note that $170/Mbit is actually below cost for any network smaller than sprint's or uunet's, once you figure in the people, the routes, the rent, and the depreciation, and then fuzz it based on economies of scale. however, the market hasn't bottomed yet, and most people still don't know what their costs are. once we bottom out and start regenerating, $200/Mbit to $300/Mbit for wholesale high-commit transit is going to be just about right, given the single-digit NPM that you get from high capital long term commodity plays.
This is total and udder rubbish, the same kind that took one of the best networks out there and destroyed it. CGS has a very strict definition. CGS of a company A that gets goods from B does not care about B having negative margins. There is a number of good providers that provide very limited service at a rate of under $100 Mbit/sec. An Enterprising Co takes transit from two of those companies paying $100 Mbit/sec to each. Adding a few services, one of which is called inhouse customer service that does not rely on former security guards paid $5.25 per hour and happily resell it at $300 per Mbit/sec. Factoring real salary costs, real equipment costs and real depreciation schedules, the Enterprising Co manages to make money hands over fist because it does not spend $80MM USD to built 15,000 sq. feet of space. Alex