calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to TKJunkMail
Re: The true economics of increased usage
It's possible to use a "carrot" approach and get the lighter users onto a "per unit" pricing plan, but to see full economic implementation it usually takes a "stick" of some sort to force the heavy users over, either by capping (essentially eliminating) "unlimited use" plans, or by raising (or, if prices are falling, failing to drop) prices for unlimited use.
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Speakeasy
| reply to Jason Levine
Re: Ok..
said by Jason Levine  :Why say "f*ck you" in Yiddish when you can use one of the more colorful curses? Because the answer to the joke's question is "trust me". Which is appropos of telcos proposing things that are "in the best interest of consumers".
-tom
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"Some people have morals, standards and ideals about quality, but I'm an American: I couldn't care less." --Tony Pierce (paraphrased) |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to aztecnology
Re: Here is the reality and not the fantasy
ASI has existed since 1997 or abouts. It's been around as long as DSL for Pacific Bell has been. (pre SBC) There was never a "spin off" - it's always been. Being the first customer in Sacramento to have DSL installed (news cameras and papers present for install) I learned this long ago.
Yes, it's because of the regulatory demand. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to TKJunkMail
GnS, I have to disagree with you on this one, for once.
The likes of AT&T and such are providing INTERNET ACCESS.
If they want to be the deliverer of content as well, they need to sell themselves as in the days of AOL 4.5. Online service first with access to the "internet" second. Many people are not going to go for this since what they have purcahsed is HIGH SPEED INTERNET.
AT&T, and the likes, are a day late and a dollar short of getting into the game. Show me one major ISP that, until recently, had anything to offer on their own until recently. The major ISPs have always had the worst portals in the industry.
Now, they are poppin up and wanting to increase and enhance their own offersings and want to be the ones to turn to for the content because they are just now waking up to the fact that there is not only money in the transport, but content as well.
I don't buy Comcast or Qwest for their information. I have purchased their pipes to get me onto the NET.
If they want to make sure their "CORE" services of Video, and Telephone are able to make it to the home, they can certainly do that by splitting their services down different channels, pipes, or frequencies. Cable is already doing this and so is telephone as DSL and Voice run on different frequencies.
The bottom line is that they are looking simply for more places to make income. What ultimately is happening here is the same thing that is happening in the housing markets. The hosing market was was so sucked dry of cash that many houses are now out of the price range of many people - and rentals are also going up. Come late 06 or easly 07 we are heading back into another TRUE recession.
The internet is going to head the same way. They are going to drive the prices up everywhere they can that internet is going to become a loss in providing it that they will not be able to enhance it or less people will buy it period. They are too busy sucking cash from every source in their quest for world domination that they will eventually drive the internet into the ground.
The only way that the internet can and will exist and survive is for them to simply leave it alone. It's not broke and it doesn't need fixing. Yes, the government will step in, but I think it will be to knock this B.S. off.
I have problems with companies that look within' their currnet products and services to make more money from it first instead of looking outside by creating new new product offerings. To me, this tells me that they having nothing new on the horizon or they don't plan on upgrading anything they have.
AT&T (SBC) is VERY good and making empty promises and never delivering. I thought vapor-ware was a short sting when Bill Gates pre-microsoft days with DOS. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to G_Poobah
Re: Ok..
said by G_Poobah :Comcrap/Verizon/Etc are trying to double dip, since they currently only get to charge for the 'transport', and want to now get a chunk of the 'production'. Do you even bother to do your homework before you rant? ... ever?
When did Comcast get drug into a conversation about AT&T and their double dipping?
Eminent domain? if you want a socialist society, there are pleanty of them out there - please, choose one. |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| reply to nixen
Why say "f*ck you" in Yiddish when you can use one of the more colorful curses?
»www.yiddishradioproject.org/exhi···hp3?pg=1
Number 29 seems appropriate for the Telecos should they implement their plan:
A groys gesheft zol er hobn mit shroyre: vus er hot, zol men bay im nit fregn, un vos men fregt zol er nisht hobn.
He should have a large store, and whatever people ask for he shouldn’t have, and what he does have shouldn’t be requested.
;););)
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-Jason Levine
My Gallery | Jason's Toolbox | PCQandA.com | URateit.com |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| reply to Jafo232
said by Jafo232 :Whenever a company like this says "beneficial to customers", you have to be worried. That is usually a code for "We are about to screw the customer when he/she is not looking".. This time it's different. They're already screwing their customers and now they're looking to screw every company/web site/service on the Internet even if said company/web site/service isn't their customer.
Hey, wait. Maybe that's the "beneficial to customers" part. Maybe it really means "if we're too busy screwing all of the companies/web sites/services on the Internet, we'll have less time to screw you, our customers." 
