[1256] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: impact of settlements on provision of free services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stan Hanks (bcm))
Wed Aug 28 22:40:20 1991
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 91 21:42:29 CDT
From: "Stan Hanks (bcm)" <stan@karazm.math.uh.edu>
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com, craig@sics.se
Craig Partridge made some very good points here. In evaluating how
to provide pricing for the MFS MDS services, we noted one overwhealming
factor: it's damned hard to justify a "large" fixed monthly expense
*if you have no prior history of usage*. I mean, it's hard for most
of us to remember *NOT* having Internet access, right? Consider for
a moment a company that has *LOTS* of internal networking but which
has an "Internet = Evil" flag raised due to some combination of Blue
Myopia, the Morris Worm, and pure ignorance. Enter a cadre of bright
young staff who have had access to the Internet in prior lives, and who
can convince management that is *might* be worthwhile. Having
relatively inexpensive usage-based billing will make it easier for them
to sell a connection internally. Once you *HAVE* the connection, and
actually start using it, it will become quite clear in relatively
short order that a fixed-price connection is the right thing to do.
It's just that initial jump-start where you really need usage-based
billing.
I agree violently that moving to a strict usage-based billing system
for everyone is counterproductive. For one thing, it makes any decision
to use the network equate to a decision to spend money. And if you get
yelled at for spending money, you just won't use the network. (Or, you
might change jobs -- which is what I did when last confronted with such
an endarkened view of the world some years ago....).
Stanley P. Hanks Principal Scientist
Technology Transfer Associates, P.O. Box 2087, Bellaire TX 77402-2087
e-mail: stan@karazm.math.uh.edu voice: (713) 661-2084 fax: (713) 662-8504
