Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!SRI-LEWIS.ARPA!don
From: don@SRI-LEWIS.ARPA (Donald Holman)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Network charges. (A snide comment.)
Message-ID: <8804261630.AA08983@hoquiam>
Date: 26 Apr 88 16:30:15 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 25

Fellow net-workers,

Because of time I have only read the occasional note regarding network
charges, thus if I am restating old ideas I appologize.

I have a question with regard to the network charge decision process.
Is the decision to be made by members of this list? For if not then
I submit that the time being charged on the timeslips for all of this
rhetoric may be adequate to pay for the 'net' for the next
fiscal year.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if the members of this list can influence the decision
process, I have a more palatable comment. Is it not true that the real cost
of keeping the 'net' up and running can be closely determined. (i.e. I am sure
that someone in the bill paying department can tell us that last year network
connection fees totaled X dollars, thus this year the budget for these fees 
has been allocated as Y dollars.) If this is the case, we can use this value
Y along with (perhaps a swag) the amount of data to be transfered next year last year. 
Thus if Y is 100 dollars and 'swag' is 1kbyte the network charge is $1/kbyte across the
board. As far as re-routing and use of other peoples network services, this amount
is charged locally (i.e. as data leaves the local site and uses PBN or the like)
and placed into a central pot to pay for the network as a whole. 

Just a thought,
(Usual disclaimers apply)
Don