[242] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Usage Charges
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David J. Farber)
Thu Feb 28 16:32:46 1991
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 16:01:35 GMT-0500
From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David J. Farber)
To: richardt@Legato.COM
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Our general experience in the Old Days with CSNET is that especially academic
organizations -- that is departments with fixed and small budgets get to be very
uncomfortable with "by the drink " charging. The danger of having a large budget
item appear suddenly makes faculty shiver. Personally that is what killed the x25
based network of CSNET . So if its by the drink , then it better get merged into a
large pot -- that is the University. Most Universities I know have just as much
problems with that as the department (well it is a smaller percentage .. but
still).
I think the bottom line is pipe size pricing or at least a max expendature. Like so
much per drink up to a maximum (to encourage conservation (for Californians)).
One may ask why Universities dont run into problems with voice traffic. They do and
what they often do is to restrict telephone calls to those who can pay through
research grants. That in the network field would lead to those who have have and
those who are not well supported do not have (like the telephone service).
Dave
