Re: VOIP Peering Questions

[Stephen Stuart <stuart@tech.org>]

> > Like Duh :-)  If the call is IP end to end why would there be a
> > per minute billing model?
> 
> I know you intended that as a rhetorical question, but the reason
> is scaracity.  If there is a scarce resource:
> 
>   * ports on a PSTN switch
>   * water, gasoline, natural gas
>   * IP bandwidth
>   * IP bandwidth of quality sufficient for realtime voice or
>     video communications
>   * ports on a DSLAM
> 
> then it's legitimate to bill (or tax) for that resource *in some manner*.

In some manner, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean usage-based.
If none of the resources are scarce enough to justify the per-whatever
billing model, then you switch to flat-rate billing models - just as
the LD market seems to be doing these days (I've received several
offers for unmetered long distance at home for a fixed $/month fee).

"Too cheap to meter" doesn't mean free, it just means that the cost of
measuring is too high relative to what anyone will pay for the thing
to be measured.

> The difficulty is in identifying what resources are, in fact, scarce and
> will remain so, and building a business around it.  Everything points to IP
> bandwidth being a non-scarce resource, but we aren't _quite_ to having
> everything point to quality IP bandwidth being a non-scare resource.

That lack of ubiquitous quality IP bandwidth hasn't (for example)
prevented AT&T from offering unmetered $39.99/month LD-over-VOIP using
home broadband connections. Rather than wait for the quality "problem"
to be solved, it seems they're just careful with the disclaimers.

Stephen

--
To unsubscribe send a message to voip-peering-request@psg.com with
the word 'unsubscribe' in a single line as the message text body.
An archive is at <http://psg.com/lists/voip-peering/>.