>  MvLe> How much does it cost for you to make a local call ?
 > 
 > see above... nothing... why?

 MvLe> It costs 25 cents per local call in Australia.

it costs at least that much at the pay phone booth in town if you can locate one...

 MvLe> can understand why it doesn't bother you to make the call.

exactly... it has been that way for well over 40 years over here... long
distance was the one that cost and "in state" long distance was
more expensive than "out of state"... meaning that if i called
somewhere in the western mountains of north carolina, that call would cost
me more than a call to texas or california... so, in fidonet, it was
cheaper for me to go out-of-state for my mail feed since my net and
coordinator were in-state but long distance to me...

and that's not the only fun in the game, either... we're on the boundary
line between two phone companies... some 15-20 years ago, they were long
distance to each other... we have a phone line from each of those phone
companies and back then, it was long distance to call from one end of the
house to the other... in fidonet, i was able to use this to our
advantage... folks on the one side would call me with mail destined for
someone on the other side... drop it off on my machine for a local call and
then another of my nodes would take that same mail and make it available
for the others on the otherside when they called in... the folk using that
capability of my service really enjoyed it ;)

)\/(ark