Zonegate
A designated FidoNet node that carried private netmail between zones, so not every BBS had to phone another continent.
Once FidoNet spread beyond North America, the network was split into zones — roughly one per continent — and addresses took the form zone:net/node. That solved naming but not the phone bill. If every node with a letter for Europe dialled across the Atlantic itself, the result would be expensive, unreliable and occasionally impossible.
Zonegates were the answer: a handful of nodes, listed in the nodelist, that collected netmail bound for another zone and sent it in bulk, ideally during Zone Mail Hour when rates were lowest. Operators often paid for the calls themselves, making the job part honour, part endurance test for the bank account. Once the internet became cheaper than the phone line, the arrangement lost its point.