Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: mark@motown.altair.fr Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Free Terminals From USW Message-ID: <11199@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Aug 90 18:22:59 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 42 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 586, Message 7 of 11 In article <11087@accuvax.nwu.edu> the Moderator writes: >[Moderator's Note: This sounds almost too good to be true. Will >someone in the Omaha area who takes up these folks on their offer >please get back to us with details? Is it for real? PAT] These terminals have been offered to clients of France Telecom (the French national telephone monopoly) for five years now, under terms even more liberal than those in Nebraska. The program had some trouble getting off the ground, but is now considered a major success. At first the idea was that the Minitel terminals would be used essentially for directory lookups, and that the money saved in printing directories would more or less pay for the terminals. Income from Minitel services such as electronic shopping, train and air reservations and the like (these are privately-run and charged somewhat like 900 numbers) was not predicted to amount to much. The directory replacement idea didn't work as well as planned, since people demanded the hard-copy directories anyway. What turned the tide was the advent of message services, and in particular the "pink" ones (soft-core porn), for which the French public seems to have an unlimited budget. The pink message services were a two-year fad and have now faded out somewhat, but they did the trick: The Minitel is now firmly anchored in the French way of life, and service income from the average user far exceeds the couple of hundred dollars that the termnals are worth. I use mine a lot to log in to my work computer from home, via Transpac. It's cheaper than buying a PC (especially at French prices). My guess is that USWest and Mnematics are counting on a similar scenario in Nebraska. Note that in France, and I presume in Nebraska (the USW posting was cagey on this point), the terminal remains the property of the telco; only the *use* of the terminal is offered for free. In any case, however, the economics of home terminals can be an excellent investment for a telephone company. Mark James or