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 cam

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.