In response to Kathleen Menke’s letter, while we review your comments about price, it seems as though your analysis is that of a glass is half empty where the cost of the 256K at $50 a month is too expensive. We believe the glass is half full and the cost of the 8Mb service tier at $160.00 is underpriced and a great deal. Basically the assumption you make is that all the costs of the service are variable with the amount of bandwidth used. In reality, there are a lot of fixed costs to cover and those costs make up a large part of the 256K rate. The fixed costs for the 8Mb tier are a much smaller piece of the total price. Also consider that, while the broadband access speeds customers are provided with can be changed with some ease, the “backhaul” capacity to the world that is needed to support the customer experience is weighed in heavily during the product development process, since it is the most costly element to consider.
The employee owners at AP&T are constantly looking for ways to improve our broadband product in both quality and value. There are currently no obstacles prohibiting AP&T from offering fair rates for speed and usage for our broadband service to best serve the community of Haines, and we will continue to serve in that manner. We do expect to make modifications in 2012 to our broadband service tiers and look forward to the possibility of your approval.
Bryant Smith
AP&T