[239] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Usage Charges
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (richardt@Legato.COM)
Thu Feb 28 15:33:00 1991
To: uunet!aahz.hf.intel.com!batie@Sun.COM (Alan Batie)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 27 Feb 91 18:44:49 -0800.
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 11:54:41 PST
From: richardt@Legato.COM
The current (and presumeably ongoing) trend in large corporate datacomm
centers (such as Intel) is away from variable costs, because variable
costs make the accountants uncomfortable too.
It seems that long-term variable costs are generally a win only for the
service providers. While we might wish that usage sensitive pricing
would encourage efficiency, it is much easier for users simply to not
use the service than it is for them to find, purchase, and justify the
use of an expensive per-packet service. Sadly, I think people are more
*likely* to not use the network (and thereby decrease total usage and
increase ongoing costs) than to take the more enlightened view that
their per-packet usage encourages efficiency.
As an aside, Alan, how goes Agora?
RichardT
