Service, Speed: W-ISPful Thinking?
As a cyberspace columnist, I’m becoming accustomed to hearing from people who’ve equipped themselves with a computer and a modem, browsed a sampling of Internet books and need but one last push to get to the World Wide Web--a connection to the Net.
Often, they’ve checked the ads only to find a bewildering assortment of lures to pay and surf. There are too many choices and no easy way to distinguish one company from another, my advice-seeking consumers grumble. Basically, these companies seem to be offering unlimited Internet access for about $20 a month. Aren’t they all the same?
Well, no, and they’re becoming more different all the time. To see why that’s the case, consider for a moment the business predicament of the ISP, or Internet service provider. They’re finding all of a sudden that connecting individuals to the Internet isn’t nearly the money-maker they had hoped it might be.
Competition from the giants--telephone companies, a handful of successful firms, even America Online--is driving many ISP companies to rethink their mission. Many are now focusing on the business market, with an array of services including access, Web page hosting, security and even support for transactions.
Some provide faster services or better response. Some have human beings who answer the phone. Some provide technical support. Much of what distinguishes ISPs is the stuff that can’t be seen, the nature of their own links to the Net.
For the consumer, Internet access is about two things: customer service and the ability to deliver faster and faster connections. And for the ISP, satisfying these simple requirements has turned out to be very difficult.
Customer service is a never-ending headache. Procuring faster lines quickly enough to satisfy growth in demand is difficult and expensive, as is adding the machinery needed to handle more calls. The result, especially for smaller companies, is often service outages.
At the same time, the ISPs are under tremendous pressure to grow quickly, so that they can generate the volume needed to keep prices low and fend off the threat from giant telephone companies. On top of all that, there is the prospect of the federal government reopening discussion on whether Internet access providers should be required to pay per-minute access charges.
At $20 a month for unlimited access, all these factors do not amount to a formula for continuing success.
Among ISPs in the Los Angeles area, WorldSite Networks began as a company serving individuals.
“People would call at all hours of the day or night with every problem you could imagine about their computer, whether it involved us or not,” said David Barbara, director of sales and marketing. “It was a customer service nightmare, and at $20 a month, it was our sense that nobody will survive.”
His company, like others, has opted to move away from serving individuals to focus on offering businesses Internet access, hosting, design, Web page creation and access to much faster pipelines. Customers include studios and movie producers. He believes WorldSite, which turns a profit, is big enough to compete.
WorldSite is not alone in its decision to focus on businesses. The big San Jose-based access company Netcom Online Communications has announced plans to move away from flat-rate pricing for Internet access in favor of more specialized business-oriented services.
I see the ISPs as a barometer for the Internet. It’s increasingly clear that business applications, rather than recreational consumer services, are where the money is, and that’s reflected in the evolution of the access business.
We see a split even now.
There are more independent, local Internet services, some even depending on the neighborhood teen-ager’s computer. There are the odd providers with the odd deals, such as one recently announced in the Bay Area offering a one-time, lifetime $60 access fee as the price of being forced to look at ads.
But the financial forecast predicts success for bigger companies that understand customer service and the technologies behind faster communications.
It sounds like the phone company to me.
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Terry Schwadron is deputy managing editor of The Times and oversees latimes.com, its Web site. He can be reached via e-mail at terry.schwadron@latimes.com. (The Los Angeles Times has a partnership with Pac Bell to offer Internet access to its Web site, LATimes.com)
