| ▲ | flyinghamster an hour ago | |||||||
> Um, we had phones before mobile phones. True, but back in the day one had to pay for every call, sometimes at per-minute rates: always so for long distance, and in some areas even for local calls. Quite a contrast to today's unlimited-minutes cellular plans (which likely get used little enough that the providers have no trouble offering them). A key factor in the development of dialup BBS systems in the US was that local calls were usually at least flat-rate, with unlimited service available here and there. Bringing it back to the topic at hand, back then I recall a number of social events revolving around local BBSes in Champaign-Urbana, and Fidonet's Net 115 in the Chicago area. All that sort of thing vaporized pretty quickly once the internet opened up. | ||||||||
| ▲ | lapcat an hour ago | parent [-] | |||||||
> back in the day one had to pay for every call, sometimes at per-minute rates: always so for long distance, and in some areas even for local calls. Where and when did you pay per-minute for local calls? Everywhere I lived and traveled within the US back in the day, so to speak, local calls were always unlimited, even in rural areas. | ||||||||
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