[11103] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: What is an "Internet reseller"?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Simon Poole)
Tue Mar 22 02:33:42 1994
To: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 22:38:43 +0100 (MET)
Cc: matthew@echo.com, fair@apple.com, karl@mcs.com, com-priv@psi.com,
washburn@cix.org
In-Reply-To: <m0phxiz-000BbzC@mercury.mcs.com> from "Karl Denninger" at Mar 19, 94 03:53:45 am
From: Simon Poole <poole@magnolia.eunet.ch>
>
> In the quarters immediately following the DELETION of flat-rate phone
> service in Chicagoland, Ameritech reported RECORD PROFITS. Further, I defy
> you to find anyone in Chicagoland who got a lower phone bill than they did
> with the choice to have flat-rate calling. CERTAINLY the majority of bills
> went <UP>, otherwise those record profits wouldn't have happened - would
> they? Lots of bills went up 400% and more, my own included!
Actually I think a comparision with typical public X.25 service providers
would be more appropriate. At least here (Switzerland) we're talking about
orders of magnitudes of difference in prices, typically break even between
a flat rate leased line connection to us and a similar speed X.25 connection
is achieved at around 10 to 20 MB international traffic per month (and we're
not exactly cheap).
I actually agree with Matthew that the difference between direct IP reselling
and offering non-IP based Internet access is a tiny bit artificial. Following
his arguments, it might be reasonable to include non-IP resellers in the CIX
agreement and subject them to the same rules as IP service providers.
For AOL and CompuServe $10k is small change, and they are in a position
where they can negotiate favorable settlement anyway.
--
EUnet Switzerland Simon Poole
Zweierstrasse 35 Tel: +41 1 291 45 80
CH-8004 Zuerich Fax: +41 1 291 46 42 poole@eunet.ch
