Ken, We do charge the same fee CenturyLink does. That was our price increase in October 2018. The different between us and CL is that the fee actually helps to pay for our network improvements like preseem and Calix. It leads to a better experience for customers. We also didn't hide it in small print so we communicated it better.
I will say when I started the wisp 7 years ago when I was 21, I was only focusing on having fun and trying to connect everyone. Over time and now that I'm 28, I have slowly shifted from a geek to a business person mindset. This means going after easy customers and profitable ones. Not the hardest to reach one's that have a crap ROI. And we used to have a $40 plan and now our minimum is $65 and less than 5% of our customers are on it. Watching our spending is important too so I'm cutting costs where I can without affecting our quality. We renegotiate our fiber contracts every year, insurance, etc. It's very hard to change your mindset from being the company that bends over backwards to being as profitable as possible. I believe we can still be profitable and take care of the customer without getting screwed. It's a fine line to walk everyday though. Some customers act like we're the bad guy whether we're cheap or expensive so why not get paid well to be treated like crap by our subs? On Sat, Dec 14, 2019, 4:04 PM Ken Hohhof <af...@kwisp.com> wrote: > I need to take your email and make a poster out of it, and read it daily. > Maybe put the last paragraph on a mug. > > > > Don’t you wish you could do like Centurylink and charge an “Internet Cost > Recovery Fee” because people use more data? > > > https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/lawsuit-forces-centurylink-to-stop-charging-internet-cost-recovery-fee/ > > > > > > *From:* AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf Of *Darin Steffl > *Sent:* Saturday, December 14, 2019 2:49 PM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Google WiFi and 5 GHz interference > > > > We're small but we had a small price increase October of 2018 and added > another $7,000 per month in revenue. We lost 2 customers from it. So we > lost $140 in revenue to gain $7,000 more. > > > > It was a no brainer. We probably had 5% of customers want clarification of > the increase above and beyond what we put in the email but everyone else > just paid more without being mad. > > > > Our price increases that we're doing now through June should add a decent > amount of revenue and we expect to lose less than 15 customers. We would > have to lose over 200 customers for the price increase to hurt us. If we > lose anywhere from 1 to 199 customers, we'll still have the same revenue > but now much higher profit because we eliminated bandwidth usage, support > load, and freed up equipment from 200 accounts. > > > > I see so many wisp's worried about marketshare when they should be > thinking about profit. I don't want the most customers, I want the highest > revenue customers because it means less people to support with the same > revenue and much higher profit. > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2019, 3:15 PM <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote: > > Funny, there is a study, probably an econ professor, the looked at what > people bought at the car wash. The majority chose the option one up from > the bottom. > > > > In a prior life I eliminated the bottom “economy plan” which actually had > the majority of our customers due to “the very few customers on this plan” > . > > > > People inside the company thought I was nuts. I calculated the number of > people that we would have to lose compared to those being forced up. If we > lost more than 200 customers it would have been a boneheaded decision. We > lost 65 customers. > > > > I still get mentions of this from former employees, saying it was a > disasterous decision. Nope, made us considerably more money each month. > Sorry that those employees were not clued into the gambit. (Do I > care....not really...) > > > > *From:* Darin Steffl > > *Sent:* Saturday, December 14, 2019 1:07 PM > > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Google WiFi and 5 GHz interference > > > > Yes the $90 plan on rural pricing and $75 plan on city pricing. > > > > We have lots of customers on old plans at lower pricing that were slowly > migrating up. Our ARPU is $71 and increasing. Hoping to get it to $80 by > June. > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2019, 3:02 PM <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote: > > I mean which plans are your more popular. > > I would guess the plan one notch up from the bottom? > > > > *From:* Darin Steffl > > *Sent:* Saturday, December 14, 2019 12:56 PM > > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Google WiFi and 5 GHz interference > > > > Chuck, > > > > We qualify each address to find out which speeds we put them on the best > plan and price we can if they're in an area with horns. But right now, 80% > of our new customer installs are rural areas with the higher pricing and > lower speed plans I linked to. We're no longer building any new sites in > town because of how busy we are. > > > > DSL, Satellite, and cellular have all been getting much worse in our area > so people are seeking us out more than ever. > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2019, 2:50 PM <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote: > > Which is more popular? > > > > *From:* Darin Steffl > > *Sent:* Saturday, December 14, 2019 12:29 PM > > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Google WiFi and 5 GHz interference > > > > Rural pricing: > > http://www.mnwifi.com/service-plans/internet-service/fup > > > > > > City pricing where we have horns: > > http://www.mnwifi.com/service-plans/internet-service/5g-plans/ > > > > > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2019, 2:17 PM <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote: > > Mind sharing your plan prices? > > > > *From:* Darin Steffl > > *Sent:* Saturday, December 14, 2019 12:06 PM > > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Google WiFi and 5 GHz interference > > > > We used to charge $50 upfront and $10 per month for Calix. Now we just > increased our plan prices and give the Calix away for free. > > > > We have 99% take rate when it's free. > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2019, 12:30 PM Kurt Fankhauser <lists.wavel...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Sean, > > > > Do you charge the customer for any up-front hardware costs when you > install Calix or are you only getting ROI from the $12/monthly ?? > > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2019 at 3:38 AM Sean Heskett <af...@zirkel.us> wrote: > > We install a Calix as a “trial” so we have visibility into their network > and voila all their Wi-Fi problems go away. After the free month trial it > becomes a paid service and for $12/mo we make sure their Wi-Fi keeps > working. Win-win for us and them ;-) > > > > -Sean > > > > > > On Fri, Dec 13, 2019 at 10:33 AM Ken Hohhof <af...@kwisp.com> wrote: > > Has anyone figured out a solution to interference with Google WiFi at > customers fed via 5 GHz? > > > > We have found it to be an unsolvable problem due to: > > > > 1) Google does not let you set the frequencies > > 2) Google does not let you set the channel width (and therefore > presumably uses 80 MHz channels) > > 3) The mesh system presumably uses additional spectrum for the backhaul > between pucks > > 4) Most customers put in 3 of them, virtually guaranteeing at least 1 of > them will be right near the dish to the tower > > 5) Many customers also figure they can put them in outbuildings to get > service to their shop, barn, etc. (one customer today intended to put one > in his wife’s “she-shed”) > > > > With any other router we just set the channel to a U-NII-1 or DFS > channel. We have a fair amount of 3.65 GHz in our network and then it > isn’t a problem, but the majority is still 5 GHz. > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > ------------------------------ > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > ------------------------------ > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > ------------------------------ > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > ------------------------------ > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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