Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:6622 news.admin:14544 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!ox.com!msen.com!emv From: emv@msen.com (Ed Vielmetti) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.admin Subject: Re: BITFTP grief! Message-ID: Date: 21 May 91 06:25:49 GMT References: <1991May20.131422.29601@uu.psi.com> <1991May20.224849.19700@uu.psi.com> Sender: usenet@ox.com (Usenet News Administrator) Organization: MSEN, Inc. Ann Arbor MI Lines: 42 In-Reply-To: schoff@uu.psi.com's message of 20 May 91 22:48:49 GMT In article <1991May20.224849.19700@uu.psi.com> schoff@uu.psi.com (Martin Schoffstall) writes: Actually we are just one feature away in our terminal servers from offering free WP services. Yup, beat up on the router/terminal server vendors to get this one right. I don't necessarily agree with you that is hard, based on flat rate, it depends more on the scale, you know, # of queue servers, size of the queue, inter-arrival rate, etc.... Hard to disagree with you on queueing theory in an abstract sense; if users could be modelled as having predictable arrival times, you could figure out just where you'd run out of steam with your existing equipment and know pretty much when to buy more. It gets slightly complicated when the next queue server is in another state; busy signals then mean a long distance call which can be harder to deal with. If the local dialup is always busy, then your service is going to be more costly than the identically priced service in a town with open modems. Users are fickle creatures, and in any network the size of the ones we are contemplating external events can goof up flat rate schemes. Are you ready to handle X11R5, when all of your flat rate customers start sitting on modems for hours on end, or will you bump them into a higher service bracket to get it? I guess the biggest complaint I can see with flat-rate prices is that they are bound to be out of the price range of the light-duty user who only wants to consume 1/2 hour a day of network time. The other complaint is that the consumer is at the mercy of the service provider to change the quality of service they are getting out of that "unlimited" link by putting further limits on it. Without mentioning any names, a flat-rate service provider has the danger of saturating a market if their services can be effectively resold or given away to third parties. It's inevitable that flat rates will have other strings attached in order to keep individual user consumption of the service down; that's a key to effective price discrimination. -- Edward Vielmetti, MSEN Inc. emv@msen.com BA (Economics), U of Michigan -- you never know when a course on industrial organization will come in handy.