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To: djane who wrote (47024)	5/16/1998 2:41:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

Come On, France, Switch To The Net [FT/eFusion partnership] (05/15/98; 11:09 a.m. ET) By Jeremy Scott-Joynt, Total Telecom techweb.com France Telecom is working with American Internet gateway company Efusion to persuade reluctant French customers to change from using the low-tech French Minitel system to using the Internet. French telephone customers were issued with free text-based Minitel terminals in the 1980s that gave them access to French information services and electronic messaging via the national telephone network. Uptake of the Internet in France has been slow, partly because large parts of the Internet are written in English, but also because many French people are happy using Minitel for their information. The companies said they will be promoting the Internet's obvious advantages -- proper graphics, color, and a worldwide, rather than national, network -- in an attempt to overcome what many in France perceive as a weakness of the Internet: that unless one buys a second line, time online means time without a voice phone, either incoming or outgoing. Efusion will be supplying France Telecom Interactive, which runs the company's Wanadoo online service, with its enhanced Internet services (EIS) gateway servers. The new equipment will let Internet users access the telephone network directly from a PC. While online, customers will be able to use a Java applet to activate an outgoing call, as long as they have some form of IP telephony software -- compliant with the H.323 standard -- installed. The outgoing call is routed from the customer's PC across the Internet to the France Telecom server. From there, the call is routed to the main public telephone network. The phone system can also accept incoming calls. Users are notified onscreen of incoming calls while they are on the Internet and can either accept them, forward them, or ignore them. The system will also allow websites to include so-called Push to Talk buttons, which when clicked on, will instantly connect the user at home with whichever shop or business the website belongs to. This, France Telecom said it believes, will encourage people to use the service, since Minitel has always coexisted with the phone line rather than tied it up. "The thing is, people in France already have the culture of buying online," said a France Telecom spokeswoman, pointing to the universality and popularity of Minitel as proof. "One thing is for sure: Minitel is going to die. So we need to develop complementary services, but we have also to maintain those services where Minitel has a use," she said.