From Andrew Odlyzko’s “Pricing and Architecture of the Internet: Historical Perspectives from Telecommunications and Transportation“:
Moreover, flat rates for local calling played a key role in the rise of the Internet, by promoting much faster spread of this technology in the U.S. than in other countries. (This, as well as the FCC decisions about keeping Internet calls free from access charges, should surely be added to the list of “the 10 key choices that were critical to the Net’s success,†that were compiled by Scott Bradner [28].)