INTERNET PRICING
ADVANCED TOPICS
Internet Structure


The Internet has been growing exponentially in terms of size in the recent years. A reason for this growth is the widespread establishments of ISPs, or Internet service providers. They are the ones who allowed the general public to get involved in the world wide web. They provide a very cost effective services that stimulated the growth of the Internet. The significance of the Internet service providers cannot be overlooked because it is only after their involvement and that of the general public, that very large organizations or companies started putting their resources to establish themselves in the Internet.

ISP issues
Currently, anyone that has a computer and a modem can connect to the Internet at around $20.00 per month. With the arrivals of new technologies such as the web TV, the bottleneck in spending much money to purchase a computer to be "Internet ready" has widened much. Some of the technical issues that ISPs have to face in order to accomodate the public are the following:
  1. The amount of bandwidth required
  2. How much security the users should get.
  3. Dependability on other hosts for network availability.
  4. What centralized functions are required(like back-up)?
On the business side, the ISPs are faced with the following issues:
  1. How should they price their service.
  2. What are the core services?
  3. How do I offer parental lock?
  4. How to deal with confidential information like credit card #?
The issues above often deal with not just making the technology usable, but sating the needs of the users. This need ranges from just how much bandwidth and what the price of their usage are to the more sensitive issues such as offering a parental lock or enforcing security. Thus, the current ISPs do not just provide technology, but a technology that is to satisfy the needs and desires of the users to the maximum.

Costs
Many Internet service providers exist today, although there is a trend to monopolize the ISP market by companies such as America On Line. As noted in the business issues above, the method of pricing ISP's service is an important one. Some of the most popular methods are listed below:
  1. Charge by a flat rate(e.g. 19,95 per month Internet Communications, Inc. ISP)
  2. Charging by how many hours a percent is logged on to the net.
  3. Charging with respect to the number of times that a user logs on to the service.
Some other methods which have not yet become mainstream are the following:
  1. Charging by the number of packets a user sends.
  2. Charging with the implementation of a priority packets where the higher priority methods go through the traffic first and cost more to send.
ISPs, in turn, have to get a site license to keep their service going. Often, the pricing is based on the number of networkers on the system. Some of the package deals are the following:

Business Edition
x amount of dollars for a networker + Overall fee Comprehensive news inc AFP, 2,500+ articles a day. Updated around the clock. 500+ categories. Push/ticker application

Corporate Edition
x amount of dollars for a networker + Overall fee Comprehensive news, 2,000+ articles a day. Updated around the clock. 500+ categories.

ISP Four-Star Edition
x amount of dollars per networker + Overall fee Comprehensive news, 2,000+ articles a day. Updated around the clock. 500+ categories.

SP One-Star Edition
x amount of dollars per networker + Overall fee. Headline news, 80+ articles a day. Updated around the clock. 30+ categories.

These are the per networker fee and overall fee increasing proportionally with the respect to the number of networkers and the service capacity.

For additional resources for internet providers, visit the Internet Provider's Resource page.
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