Micronet 800 was an information provider (IP) on
Prestel
Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maxim ...
, aimed at the 1980s personal computer market. It was an online magazine that gave subscribers computer related news, reviews, general subject articles and downloadable
telesoftware
The term telesoftware was coined by W.J.G. Overington who invented the concept in 1974; it literally means “software at a distance” and it often refers to the transmission of programs for a microprocessor or home computer via broadcast telete ...
.
Users would log onto the
Prestel
Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maxim ...
network (which was usually a local call) and then access the Micronet 800 home page by entering *800# (hence the name) on their modem or computer. Most Micronet 800 members would have their default main index page set to page 800 automatically.
History
The name Micronet 800 derives from its home page, 800, on the
BT Prestel videotext service.
Micronet 800 derived from the earlier development in 1980 and 1981 of 'Electronic Insight' by Bob Denton. Electronic Insight was a Prestel-based feature-and-price-comparison site listing computers, calculators and other electronic and IT products, whose main page was on page 800 of Prestel. Electronic Insight was acquired by Telemap Group, a part of
EMAP, East Midland (note, not Midlands) Allied Press, in 1982 on the recommendation of Richard Hease, a number of whose computer magazines EMAP had just bought. Telemap had been formed in 1981 to explore the opportunities of British Telecom's Prestel videotext service. It had been looking at the horticultural market that EMAP served with a number of magazine titles, notably providing a 'Closed User Group' purchasing network for garden centre businesses, complementing EMAP's printed 'Garden Trade News' magazine. But horticulturalists and IT proved not to be a natural marriage, and the service had insufficient users to make it viable.
Richard Hease, in 1982 Chairman of EMAP's Computer & Business Press which had acquired Electronic Insight, organised a pitch to the Telemap Group by David Babsky of a projected interactive online computer magazine to replace the existing content of Electronic Insight. Babsky showed a 'dummy issue' of the intended online magazine, programmed in
Integer BASIC
Integer BASIC is a BASIC interpreter written by Steve Wozniak for the Apple I and Apple II computers. Originally available on cassette for the Apple I in 1976, then included in ROM on the Apple II from its release in 1977, it was the first ve ...
on an
Apple II computer. Hease suggested that there be several different 'areas' of the magazine, with titles such as MicroNews, MicroNet (for those interested in networking), etc., and Babsky proposed that the entire project be called 'Micronet 800' to ensure that it could be easily found by anyone using Prestel, as its page number would be part of its name. Hease and Denton negotiated with BT Prestel for a special relationship that would rank it alongside the Nottingham Building Society's plans for its Homelink as the two key thrusts for Prestel.
Hease negotiated with then telecoms minister
John Butcher a £25 subsidy for Micronet subscribers to have their homes equipped free with a telephone jack-socket for the relevant modem.
The Telemap editorial staff was first based at 8 Herbal Hill,
Clerkenwell,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
(after the preliminary discussions and presentation at EMAP's offices in
Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favouri ...
), and the technical staff in an EMAP building in
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
. In 1986 the technical staff moved down to the London building.
Telemap was to be the base for Micronet 800 and the editorial development of the site. Hease's and Denton's "Prism Micro Products",
[Viewdata and TV user, January 1983]
Page 8
/ref> the exclusive distributor of Sinclair Computers in the UK, was charged with developing the required modems for the enterprise, to ensure that Micronet 800's pages could be accessed by such microcomputers as Apple II, ZX81
The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cos ...
, BBC Micro
The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
, Dragon 32/64
The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before m ...
, IBM PCs, PET
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...
, and subsequently the ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
, Sinclair QL
The Sinclair QL (for ''Quantum Leap'') is a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as an upper-end counterpart to the ZX Spectrum. The QL was aimed at the serious home user and professional and executive users markets from small ...
, Camputers Lynx
The Lynx was an 8-bit British home computer that was first released in early 1983 as a 48 kB model. Several models were available with 48 kB, 96 kB or 128 kB RAM. It was possible to reach 192 kB with RAM expansions on board. John Shireff des ...
, VIC-20
The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...
, Commodore 64, and other 1980s home computers.
Although fast by contemporary standards, Prestel modems were quite slow from today's point of view (1200 baud download, 75 upload) and the display was just 24 lines of 40 characters, with seven colours and very simple block graphics. Yet Micronet 800 had versions of many of the Internet's subsequent features, especially an interactive 'ChatLine' (similar to Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...
