[clug] Query re Transact costs.

[brian at netspeed.com.au]

Quoting Paul Hampson <Paul.Hampson at anu.edu.au>:

> eg. if I pay for five gbytes/month, and use two consistently for 6
> months, then the ISP is only budgeting for my usage of five, and in one
> month I can then turn around and consume twenty without any negative
> feedback on my usage, but showing an unexpected peak in the ISP's
> graphs. The ISP has some warning of this since they can see you're
> building up a lot of "credit", and the usual solution to this is to
> let you carry a limited amount over a limited time (like Optus Rollover
> does for mobile phones), which doesn't solve the problem you describe,
> just makes it harder for the ISP to predict when it'll happen.
> 
> To my mind, the way to go is less quotaing, and more either pay as you
> go or unmetered Internet. Choosing between the various Quota/Price
> combinations is always a hassle, to my mind.

I don't know of any wholesale bandwidth providers who currently offer usage 
based bandwidth that ends up being more economical than straight out xx Mb/s 
links.

Retail customers dont want to pay for exclusive bandwidth so ISP's must split 
their budgetted bandwidth amongst all their customers in the 'fairest' way 
they think possible.  The interpretation of 'fairest' is manefested in many 
ways - thats the nice thing about competition - unfortunately, nobody seems to 
have gotten it right enough to satisfy all the retail customers all the time.

An ISP can provide you with an exclusive 1mb/s connection for around $1000.00 
a month.  Share that between two people and they can each have it for $500.00 
a month... but on average you can only have .5 mb/s to use (but it is half the 
price, right?)... share it with 20 people and they can have it for $50.00 a 
month each (at .05 Mb/s average).... BUT... just like splitting the bill at a 
restaurant.. there will always be someone who pipes up and says something 
like "I didn't have desert so I shouldnt have to pay as much as him because he 
had desert AND an extra slice of garlic bread"

I guess one easy solution to the "you ate more than me" problem is to make all 
the restaurants in the world 'all-you-can-eat' buffet's and all at the same 
price no matter what you order.  Right????? But what if you wanted to eat 
something nice than the slop they served you?  Would you be willing to (expect 
to) pay more for a lobster mornay than a big mac?

Wholesale bandwidth doesnt last longer if you dont use it.  If you don't 
use 'that' bandwidth 'that' second, there wont be twice as much of it there 
waiting for you the next second.   

Fortunately, there are enough ISP's and ISP Plans out there to provide options 
for both the 'all-you-can-eat' feasters and the 'quality is better than 
quantity' consumers.

Which one is better?  Only you can decide.

Regards,  Brian.