alt Hacker NewsI'm French and living in Portugal and I do not get the Minitel comparison. Minitel was basically a Telnet device to various services' servers.
That said, I love MB and MB Way. What an upgrade it's been over paying for stuff in the US (where I lived before moving to Portugal).
From what I know from Minitel, the same Internet before the Internet applies.
I was buying tickets on MB, before it became common place in the Internet.