In the 1980s France Telecom has a Monopoly over the market,
not only the phonelines,
but also the phones,
which need to have an agreement
so that they can be sold in France.

"Apparareil agrée PTT",
a "quantity label" which for mysterious reasons
is not available to every
manufacturer of telephones,
in particular not the the "one and only" barns of the 1980s
Sony.

While answering machines and cordless homephones
made by Sony, Panasonic, Brother or other,
mostly japanese Brands are sold
for less than 100 USD (about 600 French Francs) in New York
bulky repondeurs (french for answering machine)
made by Alcatel, Thomson of Philips can be found
in Paris for 2000 French Francs.