The Rise and Impact of Minitel: A Digital Revolution Ahead of Its Tim

The Rise and Impact of Minitel: A Digital Revolution Ahead of Its Tim

Table of Contents

In the early 1980s, while the rest of the world was using paper directories to find information, the French were happily clicking buttons to book tickets, pay bills, search for jobs, chat in forums, and even meet people online. Today, we’ll remember Minitel — a French information network that was decades ahead of the digital era. We’ll discuss why it became so popular and what ultimately led to its downfall.

The Making of a Network

This story began in the 1970s when the French government decided that paper telephone directories were a thing of the past. In reality, the motivation was not a desire for technological progress but simple economics and a wish to save money: as the number of telephone subscribers rapidly grew, so did the costs of printing and distributing telephone books, while the profitability of their production was dwindling. Additionally, with the expansion of telephone networks, the load on information services increased geometrically, and expanding the operator staff and organizing new workplaces for them entailed additional expenses. The cost of printing 16 million telephone directories in 1978 reached 307 million francs, consuming 20 thousand tons of paper. This needed urgent addressing.

The solution was proposed by the state telecommunications company Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones (later renamed France Télécom), and it seemed quite bold for those times: replace the directories with an electronic service accessible directly from home. However, the idea's authors can't be called the inventors of computer networks: as early as 1973, a large article about "home terminals" in Japan for accessing computer information services and a scientific library was published in Le Monde. More than 130 thousand telephone network subscribers in Tokyo and Osaka with push-button telephones could use this service. It was developed and implemented by specialists from Japan's Ministry of Communications: they planned to invest 3 billion yen so that clients could buy goods, read newspapers, take distance learning at universities, purchase tickets, or pay bills without leaving home. Journalists believed that such terminals would soon replace regular telephones in European homes; all it took was to adopt the Japanese experience without reinventing the wheel.

Minitel – teleinformatics

The new promising direction was named "telematics," and specialists from the National Center for Telecommunications Studies (CNET), which had been designing computers and data transmission systems since the 1950s, were tasked with developing hardware and software for the future "tele-information network." The Transpac protocol was created at the Research Center for Television and Telecommunications (CCETT) in Rennes, based on the analog text transmission technology Antiope (d’Acquisition numérique et télévisualisation d’images organisées en pages d’écriture), which CCETT developed in 1976... by order of the USSR. The "teletext" system was intended for broadcasting information to journalists in different languages during the 1980 Olympics; it also formed the basis of experimental "interactive guides" for foreign tourists visiting Moscow and Leningrad during the Olympics. All these technologies were successfully demonstrated at the "Sport-76" exhibition in Moscow back in 1976.

Tourist Guide - USSR 1976.

Engineers at CCETT had only to combine Soviet "teletext" with protocol X.25 to allow text data transmission over telephone lines. Thus, the Transpac protocol emerged as the foundation of the future "tele-information network." Based on this protocol, the French developed a prototype interactive telephone directory called TITAN (Terminal interactif de télétexte Antiope), showcased at the Berlin radio exhibition IFA in 1977. That same year, inspired by the successes of French computer scientists, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing allocated a budget for developing a national information network project. The project was named Médium interactif par numérisation d’information téléphonique (interactive environment for digitizing telephone information), abbreviated as Minitel, led by Jean-Paul Maury from France Télécom.

Internet Before Internet

Like any other complex technological projects, Minitel was initially tested in several regions before being rolled out nationwide. In 1980, an experiment was launched in Saint-Malo. In its first phase, 55 users (20 companies and 35 private individuals) were connected to the network, with interactive telephone directories containing information about city telephone network subscribers being the only available function. Engineers specially developed terminals for Minitel equipped with keyboards, television displays, and 1200 baud modems.

Minitel terminal

A year later, 4,000 terminals were connected to Minitel in Ille-et-Vilaine department — the experiment aimed to completely abandon paper telephone books and replace operator-based directory assistance with an electronic service. Another experiment was conducted in Vélizy-Villacoublay, Versailles, Jouy-en-Josas, Buc, Bièvres, and several other localities that same year. There, volunteers were given 2,500 Videotex terminals configured as set-top boxes connected to televisions controlled by remotes with small alphanumeric keyboards. The keyboards allowed typing only in uppercase letters.

Subscribers in these cities gained access not only to electronic "yellow pages" but also to various other services provided by independent companies. This included teleshopping services, subscriptions to press readable directly from screens, electronic bulletin boards, and mail allowing message exchanges with other subscribers. The new technology thrilled users; rumors about it spread like wildfire. In 1981, Vélizy opened the first Minitel server center capable of connecting up to 300 subscribers simultaneously.

Developers quickly realized that Minitel could become a commercially successful project: apart from basic services (like phone directories and weather forecasts), they could offer additional services — bulletin boards, electronic publications, stock quotes and news, ticket reservations, or hotel bookings — financially incentivizing companies to develop further services. In practice, this led to creating AFTEL — a French association of telematic service providers and an entire e-commerce industry. And this happened in the early 80s when future WWW creator Tim Berners-Lee still worked as a software consultant at CERN without any grand visions. For instance, telecom company Frost Telecom made 6 billion francs annually (about 1.5 billion euros today) from its popular electronic store Minotaur Market. Giants like Amazon hadn't even been conceived yet.

