We sell mainly to residential users and to some small businesses.
We are quite rural, and my cost for a T-1 is $450 per month. My pending
fiber hookup is $1100 per month for 5Mbit.
A bit ago, a business customer's new IT consultant complained that the
256Kbit committed rate for $60 a month was over priced. He demanded a
1Mbit committed rate and no price change. I explained this was not
possible. He was quite nasty and told me he was recommending that the
customer find a new ISP. I, fed up with his big city attitude, told him
to go right ahead. He said to come pick up the gear on this Friday.
Although, I might have lost my temper a bit and used some words that the
FCC doesn't permit on the phone......
After he was quoted $600 per month for a T1, (and $9500 install), and a
3 month lead time, he called me back...
He decided that my offer of 1Mbit committed rate (6am-6pm, Mon-Fri) and
a 256Kbit committed rate at other times) for $250 a month was a damn
good deal......
The point of this, is that, for many customers, pricing and bandwidth
expectations are being driven by the cheap bandwidth in the large
cites.... Out here in the real world, it don't work that way.....
The other point is, that with a good mix of residential and business
customers, and a little creative thinking, one can match their usage
patterns to minimize ones peak bandwidth requirements while still
providing the 'fast, snappy feel' that the users prefer....
Just my $.02
J. Vogel wrote:
I would suspect that the customer (as is the case in much of the world,
not necessarily in the limited
world you may operate in) does not want to, or in many case could not
pay for such a pipe. In many
areas of the US, especially rural, bandwidth is extremely expensive.
Customers do not want to pay
close to $1k / month for their residential connection to the internet,
yet the customer would like to
access the internet at speed approaching 1.5 mbps (or even faster)
whenever they can. In such a case
it makes sense, is good business practice, and not at all unethical to
sell customers shared bandwidth.
In cases such as these, the question posed by the OP is a valid
question, and deserves an answer
other than one which implies that they may be doing something they
should not be. The world is a big
place. It is good to get out and see parts of it you may not have seen
lately.
John
Matt Liotta wrote:
Have you thought about selling the customer a pipe that works for any
and all traffic at the speed the customer signed up for as opposed to
deciding for the customer?
-Matt
--
Blair Davis
AOL IM Screen Name -- Theory240
West Michigan Wireless ISP
269-686-8648
A division of:
Camp Communication Services, INC
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