Minitel was a French screen-keyboard device that allowed users to access various services such as train reservations, stock prices, and banking. It had 25 million users and was discontinued in 2012 due to the rise of the internet. Minitel was uniquely French and was not exported to other countries.
At its peak in the mid-1990s, French citizens owned about 9 million Minitel devices, the first screen-keyboard combination widely available in any country. Minitel has enabled some 25 million users to connect regularly to more than 23,000 services, including the ability to make train reservations, check stock prices, monitor bank balances and chat with other users. First available in 1982, Minitel started out as little more than a yellow pages, but other services quickly followed, with users charged by the minute to their phone bills. The service was eventually taken down by the internet and Minitel was eventually discontinued in 2012.
An online pioneer:
Minitel was uniquely French. Although it has also been used in Belgium, the idea has not been exported anywhere else.
France Telecom started a pilot for a similar service in Ireland in the 1990s, but there has been little interest.
Valérie Schafer, co-author of the book Minitel: France’s Digital Childhood, said: “Early in the 1980s, there was a real sense of pride in Minitel as a success story of our national industry.”
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