If we meter things so that free content is too expensive to provide, and
things like Alta Vista (and Gatekeeper.dec.com for that matter) disappear,
will the net still be attractive to newbies? Will ISP customer bases still
grow?
I'm not sure we're over the hump yet, economically. Right now if all we had
for content is the set of self supporting (profitable) sites who could afford
to pay metered rates for the packets they emit, it would slow down the growth
rate.
Most people in the internet business (tier 1 or anyplace else) have got their
whole business plan designed around growth. That's how they invest, that's
how they expect payback to be paid back, that's where they've put all of their
risks.
Here in 1996, growth is still more important than fairness (TCP vs. UDP). We
can increase fairness using smart queuing and other technology tricks that
would not have the dramatic (according to me) effect on growth that metering
or settlements would have.
Let's take the golden eggs as they come out rather than killing the goose.
I'm not sure we're over the hump yet, economically. Right now if all we had
for content is the set of self supporting (profitable) sites who could afford
to pay metered rates for the packets they emit, it would slow down the growth
rate.
Right.
Many people don't know that the Internet is version 2 of the net.
Version 1 of the net was metered from the transport structure right out to
the content level. It flopped.
Let's take the golden eggs as they come out rather than killing the goose.
What an apt description of version 1 of the net!
P.S. version one used X.25 instead of IP and NAPLPS instead of HTML and
was called the Videotex industry.
Michael Dillon - ISP & Internet Consulting
Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com
Paul A Vixie writes:
If we meter things so that free content is too expensive to provide, and
things like Alta Vista (and Gatekeeper.dec.com for that matter) disappear,
will the net still be attractive to newbies? Will ISP customer bases still
grow?
I've sort of lost track here, but who said anything about metering anyway?
There are lots of ways to do usage-based pricing that have been with
us for a long time.
Most people in the internet business (tier 1 or anyplace else) have got their
whole business plan designed around growth.
Yep, me too.
Here in 1996, growth is still more important than fairness (TCP vs. UDP). We
can increase fairness using smart queuing and other technology tricks
If that can be and is done, it's fine with me, but will it be done in
time? My growth is already being hindered by people being unable to
get through the net's core to sites they want to reach. They leave
the net, disillusioned. It's hard to imagine what things will be like
when the looming UDP-based-multi-media explosion is added to this.