An Alcatel Minitel 2 terminal rescued from a fire is up for auction on eBay France. The melted case of the vintage piece of technology makes it clear the item is useful only as a conversation piece, or perhaps an object of art. Its steep starting bid, approaching $500, might also attract only the most dedicated of collectors.
The Minitel was an online service provided by France Telecom from 1982 until 2012. Begun in 1980 as an experiment to reduce the cost of printing telephone white pages, it developed into a way for users to make online purchases, book train reservations, search the telephone directory, send email, and more. It worked much the way the World Wide Web does today and was the world’s most successful online service until the World Wide Web took that distinction.
