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| Release Date: |
12/1/1988 |
| Manufacturer: |
Northern Telecom
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Donated By:
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Ken Shipman & Jim Appleby |
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Alex was the name of an interactive videotext information service offered by Bell Canada from 1988 to 1994.
The Alextel terminal rented to customers was a NAPLPS terminal with a standard modem for use on regular phone lines. The service could also be accessed with a personal computer with the appropriate terminal software.
Using the service could cost as much as $0.30 CAD per minute, and many users terminated their subscription upon receiving their first invoice.
The advent of the World Wide Web contributed to making this service obsolete. On 1994-04-29, Bell Canada sent a letter to its customers announcing that the service would be terminated on 1994-06-03. In that letter, Mr. T.E. Graham, then Director of Business Planning for Bell Advanced Communications, stated that "Quite simply, the ALEX network is not the right vehicle, nor the appropriate technology, at this time to deliver the information goods needed in our fast-paced society."
The Alextel terminal is reportedly usable as a dumb terminal for VT100 emulation.
From Wikipedia
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This computer is currently interactive in the Museum. |
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User Comments |
kassem saleh on Monday, February 04, 2013
I worked on the percursor of ALEX. It was a system called inet 2000 from 1985, then Bell took the decision to start ALEX using the same software we worked on for iNet 2000
unfortunately we were not involved in the terminal design and we were as developers then disappointed with the usability and cosmetics of the terminal. short-lived because of bad usability engineering back then
btw were about 30 developers and 300 marketing and other OVERHEAD
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kassem saleh kassems@yahoo.com on Monday, February 04, 2013
I worked on the percursor of ALEX. It was a system called inet 2000 from 1985, then Bell took the decision to start ALEX using the same software we worked on for iNet 2000
unfortunately we were not involved in the terminal design and we were as developers then disappointed with the usability and cosmetics of the terminal. short-lived because of bad usability engineering back then
btw were about 30 developers and 300 marketing and other OVERHEAD
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kassem saleh kassems@yahoo.com on Monday, February 04, 2013
I worked on the percursor of ALEX. It was a system called inet 2000 from 1985, then Bell took the decision to start ALEX using the same software we worked on for iNet 2000
unfortunately we were not involved in the terminal design and we were as developers then disappointed with the usability and cosmetics of the terminal. short-lived because of bad usability engineering back then
btw were about 30 developers and 300 marketing and other OVERHEAD
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Boe on Monday, October 22, 2012
I also have an Alextel terminal in excellent condition, would anyone know what the value might be?
b_zaino@hotmail.com
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Smart_One on Saturday, June 30, 2012
I would communicate with you but I don't have an Alex to do it with.....:)
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 "Alextel")