Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!unido!laura!mp
From: mp@laura.UUCP (Michael Pickers)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: makin' profit at unido (Was : Re: An apology...)
Summary: The real costs
Message-ID: <1445@laura.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jun 89 17:25:59 GMT
References: <786@redsox.bsw.com> <263@icdi10.UUCP> <1444@laura.UUCP>
Reply-To: mp@laura.UUCP (Michael Pickers)
Organization: University of Dortmund, W-Germany
Lines: 71

>In article <263@icdi10.UUCP> fr@icdi10.UUCP (Fred Rump from home) writes:
>>Also unido controls things tightly to feed anyone over there at a profit.
>
Ok,

First let me introduce myself to the readers of this group. I'm one of the
'postmaster@unido.uucp'.

I would like to get some facts straight about the *real* subsrcription
rates of 'unido'. Everybody seems to be guessing arround.

Here are the rates of 'unido', effective since 1. April 1989. (No joke :-)

I'll give the original prices in German 'Mark' (Deutsche Mark = DM)
You can translate that into any currency you want. The current exchange
rate for US $ is right now: 1$ = 2,-- DM (or DM 1,-- = 0,50 $ :-)

Now to the rates:

We offer two different basic subscriptions:

1. Subscription for E-Mail and German and European News:    DM  80,-- / Month

or

2. Subscription for E-Mail and German and European News
   + 10% of international(=non european) News            :  DM 120,-- / Month
   + 20% of international(=non european) News            :  DM 160,-- / Month
   + 35% of international(=non european) News            :  DM 210,-- / Month
   + 60% of international(=non european) News            :  DM 260,-- / Month
   + above 60% of international(=non european) News      :  DM 300,-- / Month

   (i.e. 20% of international News means 20% of the total volume (in kB)
    of *all* international groups )

For E-Mail we charge on volume for international trafic for sending *and*
receiving mail because we have no one else who would pay for it.

   E-Mail:   Within Germany                              :  DM  -,-- / kB
             Within Europe                               :  DM  -,25 / kB
             rest of the World                           :  DM  -,80 / kB

Every site has to pay itself for the communication costs with 'unido'.

We offer *no* special tariffs for individuals or universities. However:
a) Individuals are allowed to connect to 'unido' at the normal rate
b) We are able to make special agreements with organized groups of
   individuals (i.e. the now forming Subnet) and mailboxes.

One point about subfeeding:
We encurrage subfeeding, however German sites, especially comercial sites
have two major problems with that:
a) Subfeeding needs more manpower.
b) Security considerations.

As it has been already pointed out, we are *not* allowed to make any
profit. And don't forget that we are a public university run by the government
and therefore we have a very tight budget. It is also very difficult
to get any equipment or even money as grants from the european industry.
Therefore we have to pay for all our equipment. (Well sometimes we get
special prices, but that doesn't include maintanence and so on...)
After all running a backbone for >150 sites (some sites in the German
map are not connected yet, they've just registred the name) is something
you can't do as a hobby.

          Michael Pickers
          Computer Science Department, University of Dortmund
          IRB - Informatik Rechner Betriebsgruppe
          4600 Dortmund 50, P.O. Box 500500, W.-Germany
          E-mail address UUCP: mp@unido.uucp (...uunet!unido!mp)
          BITNET: mp@unido.bitnet