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From: herrickd@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.admin
Subject: Re: Is UUNET going to upgrade?
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.124131.4910@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Date: 18 Jun 91 17:41:31 GMT
References: <1991Jun8.210644.4897@shaman.com> <1991Jun12.012806.25633@osh3.OSHA.GOV>
Lines: 35

In article <1991Jun12.012806.25633@osh3.OSHA.GOV>, chip@osh3.OSHA.GOV (Chip Yamasaki) writes:
> inadequacy of their system is costing me money.  Sounds crazy, but maybe
> they should drop their rates during peak hours when they know their
> system can't give you peak performance.

It's not crazy, just backwards.  If there is an hour during the day
that the load is too high for them to serve, they should *raise* their
rates for that time of day.  This would let their customers make a 
clear economic decision to pay the higher rates because they really
need access during that hour or move to a different hour when the
rates are lower.

If the demand for the service is higher than the supply, this is a
signal that the price is too low.

Prices communicate.  It should cost more to cross the George Washington
Bridge during peak traffic times and less during times of essentially
no traffic.  This would move discretionary travel to non-peak times
and even out the load some making for less congestion during the
peak time.

Uunet already experiences some of this in the phone company tolls that
are less at some times of day than other times of day.

Anyone, including uunet, who has a service that is congested some times
in the day and idle other times of the day, should use differential
pricing to move some of the load to the less popular times.

dan herrick

> -- 
> -----------------------+---------------------------------------------------
> Charles "Chip" Yamasaki| The opinions expressed here are my own and are not
> chip@oshcomm.osha.gov  | supported or even generally accepted by OSHA. :-)
> -----------------------+---------------------------------------------------