The following table shows how many GB of data you would receive for each dollar spent using the various plans listed. The calculations assume that you use the entire allocation. If you do not, then the GB would be lower would be higher. That assumption implies that you are probably downloading mostly binaries which does affect the choice of the conversion factors.

This table is only a guide. No two people see the same number of headers or download the identical mix of encoded files so the results are not exactly what you will see. However they do provide a method that allows you to compare the costs of the various servers by adjusting for the differences in how they actually bill you.

This table also does not include all providers. One major area of omission is speed capped servers. The question with a speed capped service is what do you use for the monthly limit? Since UNS converted to a speed capped service I changed hem in the table. I'll add more in the future. GB/month will be based on the maximum possible at the capped rate. If someone has a better idea, do let me know.

The bottom line on this is that a small difference between two companies in the $/GB data means that they pretty much give you the same deal. However a bigger difference may be significant factor for you. Also remember that this is simply based on the published cost. This page does not attempt to adjust the data for completion issues or retention issues or downloading issues or superior customer service or... In other words, it is about cost and not value.

You may need to ask the individual providers about what they count and don't count as headers. As an example at the time this was written. Newsreader only counts article bodies. No other NNTP commands are included. On HTTP, again only the decoded bodies are counted. Some other providers count all data sent via HTTP. Let the buyer beware!

The data included so far is for only the nntp service. The cost for http service would be different. I hope that this omission will be fixed once the major nntp providers have been added.

Finally you need to consider the total cost of your service. You can go with a large limit on a premium server and get all of your data from them. Or you could go with one or two cheap servers. If they can provide 80% to 95% of the posts you need then you could reduce the cost of your premium server by going with a lower limit plan since you would need that server for only for the 'missing' articles. All you need is a multiple server binary news reader. There are many out there including some free ones. My bottom line is to use your isp for your main binary server, then a speed capped server and finally a good completion, long retention service.

Data is believed correct as of 09-14-2002

Company/Plan Monthly Cost GB/Month Bytes Charged Adjustment Header Adjustment Encoding Adjustment Net 'Real' GB included $/GB

Easy News $10.00 6.00 1.33 1.00 0.65 5.20 1.92
             
Newshosting $7.92 8.00 1.00 0.97 0.65 5.04 1.57
               
               
               
Newscene              
Lowest Rate Plan $12.99 5.00 1.00 0.97 0.65 3.15 4.12
Highest Rate plan $39.99 40.00 1.00 0.97 0.65 25.22 1.59
               
               
Newreader $9.95 50.00 1.00 1.00 0.65 32.50 0.31
               
               
Newsguy $6.66 15.50 1.00 0.97 0.65 9.77 0.68
               
Giganews              
Lowest Rate Plan $7.95 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.65 0.65 12.23
Highest Rate plan $66.63 50.00 1.00 1.00 0.65 32.50 2.05
               
Onlynews              
Lowest Rate Plan $7.16 7.50 1.00 1.00 0.65 4.88 1.47
Highest Rate plan $10.83 22.50 1.00 1.00 0.65 14.63 0.74
               
Supernews              
Lowest Rate Plan $8.33 2.50 1.00 0.97 0.65 1.58 5.28
Highest Rate plan $59.95 20.00 1.00 0.97 0.65 12.61 4.75
               
UsenetServer              
Lowest Rate Plan $4.95 155.00 1.00 0.97 0.65 97.73 0.05
Highest Rate Plan $14.95 64800.00 1.00 0.97 0.65 40856.40 0.00
               
Conversion factors       0.03 0.35    
Probable Conversion Factors for a 'text' user.       0.07 .03

    

The above data currently assumes that:

headers account for 3% of the total data being received.

encoding (uue or mime) add 35% to the data stream

The monthly rates are based on the lowest deal available. In many cases, this is the monthly cost based on a yearly plan.

Header adjustment is a factor to reduce the amount of provided bytes for being charged to download headers. This needs to be done, since some companies don't include headers in the calculation of how much you downloaded. The value chosen attempts to be a happy medium between cases of heavy header downloads vs. heavy data downloads. Newscene reported that on June 7, 2001 headers amounted to 6.5% of the total data that they shipped. That was for the mix of users downloading text and binary articles.

The encoding factor adjusts the available bytes to the 'real' data bytes based on the encoding overhead. Some companies charge based on the encoded size and others don't. Remember that this adjust attempts to cover the rage of all users so it tries to represent a happy medium that may not really exist.

The Bytes Charged Adjustment attempts to adjust for the fact that some companies charge you for a different number of bytes then you actually download. In all the cases I have seen so far, this conversion actually increases the number of bytes available to you.

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