Relative to the beginnings of the internet, your current internet bill is closer to "free" for communication than just about any other time in history. In 1996,

Relative to the beginnings of the internet, your current internet bill is closer to "free" for communication than just about any other time in history. In 1996, AOL introduced their "unlimited" dialup plan. For a mere $19.95 / month, you too could browse the information super highway at a blisteringly fast 56kbps. At today's prices, that would make it $40 / month. But that was their unlimited plan. In 1995 AOL charged you $9.95 for 5 hours and the $2.50 per hour after that each month. Assuming you wanted 24/7 access like we all do these days, AOL would have cost you ~$1,800 per month, or ~$3,700 / month in today's money. Even assuming you don't want 24/7 access, the average internet user today supposedly spends 6 hours a day online[2]. Even at that rate you're still looking at ~$435 / month (or $898 / month today). And that was just your access costs, you still needed to pay for the phone service. According to the FCC[1] you could expect to tack another $20 / month on to those costs, just for your local phone service. And all of that would have probably been enough to service one user online at a time. If you wanted multiple people in your household to be online at the same time, you at a minimum are going to want multiple phone lines, never mind the additional hourly access charges. [1]: https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/IAD/ref97.pdf https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FC... [2]: https://www.independent.co.uk/advisor/vpn/screen-time-statistics https://www.independent.co.uk/advisor/vpn/screen-time-statis...