There were interesting demonstrations of projects linking schools via this means, including one where local schools compiled a newspaper from distant sources in the locality. This has since been repeated on a global scale, notably by schools from Calderdale at the 1990 United Kingdom Festival of Languages held at Warwick University. There are a number of problems. Relatively few schools use the service, partly because of a lack of awareness, partly because of the costs involved. It also emphasises the economic differences between countries - few schools in Greece, Italy, Turkey and former Eastern bloc countries have this facility.
Schools are also wary of incurring large phone bills.
Another obstacle has been the technical incompatibility between the two commonest systems - Dialcom used by the British Telecom system, and the French Minitel system. It is good to report that the two systems have just come to an arrangement whereby a bridge has been created into Edutel, the education service of Teletel. This should soon mean that communicating across the two systems will be an everyday occurrence. The Council of Europe promotes school links and exchanges as a concrete and practical contribution to the development of a Europe based on the principles alluded to earlier. Consequently, the Network for School Links and Exchanges has the task to promote high-quality school partnerships and exchanges including an element of structured and reflected intercultural learning.