Minitel (minitel) built an online network in France before the appearance of "the Internet"

ByKevin

"Internet" is a computer network connected by using Internet Protocol (IP) as a communication protocol, and now it has become a blend in everyday life. However, in France, this "Internet" before the spread of "Minitel (Minitel)"We boast of a system called" Rising proud "and existed until 2012.

Minitel: The Online World France Built Before the Web - IEEE Spectrum
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/minitel-the-online-world-france-built-before-the-web


In the 1970s, the French telephone network situation was particularly terrible among advanced countries, supporting 47 million French citizens with less than 7 million telephone lines. Simon Nola, a bureaucrat who fears that he will lose the technology of the US at last, and Alan Mank who served as a government advisor in 1978,The Computerization of SocietyWe submitted a report entitled "President Valerie Giscard Destan" entitled "President"

"Minitel" was born due to the planning of the postal Telephone and Telephone Ministry (PTT) that it wanted to cut off the telephone book printing cost and the telephone operator's personnel expenses. Pilot operation began in 1978 and official service began in 1982. The name "Minitel" is an abbreviation for French "Médiuminteractif parnumérisationd'informationtéléphonique" (interactive media digitizing telephone information).

ByFrédéric BISSON

"Minitel" was able to do online purchase, train reservation, stock price check, phone book search, mailbox creation, chat and so on. PTT ordered the creation of millions of terminals to promptly disseminate the service, and lent it to telephone subscribers without charge. "Minitel" also actively promoting on television, and those who got minitel terminal at post office connected the telephone line to the plug and dialed the local gateway soon connected to the network. At the time of the Internet, it was necessary to acquire an expensive computer, install complicated software, pay a high-priced long distance telephone fee, and prepay the service fee to the service provider for each service he would like to use , So you can see that "Minitel" was quite ahead.

For advanced technology, it also includes the incorporation of "Internet of Things (IoT)" that allows remote operation of heaters, VHS recorders (video), security alarms, sprinklers and other operations.

Also, for example, "Creata" and "Sophie" as services that provide personalized information using natural language interfaces like Cortana and Siri, "Billetel" as a similar service before ticket sales "Ticketmaster" , Before the telebanking there were "Minitel banking" and a number of services that anticipated the present age.

As the demand increases, the service provider's hardware market also expands. In France, I wanted to expand domestic production, but as a result of a request from UNIX support request from a hacker entrepreneur, a group company Bull, a French computer company, gave no, the machine hosting the service was AT & amp ; T, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, etc. resulted in an increase in the share of American companies.

In 1993, the use of "Minitel" came to the climax, its usage time reached 90 million hours, the available services are 26,000 types, the sales amount to about 1 billion euros (about 100 billion yen ) As well. This year peaked because the spread of the Internet began in 1994. Although there were a few people who continue to use "Minitel" from rejection to other than French, the flow of the transition will not stop, and in 2010 the service sales will decrease to 30 million euros (about 3 billion yen). French Telecom (former PTT) terminated the service on 30th June 2012, considering the network maintenance cost as 85% of the sales will be allocated by the service provider company.

According to AFP communication, "Minitel" was utilized until the end in remote areas where high-speed internet connection can not be used, and in particular, farmers used it frequently because of the fact that they can access by simply hitting the number.

In Japan, "PC communication" which was a different network from the Internet boasted prosperity from the 1980s to the 2000s, but at the end of March 2006 NIFTY-Serve (Nifty Serve), the biggest commercial operator, completed service provision , It is practically finished.