On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Herb Peyerl wrote:

> David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>  wrote:
>  > > Hrrm. As a non-UKanian, I must admit to staring boggled in front
>  > > of me at this. What possible motivation could they have for such
>  > > an idiotic practice?! I frequently sit online for hours working
>  > > on stuff at uni or the computer club. Any ISP that tried tricks like that
>  > > would lose my money within a business day. Is it one of those
>  > > "customers should just pr0n-surf for two hours and then disconnect
>  > >  so they won't drain our limited, over-utilised pool of IP-addresses"
>  > > policies? I am baffled. :)
>  > 
>  > The thing to remember is that (traditionally) local phone calls in
>  > the uk are not 'free'.  So you would pay about 1p (or $0.01) per
>  > minute for a connection.  If you are willing to pay that you can
>  > stay online for as lomg as you want....
> 
> Not only that, but think about the economics.

I do, I pay by the minute. It often amounts to quite a bit monthly.

> Ask me if I want to be in the business of paying $30/month for a PRI
> channel that's getting me $10/month in revenue.

No, it seems redundant. You'd be stupid if you did. However, I don't
know of any phone company that charges less for phone calls than
their own costs are. I'm not sure what the difference between me
utilising a line for a phone call or ppp would be. I assume you don't
get disconnected if you speak on the phone for more than two hours,
and I'm not sure how disconnecting someone would improve any economics
since surely line utilisation would drop and you get to charge less
minutes.
 
> Unlike other ISP's who advertise "unlimited usage dialup" but then 
> mysteriously disconnect you after a few hours of online time.

I hope those other ISPs get fined for false advertising a lot.
 
> Anyone who thinks an ISP is "playing tricks" is a moron. I don't 
> even want you as a customer if you're paying me $60/month for 
> unlimited access.

Thanks for assuming I pay flat rate and then calling me a moron just
because I ask a question about the UK ISPs after first having clarified
that I'm not from the UK and therefore probably doesn't know all the
details about UK telephone companies. In fact, I had no idea UK
phone companies/ISPs offered flat rate.

[snip various whining]
> 
> Running an ISP sucks. I'm embarassed to admit that I run one 
> that refuses to just die and go away.

Please don't take any frustration that comes with doing so out on me
just because I ask a question about something that seems very very
annoying to the customer.

-- 
/ali
:wq