Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!nuchat!moray!siswat!buck
From: buck@siswat.UUCP (A. Lester Buck)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Minitel videotex terminals and v.23
Keywords: videotex v.23 CCITT
Message-ID: <431@siswat.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jul 89 21:58:59 GMT
Organization: Photon Graphics,  Houston
Lines: 29

Here in Houston, U.S.  Videotel and Southwestern Bell are offering a
videotex service based on the French Minitel terminal, specifically the
Telic Alcatel M 1B/US, made in France exclusively for U.S.  Videotel.
Currently, they have pumped about 20,000 terminals into the Houston market
with various giveaways and free trials.  U.S.  Videotel estimates the
critical mass for a successful service at about 35,000 installed terminals.
Of course, the local hacker underground looks at these terminals and thinks
how nice it would be to tap into this installed base but bypass the U.S.
Videotel connection.

The understanding is that these terminals, with built in modems, use
v.23, which is something like 1200 baud in, 75 baud out.  Could someone
please tell me where I could get ahold of the v.23 standard, produced
by CCITT I guess.  Is there a U.S. distributor of these standards, or
an address for CCITT in Europe?

It seems that v.23 modems are quite expensive, around $800 and available
only in Europe.  Since the Minitel only costs something like $70-80, this is
something of a problem.  Assuming v.23 is basically 1200 baud in, 75 baud
out, what are the possibilities of using standard 1200 baud modem chips?
For example, on XT prototype cards, with some software glue for the startup
protocol?  As a last resort, wouldn't a software only solution work,
as with the Commodore software serial port support?

Thanks for any info,

A. Lester Buck		...!texbell!moray!siswat!buck
-- 
A. Lester Buck		...!texbell!moray!siswat!buck