[1372] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Volume-sensitive charging
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joe Abernathy)
Wed Sep 18 23:03:42 1991
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 19:57:49 CDT
From: edtjda@magic322.chron.com (Joe Abernathy)
To: com-priv@psi.com
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stev knowles writes:
.. what i meant was charging people based on the pipe they
connect with, not the type of traffic they are sending. the pipe size is the
free restrictor to keep them from flooding the net. what difference does it
make what they send through the internet, when we dont care what they send
through the US mail ('cept, or course, if it violates the usage
restrictions:) in fact, the US mail charges companies who sort mail *less*
to send it than they charge *you*.
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I keep seeing various versions of this model discussed, and the
same thing keeps flashing through my mind -- FTS 2000, the Federal
Telephone System.
It was, and still is in many places, set up on a system that
measures only volume of traffic. That means no per-call billing,
indeed, no per-call line items at all. At the end of the year,
each agency figures up its relative size and pays that percentage
of the government's phone bill.
At one level, this is very cost-effective, since you aren't owrrying
with things like per-call detail, agency billings, and the like, but
it also creates an enormous potential for abuse ... potential that will
almost always be realized.
The best example is the Johnson Space Center, which has used this
model for several years, but which is now in the middle of a changeover
to per-call detail. They had several inward dialing lines that over
the course of several years became the de facto long distance service
of Houston's computer underground. Even over the course of years, it
never got noticed, because the only monitoring done was to see when
a pipe was getting full -- and at that point, they'd just order
another pipe.
So, how can one design a system to gain the benefits (savings) of
doing it the FTS way, without the pain?
Joe Abernathy edtjda@chron.com
Special Projects P.O. Box 4260
The Houston Chronicle Houston, Texas 77210
(800) 735-3820 (713) 526-9711
