Hi, I've said this many times before (starting 5+ years ago when Cable first came to my area)... if you are going to try and compete on price alone, you are going to be out of business soon. The CableCo and Telco's are loosing money on internet services right now, but they don't care. They are in it for the long term (read 15+ years). We are currently the most expensive internet solution in our area: Cable - 3meg - $39.95 DSL - 7meg - $39.95 other WISP - 4meg - $34.95 other MMDS wireless - 1meg - $24.95 Me - 512k - $39.95, 1meg - $49.95 and it goes up from there... and right now, I have over 100 pending orders waiting to be installed. We offer a free wireless firewall, a static IP address, same speed up and down, and local customer service and support. Things the big guys just can't offer. Again, if you are competing on price, you are not going to last long... Travis Microserv John J. Thomas wrote: But, the model will work if you bill by the bytes.... If Joe is paying $40 per month for 6 Gig and gets throttled at 6 Gig, then he has a disincentive for keeping going. If he is paying $40 for unlimited access, he has no reason to slow down.Charter cable is doing 10 meg down/1 meg up in some markets for like $99 per month, how can you compete with that? John-----Original Message----- From: Travis Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 07:59 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] Service Offerings, By Speed or All You Can Eat? Was: Advanced Bandwidth Management No... I don't think that model works... because Joe Surfer sees how fast this last movie downloaded and decides to grab 3 more while he's at it... The model of "the customer will use what they are going to use and then get off" is not true... imagine if Joe Surfer figures out he can download the movies AND still surf, check email, etc. at the same time? Then he can just leave it downloading 24x7. :( Travis Microserv RickG wrote:Sorry guys for hijacking the thread but this hit a chord... I've sold bandwidth in all sorts of ways but the most prevalent is by speed which is the way am currently doing it. My question is this: What if you played the "cable game" and just sell all you can eat? Would that not free up your network more quickly for everybody else? Example: Joe Surfer downloads movies on demand but is too cheap to buy your highest speed offering. So, he buys your slowest speed and ties up your network much longer. Just looking for some opinions here ;) Thanks! RickG On 1/24/07, Travis Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:OR, we could stop playing the Cable Co. and Telco "games" with their "up to 3meg" and "up to 7meg" connections for $34.95 and just start selling what they get. We started selling 512k, 1meg, 1.5meg and 2meg connections (up and down, guaranteed speed 24x7) about 3 years ago. It was the best thing we ever did... people get what they pay for, and when they need more, they buy more. No games, no "burstable" speeds, etc. Make your customers pay for what they need and use. Travis Microserv Blair Davis wrote:We sell mainly to residential users and to some small businesses. We are quite rural, and my cost for a T-1 is $450 per month. My pending fiber hookup is $1100 per month for 5Mbit. A bit ago, a business customer's new IT consultant complained that the 256Kbit committed rate for $60 a month was over priced. He demanded a 1Mbit committed rate and no price change. I explained this was not possible. He was quite nasty and told me he was recommending that the customer find a new ISP. I, fed up with his big city attitude, told him to go right ahead. He said to come pick up the gear on this Friday. Although, I might have lost my temper a bit and used some words that the FCC doesn't permit on the phone...... After he was quoted $600 per month for a T1, (and $9500 install), and a 3 month lead time, he called me back... He decided that my offer of 1Mbit committed rate (6am-6pm, Mon-Fri) and a 256Kbit committed rate at other times) for $250 a month was a damn good deal...... The point of this, is that, for many customers, pricing and bandwidth expectations are being driven by the cheap bandwidth in the large cites.... Out here in the real world, it don't work that way..... The other point is, that with a good mix of residential and business customers, and a little creative thinking, one can match their usage patterns to minimize ones peak bandwidth requirements while still providing the 'fast, snappy feel' that the users prefer.... Just my $.02 J. Vogel wrote:I would suspect that the customer (as is the case in much of theworld,not necessarily in the limited world you may operate in) does not want to, or in many case could not pay for such a pipe. In many areas of the US, especially rural, bandwidth is extremely expensive. Customers do not want to pay close to $1k / month for their residential connection to theinternet,yet the customer would like to access the internet at speed approaching 1.5 mbps (or even faster) whenever they can. In such a case it makes sense, is good business practice, and not at allunethical tosell customers shared bandwidth. In cases such as these, the question posed by the OP is a valid question, and deserves an answer other than one which implies that they may be doing something they should not be. The world is a big place. It is good to get out and see parts of it you may not haveseenlately. John Matt Liotta wrote:Have you thought about selling the customer a pipe that works foranyand all traffic at the speed the customer signed up for asopposed todeciding for the customer? -Matt-- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/-- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ |
-- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/