I think in the old, old days you'd do a batch job. So you'd connect, then upload/download at whatever baud speed was accepted. Your modem would only connect for

I think in the old, old days you'd do a batch job. So you'd connect, then upload/download at whatever baud speed was accepted. Your modem would only connect for x amount of minutes. Later, more 'always on' was possible. In the US, the phone system was setup in a way that local calls, defined by geographic rings based on switching stations, were 0 cents a minute after the initial first minute. So that allowed things like BBS culture to thrive.