Phones

I remember seeing a minitel years ago and thinking it was the most practical invention ever. It was the first replacement for phone directories.

Today France is one of the two or three world leaders in telecommunications, not only in terms of the technological progress made by industry, but also in the practical application of these inventions to daily life. After a number of local experiments, in 1984 the P&T launched nationwide its home videotex service known as Minitel: the subscriber receives a TV screen and keyboard which serves as an electronic telephone directory and also links in to the big central computer networks, thus becoming an instant newspaper, encyclopaedia, mail order service, booking office and so on.

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