Best of the ISP-Lists

Free ISPs Source of Busy
Signal Blues for Local Providers

Members of the ISP-Tech list discuss possible solutions for a difficult problem—what can you do if a free ISPs traffic on a shared PoP creates chaos for your customers, how can you unclog the pipe?

[February 5, 2001]

On the ISP-Tech list in January, MP complained,

"We buy VPoP services from a company that also sells services to a free ISP, and we noticed that one of our major calling areas is getting massive busy signals. Our angry busy signal customers are switching to the free service, and we're losing them in droves. We are now IP blocking all free ISP services. I do not know what other route to take. It is my opinion that they are in violation of antitrust laws and anti-competitive behavior."

A number of respondents thought it was a great idea:

[SP enthused] "I agree: blocking all the free ISPs is a good approach."

[MS queried] "Could you email me that IP list, and which blocks go to which free ISP?"

[PF suggested] "Redirect them to a 'not available' page via your router—then read your TOS with the VPoP and see if you have any recourse for dealing with the busy signals."

Others advised caution with such a radical solution:

[JY warned] "Are you going to tell your customers that you are doing that? I think you are taking the wrong route on this one."

[TKS agreed] "I hope you can pull this off. The provincial telco does similar things to us, and the competition board will do nothing."

[EC added] "I don't think you understand what antitrust or anti-competitive behavior is about. You are the one that wants to set prices above what the market says they should be."

[JP suggested] "If you are intent on pursuing this approach, you should immediately meet with your legal folks and determine what liability you may be incurring. Ask if this action can be construed to be restraint of interstate commerce on your part by blocking the free ISPs, who have not done you any harm other than to compete on price for your customers."

DH added that it might not really be worth the effort:

"We don't worry too much about the free services. We have lost about 30 people to free services (out of about 1800) and I would say about 25 of them came back in less than a month. It is a worry, as are the national ISPs, but we try to provide the best service, which is something I have found the free ISPs lag in."

TKS warned that the answer might not be so simple:

"At some point, someone is going to figure it out and do it right. Newspapers don't really charge for copies-they barely cover costs (and many don't do that) with the subscription rate. The ads pay for it and make the money. That's the way things work-if you can figure out how to do something that no one else can do, you end up successful. I hear people bitch all the time about TV ads, yet they still watch TV. At some point, that is going to be copied successfully in the ISP world."

Others disagreed:

[BH noted] "Newspapers handle their own distribution. It will be a long time before someone can make this model work without owning the entire distribution network. As long as you have to pay someone else for distribution, it will be hard to make money."

[JL observed] "A television signal has a fixed cost to cover a given area. But each and every person who signs onto a free ISP directly increases the cost of that service for as long as he's online. The larger the service becomes, the more it costs to operate."

[TN added] "Last time I checked, I had a $40 monthly satellite bill-or, I guess, I could get three channels for free with an antenna…"

— End