RN> Long distance companies.  There are many to choose from.  The local
 RN> telephone company will allow you to make long distance calls within a
 RN> certain range, but beyond that range, you must have a long distance
 RN> carrier to get you the rest of the way, be it nationally or globally.  So,
 RN> there I was, not making or receiving long distance calls and being charged
 RN> a minimum rate by the carrier just for being one of their service
 RN> customers.

Now I see. We don't have one operator for local and one for LD.
I only have one and with this one I can call all over the world.

 RN> That sounds nice, on the surface.  But if you were to make a call to me,
 RN> for example, wouldn't you be charged a certain amount by the minute?

Yes, but I only pay for what I use and I always have the option.
It costs only about 10 cent/min to call USA.

 RN> Not really.  This is the way it works: The local phone number, the one you
 RN> see as my BBS number on the Origin line, is a service provided by the
 RN> local telephone company.  I pay a flat rate monthly fee for that.  The
 RN> same applies to my cellular phone.  I pay a flat rate monthly fee for it,
 RN> too.  As far as the local telephone company is concerned, I may make
 RN> unlimited calls within my calling area at no extra charge.  But if I
 RN> wanted to call my daughter, who lives 85 miles away, there would be an
 RN> additional per minute charge, and that extra charge would depend on how
 RN> long I spoke to her.

Now I'm beginning to see the whole picure and your system is totally different
from ours.
We pay a subscriber fee per year for the option to have a phone. Then it costs
about 4 cent if there is an answer and then it costs about 1 cent/min to speek.
We have no flat rate at all.
And it works just the same with the cellular phone but it is a bit more expensive.

 RN> All states in the United States of America have a two letter designator.
 RN> The lack of dots in the state designator tells you it is a state.  For
 RN> example, CA would be California, TX would be Texas, and you already know
 RN> what Louisiana is.

We are not used to a so big country so it's a bit hard to understand all this.
Sweden could for all be a little state in USA you know.

//Bj”rn

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