The French PTT pioneered the virtual circuit variant of packet switching in the early 1970s through the work of Rémi Després.
[1][2] The company rolled out Minitel, a Videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, experimentally between July 1980[3] in Saint-Malo, France, and from autumn 1980 in other areas, and introduced it commercially throughout France in 1982.
[citation needed] The name Postes, Télécommunication et Télédiffusion never received official recognition from the French state.
In effect, Télédiffusion, which grouped together television and radio channels, was always independent.
[citation needed] It was divided in 1991 into France Télécom and La Poste.