I get your point and fully agree. Before we sold the network, we were looking at an entire technology change and adding a lot more towers. Capacity is everything these days as you point out. Metered billing is certainly the way to go and we are trying to convince our Wispmon customers of the benefits. As for the FCC reporting, they are still stuck on the speed issue. They simply want what is offered to your customers. Whether is is BS or not I guess is up to the conscience of the reporter. Most of our Wispmon customers never thought of recording actual speeds until they started using our software and it was convenient for them to do so. Heck, if they use the work order system, it is practically mandatory. One of the things we hope to do with Wispmon is influence change in our industry to make people keep better records and to have better procedures. If that leads to them realizing how much money they are leaving on the table or even losing, then that is a win for all of us. You can't begin to imagine the kind of data formats we come across. It's astounding that some of these guys have made it as long as they have. I would have given up if I had as hard a time doing business as they have. Your business is fairly complex, but at least you had accurate records in pretty much one place. We get people with info spread across 5 different programs and can correlate none of them.
Cameron On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 12:55 PM, Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181) < o...@odessaoffice.com> wrote: > Thanks Cameron, > > Back in 1999 when I first designed my billing plan I was literally laughed > at. Everyone knew that you sold speed, not capacity. > > But tell me where else, anywhere, we pay for all you can eat, all of the > time? You don't buy your electricity by the voltage, you buy it by the > current used. Water doesn't come in pounds per square inch, it's gallons > used. Gas isn't in miles per hour etc. etc. etc. > > Why do we think we can sell internet by the speed and charge less than a > dedicated pipe costs? Times, they are a changin'.... > > We figure $x.00 per month in costs per customer per gigabit used. In my > case the cost per gig is about $.50 to $1.00 per unit depending on my costs > and how you run the numbers. > > You must also figure in the amount of capacity you need each AP to transfer > during peak hours. No sense selling what you can't deliver. We use the bit > caps as a way to encourage the bandwidth hogs to mess up someone else's > service and keep my system running at peak capabilities, not beyond them. > > Our customers get 10 to 15 gigs per month with their accounts. That's > enough to do pretty much anything anyone wants to do except movies and 24/7 > internet radio (my parents have this problem :-). > > For movies, the average movie is 1 to 3 gigs. An HD movie is 8 to 10. > Netflix will simply figure out how much speed the customer has available and > send more data to suck it all up. It can use a little or a lot. Usually a > lot. > > We also put a cap on our fiber customers. That's costing us users these > days. But I don't know what else to do, there is no money in fiber anyway, > then the customer wants to use $20 per month in upstream fees on his $5.00 > net account. > > It's hard to figure out how to set all of this so that the average customer > can do what he needs to do, but you can afford to stay in business. > > We are certainly loosing some customers to the ones that don't have caps. > But those guys are going to go down in flames in the next couple of years. > They will HAVE to move to bit caps or raise their rates. Even higher prices > isn't going to help when there isn't enough spectrum available to service > the customers. > > How many movies can you support at once across the average AP? 5? 10 at > the most? I don't know about you guys but my break even point is 10 subs > per tower. > > Does that help at all? If not, give me a call and I'll answer any > questions I can. 509.988.0260 > > marlon > > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Cameron Crum <cc...@wispmon.com> > *To:* WISPA General List <wireless@wispa.org> > *Sent:* Thursday, April 21, 2011 9:30 PM > *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] Bandwidth Usage Caps Examples? > > Talk with Marlon at Odessa Office Equipment. He's been doing bandwidth caps > for years. > > Cameron > > On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 5:33 PM, Jason Novinger <jnovin...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> They WISP that I work with actually implements no bandiwdth caps and >> uses it as a marketing strategy against the local cable company. The >> cable company uses the model of guaranteeing speeds, but charging $x >> for y GB over some arbitrary cap. They also provide a package geared >> for video that has no bandwidth caps, but also does not guarantee any >> speed. >> >> Also, given AT&T's, the other local competitor, decision to implement >> caps, this WISP is the _only_ local provider that does have any sort >> of caps. >> >> Holler off-list if you would like more specifics. >> >> Jason >> >> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Dan <deathandta...@caglan.net> wrote: >> > We operate a small WISP plant that is becoming outmoded and is scheduled >> > to be replaced. Previously we have had a tiered pricing scheme but the >> > video explosion has had a severe impact on our existing plant. We are >> > looking at better future-proofing our next deployment with the right >> > model, which we believe to be either the billed-for-heavy-usage model or >> > block pricing. >> > >> > Without getting into discussion about the evils of bandwidth caps too >> > much, are there any examples of how WISP's are managing this? Can >> > anyone provide examples of end-user agreement language pertaining to >> > this, the simpler the better? >> > >> > Also, what software or management platform are people using to monitor >> > and automate billing of overages, etc? >> > >> > Feel free to reply to me off-list if needed. >> > >> > --Dan P. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> > http://signup.wispa.org/ >> > >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > >> > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org >> > >> > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> > >> > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >> > >> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> WISPA Wants You! 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