The Minitel viewdata system is going international in a big way – its shipments abroad have doubled in the first quarter of 1990, compared to the same period last year, and are expected to be up even more by the end of the year. According to France Telecom, Italy – which went on line last February – is to date Minitel’s biggest foreign customer, accounting for 50% of foreign trade, followed by Belgium (21%), and the US and Canada (9%). Luxemburg, Africa, Finland and Japan are among the other connected countries, and negotiations are underway to get Spain, Denmark and Switzerland connected. According to Agence France Presse, around 13,000 services are available through Minitel in France, some of which are also being offered to neighbouring countries – Italy, for example, has access to 300 of these services. And at the end of the year, French users will be able to access Belgian, German, Finnish and Italian services. Intelmatique, the subsidiary of Telecom France which operates in the US as Videotex International, is currently working alongside US West Inc on a tele-payment service, and a traffic service, which could expand the network to around 6,000 terminals. The battle over standards (Teletel in France, and Prestel in the UK and Italy and so on) is something of a handicap but the development of multi-standard terminals is still increasing. As for the export of Minitel terminals, 250,000 have been installed outside France, and there have been 150,000 further orders.
