In 1992, with a minitel 1B (80 columns), I have used the 3621 to connect to a service (129040134) that connected me to a vax station at school. From there I was connected to sun station where I edited my thesis using latex and vi. My teacher never knew I was 700km away from him when he received my daily updates.
.The minitel was free (we had to choose between having a minitel or having a paper annuary). The communication on 3615 was expensive (9.15€ per hour). On 3614 or 3621, it was around 3.05€ per hour (sometimes half).