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-Jason Levine
My Gallery | Jason's Toolbox | PCQandA.com | URateit.com |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ | reply to calvoiper
Re: The true economics of increased usage
Excellent analysis. I wonder if they can get customers to buy in to the per byte model? |
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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to TKJunkMail
Before we go further, we have to distinguish between additional loads caused by A) additional subscribers and B) higher, more intense usage of bandwidth by the average subscriber.
"A"--additional subscribers--shouldn't be any economic problem for the ISPs, unless they are improperly pricing their existing services under cost now (which some have claimed the Baby Bells are doing with DSL). With more customers, they at least gain some economies of scale.
"B"--increased individual usage--is the issue. All "shared" or "concentrated" facilities will need to be expanded, resulting in increased cost on a "per customer" basis, as average usage increases through heavier bandwidth occupancy caused by streaming video, more extensive downloads, etc.
Now, to deal with the fallout:
said by TKJunkMail :... If government steps in and tries to forbid the so-called 2 tier system, then 1 of 2 things would happen: 1) the ISPs will not spend their money to upgrade infrastructure to handle the new products(video, etc.) at all. So everyone suffers. OR 2) the ISPs will upgrade the infrastructure to support all comers and the PRICE to their customers goes up accordingly. ... Ooops. You left out (or improperly crammed into option 2) the third option, which is that ISPs will raise prices only to the heavier users, i.e., those that are streaming video and downloading all the time. (Those of us who only read and write text don't add much load to the shared facilities at all.) I.e., option 3 is that we'll see some sort of "per-byte" pricing.
said by TKJunkMail :... The option everyone wants can NOT happen. And that is an enhanced infrastructure paid for only by the ISPs with no increase in costs to the customer. Investors of the ISPs will not support that option. Again, with a "per-byte" pricing structure, the infrastructure improvements necessary will be paid for by those heavy users that make them necessary.
Now, it appears that the Baby Bells, so long dependent on "access" pricing they charged to long distance carriers, and now trying to extract that money stream from the content providers, rather than legitimately raising it from their own customers. This approach is indirect and inaccurate--and only really works for monopolies.
(Previously litigated example: Microsoft charges manufacturers, rather than end users, for Internet Explorer. This is not only easier for Microsoft, it avoids the necessity of having to compete at the end user level for browser customers. Likewise, if the Baby Bells can extort "transit" fees from the content providers, they can avoid charging proper end user prices and thereby avoid competing at the end user level for customers. They will have effectively used their size to force Google (and hence, all of Google's end users) to subsidize the Baby Bell DSL, just as Microsoft forced manufacturers and their customers to subsidize IE. As Netscape found out, smaller players without the "heft" to engage in industry-wide extortion then get squeezed out of the picture, and the user community loses both the price and product differentiation benefits of having competing products.)
Competition depends on the cost-causer (in this case, the intense user who is downloading and streaming a lot) bearing their own costs. To the extent these costs are hidden elsewhere, true competition is stifled.
It's as if you opened the electric network to competition for generation capacity, but told the competitors that they couldn't meter the electricity. There's then effectively no way for real competition to develop.
The real danger is that the user community will embrace the "hidden" cost model (i.e., the 2-tier system for content providers) to avoid "per byte" pricing--and we'll be stuck with monopoly pricing models for years, much to the delight of the Baby Bells.
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
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Jigsaw
Stardust We Are
Premium
join:2000-10-21
Cleveland, OH
·Cox HSI
| reply to valuepac0
Re: Ok..
said by valuepac0 :Where my fiber to the curb... Its on the curb:p
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»www.auralmoon.com/html/ Open your mind and your ears. |
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99664227
Heavily MODerated
Premium
join:2002-11-21
USA
| reply to valuepac0
said by valuepac0 :Where my fiber to the curb... Verizon dug up my yard today with that foot thick orange cable.:D
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Life ain't nothing but bitches and cake! |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| reply to G_Poobah
Seizing commiecast of VZ (including VZW) would be a nice start.
These companies want to take control of your connection to throttle any thing that doesn't pay them toll, or isn't a 'Content partner - i.e. Yahoo/SBC(at&t)'
The flaw with that is we (the customers) pay for access to the Internet - with no restrictions to a specific vendor (i.e. Google) vs. their content partner.
