This last year, we finished "unification" of all our rate plans so that
we would have consistency across our network. At this time last year,
we had several plans that had overlap and different sets of services as
part of the plans. For example, a 2meg plan for $49.95/month that
included dialup and a public IP address sold next to a $49.95/month 4meg
plan that did not have the dialup or public IP. Most of the customers
did not use public IP addresses or dialup, and we were starting to get
2meg customers complaining about the 4meg plan on our website that was
2x the speed for the same price. At the same time, we still had a lot
of 384k and 640k plans with people who were complaining about YouTube
not working, but they were reluctant to upgrade to the next package
because our prices were not as competitive on the lower end with the
1.5meg dsl bundles.
What we ended up doing was this:
1) Replace the 384k and 640k plans with 1meg and 1.5meg speeds at
the same prices
2) Bump up all existing 1meg and 2meg customers to 2meg and 3meg
speeds for the same prices
3) Eliminate public IP addresses being included with plans, made
them a separate monthly charge and adjusted customers to have a new
speed package with the public IP added to it
4) Later in the year we established a maintenance fee package that
was automatically added to each customer account, but customers were
given the choice of opting out of the plan
After doing all of this, we ended up having a much more competitive
service on the low end, fewer customer complaints about YouTube and
other sites from low end customers, and our revenue went up - mostly
because of the addition of the maintenance package. Any plan
inconsistencies between customers and areas were also resolved.
The toughest part of this plan was the pre-planning that was involved to
make it happen. We did a ton of customer data cleanup and plan
adjustment over the summer, but that was work that needed to be done
anyway because of a lot of random, nonstandard plan changes that
employees had been doing as shortcuts. We also had to take a really
strong look at oversub ratios on our access points and what the
resulting oversub ratios would be with the plan changes, since the
ratios would generally double. In doing so, we identified a bunch of
places where we needed to add capacity or just needed to move higher
bandwidth customers to other access points. There were a lot of radio
swaps and service calls involved in that process, but the end result was
better network performance and higher customer satisfaction.
We set a 4:1 bandwidth ratio as our preferred point of upgrade on access
points - meaning we can sell 40meg of customers plans on an AP that has
approximately 10meg of capacity (such as a 2.4ghz 802.11g on 10mhz
channel). When the process started, we had about 27 APs that would
have been overloaded with the new plans. As of today, we have eight APs
that are over 4:1, and six of those are just barely over. When it
comes to the speeds that we offer in any particular area, we decided to
make all speeds available, as long as the oversell ratio on the access
point was not exceeded.
Going into next year, my plan is to replace all of our remaining StarOS
access points with either Airmax or Mikrotik, swap out as many old
Tranzeo radios as possible and add sectors and microcells in places
where capacity starts to get overloaded. I am not looking forward to
the pricetag on this work, but it is the right thing to do and it will
keep us competitive for the next few years.
Happy New Year everyone, and have a great 2014!
Matt Larsen
Vistabeam.com
On 12/31/2013 8:19 AM, heith petersen wrote:
I assume the same would apply if you introduce new plans to existing
customers as well? I assume customers that cannot get that service
will beat on you to make some sort of change to get it to them, like a
closer site.
*From:* Matt Hoppes <mailto:mhop...@indigowireless.com>
*Sent:* Monday, December 30, 2013 8:34 PM
*To:* WISPA General List <mailto:wireless@wispa.org>
*Cc:* WISPA General List <mailto:wireless@wispa.org>
*Subject:* Re: [WISPA] Internet Packages regarding geography
What we have done is offer the same packages across the board. If you
can't get at least the package you want we don't install you.
On Dec 30, 2013, at 21:11, "heith petersen" <wi...@mncomm.com
<mailto:wi...@mncomm.com>> wrote:
We are getting to the point in a lot of our markets that we need to
offer different speed packages. Issue being some markets, being 900
or slightly sub-par infrastructure, we wouldn't be able to promote
these packages across the board. Was curious if others are offering
packages to different areas that would not be possible in some? And
if so, do you get any backlash from those who cannot get those
packages? Is it appropriate to offer extended packages to users on
one tower when another tower down the road wouldn't be capable of
these packages? Its bad but we just offer a residential rate, no
matter if that customer can get 1 meg down via Canopy 900 or close to
10 meg on a UBNT SM. I have caught a little heat in an area where we
fired up 900 about 4 years ago to a market that had only satellite.
Then we hooked up a tower in a small town 4 miles away with UBNT M2
and news spread like wild fire. We went from 40 900 subs to about a
dozen, and a pile of radios I don't want to deploy again. Shame on me
for not offering the extended packages at that time for those wanting
more bandwidth.
I also have the area outside my home town that Century Link offers
what they claim is 12 meg service, but it never gets close. I am
constantly adding more sectors in these areas, Im getting to the
point where I am adding UBNT to offload Canopy, then adding more UBNT
to offload the UBNT that was offloading the Canopy, it gets to be a
vicious circle. I am already $20 per month more than CL, not sure if
a lot of customers would stay if I were to charge them more for what
they are getting now. Once again shame on me. The bosses think the
prices should be the same across the board, but technically
performances cannot be matched across the board, plus Im running
ragged satisfying existing customers when I should be looking at new
areas, and start the vicious circle all over again LOL.
thanks
heith
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