Minitel, France’s super successful pre-WWW network will be shut off this Saturday.  Long live the network.

From the Wikipedia entry:

“France Télécom estimates that almost 9 million terminals had access to the network at the end of 1999, and that it was used by 25 million people (of a total population of 60 million).”

And from a BBC story:

“Apart from ease of use, two other factors ensured Minitel’s success. First was that it was distributed free of charge… This meant that even the poorest of households contained a set, subsidised by the taxpayer.

The other reason was the variety of content, facilitated by a business model that was not exactly free-market but for a while proved highly effective.

From the start, there were commercial interests that were highly suspicious of Minitel - the newspaper industry, which feared the new creation would drain vital small ads revenue.  So France being France, the government intervened to save the press. It made a rule which said that the only institutions entitled to provide services on Minitel were registered newspapers.”

From this Le Figaro story:

“Après 30 ans de bons et loyaux services, le Minitel, invention française qui a équipé jusqu'à neuf millions de foyers dans l'Hexagone, va disparaître définitivement mi-2012, succombant définitivement au succès d'internet… La mort du Minitel marquera la fin de ce qui fut vanté à ses débuts comme une "révolution télématique”, avec des terminaux dédiés, austères mais solides et peu onéreux, s'ouvrant en un tour de main pour laisser apparaître un écran et un clavier, à partir desquels on accédait à un réseau vidéotexte. Le Minitel a connu son apogée en 2002, équipant alors neuf millions de foyers et entreprises. Mais il n'a jamais réussi à s'exporter au-delà des frontières françaises.“