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.
So you are advocating that I overcharge most of the people and undercharge a few big users in order to optimize my profit? Yes, I know that is what people want but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
The networking world is an anomaly. Everywhere else we have usage-based pricing (except in a few mediocre restaurants where they offer all-you-can-eat prices). The grocery store doesn't charge you a flat rate. The water company doesn't charge you a flat rate. The electric company doesn't charge flat-rate.
The first company to charge flat-rate for internet access was Netcom. Bob Rieger did it for a very simple reason: he didn't have a way to charge for usage. He was using then-new Livingston Portmasters and a couple of us had just talked Steve Willens into writing RADIUS. Bob had centralized authentication but not usage based billing so he did something really simple: flat-rate pricing. Wow, did that ever go over well with the consumers. At the time (1991) I had just started my ISP E of Sacramento. (I was working for BARRNet also and Bob was getting his connectivity from BARRNet.)
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Brian Lloyd 6501 Red Hook Plaza, Suite 201 [EMAIL PROTECTED] St. Thomas, VI 00802 +1.340.998.9447 - voice +1.360.838.9669 - fax GMT-4
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