Zooming in on Bandwidth Billing

Topic: Billing & Support |

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As any hosting veteran knows, bandwidth is the ultimate currency. Supplying your clients with a rapid rate of data transfer allows them to attract and retain more customers - and for the host, this translates into money in the bank. However, with the demand for bandwidth at a premium, companies are pouring more money into their Internet operations … and some have begun to worry about the cost of their hosting services.

For this reason, the hosting industry is particularly likely to benefit from Apogee Networks’ new technology, Accounting and Billing Based on Network Use, for which a U.S. patent was issued on April 8. While this new technology does not reduce the cost of bandwidth, it does regulate it. Specifically, it allows enterprise-level clients to determine which applications are consuming the most bandwidth, and just how much money this consumption costs.
Currently integrated into Appogee’s NetCountant Accountability platform - a usage-based charge-back billing system - Accounting and Billing Based on Network Use allows bandwidth-heavy applications such as streaming media to be billed back to the individual user. In other words, companies can break down their bandwidth expenses on a department-by-department basis, which allows them to be more efficient in their budgeting.

Apogee Networks’ founder and CEO Pablo Tapia is nothing if not pleased: “This patent is the accomplishment of some very talented engineers who understand the full scope of opportunities and challenges facing our customers and the industry at large,” he says. “The market is demanding new business and revenue models to ensure a path to profitability.”

Billing based on network usage is particularly useful for enterprise-level operations, in which each department must operate within the constraints of a specific budget. However, the technology itself may prove extremely useful within the SME market, where budgetary restrictions are tighter and often necessarily inflexible.

As Seen On: “Tophosts.com - Complete Web Hosting Resource”