Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
Heith et al.,
There are a couple of economic questions that you need to answer first:
1. *Is there a customer device expense to your business? i.e. did you
send / install a device for the client that allows them to use your service
that the client doesn't pay for or pays monthly?*
1. If the answer to the first question is 'yes'. You should require a
minimum monthly spend to recoup your initial investment. The customer
premise devices are generally inexpensive and have a lifetime of 2 - 4
years. So assume a $250 device over a 4 year amortization you need to
collect, at a minimum, $5.20/month ($250 divided by 48 months). That
doesn't include carrying costs that you should recoup as well (deployed
capital should return more than 0%).
2. *Is there an expense to keeping that client active on your service
even if they aren't paying you any money?*
1. If the answer to the second question is 'yes'. You need to determine
how much the opportunity cost is to have capacity reserved on
your network.
For most this is a capacity management question. Most people will
oversubscribe their network to squeeze every last penny out of their
investment -- not necessarily a bad thing provided you maintain quality
during peak times. This varies for operators -- but you should asses at
least some value to having an on-demand connection available.
Once you determine your base expense for supporting a client -- how much
does it cost you just to have the client connected to your network, you
need to determine whether your clients are okay with paying full boat for
their internet connection even when they're not there? Or, are they
sensitive to spending money on a service that they do not deem critical and
as a result do not want the year long carrying expense?
Next consider local competition. Are there any other internet providers in
the area that have an offer to accommodate seasonal subscribers? If
there's something present, you may need to follow suit in order to remain
competitive. The best scenario is limited competition that allows you to
chart your own path.
My preference would be to create a 'low usage' tier. Throttle up and down
connectivity to force an upgrade to a more premium tier when the seasonal
clients are present -- but still collect a monthly service fee when they
are not. May seasonal guests have cameras, thermostats and other sensors
that require internet connectivity. That should be part of the sales pitch
when discussing disconnect vs. lower tier.
I suspect most seasonal clients would tolerate a $10 - $15/month internet
expense. And when they're present, ratchet that up to $50 - $80/month.
The idea is that when the seasonal client has upgraded you're making a lot
of margin to offset the loss of margin during the off-season -- the net
result is superior blended margins over a 12 months period.
Todd
--
*{ *name : *Todd Mitchell*,
company : Mobile Conduct Inc.,
title: Founder,
phone: +1.646.484.8080,
location : Houston, TX,
timezone : [GMT -6, Central US],
web : [mobileconduct.com]*}*
On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 3:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote:
I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing
house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans
where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they
needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras.
So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently
do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances
thanks
heith
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company : Mobile Conduct,
title: Founder,
office : +1.281.404.7393,
mobile : +1.646.484.8080,
location : Houston, TX,
timezone : [GMT -6, Central US],
web : mobileconduct.com,
twitter : [@toddmitchell http://www.twitter.com/toddmitchell,
@mobileconduct https://twitter.com/mobileconduct],
facebook : [toddmitchell https://www.facebook.com/toddmitchell*,*
mobileconduct https://www.facebook.com/mobileconduct] *}*
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[WISPA] pay per use billing
I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what's an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
So, you just switch the package at that time for that cost? I don’t think I will have a lot of them but everyone is buying 2 or 3 houses nowadays. Of course around here everyone heads south for the winter From: Sam Tetherow Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 3:39 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
South for the winter Where are you located again? - sent from Alaska *Josh Reynolds* Chief Information Officer SPITwSPOTS j...@spitwspots.com | www.spitwspots.com On 05/06/2014 12:46 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: So, you just switch the package at that time for that cost? I don't think I will have a lot of them but everyone is buying 2 or 3 houses nowadays. Of course around here everyone heads south for the winter *From:* Sam Tetherow mailto:tethe...@shwisp.net *Sent:* Tuesday, May 06, 2014 3:39 PM *To:* WISPA General List mailto:wireless@wispa.org *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what's an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
How about tiering? If you have the infrastructure for it, 2 megabits limited to 50 gig, and then it slows down to 128 k for the rest of the month. wi...@mncomm.com wrote: ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
We do usage based billing. Have since day one. Our basic plan is 25 gigs for $40ish (slightly different in different towns). That’s good enough for over 90% of our customer base. We have lost a lot of customers though (20ish%) over the last two years. We’ve gained more than we’ve lost, but it’s still frustrating to loose so many. The good news is that our competitor’s customers are starting to call us about the crappy service they are getting! The average home has 2 tv’s and ipads and game systems that are online. All watching different programs. Often streaming at the same time. The days of unlimited unrestricted usage are just not here yet. The technology isn’t there and the costs in many (most?) areas are certainly not there. We have no speed tiers. It’s as fast as I can make it go. I have customers on wireless that get over 20 megs, both ways. A recent test at a fiber customer’s location had them getting over 70 megs, both ways. Pretty cool stuff. If things keep going like it looks like they are going the only people that offer unlimited access out here will be the government funded ones. And even they are giving rotten overloaded service that’s much slower than ours. One of the WISPs next door is looking at going back to usage based. marlon From: Sam Tetherow Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 1:39 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
