[TriLUG] Re: I need a really fast Internet connection at the Outer Banks

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Greg Brown wrote:

> 100 meg burst, at least.  It's starting to look like a lot of money.
>
> Greg

Did you get any hard quotes from vendors?  If so, would you mind sharing 
them?  Pricing info that I know I can't give out for non-disclosure 
reasons of previous employers, not more specific than powers of ten at 
least.  I can say that the previous poster's assertion that cost is 
directly related to physical build out is very true, and his example of 
$3000 for 5Mb/s of guaranteed bandwidth is reasonable.  The build out 
was probably a painful upfront cost, and if you want a burst rate over 
the base the cost of that burst bandwidth is going to be more $/Mb used 
than the $3k/5Mb formula.  Although, once you have the line in place, 
upgrading from 5Mb/s to 50Mb/s (for example) is just a phone call, so 
you can scale up and down your bandwidth requirements, perhaps with as 
low as 1-month granularity.  Ie. you might be able to upgrade on Monday 
to 50Mb/s for the remainder of the month, then down-grade next-month 
with no big fees, depending on your contract.

Anyway, if you can provide rough numbers based on actual quotes, it's 
likely to be useful to some one some where.  Also, as a word to the 
wise, location really matters.  So don't try to apply anyone's numbers 
to your exact situation with out allowing ~15-30% margin of error for 
distance from the CO, etc.  Regardless getting with in a range helps 
people understand the economics better.

Aaron S. Joyner