1. Home
  2. General Telecommunications Forum
  3. [telecom] France bids au revoir to the Minitel

[telecom] France bids au revoir to the Minitel

You know all that stuff that you thought people invented on the Internet, like online plane tickets or romantic chat? Surprise! It was invented in France in the 1980s on the Minitel, simple text terminals that were originally supposed to be (obTelecom:) an electronic phone book.

But hardly anyone uses it any more, so it shuts down for good this weekend.

formatting link
R's, John

***** Moderator's Note *****

The article says that farmers are reluctant to change to Internet-based machines, so I'm curious why they don't simply turn it into a BBS-type system. They've already got the terminals: why not just shrink Minitel to the agricultural market and keep it running?

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
John Levine
Loading thread data ...

It's a 30 year old system with custom terminals, its own dedicated short phone numbers, and probably mainframes on the back end. The farmers will complain (a farmer who's not complaining is a farmer who's dead) but they'll figure something out. I do suspect there is a niche here for ruggedized netbooks or tablet computers that will work reliably in the barn when covered with mud and dust.

R's, John

Reply to
John Levine

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.