Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!sbcs!ameristar!rick
From: rick@ameristar (Rick Spanbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Dial up access to Internet facilities
Message-ID: <1990May25.163528.14300@ameristar>
Date: 25 May 90 16:35:28 GMT
References: <2944@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> <9005240215.AA01426@psi.com>
Organization: Ameristar Technology, Inc
Lines: 49

In article <9005240215.AA01426@psi.com> schoff@PSI.COM ("Martin Lee Schoffstall") writes:
>> Thus, I
>> applaud the efforts of CERFnet and UUNET to offer authenticated,
>> for-fee access to Internet as a whole.  I can guarantee that I'll
>> be interested in using their services whereas Marty's (if I understand
>> him correctly) just looks like an interesting service.
>
>You don't understand me correctly.  Essentially we've been waiting
>for the time that a prescedent is set, permission is granted, or
>a consensus may be achievable in the Internet community.  That time may
>be now, and the PSI blitzkreig may descend.

	The plight of many small technical businesses is that we just cannot 
	justify spending $30K+ for access into the Internet for the occasional 
	FTP/smtp transfer.  Were access fees brought inline with the level of 
	service offered, eg $2K-5K/yr for dialup SLIP is reasonable, surely PSI 
	and other regionals would see their business pick up substantially.  

	Note that it isn't small business alone that has a problem with
	the high connection costs to the Internet.  Ameristar sells IP/TCP
	network products and every once in a while I ask some of our larger 
	customers ($20M & up) why they are not on the Internet.  The answer is 
	usually that the perceived value of the connection is not in line with 
	the yearly access fee.  In such cases, a low cost dialup SLIP service 
	would go a long way in giving people a chance to experiment with 
	Internet access to evaluate its usefullness to their organization.  
	Dialup SLIP is also a safe way for the regionals to toy with their 
	price/volume curve without having to add infastructure (ie additional 
	or higher capacity links) at the outset of the experiment.  

	One other suggestion I have is that the regionals ought to survey 
	potential customers about the sort of connectivity and services they 
	would purchase as a function of cost.  Good starting sample data sets 
	might be the lists of technical companies that local business 
	organizations or government maintains, or even UUCP maps.

>I'll of course let you know in the least crass commercial manner that
>I can, if it is of interest.....

	Please do make an announcement of any new services PSI introduces.  I 
	for one would like to hear what PSI is doing to moderate access fees 
	without having to ping your sales organization every few months.  

>Marty

					Rick Spanbauer
					Ameristar Technology

Usual disclaimers: my opinions are my own, etc.