Same hymn sheet, if they pay enough the cost averaging model works again and we don't have to worry about latency critical or transfer volume. The problem is that they wont pay for it. -----Original Message----- From: wherrin@gmail.com [mailto:wherrin@gmail.com] On Behalf Of William Herrin Sent: 30 November 2010 04:17 To: Ben Butler Cc: NANOG list Subject: Re: Level 3 Communications Issues Statement Concerning Comcast'sActions On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 10:51 PM, Ben Butler <ben.butler@c2internet.net> wrote:
Then consumer broadband came along, the subs went down, the headline speeds went up, service delivery becomes impossible in the face of the marketing BS ---- and here we are.
Hi Ben, So you're saying: treat it like electrical service. I have a 200 amp electrical service at my house. But I don't pay for a 200 amp service, I pay for kilowatt-hours of usage. There are several problems transplanting that billing model to Internet service. The first you've already noticed - marketing activity has rendered it unsalable. But that's not the only problem. Another problem is that the price of electricity has been very stable for a very long time, as has the general character of devices which consume it. Consumers have a gut understanding of the cost of leaving the light on. But what is a byte? How much to load that web page? Watch that movie? And doesn't Moore's Law mean that 18 months from now it should cost half as much? If I can't tell whether or not I'm being ripped off, I'm probably being ripped off. A third problem is the whole regulated monopoly thing. The electric company had to be slapped down hard by the government to make its billing process fair. Anything we can do to avoid that fate is money in the bank, even if it means allowing the occasional customer to get more than he paid for. So if we can't bill you by usage, and at a consumer level we can't, then we have to find another way. Statistics and prayer isn't working out as well as we'd hoped so we're looking at double-billing schemes. Bad plan! Regards, Bill Herrin -- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BODY { MARGIN: 0px}.footerdark { LINE-HEIGHT: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #001a35; FONT-SIZE: 9px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none}.blackcopy { LINE-HEIGHT: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none}.bluecopy { LINE-HEIGHT: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #29aae2; FONT-SIZE: 10px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none}.address { LINE-HEIGHT: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10px; TEXT-DECORATION: none}.footerlight { LINE-HEIGHT: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #667891; FONT-SIZE: 9px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none}.pinkcopy { LINE-HEIGHT: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #ed174d; FONT-SIZE: 10px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none} Ben Butler Director Tel: 0333 666 3332 Fax: 0333 666 3331 C2 Business Networking Ltd The Paddock, London Road, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 7JL http://www.c2internet.net/ Part of the Atlas Business Group of Companies plc Registered in England: 07102986 Registered Address: Datum House, Electra Way, Crewe CW1 6ZF Vat Registration No: 712 9503 48 This message is confidential and intended for the use only of the person to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient you are strictly prohibited from reading, disseminating, copying, printing, re-transmitting or using this message or its contents in any way. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed in this message are not given or authorised by the Company unless otherwise indicated by an authorised representative independent of this message. The Company does not accept liability for any data corruption, interception or amendment to any e-mail or the consequences thereof.Emails addressed to individuals may not necessarily be read by that person unless they are in the office.Calls to and from any of the Atlas Business Group of Companies may be recorded for the purposes of training, monitoring of quality and customer services.