I remember that the original idea was to create white/yellow page online (it was very costly to print all these white pages). Then came commercial services. You were billed according to the number you dialed (from free -3613- to very expensive service -3617-). That was my first online experience and that was magic :-) There was also a hacking scene on pirated servers where you can meet a lot of people (and it was on the free number of course).