5 Jul
2009
5 Jul
'09
6:46 p.m.
On 7/5/09, Ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
The other factor back then too, often your nearest
data centre,
was still a goodly sum long distance call.
Maybe in some parts (like the complaint on the discussion thread on
Slashdot about the PA customer who only had two numbers to call in
their area code, and both were long-distance from their house), but
since I grew up a few miles from the main building, we never had a
problem in Central Ohio with free access numbers. There was great
coverage close to home. I never even used to get busy signals, not
even when the service was at the peak of its popularity 25 years ago.
Of course, paying per hour meant that people got on, did their thing,
then got off. BBSes were another thing entirely - those were hard to
get into back then, except when Star Trek was on TV. Mysteriously,
the modems were easier to reach at that time of the evening.
-ethan