While I do agree that there are limits - i.e. SBC/Yahoo back bone set up to handle OC-48 traffic, and say an online gaming service (or video streaming service) has an OC-192 backbone, it could be conceived as 'throttling', Company A asking Company B to assist in paying for extra capacity. I can see that as a reasonable request. What I don't see as being reasonable is packet shaping technology to filter specific ports/applications down to less than the users pipe size. |
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stickfigure
join:2002-06-11
El Cajon, CA
| reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Here is the reality and not the fantasy
said by TKJunkMail :The option everyone wants can NOT happen. And that is an enhanced infrastructure paid for only by the ISPs with no increase in costs to the customer. Investors of the ISPs will not support that option. So how is it that an ISP such as AT&T (SBC at the time) offer 1.5-6mbps DSL for $299.00 per month a couple years ago and after having invested in enhanced infrastructure (fiber and more RT's) now offer the same service for around $69.99 per month? Because that sounds to me like they were the only one investing in their infrastructure and they weren't raising the costs of DSL to cover it. In fact the residential DSL costs have typically been reduced as more has been invested into the network.
What SHOULD happen and what has been happening until this crap... is ISP's continue to come out with faster and faster services. If I'm a customer who wants to have "THE" fastest service I know I'm going to have to pay more for it while it is considered "the best". But this would be the same thing if I wanted the latest and greatest technology (ie blue ray DVD writer's). At first it's going to be expensive but as time progresses costs decrease. |
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AndyWarhol
Premium
join:2004-03-14
Broken Arrow, OK
clubs: | reply to ronpin
exactly, you must at some point try to beat the competition by upgrading. Then again they might just try to lower their prices and become an in-between dial-up and fast broadband. |
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AndyWarhol
Premium
join:2004-03-14
Broken Arrow, OK
clubs:
1 edit | reply to footballdude
Re: Ok..
Not entirely true, if you are under contract with an ISP or a webhosting company, you are allowed a certain amount of information per month and are charged for every bit you exceed your limit, even residential customers are subject to this limit (we all know that bandwidth caps exist in our residential contracts, but they are rarely enforced so we tend to forget about them), but ISPs don't care about residential customers because the margin they earn on them is nowhere near what they earn from business customers. If you can get 100,000 residential customers for $10 a month or 10 customers for $100,000 a month, which would you choose?
Edit: this also proved that they are not attempting to double dip, they are attempting to triple dip. Most domain names are already paying for a certain amount of traffic to their site, and all customers are already paying for their access to that site, so now charging the owners of those domain names not only for the traffic to their site but also for the traffic that passes through any certain network is triple, quadruple, quintuple dipping from the same pot. |
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aztecnology
O Rly?
Premium
join:2003-02-12
Murrieta, CA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Fatal Vector
Re: Here is the reality and not the fantasy
said by Fatal Vector :Oh, and by the way, it seems that SBC DSL is provided by a outfit called ASI (Advanced Solutions Inc), which, from what I was told, is a subsidiary of SBC, but, because of FCC regulations, operates independently. Go figure. SBC was required to spin its DSL operations into a separate company, ASI, back around 2001. This past year ASI moved back to SBC/ATT, though the group is still called ASI...
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.:|:. "Independent thinkers tend to ALWAYS have someone not agreeing with them. It's The non-thinkers that always come in legions." John Callari .:|:. |
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broadbander
join:2005-07-21
Brooklyn, NY
| reply to Minister
For one, if the telcos do not invest in network upgrades they will be beaten stupid by wireless, cable, and muni-alternatives, so investment must happen regardless.
Aw! But that's when the telcos AREN'T against regulation! When it impedes those who might stand up against their refusal to deploy, then regulation is doing its job. All other times, oh no no. |
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Fatal Vector
join:2005-11-26
| reply to ronpin
Interestingly enough, I had a problem with my SBC/AT&T DSL which turned out to be the modem. However, during the conversation, while the tech was testing the line (next day in home service, by the way), he made a comment about my DSL line being 294 feet long and that my current service was only using 12% of the capability of the line.
How could this be? I'm definately not that close to the switch. Apparently, it's because I am that distance from a node of some kind. This seems to tie in with my having seen SBC putting in large fiber cables under the main avenue a few months back, as well as in other places over time.
In all the blathering about SBC/AT&T, has it ever occurred to anyone that SBC HAS been upgrading their infrastructure, quietly, over time?
Oh, and by the way, it seems that SBC DSL is provided by a outfit called ASI (Advanced Solutions Inc), which, from what I was told, is a subsidiary of SBC, but, because of FCC regulations, operates independently. Go figure. |
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CableConvert
Premium
join:2003-12-05
Atlanta, GA | reply to Jafo232
Re: Ok..
Unfortunately...we are looking, and we will still get screwed |
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RayW
Premium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
clubs:
·XMission
| reply to footballdude
said by footballdude :Bad example. You pay for how much electricity you use by the watt. You pay a flat fee for internet access, regardless of how much you use it. Not totally true, I have paid a 'service fee' + the KW usage for my electric for a long time. With my AT&T LD I pay a set rate, and if I call over a certain number of minutes, then I pay extra. My ISP is a flat rate up to 100 gigabytes/month, any more and I get dinged (not that I come close to using that much).
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. |
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