Prestel

For the publisher, see Prestel Publishing.
For the artist, see Maria Katharina Prestel.

Prestel
Prestel logo designed by
Mervyn Kurlansky of Pentagram[1]: 124 
DeveloperPost Office Telecommunications
Key peopleSamuel Fedida
TypeGeneral-purpose
public videotex service
Launch date1979; 45 years ago (1979)
Discontinued1994; 30 years ago (1994)
Platform(s)GEC 4000 minicomputers in a star network configuration with packet-switched connections
Operating system(s)OS4000 operating system supporting BABBAGE high-level assembly language
StatusDiscontinued
Membersc. 90,000 subscribers at peak
Pricing modelSubscription (quarterly) and usage (time spent on system, some pages, some messaging service actions)

Prestel was the brand name of a videotex service launched in the UK in 1979 by Post Office Telecommunications, a division of the British Post Office.[a] It had around 95,500 attached terminals at its peak,[2] and was a forerunner of the internet-based online services developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[3] Prestel was discontinued in 1994 and its assets sold by British Telecom to a company consortium.[4][5]: 146 

A subscriber to Prestel used an adapted TV set with a keypad or keyboard, a dedicated terminal, or a microcomputer to interact with a central database via an ordinary phoneline. Prestel offered hundreds of thousands of pages of general and specialised information, ranging from consumer advice to financial data, as well as services such as home banking, online shopping, travel booking, telesoftware, and messaging.

In September 1982, to mark Information Technology Year,[b] the Royal Mail issued two commemorative stamps, one of which featured a Prestel TV set and keyboard.[7] In April 1984, British Telecom won a Queen's Award for Technological Achievement for the development of Prestel.[8]

  1. ^ a b Reid, Alexander (24 September 2021). "Alexander Reid : Autobiographical life story" (PDF). www.livesretold.co.uk. See section "Prestel", pp. 120–129. Retrieved 24 October 2024. Alexander "Alex" Reid was the first Director of Prestel at Post Office Telecommunications / British Telecom, holding the post during the service's initial development and for the first few years after its commercial launch.
  2. ^ Schofield, Jack (19 January 1989). "Path of Gold". The Guardian. p. 27. ProQuest 186963681. With ... 95,460 terminals (not users) ... .
  3. ^ Davenport, Lucinda D. (2023). "The Viability of Viewdata as a Mass Medium: A Case Study of Prestel, the Prototype for Computerized Information Systems, the Internet". TMG Journal for Media History. 26 (2): 1–29. doi:10.18146/tmg.845. ISSN 1387-649X.
  4. ^ Bibby, Andrew (2 April 1994). "Prestel rings the changes as BT hangs up". The Independent. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rutter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Information Technology Year 1982". Centre for Computing History. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  7. ^ "Information Technology". Collect GB Stamps. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  8. ^ "The Queen's Award for Technological Achievement 1984". The London Gazette (Supplement). No. 49713. 21 April 1984. p. 2. Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to confer Her Award for Technological Achievement in 1984 upon ... : The Videotex Section of BT Research Department and the Prestel Executive of British Telecommunications, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich and London, E.C.4. Nature of product or development: 'Prestel' viewdata system.


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