[LINK] BPL

[Stilgherrian]

On 15/03/2009, at 8:50 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
> BTW I don't understand why I can't get fibre to my home.

Because it is not a product being offered.

The business decision of whether to introduce a product is based on  
many factors, not just whether the product can be provided  
technically. And not just whether that product, by itself, can be  
provided at a good price even when all the cost are taken into account  
-- such as designing and planning the business processes, recruiting  
and training the technical and customer support and billing teams and  
working out how to market the product.

There's also, presumably, an analysis of how the new product would  
affect the profitability of existing products, now and in the long  
term. Providing, hypothetically, a Gigabit fibre link for $100 a month  
would kill the price for 12 Megabit ADSL. Cheap fibre could well force  
down ADSL so much that it's no longer profitable -- even though it  
would still have to be provided to customers in areas where the fibre  
wasn't available. Think: unions. This would create problems for the  
staff of teams whose job was to sell and manage ADSL -- similar to  
those faced by the folks at Telstra whose job was to sell poor old  
ISDN once ADSL started being available.

Just because it's potentially possible for a business to sell a  
product or service, it doesn't mean they "should" or "have to", even  
if (some) potential customers think so.

For example, I know how to wash dishes, but I don't offer a  
dishwashing service to my clients.

Stil


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