Minitel was offered by France Télécom, then a government-operated service, under what was originally the Ministry of Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones. (The name "Minitel" is not short for "ministry of telecommunications", but rather Médium interactif par numérisation d'information téléphonique. Though I suspect some advantageous ambiguity was exploited.

France Telecom was privatised during the 1990s with the aquisition of the Orange Group, its current (commercial) branding.