roundtable: ISSUELISTNAMEHEREgt; commodity pricing

roundtable: ISSUE> commodity pricing

ISSUE> commodity pricing

Richard K. Moore (rkmoore@iol.ie)
Sat, 18 Feb 1995 14:13:42 +0000 

Message-Id: <v02110101ab6b492c125a@[193.120.234.107]>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 14:13:42 +0000
To: roundtable@cni.org, tpr-ne@MITVMA.MIT.EDU, gii-doc@cpsr.org,
From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore)
Subject: ISSUE> commodity pricing


Mary Gardiner (to roundtable)>
 >Just a footnote to Paul's observations about giving terminals away.
 >Remember Eastman Koday eventually virtually gave the camera away in order
 >to sell film, ditto Gillette which gives the razor away in order to sell
 >the blades. We should try to persuade the carriers to do the same thing
 >in order to sell usage or the information providers in order to sell
 >their services and products.

I thinks this is an excellent proposal.  If we can get carriers to 
sell channel capacity at commodity rates, that would solve the
public-affordablity problem, minimize monopolies of various sorts, and
assure maximum market development -- all within a natural free-market
framework.

In order to get the telcos to go for this, we would need to endorse 
their right to own content, so that they could see a high-profit upside 
potential for themselves in cyberspace.

But it leaves one pricing issue still dangling: shall the tariff be based
on <CHANNEL RESOURCES USED> or on <CONTENT VALUE>?  I've brought this up
several times before, but the lists haven't taken it seriously.  PLEASE
COMMENT.

If the pricing BASIS is left up to the carriers, they will have every
incentive to charge based on CONTENT VALUE: this would enable them to 
make a profit on "small" messages as well as "large" movies.  In the 
CHANNEL RESOURCES approach, voice packets and text packets will be very 
cheap indeed, sharply minimizing carrier profits in those markets.

Hence I predict this will be a tough sell.

THOUGHTS??


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