[1267] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Usage based billing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stan Hanks (bcm))
Thu Aug 29 12:05:41 1991
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 91 11:06:30 CDT
From: "Stan Hanks (bcm)" <stan@karazm.math.uh.edu>
To: kwe2@BBN.COM, stan@karazm.math.uh.edu
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Kent,
You hit on a very good point. In theory, SMDS should make it possible
to solve the problem completely. In practice, it won't be here anytime
soon. Well, soon enough anyway....
And the uncertainty issue is clearly the largest problem in any usage-based
service. But look at long-distance telephony -- it's working well for
people, right? And if you do enough of it, the WATS service will let you
buy blocks of time at significant discounts (to allay the "will anyone be
using the lines" fears of the telcos). And if you really do enough of it,
you can buy bypass service by leasing a line direct to the IXC to cut out
the "local access charge" portion.
Same model should work in the Internet worlds. We have dial service at low
speeds, we have flat rate service at reasonable speed, what we're missing
is either dial service at reasonable speed (switch 56? striped T2500's?)
or leased service at usage-based rates.
Stan
