USENET via TV broadcast

Perhaps. In the mid 80s, many technologies were attempted with similar (and often re-used) names 1) Reading the wiki entry, I was confusing Teletext with "Teletex" and perhaps something else http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletex I remember entering a contest, suggesting how a computer interface to the TV subtitles could allow linking things together (such as capturing phone numbers, URL, etc). My TV /still/ has no PC interface: USB or otherwise. (I think Sega's Dreamcast system received games via the cable TV channel). I remember attending trade shows in the late 80s where "smart phones" (desk sets with tiny terminals) and Teletex were touted as "the next big thing". Compared to Sears/IBM Prodigy, perhaps, but nothing compared to the Internet with hypertext browsing, multimedia and other new formats. In a way, today's cellular phones have replaced the landline "smart phones" since they allow texting and internet access. But here in the USA, teletext was just a terminal standard for low-res graphics, and it still used a modem via phone lines. The surplus terminals were often from France (obvious from the keyboard) since it was wildly popular there. 2) I'm unsure if it used the same technology as today's DSL, but AT&T used to offer employees "CO-LAN": piggybacking a dedicated serial line over the existing phone line. 3) Google finds nothing, but I remember project "Stargate" where USENET newsgroups were transmitted during the vertical blanking interval of the TV broadcast. I forgot if that was via satellite or cable.