Prestel
British viewdata system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the publisher, see Prestel Publishing.
Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maximum of 90,000 subscribers in the UK and was eventually sold by BT in 1994.
This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (June 2015) |
Quick Facts Developer, Type ...
Developer | Post Office Telecommunications |
---|---|
Type | Videotex |
Launch date | 1978; 46 years ago (1978) |
Discontinued | 1994; 30 years ago (1994) |
Platform(s) | Prestel |
Status | Discontinued |
Members | 90,000 subscribers |
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The technology was a forerunner of on-line services today. Instead of a computer, a television set connected to a dedicated terminal was used to receive information from a remote database via a telephone line. The service offered thousands of pages ranging from consumer information to financial data but with limited graphics.