[2444] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Billing philosophy...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Fri Feb 28 17:06:00 1992
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 92 16:18:12 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: com-priv@psi.com
As far back as I can remember, over ten years certainly, periodic
heated discussions erupt regarding usage vs flat-rate pricing.
The politically oriented talk about the big picture, the technically
oriented discuss what layer to put it in and what changes are needed
in packet headers etc. Everyone eventually discovers the "problems"
with anonymous FTP, reversing charges and how it all feeds the pecking
order, and discusses those for a while. Some people just react
emotionally.
Frankly, I'm tired of the conversation.
If someone thinks there is a market out there for usage-sensitive
pricing all power to them, put up the money to implement and market
the product, convince router manufacturers etc of what you need,
propose the whole set of rules and conditions of use, and go for it,
tell us when you have your glossy brochure ready so we can tell you
where to mail it for perusal.
If the market doesn't like it, the market won't buy it, they will
go broke and we will stick their heads on poles and boast how
we knew all along it was a bad idea.
If the market finds it solves a problem, the market will buy it, they
will get fat and rich, and we will parade them about on our shoulders
and boast how we knew all along it was an idea whose time had come.
Other than that, I can't imagine the point of the conversation. Can
someone enlighten me? Are we going to implement usage-sensitive
pricing by a show of hands here on this list? Or stop it? I don't
think so.
-Barry Shein
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