[NTLUG:Discuss] ISP Recommendation

[Mark Bainter]

Bug Hunter [bughuntr at one.ctelcom.net] wrote:
> 
>   Well, a telephone line costs an ISP between $25.00 and $35.00 a month in
> the DFW area. T1 access costs over $1000 a month, for servicing up to
> 100 phone lines (average).  They typically host 10 dial up users per phone
> line, based on average calling times and call patterns.  This over
> subscription is how they pay for their computers, electricity, and
> salaries. Typically, an ISP charges $10 to $19 a month for that phone line
> dial up access.
> 
>   If a person wants to tie up one phone line full time, then to break
> even, an ISP must charge between $60 and $120 a month depending upon
> overhead (phone bills, salaries, electricity, replacing hardware, etc).
> 
>   I have yet to see a store owner willing to sell a product for $1.00 to
> only one person just to have the sale, when the product costs the store
> owner $2.00, and he is selling it to everyone else for $3.00.
> 
>   You are always free to start your own ISP and prove everyone else wrong.:)
> 

Heh, this is the same problem my last employer had.  I'll note his business is
going down the tubes.  This business doesn't work that way.  You can't static
dialup like that.  While one person is sitting on the line all the time, 30
other people dialup, retrieve their mail and hang up.  So maybe that line only
get's 1 person but another one serves 20-30 so it all works out.  There just
aren't that many people who stay on like that.  It's similar to another common
argument that you shouldn't be allowed to run a network off of your dialup
connection cause you use more bandwidth.  

This kind of business thinking may be applicable in other types of business
but not in the isp world.  And thinking like this is what's killing the small
isp's.  We had a tremendous opportunity to make money at the isp I worked at
but since he couldn't see beyond the end of his nose when it came to things
like this or soft numbers or pretty much anything for that matter his business
is failing miserably.  I should also note that an isp still using individual
dialup lines as opposed to a t1 and some form of digital solution is going to
get left behind anyway.  They probably have no business even being in the isp
market anymore.  

You may not like what I say, but I do know what I'm talking about.  And yes I
have considered starting my own ISP, and I'm /still/ considering it.  However,
running your own business takes a lot of time and effort and I have a family
that comes first.  So it's probably not going to happen for me.  

Just a word of advice.  If the reason an isp is charging like this is because
they are trying to profit from dialup then they are just being silly.  No
matter what your profit from dialup is going to be marginal at best.  The way
you make money as an ISP shouldn't be dialup accounts, but rather dialup
acccounts should be a basis for gaining real business.  Web development and
hosting.  Co-locations, business network connectivity, consulting, etc.  These
are the things that should be an ISP's bread and butter.  An isp living off
it's dialup accounts is ticking off the days till it's demise.
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