It seems Minitel was available in Ireland! (1 Viewer)

[Scientician 0.8]

According to the venerable wikipedia:

"Minitel was introduced to Ireland by eircom (then called Telecom Eireann) in 1988. The system was based on the French model and Irish services were even accessible from France via the code"36 19 Irlande." A number of major Irish businesses came together to offer a range of online services including; directory information, shopping, banking, hotel reservations, airline reservations, news, weather and information services. The system was also the first platform in Ireland to offer users access to e-mail outside of a corporate setting. Despite being cutting edge for its time, the system failed to capture a large market and was ultimately withdrawn due to lack of commercial interest. The rise of the internet and other global online services in the early to mid 1990s played a major factor in the death of Irish Minitel. Minitel Ireland's terminals were technically identical to their French counterparts, except that they had a Qwerty keyboard and an RJ-11 telephone jack which is the standard telephone connector in Ireland. Terminals could be rented for IR£ 5 per month or purchased for IR£ 250 (prices accurate for 1992)"

Anyone here ever remember using one or a friend or what not having it?

 

[Squiggle]

My Dad had one. I think it's still knocking around somewhere. Cute little thing.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I had heard of it in France and seen it in French schoolbooks but never knew they actually released it here, incroyable. Was thumped on minitel?

 

[pete]

It was pretty impressive for the time. Was a lot like (or trying to be a lot like) the UKs Prestel service, I think.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Yeah Prestel was the UK implementation of the same technology.

 

[Space]

There was one in our school around 91.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

We had Minitel.
The DDSL (the Schoolboy League, the Dublin and District Schoolboys League, Football) gave one to all the clubs so that results, news, etc could be circulated. My dad was the head honcho of the club. I was very excited by the Minitel. As I recall, this initiative was implemented for the season we had been promoted to U15 Premier, and I thought it would help me with my season notebooks (yes, I kept these, very detailed they were). After about 3 weeks, only the odd result was inputted. Fail.

 

[ernesto]

what the fuck was/is a minitel?

 

[Scientician 0.8]

It was a pre-WWW proprietary internet yokey in France mainly, you could look at business pages, chat, book train tickets and the like. Something like a WWW PC mixed with the graphics of teletext.

 

[ernesto]

It was a pre-WWW proprietary internet yokey in France mainly, you could look at business pages, chat, book train tickets and the like. Something like a WWW PC mixed with the graphics of teletext.

oh right. thanks

 

[ogy]

the presenter of eurotrash was the figurehead of telecom eireann's advertising campaign for minitel.

i have a vivid memory of a large hanging poster of him in the window of some (eircom?) shop on the street the gaiety is on

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I think you're thinking of Minicall? Non. He definitely fronted that.