JF> SB> It doens't sound like a very promising future for FIDOnet here.
  > SB> I hope that changes.
JF>There may very well be an eventual return by many to Fido. The reason
  >I say this is because of the possibility of a truly seismic event
  >occurring in the Internet world:
I hope so.  I truly enjoy the conferences I frequent on FIDONET.
JF>The specters of overcrowding and vast revenues being lost due to flat
  >rate access charges to Internet users (a low rate per month and no
  >time limit) are haunting the telcos, so they are quietly thinking up
  >various schemes to rectify this ungodly situation. The most likely is
  >a metering system installed somewhere along the line that will keep
  >track of the number of data bits or seconds used, either by the end
  >user or one of the service providers, and, according to preliminary
  >rumbles, the charge will not be negligible. Given the many (spelled
I talked with my husband, Mario, about this.  He says that the thing
that is really going for us is the fact that it *has* been done this way
for so long; and that the best way of keeping it that way is to prevent
its being changed any time soon. The longer it operates under a flat
rate system, the harder it will be to change it.
JF>Well, I liked the Fido echoes better anyway - even if they aren't
  >speedy, they seem like personal gatherings around the cracker barrel;
Real friendships seem to form here.  There are folks I've gotten quite
fond of through these conferences.
                Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ Two bees or not two bees. Oops! Bumbled that one!
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
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