[Asterisk-biz] Re: Truly Unlimited DID's

[Matthew Simpson]

> From: Lee Barken <barken at rohan.sdsu.edu>
>
> hi Matt,
>  I understand your concern and subsequent logic regarding unlimited
> services.  My only comment is that business people take *risks*.
> Hopefully, the are calculated risks.  When a provider sells an unlimited
> service, they are assuming the risk that the transaction may be
> unprofitable.  I don't think anybody is getting "screwed" in this
> situation.

You're not getting the point.  Sure you can say that it is the provider 
taking the risk that they can screw their customer by selling them an 
unlimited service that costs more than if they bought it metered.  But 
somebody is STILL GETTING SCREWED [the customer].  Personally I don't like 
doing business in which I am screwing a customer, even if my "risk" pays off 
and I end up better off for it.

> Either the venture is profitable or unprofitable.  It reminds
> me of companies like AOL or Netzero who offer "unlimited" Internet access.
> Over time, these companies become very good at estimating the aggregate
> usage patterns of many thousands of users.

No, they don't offer "unlimited".  They ADVERTISE unlimited but you'll find 
that if you leave your connection up 24/7 you'll get bumped off after a 4 
hour period, and after a while you'll either hit a hard limit, or you'll be 
forced to upgrade to a higher class of service.  We sell dialup wholesale at 
TxLink, and everyone last one of our clients that offers "unlimited" to 
their end-users has a hard-limit set in their backoffice, and most of them 
have 4 hour session timers [some are generous and give 8].

> Sure, some customers will use
> more services and some customers will use less services, but the idea is
> to price your offer accordly, such that the net result is a profitable
> enterprise.  If a company does a poor job of estimating and projecting
> usage patterns, my hope is that they will not feel "screwed", but instead
> just take some time to review their planning policies and procedures and
> take appropriate and reasonable corrective actions.

So it's okay as long as the company makes out okay, you don't care that the 
consumer is getting screwed in that case?

>
> Best,
>  -Lee