On Fri, 25 Oct 1996, Robert E. Seastrom wrote:
To my way of thinking, content providers are net producers of 'benefit' and say dial-up users are consumers. We adjust our prices to reflect this: if you buy a leased line from us to run a Web server, we charge you less; if you are a dial-up provider, we charge you more.
Most end users would agree with this model. They pay their 10 quid / 15 bucks a month so that they can surf the Web. They don't expect the Net to pay them ;-)
So basically what you're saying here is that your ISP should be paying you to connect to your web servers, and they will pass the charges on downstream to their customers?
That's not far off from what I am saying, except that you have the roles confused. I am saying that * we (a backbone ISP) * charge customer ISPs whose primary business is dialup * (net consumers of benefit) * more than those whose business is selling Web space or who operate a Web server * (net producers of benefit) We don't do dial-up ourselves; many of our customers do. -- Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015 http://www.uk.vbc.net VBCnet West +1 408 971 2682 fax +1 408 971 2684