🚀 go-pugleaf

John Pike <johnpike@fas.org> wrote:

>gandalf1@erinet.com wrote:
>>Is there a future for independent small ISP's

>It really depends on what sorta service they are offering. If you are 
>talking just straight SLIP/PPP/etc access for surfing and email, I am 
>guessing that the AT&Ts and telcos and cablecos of the world are going to 
>devour this market within the next year or two.

Yes after the lame customer service I gotten with GNN as a beta tester
and with waiting at AT&T Worldnet and Sprynet to get a representative
I think there is room for the small ISP's, at least with a company
like Neptune Interactive you get 7 day a week tech support and a live
human being during the hours they are open answering the phone instead
of this push 1 crap!  Price might be everything in the beginning, but
the ones with the best customer service whether they are big or small
will survive!  I doubt the head of Erols does not know customer
support, all they do when they complain about waits to talk to some
one is some lame bs like we are growing rapidly.  IMHO Erols should
cut back on adverising on tv and radio and spend more money on
knowledgable support!  I'd rather deal with a company that treated me
well on the phone that put me in voicemail maze!

Joshua Benkin

jrbenkin@nicom.com
 


>OTOH, I kinda doubt that these megacorps are going to get into the 
>webhosting business in a big way, the exemplar being Netcom, which 
>basically offers access, not hosting. I am currently betting that those 
>small ISPs who focus on webhosting will be the ones left standing the 
>longest. It is said that PSInet offers webhosting, but anecdotally it 
>seems that they only want to deal with the sorta MIS propeller.heads who 
>populate Fortune 1000 corporations, leaving several hundred times as many 
>mom-and-pop operations looking for a more friendly place to host their 
>content. 

>I am currently betting that those small ISPs who focus on webhosting will 
>be the ones left standing the longest. Based on my impression of the 
>current technical difficulties in running one domain through two 
>services, it seems that folks with a web presence will continue using 
>their WWW ISP for access as well. Not a booming market, but a stable one 
>for those who implement this business model sooner rather than later. 
>Thus far, however, not too many ISPs seem to have caught on, and we are 
>still in search of a really web-friendly ISP.

>>I've always enjoyed knowing the people I'm hooked up with.

>Well, I would very much enjoy coming to know the people I'm hooked up 
>with, but at least until recently they have been notoriously difficult to 
>get ahold of. Personalized customer service is going to be one of the big 
>discriminators for which ISPs are still around a year or two down the 
>road, and those who view the customer service department as a cost center 
>rather than a profit center are going to be in real trouble.

>-- 
>John Pike
>Federation of American Scientists  http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/
>CyberStrategy Project              http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/cp/
>Intelligence Reform Project        http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/irp/
>Military Analysis Network          http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/man/
>Space Policy Project               http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/spp/