Here in Alaska, we offer 4Mbps for $84/mo. We have no caps, and give away a Roku (because we know it streams very well, unlike Smart TVs, appleTV, and some other random devices) to all of our new setups. We take subs from the ILEC/CLEC and our competition all the time. We are not near maxing out on bandwidth, but it does cost us an arm and a leg (we spend more on bandwidth a month than the average US worker makes in a year+). People cancel their $120 satellite bills and would rather come dump $104/mo for 10Mbps with no caps and stream netflix to multiple devices. *Josh Reynolds* Chief Information Officer SPITwSPOTS j...@spitwspots.com | www.spitwspots.com On 05/06/2014 12:56 PM, Marlon Schafer (509.982.2181) wrote: We do usage based billing. Have since day one. Our basic plan is 25 gigs for $40ish (slightly different in different towns). That's good enough for over 90% of our customer base. We have lost a lot of customers though (20ish%) over the last two years. We've gained more than we've lost, but it's still frustrating to loose so many. The good news is that our competitor's customers are starting to call us about the crappy service they are getting! The average home has 2 tv's and ipads and game systems that are online. All watching different programs. Often streaming at the same time. The days of unlimited unrestricted usage are just not here yet. The technology isn't there and the costs in many (most?) areas are certainly not there. We have no speed tiers. It's as fast as I can make it go. I have customers on wireless that get over 20 megs, both ways. A recent test at a fiber customer's location had them getting over 70 megs, both ways. Pretty cool stuff. If things keep going like it looks like they are going the only people that offer unlimited access out here will be the government funded ones. And even they are giving rotten overloaded service that's much slower than ours. One of the WISPs next door is looking at going back to usage based. marlon *From:* Sam Tetherow mailto:tethe...@shwisp.net *Sent:* Tuesday, May 06, 2014 1:39 PM *To:* WISPA General List mailto:wireless@wispa.org *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what's an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
Would you consider treating these users like a hotspot, where they activate online using credit card for an hour, day, weekend, week, or month? Our entire network is like that. We have exactly 3 customers we still bill. From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of wi...@mncomm.com Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 4:03 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] pay per use billing I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
Well, in South Dakota we have a lot of them, but not near enough as you. I suppose yours comes down to our state like the Canadian Geese do From: Josh Reynolds Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 3:48 PM To: wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing South for the winter Where are you located again? - sent from Alaska Josh Reynolds Chief Information Officer SPITwSPOTS j...@spitwspots.com | www.spitwspots.com On 05/06/2014 12:46 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: So, you just switch the package at that time for that cost? I don’t think I will have a lot of them but everyone is buying 2 or 3 houses nowadays. Of course around here everyone heads south for the winter From: Sam Tetherow Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 3:39 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless -- ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
Possibly. We just recently got into hot spot last year at some state camp grounds. I might be a little grey in that area. We just set up a tower at a resort site where people have their fishing trailers, but they are willing to pay our full monthly and auto suspend when the weather gets cold From: ralph Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 4:28 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
*nods* Few can bitch about bandwidth prices as much as you can. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: Josh Reynolds j...@spitwspots.com To: wireless@wispa.org Sent: Tuesday, May 6, 2014 4:00:30 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing Here in Alaska, we offer 4Mbps for $84/mo. We have no caps, and give away a Roku (because we know it streams very well, unlike Smart TVs, appleTV, and some other random devices) to all of our new setups. We take subs from the ILEC/CLEC and our competition all the time. We are not near maxing out on bandwidth, but it does cost us an arm and a leg (we spend more on bandwidth a month than the average US worker makes in a year+). People cancel their $120 satellite bills and would rather come dump $104/mo for 10Mbps with no caps and stream netflix to multiple devices. Josh Reynolds Chief Information Officer SPITwSPOTS j...@spitwspots.com | www.spitwspots.com On 05/06/2014 12:56 PM, Marlon Schafer (509.982.2181) wrote: We do usage based billing. Have since day one. Our basic plan is 25 gigs for $40ish (slightly different in different towns). That’s good enough for over 90% of our customer base. We have lost a lot of customers though (20ish%) over the last two years. We’ve gained more than we’ve lost, but it’s still frustrating to loose so many. The good news is that our competitor’s customers are starting to call us about the crappy service they are getting! The average home has 2 tv’s and ipads and game systems that are online. All watching different programs. Often streaming at the same time. The days of unlimited unrestricted usage are just not here yet. The technology isn’t there and the costs in many (most?) areas are certainly not there. We have no speed tiers. It’s as fast as I can make it go. I have customers on wireless that get over 20 megs, both ways. A recent test at a fiber customer’s location had them getting over 70 megs, both ways. Pretty cool stuff. If things keep going like it looks like they are going the only people that offer unlimited access out here will be the government funded ones. And even they are giving rotten overloaded service that’s much slower than ours. One of the WISPs next door is looking at going back to usage based. marlon From: Sam Tetherow Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 1:39 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing We don't do usage based, for something like thermostats I would set them to 128k/128k or 512k/512k and charge them $20ish. The camera's I would charge them full rate because they are going to use a lot of bandwidth depending on how often they are view them. On 05/06/2014 03:03 PM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote: blockquote I am starting to get hit by part time users going to their fishing house on the weekends. I also have customers that were on seasonal plans where their internet was shut down while they were gone, however they needed an active connection for remote access to thermostats and cameras. So what’s an average price for selling usage based service? We currently do not offer it now, but I may want to try it out on these instances thanks heith ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless /blockquote ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing
We have many seasonals. We decided to give them two options. Annual payment,providing a one month discount. The most popular is our seasonal plan. We bill from the day they return and call for service to be restored till November 15. We send an invoice for the total.Keeps it simple for us. We wait till about Dec.1st and shut all seasonals off. No maintenance fees.No complaints. On Wednesday, May 7, 2014 12:00 AM, wi...@mncomm.com wi...@mncomm.com wrote: Possibly. We just recently got into hot spot last year at some state camp grounds. I might be a little grey in that area. We just set up a tower at a resort site where people have their fishing trailers, but they are willing to pay our full monthly and auto suspend when the weather gets cold From: ralph Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 4:28 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] pay per use billing ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
