[arin-ppml] Why are ISPs allowed?

[Owen DeLong]

On Jan 27, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Kevin Kargel wrote:

>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ted Mittelstaedt [mailto:tedm at ipinc.net]
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 12:52 PM
>> To: Kevin Kargel; ARIN-PPML at arin.net
>> Subject: RE: [arin-ppml] Why are ISPs allowed?
>>
>>
>> Q:  How do you eat an elephant?
>>
>> A:  In small bites!
>>
>> It's not impossible to upgrade 4K customers if you plan it and  
>> allocate
>> enough time.  However, realistically what your actually seeing here  
>> is
>> a political effort that should be supported.
>
> In no way did I mean to imply that this was impossible or even  
> undoable. It
> is eminently possible, the doable just depends on how much expense  
> you are
> willing to expend.
>
> In a best case world you would have a bunch of customers within a  
> stones
> throw of an excellent technician that worked for minimum wage (Ha!   
> Like
> that's gonna happen)..  if he takes a half hour to get to and work  
> each
> customer and you add in the cost of the truck and overhead and admin  
> costs
> you are still spending $30-$50 per customer for the upgrade.
>
That seems like a horribly expensive approach.

I would think that with the kind of coverage you're talking about, you  
could
negotiate a pretty good rate with some shipping carrier of your choosing
for the following process:

1.	Procure ~200 "upgrade" units.  These units would have all the latest
	software and support and you would do any (ideally none) preparation
	necessary for them to be installed as CPE prior to shipping.

2.	Ship these units to your first 200 customers with a return label  
requesting
	that they replace their existing unit with this new unit and return  
their
	existing unit within 15 days. Customers who opt out of this upgrade are
	obliged to return the new unit and procure their own compatible (read
	speaks IPv6) unit for continued uninterrupted service.

3.	Recycle the returned units for the next round of upgrades.

20 rounds and you've upgraded 4000 customers.  Sure, it takes almost
two years to complete the process, but, if you start now, that's  
probably
about right.

Probably costs around $20 per customer instead of $50, and, for those
few customers that return broken units or fail to return, you can, if  
you
choose, pass the additional unit cost along to them.

Now, instead of comparing that $20/customer to the $30/month you
get, compare it to the cost of losing half your customers to some other
ISP who is just using IPv6 compatible equipment for all their new
customers.

Sure, that latter scenario seems unlikely today, but, I think it is  
coming.

As you pointed out, all ISPs are going to have to find a migration path.
Those that delay will probably pay more in a shorter period of time
with less flexibility in how they do so than those who start earlier.

Owen