Dear Colleagues, I took the liberty of answering in-line and editing the message, hopefully without disturbing the context.
On 1/4/05, Edmond Gaible <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Monthly connection costs under volume-based pricing (1GB total traffic > per month) is about $230. Recognizing the realities of school funding > cycles, AFSAT bills schools at the beginning of each term, when school > fees are collected. > > Roughly 45 rural secondary schools now have VSATs under this program, > which was launched in the spring of 2003. A few of these schools serve > very disadvantaged communities, and have received upfront capital in the > form of grants. Most of the 14 that we've looked at are covering their > recurrent costs via combinations of school fees and community-focused > operations. Wow, so $10,350/month is being drained out of these 45 communities we are trying to help. I won't even comment on the "new KU-band VSAT terminals for US $2800" but I suspect someone made an awful lot of money on that sale. This equipment sells in Asia (where most of this equipment is manufactured) for a few hundred dollars each. > This arrangement is far from perfect. In particular, some schools have > more than 1GB of traffic per month, which results in increased costs for > AFSAT and radical slow-downs in connectivity speeds at those schools. Actually, for the $10,350/month that is being spent this service doesn't even cover the requirements of some of the schools. Let me give you a breakdown in English as to what we are really providing these schools. A one Gigabyte transfer cap (as it is called in this business) divides down to just over 30 megabytes per day (assuming we use the 30-31 day month equally) For comparison's sake, a 56Kbps dialup modem (which most people will agree is obsolete) has a theoretical transfer rate of 17 Megabytes per hour (going from memory) As a habit I meter my internet connection and I routinely exceed 30 Megabytes in a day of web surfing. This does not include any kind of multimedia files (movies, etc) but only takes into consideration reading the international news, viewing any associated pictures provided by the news sources and other typical browsing. This level of service is not suitable for the needs of a school and the typical argument I am used to hearing "that this is better than nothing" equates to me as "We had no water until we counted the morning dew." > But the situation is interesting because it's arisen out of market > demand and opportunities, which are being met by a largely responsible > private-sector provider. Yes, for that amount of money I am sure that some "private sector provider" would jump in. > Bushnet, another private-sector provider, is also offering wireless > connectivity in rural Uganda via -- I think -- microwave hubs. Cost of > each hub is I believe upwards of $6K U.S., but these are intended to > provide service to clusters of communities using 802.11 technologies. As > of my latest information, there are over 30 hubs located in urban and > rural areas. As someone in the business of employing 802.11 to deliver connectivity I can safely say this is also a wildly profitable endeavor for Bushnet. If they are charging upwards of $6K for their client installations they are making roughly that much for a day or two of work. We buy the client side of these radios for well under $200/each. May I ask why there isn't an outrage at this kind of profiteering? This leads to a far deeper question about why this is happening. I am quite sure that we all agree there simply isn't enough money to do everything we would like to accomplish - yet incredibly expensive solutions are being applied without any apparent understanding of what the real cost should be. From a businessperson's standpoint, this is beyond wasteful and borders on complete incompetence. > I'm offering these numbers in part to add to the general storehouse of > information that this discussion has built up. I'm also concerned that > private-sector successes in providing Internet access not be overlooked. Private area successes? I look at this as a fleecing of every single customer and the people who are financing these projects. I am even more concerned that this information isn't causing an outcry from anyone who understands value and loathes outright profiteering. > The possibility of a social enterprise providing Internet connectivity > to multiple communities, as Jeff has proposed, is intriguing. To be > successful, however, an enterprise of this sort would need to compete > against private-sector providers. The organization would itself be, in > essence, a private-sector provider, yes? Compete? At these prices they should be able to retire in very short order! I understand that this list in not necessarily technically oriented but the prices that have been introduced in this message are nothing short of obscene. I am sorry but I don't think I could live with myself if I was gouging people this badly. When we look at the high cost of rolling these projects out, someone needs to be keeping an eye on what some of these services should cost. If I, as a small businessperson, wish to purchase a widget, I first carefully examine what options I have. Who retails these widgets and for how much? Who is the manufacturer and what is the wholesale cost on this widget? What is the cost of these widgets if I were to place a large continuing order for thousands at a time? If those answers do not provide me with a satisfactory solution, the next step is to research how much will it cost me to manufacture this widget in-house and is it feasible to do so? In this way (hopefully) I keep my costs reasonable. It seems apparent that somewhere along the line this method has been missed and the end result is that people who have next to nothing are paying way too much for services. Can someone please explain to me why this is and more importantly why this is allowed to continue? In the business world I live in this would cost someone their job. Respectfully, Ken DiPietro New-ISP NextGenCommunications ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
