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Was Minitel something only the middle and upper classes had, or was it a universal thing? I'm from the UK, I didn't get onto the web until 1999, before that we

Was Minitel something only the middle and upper classes had, or was it a universal thing? I'm from the UK, I didn't get onto the web until 1999, before that we used Teletext. I think the advantage to it was most televisions supported Teletext by the 1980s and it was a free service - albeit you had to pay your annual TV license.

chinathrow 9y ago
I was also a heavy user of telext in my earlier years as a news junkie - I wouldn't compare it to Minitel or the web though, as it was unidirectional only.
- mjw1007 9y ago
  The UK equivalent of Minitel was Prestel, which used the same display system as Teletext.
djulius 9y ago
It was ubiquitous, everybody had a minitel at home since it was provided for free by France Télécom. The white/yellow page service (3611) was free for the first three minutes and was widely used. My parents never had the (huge) yearly book version at home. As mentioned in other comments it was also widely used to consult Baccalauréat (national exam like SAT) results.
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  At peak in 2003 there were 9.1 millions minitels for 55 millions people so not ubiquitous but common. 3611 used to offer the first 3 minutes free for a few years then removed this.
  - vbernat 9y ago
    3611 was free until 2007, when it became mostly irrelevant. 9.1 millions of minitels is about half the population (in number of households). I don't think that 2003 was a peak since Internet was already there for quite some time (people could get broadband at this time).
  - Renaud 9y ago
    People had a minitel per family, not per person, so nearly 10 million minitels make for a pretty good penetration rate.
d--b 9y ago
Everybody had one. You didn't have to buy the terminal, most people rented it from the phone company for a few francs a month. And the most useful services were free.
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  try that again. At first it was given at no cost to people who accepted to stop receiving the paper phonebook, then you could rent or buy depending on the specific model. During the golden age about 20% homes were equipped at peak it reached 25% (far from everybody had one). There were no services available for free, at first there were two kinds: the service provider pays the operator or the user pays the operator (about 3€ an hour). no money for the service provider. Then came the kiosk offer which started the golden age: the user now pays 9€ an hour with 6€ for the service and 3 for the operator.
  - llsf 9y ago
    9 million terminals for a total population of 55 million, it is pretty good coverage. I used to live in Cesson-Sévigné, where it was born. One day, my dad came back home early 80's with one for free. After few years everybody I know had one per household, except for my grandparents. Pretty much every household who wanted one could get one. Later they built more fancy terminals (faster modem, combined with phone, better screen/graphics, etc.) and rented them. The free one was still a good deal. The White Pages where totally free. And if I recall the Yellow Pages had a the first minute or so free. I remember navigating the pages as fast as possible to not pay the fee. As mentioned before some school results and even applications were made using the terminal, for residual fee on the phone bill. My mom was buying online (3Suisses, Redoute and CAMIF) through the terminal from early 80's until early 2000. She had a hard time to move to internet website when it comes to buy online. She heard so much of CC fraud online that she felt safer using the Minitel.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

chinathrow 9y ago

I was also a heavy user of telext in my earlier years as a news junkie - I wouldn't compare it to Minitel or the web though, as it was unidirectional only.

mjw1007 9y ago
The UK equivalent of Minitel was Prestel, which used the same display system as Teletext.

djulius 9y ago

It was ubiquitous, everybody had a minitel at home since it was provided for free by France Télécom. The white/yellow page service (3611) was free for the first three minutes and was widely used. My parents never had the (huge) yearly book version at home. As mentioned in other comments it was also widely used to consult Baccalauréat (national exam like SAT) results.

bigbugbag 9y ago
At peak in 2003 there were 9.1 millions minitels for 55 millions people so not ubiquitous but common. 3611 used to offer the first 3 minutes free for a few years then removed this.
- vbernat 9y ago
  3611 was free until 2007, when it became mostly irrelevant. 9.1 millions of minitels is about half the population (in number of households). I don't think that 2003 was a peak since Internet was already there for quite some time (people could get broadband at this time).
- Renaud 9y ago
  People had a minitel per family, not per person, so nearly 10 million minitels make for a pretty good penetration rate.

d--b 9y ago

Everybody had one. You didn't have to buy the terminal, most people rented it from the phone company for a few francs a month. And the most useful services were free.

bigbugbag 9y ago
try that again. At first it was given at no cost to people who accepted to stop receiving the paper phonebook, then you could rent or buy depending on the specific model. During the golden age about 20% homes were equipped at peak it reached 25% (far from everybody had one). There were no services available for free, at first there were two kinds: the service provider pays the operator or the user pays the operator (about 3€ an hour). no money for the service provider. Then came the kiosk offer which started the golden age: the user now pays 9€ an hour with 6€ for the service and 3 for the operator.
- llsf 9y ago
  9 million terminals for a total population of 55 million, it is pretty good coverage. I used to live in Cesson-Sévigné, where it was born. One day, my dad came back home early 80's with one for free. After few years everybody I know had one per household, except for my grandparents. Pretty much every household who wanted one could get one. Later they built more fancy terminals (faster modem, combined with phone, better screen/graphics, etc.) and rented them. The free one was still a good deal. The White Pages where totally free. And if I recall the Yellow Pages had a the first minute or so free. I remember navigating the pages as fast as possible to not pay the fee. As mentioned before some school results and even applications were made using the terminal, for residual fee on the phone bill. My mom was buying online (3Suisses, Redoute and CAMIF) through the terminal from early 80's until early 2000. She had a hard time to move to internet website when it comes to buy online. She heard so much of CC fraud online that she felt safer using the Minitel.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]