Beltel

Beltel was the name and trademark used by the South African phone company Telkom for its Videotext system between the mid eighties and 1999.

The system used telephone lines and modems connected to personal computers or to dumb terminals which had built in modems and no processing functionality. Telkom's dedicated terminal was named the Minitel.

The system incorporated a billing system which enabled information providers and service providers to receive payment for information and services provided to users. The billing system was capable of handling very small transactions, and referred to as Micro-billing. Today all of the functionality of the Beltel system, and more, is delivered by handheld mobile phones or cellphones and PDA's which utilize mobile payment.