🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4idqoe$k2h@jake.probe.net>,
	dbotkin@probe.net (Dale Botkin) writes:
>
>Yup.  They wanted us to provide dialup for them in our area.  We get
>$10/mo per customer and give their customers a ***15:1*** ratio of
>users to modems.  Fifteen to one!  We know from experience that
>anyting above 10:1 is asking for trouble.

This is not at   all true. It's  a "sliding  scale", and  as the  user base
grows, so can your user:modem ratio. When you had  30 customers, was a 10:1
ratio sufficient?  Probably not; probably closer  to 2:1 or 1:1. Similarly,
if you  have  a  larger number of  users,   you are better   with  a higher
user:modem ratio. Look at Netcom.  I don't know how  many dialup lines they
have, and  I believe their dialup customer-base  is in excess of 400,000. I
am willing to bet money their ratio is nowhere  near 10:1. With the 2 ISP's
I've worked for, a low ratio  works for a smaller  number of customers, and
as the customer-base grew, a larger ratio was  fine, with few complaints of
busies. With 10,000 customers  at one ISP, a  20:1 ratio worked well. It is
completely  unrealistic   to promise "never  a busy"   to  the customers; a
provider must   analyze what level of  busies  is intolerable,  and operate
above that. For  example, I  personally  consider it reasonable  to have to
redial 5 times to get online. 

>We decided to pass.  We didn't need our name dragged through the mud
>by being associated with this kind of service, and also figured out
>we'd probably go broke at ten bucks a user.  We don't run metered
>residential lines in somebody's basement for dialups.

From  what  I've heard about IDT,  you  made a good  choice.   Also, if the
marketing  were left up  to you (which, along with  payroll,  should be the
highest expense of nearly any business) then  you would most certainly lose
at $10/user.  However, it depends upon how  much of  the expense of running
the business would be yours to determine whether or not you'd lose money. 

I don't know what IDT's franchise policy entails, but from what I've heard,
you would have lost money based on reputation alone. 

      Chris Woods				cjwoods@gigotech.net
	  "There's always too much month at the end of the money."
   Don't sit back and let the government take away your right to speech.
		 See http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html.