🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug27.205450.14813@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> mucm000@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Fred Seaton) writes:
>I have a faculty at our university who is going to France for a year and
>is wanting to be able to communicate with the states somehow.
>
>She says that she'll have access to the "Mini-Tel" devices that are
>common in homes in France (She'll be in Paris), and was wondering if it
>is possible to communicate with BITNET and Internet users from that
>device.
>
>And, if it is possible, does anyone know how expensive it is to do that?
F-Seaton@bgu.edu

The French Minitel is basically a terminal and a modem bundled
together.  The original use was to provide online directory services to
the telephone subscriber (called "information" or "411" in the U.S.).
Since its introduction in the early 80's, several million have been
distributed. They were loaned for free when I was living there, though
that may have changed.  There are now several thousand services
available via minitel, from train and airplane schedules, to stock
market quotes, to vacation information. The postal service even allows
you to type in a telex message using the minitel, and they send it.
Some services are free, most are resonably priced (70 US cents for each
2 minutes) a few are unbelievable expensive.

So I guess the answer to the original question is that it is probably
possible to do so, and the pricing would depend on the service carrier.

The University probably has "an InterNet connection". It probably has
direct TCP/IP service onto the InterNet, and it is almost positive that
they will have email hookup, either through FNET (french net), or
thorough a X.400/X.500 gateway to the internet.



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