[1250] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Impact of settlements on provision of free services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dgreen@sti.com)
Wed Aug 28 15:16:17 1991
From: dgreen@sti.com
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1991 11:24:58 -0700
In-Reply-To: Vince Fuller <vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU>
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Vince Fuller wrote:
| Sender: fair@apple.com
|
| I, as Postmaster and Internet Liaison for Apple Computer, will put it
| in even more strong terms than Ed Vielmetti: we will not connect to a
| usage priced TCP/IP network.
As internet liaison and postmaster for Software Transformation, a much smaller
commercial R/D organization than Apple Computer, we have the same opinion
of usage priced TCP/IP.
Barrnet's fixed pricing scheme, based on two factors:
a. maximum bandwidth.
b. organization revenue.
is good for us, as a small startup company. These two factors are a good
measure of TCP/IP usage, without the "monthly surprise" of a traffic-based
charge. Small though we are, we have bean counters here: I'm one of them
(as well as project manager, programmer, system administrator, etc.). I
don't like budget surprises anymore than Apple's bean counters do.
We need internet connectivity, but with our v.32 connection and our lower
revenues (= fewer employees), we make few demands on the net.
When we obtain more revenue, we will have more people, and we'll make more
demands on the net. Barrnet's pricing scheme accounts for that: we will also
pay a higher yearly fee.
We don't currently send commercial traffic over the internet, by the way.
When we do, we will join a CIX based site.
One reason why traffic-based fees are higher: there is a whole huge
bureaucracy implied by usage-based pricing. Single fixed yearly
bills are easy to compute and administer. Monthly usage-based bills imply:
1. Extra hardware and software to monitor traffic.
2. Extra people to fix the monitoring hardware and software.
3. Extra people to process the monthly bills.
4. Extra people to handle customer complaints/billing problems.
6. Extra people to handle credit issues, when a tight-budget customer gets
a "budget surprise".
Count me as opposed to traffic-based fees.
I am not a member of com-priv@uu.psi.com.
--
____
\ /Dan Greening Software Transformation 1601 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd, #100
\/dgreen@sti.com (408) 973-8081 x313 Cupertino, CA 95014