) developed by Mike Brown, who joined Micronet 800 from the Council for Educational Technology, where he'd devised a standard UK format for downloadable programs which became known as 'telesoftware'.
Micronet 800 was quite similar in scope to, and compatible with, the German Bildschirmtext
Bildschirmtext (German "screen text", abbrev. Btx or BTX) was an online videotex system launched in West Germany in 1983 by the Deutsche Bundespost, the (West) German postal service.
Btx originally required special hardware (it was based on ...
and French Minitel
The Minitel was a videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and was the world's most successful online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was invented in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes in Brittany, France.
The service w ...
services, but Minitel achieved volume sales for its terminals by the simple expedient of replacing paper telephone books with their terminals. Based on its success, Minitel proved resilient against the Internet adoption in France.
For Micronet, Denton negotiated that the interested parties would all agree to adopt the CET, Council for Educational Technology, format for telesoftware - one of two then competing formats. Telesoftware allowed users to download software directly from the Prestel site. Micronet then negotiated with hobbyist computer groups to provide applications and utilities that would be listed on, and be downloadable from, the Micronet 800 site. Approximately 50% of software - for Sinclair, Apple, BBC Micro, IBM, etc. - was available at no cost, and the other 50% was paid for by the automatic addition of the cost of the software to the subscriber's telephone bill.
Prism developed a broad range of modems from a simple acoustic coupler to integrated 'network interfaces' for each of the early home and personal computers. Prism models included the VTX5000, the only modem custom designed for the popular ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
, and the more general purpose Modem 1000 and Modem 2000. These were ready-to-use out of a box, so that the buyer would get the modem with all relevant leads, cards (if necessary) and software to connect with Micronet.
Some 25,000 subscribers were eventually signed up to Micronet 800 to make it the largest CUG, Closed User Group, on Prestel; its total user base peaked at 90,000. Micronet achieved over 1.1 million page views a week. Its first subscriber, who joined on its opening day, 1 March 1983, was Jeremy Dredge, an estate agent from Thames Ditton
Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cross ...
in Surrey. Its 10,000th subscriber was Tom Corcoran, a director of BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
In 1985 Telemap saw that Prism was preoccupied with its Sinclair computer distribution agency and in developing Prism's own 'luggable' Wren microcomputer, so prospective Micronet subscribers were then sent a list of several other modem suppliers.
Following Prism's collapse in 1985 and the subsequent purchase of their stock by Telemap, and in a bid to increase take-up, Micronet 800 encouraged users by giving away a free modem to new users subscribing for a year.
However, in a move that saw the demise of Micronet, Prestel priced the home user out of the service with a new pricing structure, adding time charges on top of the phone charges for evening access which effectively killed off home usage even though the network was under-utilized during the 6pm to 8am time-slot. Today this remains the peak usage time of the Internet.
Many of the lessons learned with respect to online publishing and interactive services were pioneered by Micronet 800 and became every bit as important with the growth of the Internet.
BT became the majority shareholder in 1987 (after a previous 19% Telemap stake had been sold to
) initially managing the company as part of BT Spectrum, its Value Added Services Group, before passing the group to BT Prestel. In 1988 the company passed a milestone by becoming the only Value Added Data service to become profitable. In 1989 BT finally acquired the entire company, moved it into a BT building (Dialcom House) in
and subsequently BT Managed Network Services.
In 1991 along with all its online services, BT closed the service deciding to focus on providing network services and transferred the subscriber base to
in the UK.
The Micronet service closed 31 October 1991. It had 10,000 members at closure and was "easily the largest online service in the UK specialising in microcomputing". Despite this apparent success, this was less than 10% of the number of users they were predicting having shortly after launch.
Micronet/Telemap Management:
* Richard Hease - chairman and co-founder 1982-1983
* Bob Denton - co-founder 1982-1983
* Tim Schoonmaker - Managing Director 1983-1986
* Ian Rock - Publisher (formerly Marketing Manager) 1983-1986 (Author of 'How To Run The Country Manual')
* Tom Baird - BT liaison
* John Tomany - Managing Director 1987-1990
* Michael Weatherseed - General Manager 1990-1991
Micronet editors:
*David Babsky, founding editor
*Simon D'Arcy,
, in whose name the Buckingham Palace press office telephone number had been registered as a Prestel user.
*Gallery: Conceived by Publisher Ian Rock, this was an area where users could post their own pages about anything they wished, subject to minor oversight for libel and obscenity.
*News and reviews: Micronet was frequently the first organisation worldwide to report on happenings in the UK computer industry.