page_title: Minitel
section_title: Technology
hierarchical_section_title: Minitel / Technology
caption_attribution_description: Terminal de Vidéotex Thomson utilisé lors de l'expérience Télétel de Vélizy
context_page_description: The Minitel was a videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and was the world's most successful online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was invented in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes in Brittany, France.
  The service was rolled out experimentally on July 15, 1980 in Saint-Malo, France, and from autumn 1980 in other areas, and introduced commercially throughout France in 1982 by the PTT. From its early days, users could make online purchases, make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a similar way to what is now made possible by the Internet.
  In February 2009, France Télécom indicated the Minitel network still had 10 million monthly connections. France Télécom retired the service on 30 June 2012.
context_section_description: Minitel used computer terminals consisting of a text-only monochrome screen, a keyboard and a modem, packaged into a single tabletop unit. Minitel terminals could display rudimentary graphics using a set of predefined block graphics characters. Color units were later available for a fee, but remained seldom-used. Aftermarket printers were available.
  Minitel used the existing Transpac network, but its popularity caused problems for the network's commercial users. After a severe disruption in June 1985, France Télécom separated business traffic from Télétel, dedicated to the Minitel service. When connecting, the Minitel's integrated modem generally dialed a short code number connecting to a PAVI (Point d'Accès VIdéotexte, "videotext access point") from the subscriber's analog telephone line. The PAVI in turn connected digitally via Transpac to the destination servers of the appropriate company or administration.
  In France the most common dial number was "3615", while "3617" was used by more expensive services. Minitel services names were often prefixed with this number to identify them as such. Billboard ads at the time often consisted of nothing more than an image, a company name, and a "3615" number; the fact that a Minitel service was being advertised was then clear by implication, similarly to the use of ".com" for later web services.
  Minitel used a half-duplex asymmetric data transmission via its modem. It downlinked at 1200 bit/s (9 KB/min) and uplinked at 75 bit/s (0.6 KB/min). This allowed fast downloads, for the time. The system, which came to be known as "1275" was more correctly known as V.23. This system had been developed for general-purpose data communications, but was most commonly used for Minitel and equivalent services around the world.
  Technically, Minitel refers to the terminals, while the network is known as Télétel.
  Minitel terminals use the AZERTY keyboard most commonly used in France (as opposed to the QWERTY keyboard more common in the English-speaking world).
caption: Teletel on a Thomson videotex terminal
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