ISP Unbundling circuits

On a slightly related topic, a US-based colo outfit used by a company
I work with wants a fee to disconnect power to the cage. The tenant
had been there for years and, at contract renewal time, was lobbied
hard ($$) by the colo company to reduce power consumption.

The tenant worked for a few months and freed up 20 power circuits.
The colo then said that they had a disconnect fee for each power
circuit.

Now, I think a reasonable fee is $0. The colo wants considerably more.
I won't bias you with the figure yet... please let me know what you
think is reasonable, either by experience or just as a thought exercise.

Thanks,
-mark

I've never been happy with 'deinstall' fees of any sort. To me, this
is just a cost of doing business. The time necessary to remove such is
just accepted. It is assumed that the terms of the contract are long
enough that such costs become insignificant and should not be
something that gets passed along. Besides, if you turn right around
and reuse this for someone else, you haven't done a deinstall and are
therefore charging the customer for work that you did not actually
perform.

There are several different ways to argue both for and against such
fees but they always rub me the wrong way whenever I see them.

Mark Kent wrote:

On a slightly related topic, a US-based colo outfit used by a company
I work with wants a fee to disconnect power to the cage. The tenant
had been there for years and, at contract renewal time, was lobbied
hard ($$) by the colo company to reduce power consumption.
  

Did they mention a deinstall fee at this time?

The tenant worked for a few months and freed up 20 power circuits.
The colo then said that they had a disconnect fee for each power
circuit.

Now, I think a reasonable fee is $0. The colo wants considerably more.
I won't bias you with the figure yet... please let me know what you
think is reasonable, either by experience or just as a thought exercise.
  
I think a reasonable fee is whatever is set in their contract - which I suspect is $0. You can't just tack on fees like this afterwards.

jc

I think they should pay *you* a deinstall fee just for suggesting
something like that.

Jeff

Wayne E. Bouchard wrote:

I've never been happy with 'deinstall' fees of any sort. To me, this
is just a cost of doing business. The time necessary to remove such is
just accepted. It is assumed that the terms of the contract are long
enough that such costs become insignificant and should not be
something that gets passed along. Besides, if you turn right around
and reuse this for someone else, you haven't done a deinstall and are
therefore charging the customer for work that you did not actually
perform.

There are several different ways to argue both for and against such
fees but they always rub me the wrong way whenever I see them.

Perversely these fees have gotten as far as residential broadband subscribers in the UK. BT Wholesale now charge a line disconnection fee, which is being applied retrospectively to all contracts.

On the flip side, the new WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) regulations make disposal of electronic equipment the responsibility of the manufacturer.