Rollover Bandwidth

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PVT-Jordan

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I recently came across the topic of rollover bandwidth and immediately thought "hey...thats pretty cool. I'll think about doing that". As as I began to think, I said "oh" to myself in a very discouraging tone, realizing that rollover bandwidth could pose a major problem to the amount of bandwidth that I consume per month.
So, I am wondering what everybody else here thinks about this issue of rollover bandwidth.
It's certainly an interesting idea, but is it worth it?
Your customers might love it, but will you be kicking yourself for offering it?

Thanks for your input! :)
 
As this is an overselling practice basically, it should only be done after careful statistical analisys. If you have been around long enough and have enough customers, you can draw some conclusions based on your customers' bandwidth consumption history.

Doing it any other way is nothing but gambleing though.
 
Thats exactly what I was thinking Dan. It seems very risky, but very attractive to customers - I guess the same way that unlimited does.
 
Well, while we have never done it, this is basically how it works....

It, just like any other assumption in overselling is based on just that...an "assumption."

However, it is a much more solid assumption than that of standard overselling.

The assumption is simply, once a customer begins to use a certain amount of bandwidth in a month, they will not all of a sudden stop using that amount.

So, basically the idea is for example you buy 20gb of bandwidth......

This month you only use 5GB of bandwidth. This means next month you'll have 25GB at your disposal. The idea is, if you've not used 20, you'll most certainly never use 25.

However, if in fact you do use 25 that next month, chances are you won't all of a sudden go back to using just 5 per month, so now you'll have to upgrade or pay for overages, for subsequent months.

In a sense, it's a bit more than an overselling trick. It's more of a trick to make sure that clients will upgrade, and at the very least feel as though they have more bandwidth than they'll ever need.

For most people the rollover amount is something they will never see, or use, and if they do, they'll only get it free for one month. The next month they'll have to pay for it, as like I said, chance are, they'll never go back down to their normal purchased amount (People don't all of a sudden stop visiting your site, once they've grown fond of it.)
 
Thanks Mark. Very nice explanation. Seems like another technique to gain attention since its not very widely offered.
 
I've seen this offered before, but my question was, how do you implement it? Do you keep a log every month of every customer who used only 5GB rather than their package plan of 20GB?

And I thought it worked like this:
20GB per month purchased - used only 5GB which means 15GB was unused and rolls over to the next month allowing for 35GB. Keeping your unused transfer.
 
I think I'll wait until a future version is released:
A future version will have the ability to add only the unused transfer from the previous month, non-cumulative, and will also have the option to apply the script to all accounts.
Click to expand...
As otherwise it could rollup too much! :)
 
As otherwise it could rollup too much!
Click to expand...
Exactly, thats the huge risk. You have to know exactly how much you can afford to let them "rollover". Perhaps only the previous months bandwidth can be used and if its not used in the next month, its gone.
 
I've seen this offered before, but my question was, how do you implement it? Do you keep a log every month of every customer who used only 5GB rather than their package plan of 20GB?

And I thought it worked like this:
20GB per month purchased - used only 5GB which means 15GB was unused and rolls over to the next month allowing for 35GB. Keeping your unused transfer.
Click to expand...

You are correct. I mistyped.
 
It would be very hard to bill, and keep track of. As far as I know no billing system supports it, and you cant train Cpanel to do it. Those two reasons alone turned me off to the idea. Plus, if you give 60GB's a month to a customer and they only use 1GB, do you give them 59GB's a month? After a year say they see they have 708GB's sitting there un-used. What happens when they put some legit files up and use that in one month? Just a worst-case scenario to keep in mind.
 
Max,
That is why Jordan and I were talking about future versions that would only allow the previous's month to rollover - and what do you mean cPanel can't do it, there's a mod list above. As far as billing for it, you wouldn't. It's a free, no charge, addon. Basically when the need arises the customer has a month free trial of some extra transfer before they are required to upgrade.

Say they do have 60GB of transfer, they use your quoted 1GB one month. Ok, next month they have 119GB transfer, then suddenly their site is slashdotted, they use 110GB of transfer leaving them with 9GB of transfer, if their site continues to grow in popularity they might need to upgrade - and you gave them the chance to shine when they needed it most, and they might upgrade to a higher paying package because of it.

Using the same scenario, but changing it. Ok - they have 119GB of transfer one month. The mod knows that they are only allowed 60GB of transfer - so out of 60GB they use 1GB again. Instead of having 119+59, it's only back to 60+59. Make sense?
 
Ahh ok, you are talking about the bandwidth that rolls over expiring every month. That is not true "rollover" in the sense that Cingular does their rollover minutes where they can build up for up to 12 months. The point I was making was that with all the overselling that is going on 760GB's used in one month can rack up to some hefty overages with the bandwidth provider the host uses.
 
Thats exactly why restrictions need to be placed on a system like this. Its basically a promotional scheme to say "Hey. I have this cool feature that your host doesn't...PICK ME!!!".
 
Pretty much, but at the same time it'd be a good use to promote a higher package when said client needs it the most, making it a bit more conviencing for them to upgrade. :D
 
I'm not sure about the implementation, but Site5 provides this. I know that Matt, owner/co-owner there is quite familiar with Cpanel's internal code and has also built a new billing sistem (to be launched soon or recently launched). If anyone's serious about this on a Cpanel system, I think he's the man to contact. I don't know if he would be willing to share his secrets that easily though. :)
 
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