[2676] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Settlements
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (RichardT)
Wed Apr 8 19:21:28 1992
From: RichardT <richardt@apple.com>
In-Reply-To: <9204082158.AA15209@psi.com>
To: HORN%athena@leia.polaroid.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 92 16:19:07 -0700
> Why does everyone assume that packets (bytes, whatever) should be counted?
> Settlements should correspond to costs, so measure and settle based on the
> things that cause costs. Costs are operations labor, capital equipment,
> communications line leases, etc. These are capacity related, not usage
> related. Usage is just an indirect factor.
>
> This fixation on detailed usage accounting is like moths attracted to flames.
Because we've all fought far too many battles with telcos who wanted to
sell us usage-sensitive service we didn't want to buy and with accounting
management that was insistent on doing usage-based chargeback. You and
I and most of the other people on this list know that capacity is what
costs, not usage. Unfortunately, its historically been very difficult
to explain that to accounting that want's to be able to assign a cost
to each department or researcher.
RichardT
Network Archeologist
