>Here is the struggle I face with this type of argument. If 20% of your customers are using 90% of your bandwidth, aren't you really overcharging the other 80% if you are going to gripe about the 20%?
I think you mean undercharging the 80%? Maybe, but my smallest advertised price is 45/mo. This has done a great job of keeping those bottom dollar customers away (those great Friday night calls saying my Internet is slow I can't get my Netflix shows in high def in less then a second so I want a refund kind of thing). I keep seeing PPS being a limiting factor - what equipment is everyone using hitting this barrier? As far as word of mouth, I agree that you don't simply want to axe them and be done with it. This is why I suggest talking and communicating. My dial-up provider called me complaining I was on nearly 24/7 on my unlimited service so they simply asked me to not be connected when I wasn't using it. I simply checked dial on demand and made both of us happy. >First it gives you a leg to stand on when the customer complains to you or the authorities, if we ever get saddled with net neutrality rules with teeth. I believe we're all private companies. Right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. At this point there is no law against blocking certain traffic, is there? Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” --- Winston Churchill On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 4:47 PM, Sam Tetherow <[email protected]> wrote: > Here is the struggle I face with this type of argument. If 20% of your > customers are using 90% of your bandwidth, aren't you really overcharging > the other 80% if you are going to gripe about the 20%? > > Another thing to consider, at least for me, is that almost all of my > successful advertising is word of mouth. Now, how much of that good word of > mouth advertising comes from the 20% I would have just axed vs the 80% that > are apparently overpaying for their bandwidth? > > As far as the 'ban hammer' I don't think banning torrent traffic is the way > to go (or any application for that matter). If torrent traffic is causing > problems on your network it is not because it is a torrent, it is because it > presents certain type of traffic characteristics, such as high packet rate, > excessive bandwidth usage, excessive upstream usage. > > What needs to be addressed is the characteristic that is causing the > problem. First it gives you a leg to stand on when the customer complains > to you or the authorities, if we ever get saddled with net neutrality rules > with teeth. And secondly it fixes the actual problem as oppose to just > removing a symptom. All that has to happen is encrypting the torrent > traffic and you won't be able to track it and the problem is back; or > another application comes along which exhibits the same characteristics. > > Sam Tetherow > Sandhills Wireless > > > Josh Luthman wrote: > >> The way I see it is if 20% of your customers use 90% of your cost, >> removing 20% of your revenue is worth dropping costs to 10%. >> >> On 2/14/10, Butch Evans <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> On Sat, 2010-02-13 at 23:30 -0500, Josh Luthman wrote: >>> >>>> It doesn't make sense to simply disallow it - offer a bandwidth plan >>>> that makes you both happy. If you can't resolve it then he has >>>> another ISP. Let them deal with the problem. >>>> >>>> If he pays for 1 meg and does it all the time we both know that's the >>>> kind of customer that kills your profit and therefor your business. >>>> You and I are WISPs to make money and serve the area - this can't be >>>> done when someone is paying 25/mo and ruining it for everyone. >>>> >>> There are ways to accomplish the "best of both worlds" here. My new QOS >>> approach allows you to permit the traffic, even if you limit it's impact >>> by setting a speed limit, and still allow good speeds for other users. >>> One thing that you cannot fix with QOS is the reality that torrents are >>> very high packet rates (usually) and (also usually) not very high >>> bandwidth per connection. My approach, still, is to allow it, but set >>> limits on it's impact on the network. Give it a small amount of >>> bandwidth that is shared by other users with the same type of network >>> utilization and let them have at it. All in all, though, I agree with >>> Josh. The 5-10% of abusers (most cases, it's not even that many) are >>> not worth what they pay. However, it will get to a point where that >>> number goes to 20-30% when certain services (like the streaming video) >>> become more popular. When that happens, it's not a good business >>> decision to simply drop the traffic and lose 20% of your business. >>> Thinking of these things makes me happy I'm no longer an ISP. I really >>> do think that you'll find that the QOS system I've developed will be >>> very helpful, though. >>> >>> -- >>> ******************************************************************** >>> * Butch Evans * Professional Network Consultation* >>> * http://www.butchevans.com/ * Network Engineering * >>> * http://store.wispgear.net/ * Wired or Wireless Networks * >>> * http://blog.butchevans.com/ * ImageStream, Mikrotik and MORE! * >>> ******************************************************************** >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Mikrotik mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.butchevans.com/mailman/listinfo/mikrotik >>> >>> Visit http://blog.butchevans.com/ for tutorials related to Mikrotik >>> RouterOS >>> >>> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Mikrotik mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.butchevans.com/mailman/listinfo/mikrotik > > Visit http://blog.butchevans.com/ for tutorials related to Mikrotik > RouterOS > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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