[ih] Minitel (was: Re: OSI and alternate realiv )

[Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond]

On 16/03/2024 22:17, Bob Purvy via Internet-history wrote:
> Even when they actually*had*  the future up and running, they spurned it:
>
> Minitel. It caught on, the French loved it, and the PTT still failed to
> capitalize on it.

France Telecom made an absolute killing with it - with hundreds of 
millions of yearly revenue for several years. The main asset (initially) 
which eventually turned into a disadvantage was that it was using 
Videotex, a display technology that was invented in the 70s which 
allowed for rudimentary graphics at a low cost.
When the World Wide Web arrived, its display capabilities vastly 
overwhelmed the capabilities of Minitel, besides it being much cheaper 
to use the Internet than Minitel. As people started owning computers, 
software for connecting to Minitel was flimsy and connecting to Minitel 
services at 1200/75 baud was flimsy and unreliable since the most 
commonly used modem was US Robotics which evolved from Courier -> 
Courier HST -> Sportster going from V.32 to V.90.

But the people at France Telecom still thought Minitel was better than 
Internet. I had a private meeting at 103 Rue de Grenelle, France 
Telecom's Headquarters in Paris, in 1997, where the heads of France 
Telecom, TransPac and VTCOM (the multimedia arm of France Telecom at the 
time) laughed at my presentation in relation to the Internet because "it 
is in English, people need a computer and it is not sustainable" - with 
the joke being "you are kidding yourself if you can make money with 
something that you are giving for free" - the open joke being on "Les 
Américains" who were obviously going to hit a brick wall and come back 
to a more sustainable model like Minitel.

They only understood that Minitel had lived its day in 2012. By then all 
the people I had spoken to had retired. I guess Minitel did live longer 
than I expected.

Kindest regards,

Olivier