[AusNOG] Pricing for Going Direct To NBN Co (vs, Aggregator)

[Chad Kelly]

On 12/9/2015 9:17 AM, Mark Newton wrote:
> On 8 Dec 2015, at 12:44 PM, Chad Kelly <chad at cpkws.com.au> wrote:
>
>> While all this sounds fantastic in theory has anyone actually worked out some numbers, like what the start up costs for such an organisation would be and what the ongoing costs would be?
>> Some kind of a business plan would be handy as well, as you would need to figure out how you were going to fund the thing.
>> Without those things this project won't happen.
> “Bandwidth co-ops” have been an obsession of this community since the aussie-isp days.
>
> Maybe earlier than that.
>
> They’ve never worked because the parts of the industry that want one are too tiny to
> develop the buying power necessary to make the business model work.
>
> There are two segments of the Australian telco industry: The segment comprised of
> companies who understand that operating their own infrastructure for profit can tilt
> the playing field in their favor, and the segment comprised of people who want the
> playing field to be level.
>
> A co-op needs at least one player in the first group to make its buying power significant.
> The second group is perhaps 5% of the market, which probably isn’t enough to garner an
> invitation to NBN’s Christmas drinks function, much less any kind of bulk discount.
>
>
>
>
>

Yeah, for something like this to work properly you would need to have a 
minimum monthly commitment, in terms of bandwidth usage.
You would also need to have a direct debit structure, so the money comes 
out of everyone's bank account each month automatically.
The amount of bandwidth that you need to buy would have to be pretty 
significant before any discounts took place, but you have the minimum 
commitment to bring in revenue to prevent the association from going broke.
You would also need to make it wholesale only.
Also if one member didn't pay their bill you would need to have a 
structure, such as late fees and suspensions in place to deal with that, 
just like any other business.

Regards Chad.

-- 
Chad Kelly
Manager
CPK Web Services
web www.cpkws.com.au
phone 03 9013 4853