The French Wide Web: the story of Minitel
In the ’70s, France had a collapsing communications structure, with 7 million telephone lines struggling to accommodate some 47 million subscribers, and long waiting times for new lines — Paris residents had to wait up to 6 months for a new line. Furthermore, the government was eying anxiously the progress being made in the US in the developing computer industry.
In 1977 a report on the informatization of society was submitted to French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, describing a new revolution called telematics: long-distance connection of terminals allowing access to data stored on computers through telecommunication networks. Based on this report, the government decided not only to replace the archaic telephone network with a fully automated system as was its initial plan, but to go further and provide universal voice and data services.
Five years later, on July 15, 1982, the French President inaugurated in Saint-Malo, a picturesque French port, a new service offered by the PTT (Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones), the French National Telephone and Post company. Originally named TELETEL, it was soon called Minitel from the initials of its French title ‘Médium Interactif par Numérisation d’Information Téléphonique’ (Interactive medium for digitized information by telephone).
