Ya know, we've looked at this many times over the past couple years, and even tested it for a bit.
Fact is, people like unlimited, and not having to guess. I, myself, being a fairly lite user of the Internet, would still always opt for an unlimited plan--even if I knew my bill may be lower on a pay-per-use plan. I have unlimited cell phone minutes, txt messages, etc. If I could pay for unlimited utilites, I'd certainly do that too! We've got the infrastructure in place for a pay-per-use, and could activate it at anytime. We tried selling it about a year ago, and people just didn't understand the concept. People aren't used to it--most people got online when Internet was $19.95/mo for dialup (or, $22.95 for AOL!), and don't remember the 10 for $10 dial-up packages. Nobody knows what ISDN with 300 hours is. We currently offer 12Mbps service for $24.95/mo. This makes us the fastest in the area, and the cheapest. We have local sales, support and installations. We decided the way to win is to shape traffic--we offer three 12Mbps packages; one with a guaranteed minimum of 1.5Mbps, 4Mbps and 6Mbps. If you do nothing than browse, share pictures, etc. (i.e. "normal use") you'll always see the 12Mbps. But once you fire up a torrent or Netflix, you only get that speed for 10 minutes--after that, you get your guaranteed minimum. Prices double from 1.5 to 4, and double again going to 6Mbps. We have never had a complaint about speed or price with this structure. I'm hoping that the "big guys" do go to pay-per-use plans. Just one more way we can advertise and win against them. "Tired of counting your bits and bytes? We're unlimited" Look at Cricket wireless--they've just exploded with customers on their unlimited-everything service. Just my 2 cents Jayson On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Travis Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > The cellular guys don't charge by the minute... I have an unlimited plan > on my cell phone. I can also get unlimited text and internet access for > $9.95/mo extra. > > People don't want to guess what their internet bills are going to be from > month to month. Would you want that at your own home? > > Travis > Microserv > > > Gary Garrett wrote: > > You sound like the cell phone company. > I am convinced the big failure in my business model is I charge by the > month while the cellular guys charge by the minute. > > > Travis Johnson wrote: > > > Hi, > > You are talking about having to add additional resources (radius, etc.) > to track it. Then you have to bill it. Then you get to deal with the > phone calls from users that say "My computer wasn't even turned on > during those times. Remove the charge or I will go elsewhere." So, even > that one extra phone call costs you money (because you have to think > about scaling). Imagine if you have 100x the number of customers you > have now... does the same solution work? Probably not. > > The easier solution would be to call that customer and get them to > upgrade to the next plan up (which would provide higher speed as well). > This works very well for us... and then I have that guaranteed extra > income each month, even if they don't use it. > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today!http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe:http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
