Charles Angelich wrote in a message to Ian Wilmore:

CA> In countries where people pay for _all_ phone calls per minute 
CA> (even local) Agora can save some money. Being able to download
CA> large files from a direct connect to a local BBS is much more
CA> efficient than dealing with Internet pauses and slow connects.

Fido was designed from the ground up with connection efficiency in mind, 
as the primary thing,  it appears.

CA> In the USA we get a certain number of local calls for 'free' 
CA> included with our base charge for just having a telephone. 
CA> Americans probably don't notice how long it can take for a GUI 
CA> browser to 'render' the display after it has downloaded all the
CA> data required.

The hell I don't!  I've got better things to do than sit here waiting for
somebody's idea of a good page to finish loading.  I was looking over a
list of local business links earlier this evening,  and if a page doesn't
come completely up in a minute or so,  I'm gone.  I expect this sort of
thing is used to justify faster connections,  making the ISPs more money, 
but I like to be able to take what I've got and use it efficiently.

Besides that,  the more I tie up my phone line with a protocol that doesn't
consider connect time,  the less chance that same phone line has to serve
my bbs callers.

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