Anybody have thoughts on the potential for Minitel launching in Canada at some point pre-internet?
I was looking over a thread about whether Sears might have been able to break into the online market and one of the unfortunate issues is that they had basically pulled out of catalog sales JUST before online became really feasible. At the same time they were heavily involved in early consumer electronics sales. It occurs that they could be really well placed to push a Minitel like system were it to exist.
On the telecom side Bell was still basically a monopoly at the time in question... On the one hand it does seem like a stumbling block, and not really in character for them to do the French style free equipment distribution, but on the other they did have local R&D. Launch in Quebec, push into the rest of the country with something like a partnership with Sears?
I also wonder how much of a stretch it would be for Bell to end up nationalized in some more populous provinces. Perhaps pulled into Hydro in Ontario... Although this is starting to sound like a TL in its own right.
I was looking over a thread about whether Sears might have been able to break into the online market and one of the unfortunate issues is that they had basically pulled out of catalog sales JUST before online became really feasible. At the same time they were heavily involved in early consumer electronics sales. It occurs that they could be really well placed to push a Minitel like system were it to exist.
On the telecom side Bell was still basically a monopoly at the time in question... On the one hand it does seem like a stumbling block, and not really in character for them to do the French style free equipment distribution, but on the other they did have local R&D. Launch in Quebec, push into the rest of the country with something like a partnership with Sears?
I also wonder how much of a stretch it would be for Bell to end up nationalized in some more populous provinces. Perhaps pulled into Hydro in Ontario... Although this is starting to sound like a TL in its own right.
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