Subj : Internet transit alternatives
To   : Kurt Weiske
From : August Abolins
Date : Fri May 21 2021 06:25 pm

Hello Kurt Weiske!

** On Friday 21.05.21 - 07:05, Kurt Weiske wrote to Deepend:

 >> What's a "phone line"?  Some extinct species, I'm led to believe...

 De>> Let's not be hating on the good ol' copper lines lol.

 KW> Imagine if we had the old POTS lines combined with
 KW> nationwide free calling, like most cell phone plans have
 KW> nowadays. The dial-up era was designed around prohibitive
 KW> toll charges.

Around the time when I was operating a 2-line BBS in late 90's  
to 2003, the phone companies already had LD plans that offered  
nation-wide unlimited or limited calls for a fixed $20/mo or  
so.

I had once such $20 plan for 500 minutes/mo or something like  
that.

It worked well for moving mail to two LD hubs for a couple of  
nets and for making crash calls to a few LD relatives that I  
set up as points.


 KW> Although, the local bbs.scene grew because of it, and
 KW> people called local boards that could have gettogethers in
 KW> meatspace.

Yes.. the local aspect was a particular characeristic of  
calling local boards (and the potential to meet the people you  
were conversing with) back then.
--
  ../|ug

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