Jorn Altmann

A proposal for a flexible service plan that is attractive to users and Internet service providers

The current Internet service provider market does not offer different types of service plans for Internet access. The predominant pricing plan is a flat-rated plan. Since the number of new Internet users is still growing very fast, there is no real competition in the Internet market. Consequently, there is no incentive for Internet service providers (ISPs) to focus on certain user groups by offering more attractive pricing plans in order to differentiate themselves. However, as soon as the number of new Internet users stagnates, ISPs have to specialize on certain market segments. Then, the question raises of what is an attractive service plan that is attractive for users, but allows ISPs to build a sustainable business. Based on empirical results of the INDEX project, we discuss a service plan for Internet access that might be appreciated by Internet users as well as by ISPs. This service plan combines the advantages of flat-rate pricing and usage-based pricing. Using this service plan, users will benefit by receiving a basic service, but are given the choice of higher quality whenever they demand. From the ISP perspective, it will help to focus on certain user groups and limit the peak load on their network.

INDEX project: user support for buying QoS with regard to user's preferences

Shows that the selection of a quality of service (QoS) becomes a difficult task for the user when he is faced with different prices for different QoSs. Even if the user is only facing a best-effort service, he might be unable to determine the minimal-cost selection of bandwidth. This article shows that the user needs support to get the best service regarding his personal situation. The mechanisms we use for such a personalized support tool (intelligent agent) are described. In addition, the concept of a QoS architecture focusing on this problem is developed in order to show how the agent fits into a QoS framework. The context where this investigation takes place is the INDEX (INternet Demand EXperiment) project, a testbed for examining the users demand and willingness to pay for different QoSs.

Internet demand under different pricing schemes

This research was supported by grants from the National Sci- ence Foundation, Cisco Systems, SBC Communications, the Califor- nia State MICRO Program and Hewlett-Packard.

Effects of pricing on Internet user behavior

The INternet Demand EXperiment (INDEX) conducts experiments to measure demand for quality-differentiated Internet access as a function of bandwidth, traffic volume, applications, and pricing structure. This paper presents an overview of results based on aggregated data from five pricing experiments. In these experiments, pricing is based either on time, volume, a combination of both, or a flat-rate buy out option. Quality of Service (QoS) is differentiated by varying bandwidth for incoming and outgoing traffic. After describing the experimental design and characterizing our subject pool using demographic data, we examine the change in service usage by comparing the five experiments in terms of traffic generation, QoS selection, and expenditure.

Dynamic netvalue analyzer - A pricing plan modeling tool for isps using actual network usage data

The current situation in the Internet service provider market shows that Internet service providers (ISPs) are still struggling to find sustainable business models. The challenge for them is to find the right prices and pricing plans for their network services. In order to satisfy business objectives, prices and pricing plans have to be designed such that they are attractive to end-users but also guarantee revenues. In order to achieve that, it is necessary to have a precise understanding of the usage behavior of end-users under different pricing plans. In this paper, we present existing pricing plans in the market, and discus their advantages and shortcomings. As the result of our analysis, we propose a new pricing plan, which is attractive to end-users as well as ISPs. However, in order to smooth the migration of end-users from existing pricing plans to the new plan, marketing and business managers need support. This could be done with the help of a business intelligence tool, which can provide them with detailed information about user behavior. Such a tool for supporting service providers in pricing network services is presented in this paper. This tool, which is called HP OpenView Dynamic Netvalue Analyzer, helps to analyze and model pricing plans and prices. We demonstrate capability of DNA by describing the creation of a tiered, usage-based pricing plan based on real network usage data under a flat-rate pricing plan.

A revenue-based model for making resource investment decisions in IP networks

Capacity planning is a critical task in network management. It identifies how much capacity is needed to match future traffic demand. It directly affects customer satisfaction and revenues. In this work we present a network usage analysis tool called Dynamic Netvalue Analyzer (DNA), which helps alleviate a big problem that network engineers and marketing executives face - making optimal resource investment decisions. Marketing executives have to project customer growth while network engineers have to project traffic volume based on the entire customer population. DNA helps the prediction process by presenting actual network usage data from a business perspective, in a form that is useful to both network engineers and marketing executives. Using these projections, decisions on how to upgrade resources can be made. We show that information from DNA can be used to: (1) quantify revenue earned on each link; (2) quantify return-on-investment on performing a link upgrade; and (3) quantify the loss due to customer dissatisfaction when a link is not upgraded. We also illustrate how these formulations based on business information can be used to improve capacity planning decisions.