected instantly. Access to resources was also faster - for example, to buy a train ticket through Minitel took only 3.5 minutes, while ordering through the site took 4.5.
And despite the fact that already since 1996, the dynamics of revenue and traffic began to decline, until the last global Internet, it was not possible to completely replace Minitel: a year ago there were 670 thousand work terminals and 1880 commercial services in the system.
Finally, Orange officially announced the termination of network support from June 30 this year, leaving the FAQ for the latest subscribers on the site - today you can use the terminal for its intended purpose only for connecting two terminals (Minitel Dialogue). Everyone can donate their devices to Orange (or sell for 30 euros on ebay).
For fans of Minitel, the American museum site http://www.minitel.us/ is functioning .