AlexTel Terminal - VideoTex

Alex was the name of an interactive videotex information service offered by Bell Canada in market research from 1988 to 1990 and thence to the general public until 1994.

The Alextel terminal was based on the French Minitel terminals, built by Northern Telecom and leased to customers for $7.95/month. It consisted of a CRT display, attached keyboard, and a 1200 bit/s modem for use on regular phone lines.In 1991 proprietary software was released for IBM PCs that allowed computer users to access the network. Communications on the Alex network was via DATAPAC X.25 protocol.

The system operated in the same fashion as Minitel, whereby users connected to various content providers over the X.25 network and thus access was normally through a local telephone number. The most popular (and most expensive) sites were chat rooms. Using the service could cost as much as C$0.3 per minute. Also offered was an electronic white pages and yellow pages directory.Many users terminated their subscription upon receiving their first invoice.One subscriber racked up a monthly fee of over C$2,000 spending most of his online time in chat.

This unit is sold still in its original box with all documentation. We have booted it up, but other than that there really isnt much that can be done on it.