We had no choice after deploying the 450 and offering up a handful of
capacity for a competitive rate which basically put us at capacity in
less than 6 months with out the numbers we wanted to see. So, since we
had not raised rates in 10yrs we had no choice but to regroup and look
at how we compare to our local cable. Really we have the upper hand
because of what we do as a wireless
industry. The whole hybrid solution is the key. Basically WIsps offer
fiber to the home via fixed connections from a fiber carrier. Cable
isnt even close due to the party line affect. Cambium gives us a
scheduler that enables a VC per sub so we can imitate carrier class
connections for a much lower price than what a carrier would serve while
still making money doing it.
So we can market a wonderful new buzz word called hybrid until it dies
we will roll with it but so far the response has been very positive for
the new price plans we now offer. Our 5x5 plan is a 5Mbs/5Mbs Down/Up
for $75.00 monthly. We limit our basic which is 3x1 @ $50.00 to only
one video stream @ 768k per one device per account.
On 10/4/2014 7:27 PM, That One Guy via Af wrote:
i rarely have good to say about the way my boss runs things, but he is
a magician at the rate plan changes. we have never directly raise
prices, for the most part we have always either kept them the same
price or lowered the cost to stay where you are at. usually any rate
plan changes come with the option to get more for less, knowing full
well that they ultimately will move up a tier in the future because
they want more. since we quit directly selling the speed and moved to
consumption based pricing it gives a lot more leverage to make global
changes with a limited demand increase on the infrastructure. It costs
us alot less to offer more consumption than to offer more speed, and
everything is moving to consumption based anyway, whether you like it
or not. our absolute lowest tier is marketed as an email only plan
with a 5gb cap to throttled speed. but we actually moved it to 10gb
because there were too many hitting 6gb that would have needed to move
up a tier just to get an extra gb, easier to raise it for free, and we
still get about a 50% take rate to the next tier anyway. things like
that are how we are able to raise prices without actually raising
prices. Because of it, even though we went through a negative customer
growth (i like that buzz word) our profits increased, and now that we
are on a positive customer growth trend, that profit increases quickly
which is why we just dropped over 100k buying up the available 320
market at the time (yeah, we were one of the ones that helped cause
that). I wish I could provide the specific details of the two major
rate changes in the last five years, because they were both pretty
ingenious, ultimately getting customers to thank you for raising their
prices, just by giving them ownership of the decision.
On Sat, Oct 4, 2014 at 5:12 PM, David Milholen via Af <af@afmug.com
<mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
This is what we have done..
On 10/4/2014 4:02 PM, Jon Langeler via Af wrote:
Yeah I wouldn't raise prices on a 900SM customer. Get ready to
overhaul the network with faster options before charging more.
But definitely charge more as opposed to going cheaper. Markets
may vary...
Jon
On Oct 4, 2014, at 4:54 PM, Paul McCall via Af <af@afmug.com
<mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
Very good input from all of you!
*From:*Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *Ken
Hohhof via Af
*Sent:* Saturday, October 04, 2014 4:32 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] How frequently have you had a price increase?
Everyone seems to expect our prices will go down, it’s the
Internet after all, everything is supposed to get cheaper until
it’s free, right? We haven’t raised prices in 10 years, and we
are feeling some pressure to lower prices about 10%, I guess
that’s from competition though and it sounds like you don’t have
too much of that problem.
JAB has people here expecting $40/$50/$60 for 5M/10M/15M speed.
They do have an equipment fee and a support plan in the fine
print though.
One school of thought is you gotta have added fees, otherwise
you just look more expensive in a comparison. (And people do
compare prices, even if the other guys can’t get them service.)
Another school of thought is, if you do a price increase, make
it big enough you don’t have another one in a year. Although
that never seems to stop the cable companies. Another school of
thought is to make it look like you are giving them something
for the price increase, that’s the game the cablecos play, more
content. Not sure what you could give away though, if you are
already at 5M and unlimited usage. I guess as long as you are
saying “up to”, you could raise the number.
*From:*Paul McCall via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:*Saturday, October 04, 2014 3:00 PM
*To:*af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:*[AFMUG] How frequently have you had a price increase?
We are thinking of raising our prices on our residential basic
plan. Some of our customers have been on the same priced plan
for 7 years (or more). Around $ 45 / month for “up to
5Mbit/1Mbit”. Probably 25% of those customers, we are the only
“good” source for Internet. The rest have varying levels of DSL
or cable options.
Thinking of bumping those customers to $ 49. Maybe a little
more, haven’t decided.
How do you handle price changes and/or on your customers on
“rolling contracts” ?
Paul
Paul McCall, Pres.
PDMNet / Florida Broadband
658 Old Dixie Highway
Vero Beach, FL 32962
772-564-6800 <tel:772-564-6800> office
772-473-0352 <tel:772-473-0352> cell
www.pdmnet.com <http://www.pdmnet.com/>
pa...@pdmnet.net <mailto:pa...@pdmnet.net>
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All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that
the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if
you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all
means, do not use a hammer. -- IBM maintenance manual, 1925
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