Matt, your questions seem extremely prejudiced to a determined outcome. In my opinion resellers are in the long run going to lose because of lack of tangible assets (there is my Bias, on the table. I have my own facilities, and equipment). However because pure resellers lack the facilities they can be resellers(and often are) of whatever the technology of the day is. Strangely, many resellers, grow into facilities based carriers, but if they do not, then they can always move to the next thing. If you sold ISDN, in the 90's, and you knew how to walk someone through configuring their pipeline, you were better than Bell (read PSI Net). If you could accurately test, and deliver DSL, to a client 3-5 years ago, (read COVAD) you were better than Bell. In the future, who knows what it will be, (my bet is wireless, and we all cook like chickens in a Showtime rotisserie) the prevailing trait of those that have been in this for a long time is adaptation. There was a day when selling access off an ISDN connection was doable. I got out of the straight access market in the late 90's. I provide, and resell connectivity, with static routes to applications I host, or maintain. Hopefully the straight resellers of today will be selling microwave, or implant connectivity, or whatever in a few years. Bottom-line public or not, Mom, and Pop, or not no matter what you do in this business you have to be ready to adapt. If you are huge and don't catch the next wave you could be just as dead as the smaller guys that don't catch that next wave.
Mark D. Bodley President Cyrix Systems [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.cyrixsys.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stephen J. Wilcox Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 4:12 PM To: Matt Bazan Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: what will all you who work for private isp's be doing in a few years? On Wed, 11 May 2005, Matt Bazan wrote: > why in the world would anyone want to purchase dsl from a private > reseller when i can get 4mb down 384 up from comcast for $25? think > you dsl resellers out there are doomed. in fact, just a matter of > time before most of you isps are down the toilet. im reminded of the > mom and pop grocery store phenomenon that has now been replaced by the > kohls, a&p, whole foods etc. of course there will always be niche > markets but this is less applicable for a pure commodity like > bandwidth. yeah, i suppose you'll say something about value added > services and such and you may have a point but i doubt that will keep the ship afloat for long. Matt, first whats your affiliation and experience in this arena? That these markets exist and more profitably so than the large carriers suggest the problems you are raising dont exist. What is your theory based on, you only cite your personal preference to buy from Comcast which cannot be said to be indicative of the market. Grocery stores are not comparable, this is a different industry and different market. Also bandwidth is not a pure commodity, and DSL is not pure bandwidth. I think your argument is at best uninformed, at worst non-existent.. you need to provide some references, examples, figures, whatever.. else this is little more than trolling. Steve