Re: [SLUG] Here's a crazy idea...

From: R P Herrold (herrold@owlriver.com)
Date: Fri Aug 16 2002 - 10:12:30 EDT


On Thu, 15 Aug 2002, steve wrote:

> > You have to have a LOT of customers to run an ISP in the black. It's

--- I disagree, -- three parts to making money in _any_
business - lower expenses, raise prices, or increase volume if
you are in the black on marginal sales.

You cannot raise prices when an end customer will treat a poor
product as identical to a good one, due to Gresham's Law; One
_may_ lower expenses by eliminating labor costs and making
good buy vs. build decisions; The micro-economics optimax
analysis is a known process, and if one can cut out most of
the fixed costs, it is easier to stay in the black.

> Unless, you happen to know someone who has all this, in Los Angeles
> granted but with national coverage. With enough qty I bet I can get a
> decent deal. We'd just be another sub ISP. Most ISP are under other
> ISP's.

heh --- I use the Broadwing and TNS fabrics, rather than the
UUNet one, for my ISP's -- Guys and gals, a couple of folks
here on the list run or are senior support for ISP's -- Adding
dialup coverage and DSL, broadband, wireless, digital
circuits, whatever through a local connectivity broker is
reasonably straightforward. Authenitcation through radius is
amazingly flexible.

It is the support and billing/admin functions which are the
expensive part, and a local ISP can do just as good a (and
probably a better) job than a national. What I see being
proposed is either a co-op -- and it is not worth the headache
for the (minimal) potential cost saving, or people pitching
their business. I concur that it is "a crazy idea."

At the end of the day, the real load at an ISP is labor
intensive: tech supporting customers not paying (and being
_shocked_ when the account is locked), explaining spam bounces
and virus attacks, and having changed conputer settings (often
inadvertently when some new piece of 'spyware' changes their
browser homepage), and the occasional local telco 'static on
the line'.

Support your local ISP -- they'll be interested in solving
your problem and know the local conditions; that drone in a
call center handling level 1 t/s in No-where, SD, could care
less.

-- Russ Herrold



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