You got it wrong. To get a minitel without paying for it you had to opt out of receiving the local white pages phone book. Minitel costs was marginally recoupe

You got it wrong. To get a minitel without paying for it you had to opt out of receiving the local white pages phone book. Minitel costs was marginally recouped by saving on printing and recycling phone books and mostly by paid services. The white pages phone book was still around last year. Also with 6.5 millions minitel owners at peak in 1993 we were far from every household having one.