News and commentary from the cross-platform scripting community.
	Re: Economics of ISPs

By Wesley Felter, wesf@mail.utexas.edu.

In response to Economi cs of ISPs

This is a great message that people need to learn. The fixed costs of running an ISP are so much greater than the variable costs that the only way for an ISP to make money is to do huge volume. There are famous quotes from past presidents of IBM and DEC about the world needing fewer than a dozen computers, but I'm willing to make a similar statement about ISPs. How many Web hosting companies can beat SimpleNet? For dialup, who can beat the giants like AT&T, BellSouth, et al? There's a shakedown coming, and few will survive. It disappoints me to see so many companies following the same flawed plan. A router, T1, no-name Pentium box running BSD, a few modems, and you're on your way to infinite riches! No business plan, just "if you build it, they will come". Where is the differentiation?

People ask me if I'm insane to pay over $300 per month for Internet access. And yet, I never have to deal with busy signals or noisy lines, I don't have to wait hours for files to download, and I can get tech support when I want it. You'd have to be insane (or at least a glutton for punishment) to settle for anything cheaper!