Text written by Luca Olivetti at 12:17 AM 1/18/99 +0100:
>Remember, we are not in the States: we have metered local calls, our data
>lines are 10 times more expensive than yours (due to centuries of state
>monopolies) and our providers are even more clueless and incompetent than
>yours.
<TEASING>
Centuries? You've had phone/data lines around for over 200 years? Wow!
That puts you way the hell ahead of us! Even if you're including telegraph
lines, we've only had those things for about 150 years here in the States.
</teasing>
IIRC, telegraph was invented around 1845 or so, right? And the telephone
around 1875-ish? So, while "over a century" of monopolized data-lines would
be possible (and impressively venerable), "centuries" seems excessive to
me. :)
--Kai MacTane.
