From: Lee Barken <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> hi Matt, I understand your concern and subsequent logic regarding unlimited services. My only comment is that business people take *risks*. Hopefully, the are calculated risks. When a provider sells an unlimited service, they are assuming the risk that the transaction may be unprofitable. I don't think anybody is getting "screwed" in this situation.
You're not getting the point. Sure you can say that it is the provider taking the risk that they can screw their customer by selling them an unlimited service that costs more than if they bought it metered. But somebody is STILL GETTING SCREWED [the customer]. Personally I don't like doing business in which I am screwing a customer, even if my "risk" pays off and I end up better off for it.
Either the venture is profitable or unprofitable. It reminds me of companies like AOL or Netzero who offer "unlimited" Internet access. Over time, these companies become very good at estimating the aggregate usage patterns of many thousands of users.
No, they don't offer "unlimited". They ADVERTISE unlimited but you'll find that if you leave your connection up 24/7 you'll get bumped off after a 4 hour period, and after a while you'll either hit a hard limit, or you'll be forced to upgrade to a higher class of service. We sell dialup wholesale at TxLink, and everyone last one of our clients that offers "unlimited" to their end-users has a hard-limit set in their backoffice, and most of them have 4 hour session timers [some are generous and give 8].
Sure, some customers will use more services and some customers will use less services, but the idea is to price your offer accordly, such that the net result is a profitable enterprise. If a company does a poor job of estimating and projecting usage patterns, my hope is that they will not feel "screwed", but instead just take some time to review their planning policies and procedures and take appropriate and reasonable corrective actions.
So it's okay as long as the company makes out okay, you don't care that the consumer is getting screwed in that case?
Best, -Lee
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