Today the launch of the first Dutch, public online service Viditel will be commemorated in silence. The service was launched on August 7, 1980 by the Dutch PTT Telecom. The technology was the telecom variant of teletext, in the UK Prestel; in Holland Viditel. PTT Telecom had set aside 40 million guilders, roughly 18million euro, for the project. It was not a success. Yet the service was the beginning of the 24/7 economy with James Telesuper and later Girotel from the Postbank.
The launch was done from Sneek by State Secretary of Transport and Water Management Neelie Kroes. In The Hague, where the press and videotex studios were present, all the lights went out as television and some photographers switched on their equipment. Was this an omen for success?
Want to know more about Viditel and its successors, read the blogs on https://buziaulane.blogspot.com
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2005/08/25-years-online-in-netherlands-compact_07.html
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2005/08/25-years-online-in-netherlands-compact_12.html
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2005/08/25-years-online-in-netherlands-compact_10.html
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2018/08/bpn-1740-videotex-e-phemeral-medium.html
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2018/09/bpn-1741-40-years-ago-dutch-consumers.html
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2015/01/bpn-1701-in-year-1980-start-of-dutch.html
https://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2013/07/bpn-1650-government-becomes-hacker.html