National Videotex Network

Last updated

National Videotex Network (NVN) was an online service launched in 1992 by U.S. Videotel. The service was meant to compete with similar text-based online services such as CompuServe, Delphi and GEnie.

Following its competitors' business model, NVN offered basic and premium services that included national and global news and weather, research libraries and databases, online forums, and games including Island of Kesmai and MUD II . [1]

NVN was hoping to attract customers by offering Internet access and relatively low rates for access through packet switching networks.

The service was abruptly terminated on June 17, 1994. [2] At the time of its termination, NVN programmers were working on a graphical front end for the service.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet</span> Global system of connected computer networks

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.

Telecommunications in Tanzania include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet available in mainland Tanzania and the semiautonomous Zanzibar archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viewdata</span> Information retrieval service and legacy system

Viewdata is a Videotex implementation. It is a type of information retrieval service in which a subscriber can access a remote database via a common carrier channel, request data and receive requested data on a video display over a separate channel. Samuel Fedida, who had the idea for Viewdata in 1968, was credited as inventor of the system which was developed while working for the British Post Office which was the operator of the national telephone system. The first prototype became operational in 1974. The access, request and reception are usually via common carrier broadcast channels. This is in contrast with teletext.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CompuServe</span> 1969–2009 American online service provider

CompuServe was an American online service, the first major commercial one in the world. It opened in 1969 as a timesharing and remote access service marketed to corporations. After a successful 1979 venture selling otherwise under-utilized after-hours time to Radio Shack customers, the system was opened to the public, roughly the same time as The Source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Videotex</span> End-user information system

Videotex was one of the earliest implementations of an end-user information system. From the late 1970s to early 2010s, it was used to deliver information to a user in computer-like format, typically to be displayed on a television or a dumb terminal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minitel</span> French videotex service

The Minitel, officially known as TELETEL, was an interactive videotex online service accessible through telephone lines. It was the world's first and most successful mass-market online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was developed in Cesson-Sévigné, Brittany by government-owned France Télécom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet access</span> Individual connection to the Internet

Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is offered for sale by an international hierarchy of Internet service providers (ISPs) using various networking technologies. At the retail level, many organizations, including municipal entities, also provide cost-free access to the general public.

An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider, a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, an official government site, social media, a wiki, or a Usenet newsgroup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prodigy (online service)</span> Online service that operated from 1984 to 2001

Prodigy Communications Corporation was an online service from 1984 to 2001 that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services. It was one of the major internet service providers of the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bildschirmtext</span>

Bildschirmtext was an online videotex system launched in West Germany in 1983 by the Deutsche Bundespost, the (West) German postal service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online banking</span> Internet-based financial transactions

Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institution's website or mobile app. Since the early 2000s this has become the most common way that customers access their bank accounts.

Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority state-owned (55.3%) with the South African government owning 40.5% of Telkom, while another 14.8% is owned by another state-owned company - the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is closely linked to the South African government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex (videotex service)</span> Canadian videotex service

Alex was an interactive videotex information service offered by Bell Canada in market research from 1988 to 1990 and thence to the general public until 1994.

ESPN3 is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications, that provides live streams and replays of global sports events to sports fans in the United States.

An online wallet is a software or web service that allows users to store and control their online shopping information, such as logins, passwords, shipping address and credit card details. It also provides a method for consumers to purchase products from online retailers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in the United States</span>

The Internet in the United States grew out of the ARPANET, a network sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense during the 1960s. The Internet in the United States in turn provided the foundation for the worldwide Internet of today.

Internet in France has been available to the general public since 1994, but widespread Internet use did not take off until the mid-2000s. As of 31 December 2014, France had 26 million Internet broadband and high-speed connections on fixed networks. In 2014, 80.7% of French households had Internet access, while 19.3% did not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in the United Kingdom</span>

The United Kingdom has been involved with the Internet throughout its origins and development. The telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom provides Internet access to homes and businesses mainly through fibre, cable, mobile and fixed wireless networks, with the UK's 140-year-old copper network, maintained by Openreach, set to be withdrawn by December 2025, although this has since been extended to 31st January 2027 in some areas due to reasons including panic alarms in sheltered housing needing a persistent connection which can't be guaranteed with internet-based DECT systems.

NVN most often refers to North Vietnam.

Started in 1983, Boston CitiNet was a local online service developed by Applied Videotex Systems, Inc. of Belmont, Massachusetts. The service allowed modem-equipped personal computer users to dial-in and access a range of information and messaging services including chat, forums, email and a variety of content. There were several other companies offering paid/subscription services as the time like The Source, CompuServe and Boston-based Delphi. Boston Citinet was unique since it was free to access and was supported by advertising. Messaging services such as email and chat required registration and a monthly fee of $9.95 - an early example of the now popular freemium business model.

References

  1. "National Videotex Network (NVN)". Hytelnet: 1st Directory of Internet Resources. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  2. "National Videotex on-line service is off-line". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 23 August 2012.