Minitel: The Future That Almost Was

The Minitel's origin lay in a mundane problem: distributing phone books. By the late 1970s, printing and delivering millions of directories annually had become unsustainably expensive. The PTT's solution was radical—give every phone subscriber a terminal to access an electronic directory. But engineers and policymakers realized these terminals could do much more.

The technical design reflected French priorities. Unlike personal computers emphasizing processing power, Minitel terminals were simple, reliable, and standardized. The network intelligence resided in servers, not terminals, making the system accessible to non-technical users. The business model—free terminals, charges for services beyond the basic directory—removed adoption barriers.

What emerged surprised everyone. Entrepreneurs created thousands of services: banking, shopping, games, news, and notably, messageries roses (pink message boards) for dating and adult chat. The latter caused moral panic but demonstrated genuine consumer demand for online social interaction. By 1990, Minitel generated over a billion dollars in revenue, with the PTT taking a percentage of every transaction.

The Minitel's social impact was profound. It introduced millions to digital services years before the internet. Terms like "se brancher" (to connect) entered everyday language. Minitel codes appeared on business cards and advertisements. France had become the world's first online society, with electronic commerce, social networking, and digital services part of daily life.

Yet Minitel also illustrated the perils of technological success. Its very achievement—a profitable, functional national network—made France slow to embrace the internet. Why abandon a working system for the chaotic, English-dominated web? This conservatism, rational at the time, would cost France dearly as the internet exploded globally.