Re: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

[Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org>]

Bill,

In what way is my argument a straw man? I specifically address the assertion you make, that an ISP must deliver X Mbps 
whenever you demand it, by explaining the real world essential practice of oversubscription.

Let's say you decide to start your own ISP, call it BillsNet. You buy a 1Gbps upstream pipe from Level3 for 
$6,000/month (a realistic price delivered to your facilities over fiber). You run wireless links to your customers via 
100Mbps WiFi and a multi-gigabit redundant WiFi backbone, so that your only last-mile recurring cost is your labor to 
maintain your WISP network. 

Suppose, generously, that the going rate for 5x50Mbps broadband is $100/mo in your area (it's likely less). Only 20 
customers can operate at full speed on this network (20 x 50Mbps = 1,000Mbps), so following your rule, you have to cap 
your income at $2,000/mo. You're losing $4,000/mo and you haven't yet spent a dime on salaries, hardware, deployment, 
or maintenance.

I call this the "iron man" argument. ;)

 -mel


On Feb 27, 2015, at 10:54 AM, William Herrin <bill () herrin us>
 wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 1:34 PM, Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org> wrote:
> > On Feb 27, 2015, at 9:56 AM, William Herrin <bill () herrin us>
> > wrote:
> > > Deceit is Bad Behavior. If you sell me an X megabit per second
> > > Internet access service, you should do everything reasonably within
> > > your power to make sure I can access the Internet sites of my choice
> > > at X megabits per second.
>
> > This is not feasible. ISPs work by oversubscription, so it's never possible
> > for all (or even 10% of all) customers to simultaneously demand their full
> > bandwidth. If ISPs had to reserve the full bandwidth sold to each customer
>
> Hi Mel,
>
> Respectfully, that's a straw man argument. You alter the parameters of
> my criticism then proceed to show how the altered argument is
> unreasonable.
>
> All utilities work by oversubscription: electric, natural gas, water
> and sewer. When the sewer authority fouls up their oversubscription
> model and your pee ends up in my basement, guess who pays for the
> cleanup? They do.
>
> I have some unfortunate first-hand experience with this.
>
>
> > Anyone who doesn't understand [oversubscription]
> > will be unable to engage in reasonable discussion about ISP practices.
>
> You said it, not me.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>
>
>
> -- 
> William Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com  bill () herrin us
> Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>