SFNet isn't as much an online service as it is a personal
communications network. Based in San Francisco, its claim to fame is
its ability to reach out way betyond the demographic groups that
typically access online services. That's because you don't need a home
PC to access SFNet. In fact, you don't even need a home. Although you
can access SFNet from a home PC, you can also access it from any of 15
public terminals located in bars and coffee shops around the Bay Area.
To use SFNet from such a terminal, you insert a quarter for every four
minutes. [...] You get unlimited e-mail as well as access to SFNet's
live "chat" areas [...] You also get free access to the Internet [...]
SFNet, according to sysop Wayne Gregori, is "unlike any other online
service. Almost 60 percent of the people who use SFNet have never used
a computer. There are homeless people who are part of the net. There
are people begging for quarters on the street to come in and talk to
people on the net."

                                _Computer_Currents_, 20/7/93.