I believe it, but that wasn't considered fast at the time. And your point is definitely valid - there were web page size optimizations done with dial-up users in mind. I even remember programs that simulated loading time at different download speeds.

But around 1980, 1200 baud was considered lightning fast! Imagine the jump from 300 to 1200 baud. But back then, HTML wasn't even a consideration and network connections were completely text-based sessions. If you were lucky, you had some control over colors. If you were lucky...