The Minitel is a Videotex online service. Users connected to it through the telephone lines. It was a successful pre-World Wide Web online service. The PTT (Poste, Téléphone et Télécommunication) started Minitel started in France in 1982. From the beginning, users could buy things online that are now done on the Internet. People could make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat.