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From: Rigby@elci.gn.apc.org (Doug Rigby) To: africadesk@web.apc.org Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 11:25 PDT On: Monday November 15 1993 at 22:40 Are you able to post the following to the list.africana conference. Regards,Doug. ============================================================================= * Original Message * From : Doug Rigby, 5:731/1.2 * To : owenc@minerva.cis.yale.edu, 2:254/70 * On : Monday November 15 1993 at 22:39 * Subj : elci's charges To: owenc@minerva.cis.yale.edu By: Rigby@elci.gn.apc.org (Doug Rigby) On: Monday November 15 1993 at 21:10 Hi Chris Since I do not have a "cost free for endusers" internet service I cannot afford to make more than this one clarification of ELCI's charges. Like most of the other unsubsidized email nodes in Africa, to be self financing, ELCI.Kengele charges its endusers a one time installation/registration fee of US$50 or Ksh 3500. The service includes the installation of the modem, telephone cable and fido compatible software (currently Binkely - for which there is no charge) plus one hour of hands-on training. We also charge US$ 10/month subscription which provides unlimited access to 100 local users plus local and international conferences and on-line and telephone support. International mail through the network is charged at a rate of US 0.50 for the 1st kbtye and US$ 0.20 for each successive kbyte. Our users can now send faxes as email at 1/5 the cost of a direct fax. For users sending a lot of data we recommend they take a second point and have their colleague in the US or Europe call into the node at low cost times using a high speed modem (1.44 Mbyte) with compatible software which supports compressed attached files. This way there are no volume charges and the cost is borne by the Northern colleague who can send/receive up to 174 Kbtyes/min. A real bargain! There are two other ways to send/receive email. One is a direct voice call currently US$ 5.00 plus 18% tax or by a charge back credit card call. The other is the KenPac (X25) service which charges a registration/deposit of US$ 200 with volume/time charges of US$ 0.67 per/kbyte plus the need for a separate subscription on an US or European node. Our 80 users in Kenya and Northern Tanzania plus 20 more linked through our sister node at ARSO have found that it is cheaper to link through us and the revenue they provide allows the node to be called twice a day from GreenNet which links to the Internet as well as permitting us to provide the salary for a systems operator/support person. We have only had two people object to our charges ... interestingly both Americans. The one accepted the service but refused to pay and yourself who misinterpreted our installation/registration fee as a charge for the software. Through the dedication of a number of sysops across Africa, we now have 12 almost financially independent nodes with over 1,000 endusers and intend to triple this in the next two years with or without your support, Chris. Regards,Doug. ============================================================================= ÿÿ Re: e-mail to Kenya/Uganda
