[1262] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: impact of settlements on provision of free services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent W. England)
Thu Aug 29 08:36:13 1991
From: "Kent W. England" <kwe2@BBN.COM>
To: craig@sics.se
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9108281031.AA08832@garuda.sics.se>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 91 10:32:58 EDT
>From: Craig Partridge <craig@sics.se>
>
>I confess to being surprised to see the idea of usage-based pricing appear
>again. The idea had (I'd hoped) been flogged to death a few times on
>various e-mail lists over the years for the reasons Erik & Ed mention.
>
That's because there is usage-sensitive pricing and "settlements" [I
hate that term] that can occur at various levels of the network.
So when someone says usage-sensitive, don't rush to the assumption that
per-packet charging necessarily flows down to the end user.
Ask the telcos what they think of usage-sensitive pricing. You'll find
it's a two-edged sword, and that the revenue/expense uncertainty falls
on both parties to a usage-sensitive transaction. But it's all a part
of the negotiation of the sharing of risk inherent in any business
transaction and, therefore, the issue won't just go away.
--Kent
