[members-discuss] Discuss Charging Scheme 2010

Jeroen Wunnink <jeroen at easyhosting.nl> wrote:

> In this draft, the PI space will lose it's scoring points scheme, and 
> it'll just cost 50 euro's/year for an allocation (doesn't matter if it's 
> a /24 or a /21 ?)
> 
> If a PI assignment will 'only' cost 50 euro's a year, won't everyone and 
> his dog with a good story on why they need PI space just request their 
> own range ?, I'm seeing a flurry of new customers with 1 or 2 servers 
> knocking at our door to colocate these and say: 'Hey we have our own PI 
> space, we don't need part of your PA, please add our range to your routers'

What I have seen happening is this, some providers at the lower end
of the hosting/colo/network end of the market have been offering the
PI and AS services for free to get new business in.

They've done this because once they have reached a certain size and
their LIR category is big enough they have enough scoring leeway
available to do this without it costing them more.

Obviously this kind of practice where it's easy for PI/AS to become
a zero cost option will naturally increase take up.  I have even 
seen it advertised as part of the sale process ("/24 PI with our
full racks").

I could speculate that when we are running out of address space
that attaching a direct monetary value to that IP space may serve
to effect some slow down in take up.

>From our point of view being SMALL, we'll still pay the same when
we lose the PI/AS scoring (with 1x v4 PA and 1x v6 PA) yet we'll
now have to go around and tell our clients that their admin fee
for their AS/PI is going to have to go up because RIPE rules have
changed.  Previously our charges were reflecting by our costs,
ie. our category, now they will be reflected by our category
plus 50 EUR per object.

This is annoying when you've already told clients what the admin
fee will be and then have to go around telling them things have
changed, no-one gets price rises, especially in a recession.

I am fine with the concept but the implications are very annoying
and could cost us money.

Regards,

-Paul-

-- 
Paul Civati <paul(at)racksense.com> 0870 321 2855
Rack Sense Ltd - Managed Service Provider - www.racksense.com