🚀 go-pugleaf

ftilley@indirect.com (Felix E. Tilley) wrote:

>I paid $16 per month at indirect.com for a shell account with 150 hours of
>usage.  I just upgraded to a PPP account.  It is $21 per month, with 150
>hours of usage.  It is not possible for an ordinary retaile user to use
>150 hours - that comes to 5 hours per day.

Hmm..really now!  Being a very small ISP in Rural Maine, I can say I
tend to disagree with you to a degree.  How many families out there
are on the 'Net'?  Do you honestly think that ONLY 1 person in a
household uses the Internet?  My AVERAGE user is online 4-7 hours
daily, logging in at least 3 times per day on average. We have a 6-1
user/modem ratio and STILL get an occasional busy...where someone must
dial in several times before getting connected. Yes, part of it is we
are small so don't even have 40 lines yet, but even if we had a 5-1
ratio there would still be occasional busies, since heaviest usage is
during prime time and weekend hours.

>However, regarding crappy service, we have a basic economic problem here. 
>Each ISP maximizes his profits bt increasing his customer base faster than
>his capital base - ie., increase customers faster than phone lines,
>modems, and computer capacity.  That is a fact.  The only thing that will
>solve this problem is more people getting into the ISP business.  We need
>more competition among Internet Service Providers.


Agreed...Until a company reaches at-least 500 user mark, I would say
that expansion costs outpace recvenues by a fair amount. My
projections indicate that we should be at break-even around 500 users,
with a 6/1 ratio maintained, or around 80 modems. Of course, it
depends on your average revenue per customer, etc...

Mark-

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mtenney@megalink.net
Megalink Technical Support and Information