| Corporations and the Net Well, I've read an awfull lot of posts and decided to add a few things.
1. A company exists to make money. If they can make money while providing nothing they will.
2. Since that extreme an option is rarely available, they will normally move money from an area that is doing well to an area that is poorly performing. If they have a perfect support team but are having problems with network capacity, they will cut back the support until their reputation starts to suffer in order to pay for the added network capacity.
3. A company will withold purchases until the last moment (or past the last moment) in order to maximise revenue. They will not purchase equipment until they can't do without it, and if they can get a no interest loan by cutting a payment schedule rather than paying up front they will. Money in the bank earns interest (if nothing else) while money in someone elses pocket earns the company nothing.
4. Networks charge each other for packets recieved but not sent. Thus, when you download a file from someone outside your providers network, your provider is charged for the packets you download, but not your requests and acks. In large networks (like AT&T), the two companys generally decide that they are both using a lot of traffic and just call it even. Small companies do not have this option and generally DO end up paying for the traffic your download generates.
5. If the T1 isn't yours then there is often a per byte charge over X bytes. It is only when you own both ends of the T1 that this charge doesn't happen. Many companies will lease from each others prebuilt networks rather than buy their own. Thus AT&T may be passing traffic over Comcasts T1 because leasing bandwidth from Comcast costs less than buying and maintaining their own (not to mention it's built differently.)
6. Because a companies goal is to make as much money they can for as little money as they can get away with, it behooves the client to be aware of what is being offerred and push back when it is unacceptable. They will add up how much they will make with per byte billing, figure out how many people they will loose if they do it, and if the end amount shows profit then that is what they are going to do. If they predict they will earn less money because to many people will leave, then they will not do it.
At any rate, I'm going to write to AT&T expressing my displeasure with the idea, as I do whenever they suggest it. If enough people complain, they won't do it until people don't complain. *shrug* It's the only way I see to prevent it.
Boojum |
