Micronet800
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Micronet800 was an information provider (IP) on Prestel, aimed at the 1980’s personal computer market. It was an online magazine that gave subscribers computer related news, reviews, articles and downloadable telesoftware.
Users would log onto the Prestel network (which was usually a local call) and then access the Micronet800 home page by entering *800# (hence the name).
Telemap Group, the company behind Micronet800 was formed by British Telecom (BT), Bell Canada, and East Midland Allied Press (EMAP).
Originally the editorial staff were based at 8 Herbal Hill, Clerkenwell, London, and the technical staff in an EMAP building in Peterborough – but in 1986 the technical staff were moved down to the London building.
Micronet800 pioneered many public online services long before the Internet was in widespread use.
- Chatlines
- users could post messages that other users could see and respond to.
- Downloadable software
- Micronet800 implemented the CET specification that allowed 8 bit files to be transmitted over a 7 bit medium, with some basic error detection and error correction.
- Online games
- the longest running being StarNet, where the players would send in moves that would be executed once a day (a sort of very slow game of chess, where the aim was to become the emperor of the galaxy).
- each Prestel user had a unique number (usually the last nine digits of the subscribers telephone number), and this could be used to send messages.
- Gallery
- an area where users could post their own pages about anything they wished (within reason).
- News and reviews
- Micronet was frequently the first organisation worldwide to report on happenings in the UK computer industry.
Micronet800 encouraged users by giving away a free modem to users subscribing for a year. Models included the VTX5000, the only modem custom designed for the extremely popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the more general purpose Modem 1000.
In 1989 BT brought the company out entirely, and moved into a BT building in Apsley, just outside Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.
Some Micronet staff:
- David Babsky, editor
- Sid Smith (author of "Something Like A House", Whitbread award winning novel), news editor
- Francis Jago
- Paul Needs (Now a musician and recording artist)
- Ian Burley
- Barbara Conway, (d. 1991), part-time media editor in the early years of Micronet800
In a move that saw the demise of Micronet800, Prestel priced the home user out of the service, with a new pricing structure, adding time charges on top of the phone charges. At the time, modems were slow (1200 baud download, 75 upload), and often prone to line noise and frequent dropouts (especially when someone else in the household picked up the phone). Enthusiasts went on to set up BBS services, until the Internet finally took hold. In 1991 BT closed the service.