The first messaging service on Minitel was called M3V; messages could be sent either to an individual subscriber's electronic mailbox or a discussion group visible to other network users. M3V became a prototype for later Usenet groups and internet forums. Providers didn't consider this service serious back then; they saw "telematics" as a means for providing information rather than communication. But M3V became Minitel's most popular resource, overshadowing other digital services.

Minitel terminal - M3V

Officially available to everyone in 1982, Minitel terminals were produced by three companies: Matra, Philips, and Alcatel — all aiming for affordability. The simplest and most popular model, Minitel 1 (a small display with a foldable keyboard), was provided free of charge to subscribers — France Télécom could afford this thanks to savings on printing millions of annually updated telephone directories.

Minitel 1

More advanced models like Minitel 10 with color screens rented for 200 francs monthly or sold freely had faster modems and additional ports for peripherals like printers.

Minitel 10

The terminal software granting network resource access was called Télétel which sometimes causes terminological confusion. On Minitel only time connected mattered — not distance between subscriber and server. Phone directory services were conditionally free: no charge for first three minutes.

Téléte

Architecturally resembling later BBS electronic bulletin boards: connect terminal via phone line dialing four-digit server number starting with prefix 36; once connected choose desired service via on-screen menu.

BBS electronic bulletin board technology

Popularity skyrocketed: soon private companies launched own Minitel servers — mail order electronic stores; ticket sales services; gaming resources; even dating sites (most popular Sextel by entrepreneur Cyrille Juber). Within years many French government agencies had Minitel sites — at least providing organizational opening hours; answers common queries (like required document packages); send electronic inquiries too.

Banks & utilities allowed financial transactions & bill payments via Minitel too reaching 17 million users by late '80s.

Networked Networks

Similar projects developed globally around same time based on Videotex teletext technology transmitting mixed text & pixel graphics content — UK's Prestel; Germany's Bildschirmtext; Canada's Telidon; Japan's Captain — but high-quality display costs & low phone line speeds — especially US — meant it sometimes took up six minutes displaying terminal pages frustrating users entirely whereas primarily transmitting text & symbolic pseudo-graphics meant low speeds posed no problems whatsoever thus achieving phenomenal popularity within France alone.

Minitel 1

In 1982 young entrepreneurs Thierry Rozé & Xavier Niel launched instant messaging service resembling modern messengers quickly becoming massive hit: accounting up-to 85% traffic within months; journalist Marielle Rigini describing Strasbourg's “Minitel fever” sweeping city: “People communicating others network dining table bed kitchen toilet — a hellish passion — scandals technology cocktail turning entire city upside down…” Sound familiar?

June 18th '85 saw Minitel falling victim own success: massive Transpac network failure nearing capacity handling daily load two-and-a-half million calls; April 15th '86 brought another milestone history network introducing zone code '3618' allowing terminals connect each other directly peer-to-peer basis alongside servers too registering over two-point-three million users by year's end.

By '88 various companies began developing selling terminal emulation kits allowing regular computer owners modems access network leading exponential audience growth reaching twenty million French users by Millennium's turn — anyone born/living France period knowing what Minitel was — even colonies actively using it too.

Like any society Minitel had crime thriving within: '82 police commissioner Roger Le Taillanter published book “Paris Vice” detailing network's underbelly — prostitution pimping drugs depravity gun counterfeit document trade even human trafficking — national bestseller many readers using guidebook reference manual instead whilst hackers frequented finding ways free calls/network access sharing technical findings amongst selves eagerly too not mentioning French government regularly facing strike protest organization coordinated through Minitel particularly active unions exploiting opportunity readily so.

The internet began to spread in France in 1990, but for two whole decades, it existed alongside Minitel, with it being not entirely clear which of these two networks was more popular. However, the services offered on the internet were mostly free, and access to the network was inexpensive, whereas connecting to Minitel resources cost the user about 1 franc per minute. This eventually led to a mass migration of users to the internet, and by the first decade of the 21st century, the number of Minitel subscribers had decreased to 800,000 people. In 2012, the Minitel network was completely decommissioned.

Nevertheless, it is still alive. Enthusiasts have created a special device called Mini Mitt, which connects preserved working terminals to Wi-Fi and allows them to connect to carefully recreated Minitel servers that once operated in France.

Mini Mitt
Mini Mitt 

Even faulty devices are put to use: they are used to build Linux terminals and portable computers with single-board computers inside.

Besides the army of loyal fans, Minitel also had its opponents, who called this network an invention of technocrats foolishly spending state money, a cause of moral decline, a haven for perverts, a money-making machine, as well as a system that caused France to lag significantly behind other European countries in internet technology development at the beginning of the new millennium. However, be that as it may, it was Minitel that placed France at the absolute forefront of telecommunications, digitalization, electronic commerce, and all those smart words that still resonate loudly from every television in the early 1980s.