Here in Canada local calls were also free. Weirdly even calling someone you only had to use five digits I still recall my old phone number 2-2506. But the othe

Here in Canada local calls were also free. Weirdly even calling someone you only had to use five digits I still recall my old phone number 2-2506. But the other part of the BBS hobby was the computer itself to be able to afford it. At the time computers were expensive, not necessary, an extravagance only well-off families had them. Even modems back then were quite expensive.