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From: murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (John Murray)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.admin
Subject: Re: UUPSI's new rules
Message-ID: <2517@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 91 20:37:49 GMT
References: <1991Mar11.143824.24170@searchtech.com>
Followup-To: comp.mail.uucp
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
Lines: 40

In article <1991Mar11.143824.24170@searchtech.com> mra@searchtech.com (Michael Almond) writes:
>PSI already mentioned that they are placing the leaf node restrictions only
>on the $75/month UUPSI customers.  They, PSI, offer a second grade of service,
>with a higher price, that allows unrestricted UUPSI access.
>
>Why should this bother anyone?  It sounds to me like PSI found that $75
>couldn't cover the cost of non-leaf connections and needed to change their
>service a little.

Did you miss the post that mentioned how much this other service cost?
First, think about this: In a newsfeed, what's more costly, providing the
downlink-side (the rest of the world) of a full or sizeable feed to a
leaf site or (relatively) small cluster of sites, or providing the
uplink side for all the posts that originate from that site or sites?
Well, lessee, 15 MB/day for the down side, and an average of
(15 MB / 18000 sites <est.> ) * number of sites in this cluster, for the
up side. If this little cluster is, say 100 sites (!) the uplink side is
still well under 1% of the total cost in bandwidth. Mail volume ignored,
since even a high-volume mailing list or two run from this cluster isn't
going to put a dent in these numbers.

Cost for leaf site: $75. Cost for full site: exstimated at a little under $300.

Liability for stuff posted by non-customers is a NON-ISSUE, since it
would be TRIVIAL for PSI to contractually put the burden of liability
on the customer that fed them the "bad stuff". (of course, we might
jump on them for that, too };-> )

I had no opinion on this issue until one person mentioned what the cost for an
unrestricted site was. (BTW, can someone verify the $825-875 quarterly
cost for a full site?) Now I believe that this move is strictly a *marketing*
based decision on the part of PSI.

>Michael R. Almond (Georgia Tech Alumnus)          mra@srchtec.uucp (registered)

-- 
Disclaimer: Yeah, right, like you really believe I run this place.
John R. Murray              |       "Memory serves
murray@vsjrm.scri.fsu.edu   |           wise commanders."
Supercomputer Research Inst.|              - Tz'u-hsi, 638 AD