Both methods are economical, but the basis of their costs differ. Both ABA/Net‚Ñ¢ and the phone company charge you for the time used, but the phone company also bases its charge on distance. It isn't any more expensive to send a message from San Francisco via ABA/Net‚Ñ¢ to New York than it is to send the same message to Oakland, but it costs a lot more to phone long distance instead of locally.