On Tue, Aug 26, 2003 at 01:25:33PM -0400, Brian Lloyd wrote: > Jay R. Ashworth wrote: > > I believe you think I *dislike* flat-rate pricing. > > No, as a network provider I believe *I* dislike flat-rate pricing. As a network > consumer I believe I *like* flat-rate pricing.
Ok. It just *sounded* like you thought I disliked it. :-) > >>Usage based pricing has the advantage that it incents the subscriber > >>to conserve resources. When the usage goes up and I need to expand the > >>facilities, the cash flow is there to support it. > > > > Fine, but in a packet-switched environment, this is a much less steep hill to > > climb than it is when counting modem lines... > > That is true but there is still a usage issue. Whenever you are > bandwidth limited bigger consumers are always a problem. Usage-based > is also the fairest way to bill for resources consumed. If network > providers would make usage based pricing reasonable I wouldn't care that > much but they often see it as a way to gouge out rediculous profit. Indeed. > >>And when properly applied, most users save money doing usage-based > >>pricing rather than flat-rate pricing. At one point we offered > >>people the opportunity to switch to usage-based pricing and showed > >>them how their bills for the last three months would have gone down > >>if they switched. In spite of all sense, they stayed with flat-rate > >>pricing. <sigh> I guess it does make billing simpler. > > > > That's not the only reason it's popular, though... > > Remember, I am viewing it from the provider's side of the picture. Fine, but the amount you make on the increased user base *more* than pays for the build out -- *if* you set the flat rate in the right place. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member of the Technical Staff Baylink RFC 2100 The Suncoast Freenet The Things I Think Tampa Bay, Florida http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274 OS X: Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows -- Simon Slavin, on a.f.c -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
