Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!rick
From: rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: makin' profit at unido (Was : Re: An apology...)
Summary: reality
Message-ID: <58956@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: 28 Jun 89 17:47:35 GMT
References: <786@redsox.bsw.com> <263@icdi10.UUCP> <1444@laura.UUCP> <43790@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Organization: UUNET Communications Services, Falls Church, VA
Lines: 57

> So the point is not whether unido is forced to operate in the way they
> do but whether they prefer to.  As a test, what would unido do if some
> company down the street said that they were importing the "international
> groups" from the US over their leased line and unido could get them for
> the cost of a local call instead of paying mcvax for them?

I have no doubt that they would take everything they could get from the
local call.

I've been following this saga for years. Every time someone in Europe
claims to have found a cheaper way to get news/mail to Europe
they have either 1) been doing something illegal (e.g. using
stolen x.25 accounts or phone credit cards, etc.) or 2) been flatly wrong.

This has been so consistent that I dont even bother to check any more.

Here's real information on costs for getting news to Germany.
(as of last month)

Let's presume 100 megabytes of news per month. Figure 7,200 bps
(figure a trailblazer modem). That's about 31 hours per
month to transfer the news.

Real rates:
	3.00 DM per minute to call the USA from Germany
	0.36 DM per minute for a "long distance" call within Germany
	0.76 DM per minute to call mcvax from Germany.

So, to get news directly from the USA, it would cost you 5,580 DM
per month in phone charges.

Or, you could pay unido 300 dm per month (their highest charge which
includes the cost of bringing news from mcvax) plus pay the
German phone charges:  300 + (31*60*.36) = 669.6 +300 = 969.6 DM per month

Since its a 5 -1 cost difference, I'd say unido is providing a damned
good service.

In fact, if someone else could do it cheaper and just as well, I think
unido would happily become a customer instead of a provider.

The basic point is how can someone who thinks nothing of paying about US $2,800
per month to bring news into Germany complain about the 300 dm + "local"
charges being exhorbitantly high. The only conclusion I can come to
is that they're not really paying that $2,800. Since I dont know
of any phone company thats giving away 31 hours per month of free
international calling, I must presume that they're spending someone
elses money. (If they were spending their own money, wouldn't they
just pay unido? I know I would!)

---rick

p.s. its also interesting to note that unido has been DROPPING their
rates. You see the more people that use them, the more people
are sharing the costs, so the charge is lower for everybody. If they
were truly trying to profit, wouldn't they keep their charges
the same when their costs go down?