From: ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk (Philippe Goujard)
Newsgroups: alt.internet.services
Subject: Re: Gateway to Minitel?
Date: 26 Aug 92 12:24:46 GMT
Organization: ICL, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 4SN, UK

Peter.Gorny@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Peter Gorny) writes:

>thomson@fluky.mitre.org (Duncan Thomson) writes:

>>Does anyone know how to get from the internet to/from the French
>>MINITEL network?

>I am also looking for such a gateway. I have heard of some commercial
>mailboxes in Germany, that they offer the gateway service between uucp
>and Bildschirmtext (which is the German version of interactive videotext).
>But you have to subscribe to their mailbox services first.

>Peter Gorny



There is a common mistake to confuse the minitel for a sort of french network

The "Minitel" is  NOT a network but a terminal.

Minitel is the name of a small cheap terminal given by France Telecom (the 
local french PTT) to people asking it (one Minitel per phone line).

This terminal has a built-in V23 (1200/75 bps) E71 modem.
It can display Videotext (an alpha-mosaic alphabet, like the english Prestel
"viewdata" but not fully compatible)
in 40 columns mode and 8 colors.
The most recent ones also have :
- 80 columns mode and vt100 emulation
- "hi resolution" graphics : 320*200 monochrome 
- Character font uploadable.
- Transfert Minitel<->PC up to 9600 bps (but only with the local computer,
the modem is still V23).

There is one public X25 network in france called "Transpac". On that network
most of the servers can recognise videotext.
There are public access point in every departement they are called PAVI
(Point d'Acces VIdeotext) and work like remote PAD's. The price of a service
is not proportional to the distance (like most X25 networks). The price in 
fact is calculated from a "service group", the service groups are called 
Teletel1, Teletel2, Teletel3 etc... (also known in France as 3613, 3614, 3615
etc...). The greater the number the more expensive it is, to give you an 
example Teletel3 costs in France already 60FF/mn (i.e about 6GBP or 12 USD) 
to that price if you call outside france you have to add the cost of the 
phone call and/or the cost of the network and/or any subscribtion.

As THE french X25 network, Transpac is connected to the main other X25 
networks worldwide and there are some services in different countries that 
lets you acces this network. Most of the time you need a minitel or a 
minitel emulator, there are however gateway to/from terminals like the 
german BTX (available in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland).

Although I used it to connect to american servers like Compuserve
or Pan people MUST have an account in order to enter those computers (or
network of computers for CompuServe).

As far as I know there is no public available server in France that offer
email access. 

In summary : To be able to exchange mail or data with people in france
first find a machine (or a network) where both of you have access 
(at a reasonable price). And if you plan to get one one machine which is on 
Teletel you need either a minitel or a modem (remember most american modems 
dont do V23) plus an emulation programm for you computer.

For more Info read the FAQ in soc.culture.french which gives some examples 
and prices of connection.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philippe GOUJARD                              Email : ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk
if a group of N persons implements a COBOL compiler, there will be N-1
passes.  Someone in the group has to be the manager.
		-- T. Cheatham