The French Minitel viewdata and electronic telephone directory service is expected to be relaunched in the US shortly, according to the Newsbytes newswire. The wire quotes sources who say that Los Angeles and New York are the likely test markets for a graphics-based viewdata system, and that the name of the US service is currently undergoing market research tests, although WorldLink is favourite and Intrigue has been mentioned. The system is incompatible with existing services such as The Source and CompuServe, does not adhere to the North American PLPS graphics standard – and its graphics are regarded as poor over there, and does not have a universal electronic mail address each of the databases on the system has a separate address. It is expected that would-be subscribers will either be invited to lease Minitel terminals to use the system, or be offered personal computer software.
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