On Mon, Apr 23, 2001 at 07:09:56AM -0400, Andrew Odlyzko wrote:
First, while there have been many postings about 95th %tile pricing, nobody has said what that pricing actually is. Well, here is an example of such pricing, downloaded from the UUNet page 2 years ago. (I could not find current prices there on a quick scan. Perhaps somebody else can post them, especially for higher bandwidth connections.) Ignoring one-time start-up fees, regular flat rate T-1 service was available from UUNet at $2,495 per month. The burstable rate (based on the 95th %tile rating) was:
T1 Usage Level Burstable Service Monthly Rate 0 to 128 Kbps $1,295 128 Kbps to 256 Kbps $1,895 256 Kbps to 384 Kbps $2,495 384 Kbps to 512 Kbps $2,750 Over 512 Kbps $3,000
current UUnet T-1 pricing (metro NYC area): 0-128K $995 128K-256K $1,395 256K-384K $1,795 384K-512K $1,895
512K $2,095
flat-rate $1,795 (local loop extra. setup charge of $3,000 extra. router extra.) note that UUnet indicates they do not specifically compete on price. (duh.) in the same area, i've gotten T-1 quotes as low as $500, plus loop.
Note that even if the link is not used at all, you pay more than half the cost of a full T-1 connection. (Hence some of the imaginative gaming schemes that have been proposed, involving rotating Web hosting traffic among a bunch of connections, are clear losers, as some posters have already noted. It is less expensive to have a single unlimited service T-1 than two burstable one.) Moreover, if your usage gets above a certain level, you pay more than for the full T-1.
the UUnet contract reads, "If Customer's sustained use level (95th percentile traffic sampling rate) exceeds Customer's then-current burstable service in two consecutive months, Customer's burstable service level may be upgraded by UUNET and the monthly billing adjusted accordingly." it doesn't specify if this adjustment is retroactive (it doesn't seem so). there's also provision for downgrading, on similar terms.
Yet another factor that comes in is that of discounts. The prices listed above were the list prices. I have been told by one member of this list that substantial discounts are common for full connections, but seldom for burstable ones, which makes the case against flat rate links even weaker.
any study on this issue should also include comparisons of fractional circuit pricing, too. although i've rarely (never?) seen a situation where fractional makes financial sense (i.e., the frac prices were typically only slightly less than full pricing), the fact that you can quickly/instantly turn a couple of knobs and upgrade to a higher fraction could be a factor, especially if you don't intend to normally burst any higher than the fraction you're paying for. -- Henry Yen Aegis Information Systems, Inc. Senior Systems Programmer Hicksville, New York