I remember using dial-up to connect to my college's unix system. I fired up the email client (mail? mailx?) and was hesitant for a moment to send an email to England. I thought back to my days using BBS's and worrying about dialing out to per minute charges. I just couldn't believe I could email anyone in the world for free using smtp email.
Obviously, both of us need computers, email accounts, network access, etc but there's no per region metering or anything. The cost of sending an email to someone sitting 10 feet from me or 10,000 miles from me is exactly the same. Mike's right, this is revolutionary.
In the actual BBS days, I don't recall that being a common point of confusion, oddly enough. I dialed up to local BBSs, and it was obvious where I was dialing because I actually entered the digits, and the modem audibly dialed them. Then sometimes I would correspond with people in other states or countries, through FidoNet echoes or mail. But it was clear that I wasn't dialing them to do so. I transmitted my message to my local BBS, and the BBS relayed my message onwards. I'm not sure at the time I entirely understood what mechanism the BBS used to do so, but I knew that I wasn't myself dialing Norway or Germany to do it, nor paying any kind of destination-based charge. I even played some multi-country multiplayer door games, all for free. So once I got an internet account, it didn't seem too magical!
Obviously, both of us need computers, email accounts, network access, etc but there's no per region metering or anything. The cost of sending an email to someone sitting 10 feet from me or 10,000 miles from me is exactly the same. Mike's right, this is revolutionary.