I applaud your commitment to helping your local community. Just want to point out that this is a charity because it does not scale. Nobody could build out a FTTH network and make it free as a business case. But there are plenty of people that made a network for their neighbors and provided that for free. Maybe a person had a commercial fiber to his home and thought he could just as well share it. This might be on a bigger scale but it is the same.
Regards, Baldur On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 8:27 PM Aaron Wendel <aa...@wholesaleinternet.net> wrote: > Darin, > > Our business support and residential support is the same department. I > have to pay those people to be in the office either way so it doesn't > cost me any "more" to provide support for the residences. Yes, walking > Grandma through getting her email can sometimes be a chore but that > person is on the payroll whether he/she is helping Grandma or sitting > there chatting with his/her co-worker. If we dumped all the residential > customers we would still have the same cost structure we do now. > > Again, it's been free for the last 7 years at this point. I've never > been one to really do what I "should" anyway. > > Aaron > > > On 12/28/2020 11:48 AM, Darin Steffl wrote: > > Aaron, > > > > The "Free" service doesn't cover your cost of support which is much > > higher for residential than any business customer. Our residential > > customers call at least 15x more often compared to business customers > > compared on a 1:1 ratio. > > > > I honestly can't fathom providing free residential service because we > > make enough money on the business side of things. You should be > > charging something, at least $20-30 per month. > > > > On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 11:15 AM Aaron Wendel > > <aa...@wholesaleinternet.net <mailto:aa...@wholesaleinternet.net>> > wrote: > > > > The $300 covers the equipment and the time to send someone out to a > > house to install it. If $300 is too much you can pay in 12 > > installments > > of $25. > > > > The TIK alone costs us about $250. > > > > Aaron > > > > > > On 12/27/2020 5:04 AM, Mark Tinka wrote: > > > > > > > > > On 12/26/20 20:48, Darin Steffl wrote: > > > > > >> Aaron, > > >> > > >> One simple question. Why on earth would you offer free internet > > >> service? How and why? Your site show 1 Gig symmetrical for free > > when > > >> you should be a minimum of $65 per month to be competitive. > > > > > > They also ask for no monthly fee after a single payment of US$300. > > > > > > Considering the 2Gbps package costs US$49.95, you'd guess they'd > > value > > > the 1Gbps service at, say US$27/month, give or take. > > > > > > So that US$300 provides a bit of coverage, perhaps 1 year, in which > > > time they'd have likely upgraded the customer. > > > > > > Mark. > > > > -- > > ================================================================ > > Aaron Wendel > > Chief Technical Officer > > Wholesale Internet, Inc. (AS 32097) > > (816)550-9030 > > http://www.wholesaleinternet.com <http://www.wholesaleinternet.com> > > ================================================================ > > > > > > > > -- > > Darin Steffl > > Minnesota WiFi > > www.mnwifi.com <http://www.mnwifi.com/> > > 507-634-WiFi > > Like us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/minnesotawifi> > > -- > ================================================================ > Aaron Wendel > Chief Technical Officer > Wholesale Internet, Inc. (AS 32097) > (816)550-9030 > http://www.wholesaleinternet.com > ================================================================ > >