OB, I did ask Neil Wyenn at Franklin Telecommunications the very question of "How can you sell internet access at a flat rate?" He did say that it was very technical and confidential and that he wouldn't be at liberty to tell me.
I would like to put a twist or angle on the 800#. I have seen the new price of the 800# access.
Pre-paid, without web page ..... $25/mo.$25 Set-up
Pre-paid, with web page .......... $30/mo. $30 Set-up.
I see this as just a little higher then most providers would charge for accessing a local number (anywhere from as low as $10 to $19.95/month). That would make FNET's price anywhere from $10.05 to almost $20 more expensive then a local access number using the $30 FNET price with a web site.
I used to have Earthlink as my local provider. If I had the need to use there 800#, I would have been charged $4.95/hour. I am on the internet for many many hours a month. Sometimes too many hours according to my wife(another story). To equal FNET's $30, I would only get about 6 hours on the internet. I don't know about you but I am way over 6 hours, maybe around 20 hours at home and 20 hours at work(using another provider, provided by Boeing) a month for a ballpark average of 40 hours. I don't know what the average persons on-line time is but I would think it to be a lot lower, but a business could put that average much higher. So over all, combining people who just use it for at home (only a few hours) with businesses that are on-line most of the day (40+40+40+40+20hours=200hours), you might get an AVERAGE of 25 hours a month(wild ass guess!!). Take Earthlinks rate of $4.95/hour times MY average of 25 hours and you get about $125/month.
HOW DOES FNET DO IT?
I know some people who spend a lot of time doing that chat stuff, talking to people all over the place. I have a friend who uses Prodigy and chats a lot. He was getting very large Prodigy bills before they started going flat rate.
So in conclusion, what I am saying is that Franklin didn't set this price based upon everyones average. It has to be technical or some kind of unique arrangement between GTE and Franklin.
Maybe someone can find out what the real average usage is for people on-line who have a flat-rate charge and correct my average of 25 hours.
I have to use one of Franklin's 800#s because they don't have a local access #. I live in southern California and no local access numbers for San Bernadino country and even Orange county. So if I were to pay $4.95 per hour for the hours that I am on-line, my bill would be somewhere around $200/month(my home use only of 20 hours). I WOULD BE LOOKED AT A GIANT LOSS IF THEY WERE TRYING TO DO COST AVERAGING!!!!
HOW DO THEY DO IT?
Jeff, baumanjj@fnet.net |
