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From: jerry@oliveb.olivetti.com (Jerry Aguirre)
Newsgroups: news.misc,news.config,news.admin,news.groups
Subject: Re: Cost-per-reader bug found
Summary: Arbitron data should include type of feed to compute cost/reader
Message-ID: <12330@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Date: 7 Jan 88 03:54:13 GMT
References: <2802@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> <14191@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <19509@clyde.ATT.COM> <1270@looking.UUCP> <2663@killer.UUCP> <1284@looking.UUCP> <228@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre)
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 35

I would suggest that the most serious error in the cost/reader
computation is the one that has the least comment on its accuracy,  the
$.10/minute value.  I don't know how this figure was arrived at but I
can think of at least two reasons why it is too high.

The first is that usenet sites tend to be grouped into clusters.
Looking at the New Jersey and the California bay maps show hundreds of
sites that can call each other with a local call.  I don't pay anything
for my two main feeds, they are local calls.  Two of my "leafs", Tymix
and 3comvax are in the stats and I don't think they pay that kind of rate
either.  (And, of course, phone company sites may or may not pay for
calls and that may or may not represent "real" money.)

The second reason is that some of the connections are over dedicated
links.  Of the 5 sites that I post info on 4 of them are connected over
ethernet and don't pay any phone charges.  In some cases even some of
the long-distance connections are over dedicated (fixed cost) links.  (I
notice that the decwrl-decvax link has a pathalias cost of "LOCAL".)

I know that there are a few sites that are paying a lot more I just
don't think that they will average out with the number that are paying
zero.  So the estimated cost is higher than most pay, not an average,
and lower than some sites pay.  It just isn't any more meaningful than
the bytes/reader data.

Collecting actual costs on a month to month basis is impractical
but couldn't the arbitron configuration include a field to specify
whether the feed(s) were of a particular type, say dedicated,
local-call, zone, long-distance, long-distance-night, pc-persuit, or
arpa?  With that kind of data the cost estimate might be a little more
believable.

					Jerry Aguirre
					Systems Administration
					Olivetti ATC