Hi,
I've said this many times before (starting 5+ years ago when Cable
first came to my area)... if you are going to try and compete on price
alone, you are going to be out of business soon. The CableCo and
Telco's are loosing money on internet services right now, but they
don't care. They are in it for the long term (read 15+ years).
We are currently the most expensive internet solution in our area:
Cable - 3meg - $39.95
DSL - 7meg - $39.95
other WISP - 4meg - $34.95
other MMDS wireless - 1meg - $24.95
Me - 512k - $39.95, 1meg - $49.95 and it goes up from there... and
right now, I have over 100 pending orders waiting to be installed. We
offer a free wireless firewall, a static IP address, same speed up and
down, and local customer service and support. Things the big guys just
can't offer.
Again, if you are competing on price, you are not going to last long...
Travis
Microserv
John J. Thomas wrote:
But, the model will work if you bill by the bytes....
If Joe is paying $40 per month for 6 Gig and gets throttled at 6 Gig, then he has a disincentive for keeping going. If he is paying $40 for unlimited access, he has no reason to slow down.
Charter cable is doing 10 meg down/1 meg up in some markets for like $99 per month, how can you compete with that?
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Travis Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 07:59 PM
To: 'WISPA General List'
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Service Offerings, By Speed or All You Can Eat? Was: Advanced Bandwidth Management
No... I don't think that model works... because Joe Surfer sees how fast
this last movie downloaded and decides to grab 3 more while he's at it...
The model of "the customer will use what they are going to use and then
get off" is not true... imagine if Joe Surfer figures out he can
download the movies AND still surf, check email, etc. at the same time?
Then he can just leave it downloading 24x7. :(
Travis
Microserv
RickG wrote:
Sorry guys for hijacking the thread but this hit a chord...
I've sold bandwidth in all sorts of ways but the most prevalent is by
speed which is the way am currently doing it. My question is this:
What if you played the "cable game" and just sell all you can eat?
Would that not free up your network more quickly for everybody else?
Example: Joe Surfer downloads movies on demand but is too cheap to buy
your highest speed offering. So, he buys your slowest speed and ties
up your network much longer. Just looking for some opinions here ;)
Thanks!
RickG
On 1/24/07, Travis Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
OR, we could stop playing the Cable Co. and Telco "games" with their "up
to 3meg" and "up to 7meg" connections for $34.95 and just start selling
what they get.
We started selling 512k, 1meg, 1.5meg and 2meg connections (up and down,
guaranteed speed 24x7) about 3 years ago. It was the best thing we ever
did... people get what they pay for, and when they need more, they buy
more. No games, no "burstable" speeds, etc.
Make your customers pay for what they need and use.
Travis
Microserv
Blair Davis wrote:
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
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