SABAHE@macalstr.edu (Arun Baheti) (02/22/91)
Is anyone aware of an Internet'able link to the Minitel system? I've heard from a couple of friends in Europe that the system does connect to a few European networks, but am not sure if these are myth or reality. Thanks. [Moderator's Note: We have some information about Minitel in the Telecom Archives (sub-directory: Minitel.info). The archives can be accessed via ftp anonymous login at lcs.mit.edu. PAT]
tholome@elaine6.stanford.edu (Eric THOLOME) (02/23/91)
In article <telecom11.149.5@eecs.nwu.edu> SABAHE@macalstr.edu (Arun Baheti) writes: > Is anyone aware of an Internet'able link to the Minitel system? I've > heard from a couple of friends in Europe that the system does connect > to a few European networks, but am not sure if these are myth or > reality. I think there are many ways to access the French MINITEL system, thanks to special phone numbers. Unfortunately, I don't know them, but I'm sure they are available on the ftp site PAT mentionned, or maybe in some other places. If you don't find them, ask in soc.culture.french, I know some have already been posted. I'm not sure it is possible to access French Minitel through Internet though. I'm not sure what the American MINITEL company offers, either. I've tried the other way, that is to find a way to access INTERNET, or BITNET, etc. with a Minitel from France. I unfortunately haven't heard of any gateway between the two networks. The only ideas people came up with were to subscribe to Compuserve for example, which would give me an E-mail address, and I would have to use a PC and a modem, but it's *really* expensive. I am still looking for a cheap way from France to reach USENET or INTERNET, ... and therefore have an E-mail (and maybe access to newsgroups, ...), using a Minitel if possible. The best I can think about is a Minitel service like 3614 EMAIL, which I could be connected to with a Minitel and would give me what I want. > [Moderator's Note: We have some information about Minitel in the > Telecom Archives (sub-directory: Minitel.info). The archives can be > accessed via ftp anonymous login at lcs.mit.edu. PAT] These infos seem to be more about the Minitel American company than the real French Minitel system. But I am not sure, since I couldn't really get those files since I ran out of disc space. Anyway, I got a checksum error :-( Talking about France, and being French, I might point out that the government run French telecom company has started a huge Email system available to anybody who has a phone number in France. It is called MINICOM and uses ... the Minitel of course! How does it work? Just dial 3612 on your phone, start your Minitel session, and you can send messages to anybody that has subscribed to it. Subscription is free, you only pay to send or read messages, about 20 cents a minute. The address is just the French phone number. But this is internal to France, and I haven't heard of any gateway to other networks. Let's dream a minute ... what if MINICOM and USENET were connected ? My personal email address in France would be "my_phone_number"@minicom.fr for example. Anybody would be able to have Email. Great... Still a little bit expensive, but great. By the way, let me tell you that, I far as I know, this system (minicom) is not very popular. It seems that "France Telecom" (our national ATT :-) is not making any effort to advertise it. People still find it's a big nuisance to have to connect to the server every day or so. :-( Anybody out there with any news about accessing EMAIL with a MINITEL in FRANCE ? Anybody with opinions, news, ... about MINICOM ? Anybody has been able to read my poor English ? :-) Eric THOLOME tholome@isl.stanford.edu Stanford University