Couple of questions about your competition and costs, if you don't mind... Any competition w/high speed access? DSL? Cable? What are your monthly recurring costs on the connection you are using? Target market?
-My competition is another wisp @ $59.99 (1 Mbps), dsl @ $34.95 (768K) and cable @ $59.99/unbundled, $39/bundled (not advertised, but ranging from 300K to 2500K on dslreports. -I charge $40 flat for any number of PCs at one location for advertised 768K up and down - trying to squeeze in between cable and DSL -Another neighborhood wisp charges $45 My target: 400 homes in one subdivision. Single AP, Omni on my home, aPPO, 4 months of uptime without a reboot! (knocking hard on the wooden desk!). My T-1 cost is $500. I figure I could get 50 customers on an AP, so that is $2000, or $1500 gross profit. I am able to run specials each month, and I have offered $25 for a 12 month period as one promo. I figure at 25 cust x $25, I break even, then the remaining 25 x $40 would be profit. Therefore $25 is my "wholesale" price. Be conservative with your calculations; never hurts to get more than you expect. Since I do not have any additional charges from my provider for bandwidth usage, I don't need to meter that. With the 768K limit on my customers, I am comfortable with potential throughput for everyone at peak periods. Since there is only one connection to the AP, the number of PCs doesn't impact the number of 768K connections, it is all going through one 768K pipe. Now, in your situation, what does it take for you to break even? How many customers can you comfortably support? Divide your breakeven by the number of customers you want and figure your costs, then mark it up as much as competition will allow without being greedy ;) -To have value, the proposed $39.95 plan should have a proportional speed associated with it when you compare it to your $69.95 plan. Your 256 vs. 1.4 might be better at 512 vs. 1.4, especially since you are throttling them back from what they are currently able to get. Get more for the throughput upcharge rather than the connect speed; your customer satisfaction would be better served if they are getting a perceived monthly value and the ability download that throughput faster. If they balk at the proposed change, give them continuous service at the current rate for another six months, or even 12 months, then revisit the issue at that time. Better to keep the customer than to lose the $40 income. Contracts: my competition requires them (except cable) and I don't get that commitment. If they like the service and see the value, they will stay. The hardware is mine, so I would just yank it out. I do require a 30 day termination notice, but I am very flexible; would rather them have a good feeling about the transaction rather than out there badmouthing the company. I don't provide any additional hardware without charging for it. Even if it is at cost, you don't want too much capital in inventory. Antenna and radio is a lot to begin with. Charge them the network configuration time at a reasonable rate for your profit. Bottom line is manage your gross profit numbers and your expenses. Add customers at a rate you are comfortable with, keeping your expenses at a reasonable percentage of gross profit each month. What is your target net profit percentage? 20-25% should be acceptable in my opinion. Based on my figures with 50 customers and $2k in monthly rev, I can spend $500 in expenses each month and still make a 50% profit. Not too shabby for a part-time business. Long-winded, OT, but just the text, plain text... ;) John -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of The Wirefree Network Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 2:06 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [smartBridges] OT: Pricing Plans?? Being that I am a pure sB WISP...and I ONLY am a member of this one list...I figured I would throw this question out to y'all. ********************************* Currently, I have 2 plans 1. $39.95 for 1 PC, 1 Gig throughput per month, and up to 1.5 Meg both ways (no real way of limiting the number of PCs) 2. $69.95 for many PC's, 2 Gig throughput per month, and up to 1.5 Meg both ways Now I would like to implement the following: 1. $39.95 for many PC's, 1 Gig throughput per month, and up to 256k both ways. 2. $69.95 for many PC's, 2 Gig throughput per month, and up to 1.4 Meg both ways. This new plan solves 2 problems 1. It is pretty much impossible for me to know how many computers someone has installed on their internal network anyway...so, might as well open it up. At the same time, it will hopefully push clients to purchase the $69.95 plan for the higher speeds and monthly throughput. 2. Using the bandwidth queues, will make it impossible for my clients to take my whole T-1 leaving me unable to manage the network. New problems created: 1. How do I convince my clients to accept my NEW policy? I don't have contracts at all.so technically I can just make a policy change. However, I would rather them welcome it. 2. Would you provide a preconfigured router to all clients?? By preconfigured, I mean statically assigned my network IP, setup for internal DHCP for the client, and such?? Might make installs a bit quicker and solves the IP problem that I currently have---this way I only have to use 1 IP per client?? If I do this, I have to find a VERY cheap source for routers with decent functionality. May even set them up for PPPoE.hmmm??? Any ideas?? 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