Access to the French Internet alternative has been closed: Minitel has fizzled out
The final departure to the history of the French videoteks system Minitel ( Médium Interactif par Numérisation d'Information TELéphonique ) - 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, which was accessed via subscriber terminals - Minitel, consisting of a monitor, keyboard and modem. Later they evolved, there were models with a color screen (Minitel 1 Couleur), with the ability to set a password for the terminal (Minitel 2), which did not overcome the Minitel Photographic prototype stage and others.
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Access to resources was carried out via telephone lines - for this it was necessary to dial the "number" of the corresponding service. The number could be recognized from the “yellow pages” issued with the device for free, or in the phone book of the system itself (it became the most popular service in terms of the frequency of requests). Companies also placed the code to their pages on the web in advertising just as they write the address of the site. The data transfer rate was 1200/75 bps (V.23 standard ).
The number of pages in the Minitel system reached 25,000, users were offered a wide variety of services: train schedules, airplanes and ticketing, stock reports, tournament sporting tables, exam results, email, recruiting, etc. There was even a red-light district. Minitel Rose. Here's what the chat in adult chat looked like:
By zero, the audience of Minitel subscribers was 40% of the population of France (25 million subscribers, 9 million terminals).
Initially, there were 2 tariff plans : hourly (20 francs or 3.05 euro / hour) and in fact services rendered. In 1984, a “combined” scheme appeared, in which France 20 Francs, or 3.05 euros / hour, was spent by France Telecom, and 40 francs, or 6.1 euros, was the service charge. (We are not sure that the authors of Wikipedia correctly convert francs to the euro - after all, the gap is 15 years).
CNN cites figures 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 publication of CNN). To understand the distribution of income - as of 2001, Minitel revenues amounted to $ 614 MUSD, of which $ 391 MUSD - deductions to service providers.
While in the whole world the Internet carried business to new opportunities, sales channels, development directions, in France, on the contrary, it became a competitive technology for companies that already earned good money with Minitel. The Internet was viewed mainly as an advertising platform and image component, while through Minitel the revenue was more transparent and tangible. So, in 1997, the French meteorological service refused to post forecasts on the Internet - it was free to find out the weather in Paris through Yahoo! California. And France Telecom did not want to miss a significant source of income - even in 2002, Minitel services brought the company more revenue than Internet access. Users were also in no hurry to abandon the usual and simple technology - while computers needed time to download, Minitel was connected instantly. Access to resources was also faster — for example, it took just 3.5 minutes to buy a train ticket through Minitel, while ordering through the site took 4.5.
And despite the fact that since 1996, the dynamics of revenues and traffic began to decline, until the last global network the Internet could not completely replace Minitel: just a year ago, there were 670 thousand working 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, the terminal can only be used for communication between two terminals (Minitel Dialogue). Anyone can donate their devices in 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, which was accessed via subscriber terminals - Minitel, consisting of a monitor, keyboard and modem. Later they evolved, there were models with a color screen (Minitel 1 Couleur), with the ability to set a password for the terminal (Minitel 2), which did not overcome the Minitel Photographic prototype stage and others.
')
Access to resources was carried out via telephone lines - for this it was necessary to dial the "number" of the corresponding service. The number could be recognized from the “yellow pages” issued with the device for free, or in the phone book of the system itself (it became the most popular service in terms of the frequency of requests). Companies also placed the code to their pages on the web in advertising just as they write the address of the site. The data transfer rate was 1200/75 bps (V.23 standard ).
The number of pages in the Minitel system reached 25,000, users were offered a wide variety of services: train schedules, airplanes and ticketing, stock reports, tournament sporting tables, exam results, email, recruiting, etc. There was even a red-light district. Minitel Rose. Here's what the chat in adult chat looked like:
By zero, the audience of Minitel subscribers was 40% of the population of France (25 million subscribers, 9 million terminals).
Initially, there were 2 tariff plans : hourly (20 francs or 3.05 euro / hour) and in fact services rendered. In 1984, a “combined” scheme appeared, in which France 20 Francs, or 3.05 euros / hour, was spent by France Telecom, and 40 francs, or 6.1 euros, was the service charge. (We are not sure that the authors of Wikipedia correctly convert francs to the euro - after all, the gap is 15 years).
CNN cites figures 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 publication of CNN). To understand the distribution of income - as of 2001, Minitel revenues amounted to $ 614 MUSD, of which $ 391 MUSD - deductions to service providers.
While in the whole world the Internet carried business to new opportunities, sales channels, development directions, in France, on the contrary, it became a competitive technology for companies that already earned good money with Minitel. The Internet was viewed mainly as an advertising platform and image component, while through Minitel the revenue was more transparent and tangible. So, in 1997, the French meteorological service refused to post forecasts on the Internet - it was free to find out the weather in Paris through Yahoo! California. And France Telecom did not want to miss a significant source of income - even in 2002, Minitel services brought the company more revenue than Internet access. Users were also in no hurry to abandon the usual and simple technology - while computers needed time to download, Minitel was connected instantly. Access to resources was also faster — for example, it took just 3.5 minutes to buy a train ticket through Minitel, while ordering through the site took 4.5.
And despite the fact that since 1996, the dynamics of revenues and traffic began to decline, until the last global network the Internet could not completely replace Minitel: just a year ago, there were 670 thousand working 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, the terminal can only be used for communication between two terminals (Minitel Dialogue). Anyone can donate their devices in Orange (or sell for 30 euros on ebay).
For fans of Minitel, the American museum site http://www.minitel.us/ is functioning.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/147950/
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