RIPE NCC Financial Status and Billing Procedures


                     Daniel Karrenberg
                      Manager RIPE NCC

                     January 24th 1995








1.  Contributors Committee


All those organisations contributing  to  NCC  funding  have
been  invited  to  advise TERENA on NCC funding matters. For
details see ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/new-registry.  The  con-
tributors  committee  has  met  on  September  21st 1994 and
agreed on the activity plan as  amended  by  the  last  RIPE
meeting  as  well  as the expenditure budget prepared by the
NCC which is presented below.

There was also consensus that a more  usage  based  charging
scheme should be introduced in 1996 and the NCC committed to
develop alternatives by mid 1995.

Although there was a clear majority opinion about the charg-
ing  scheme  for 1995, consensus could not be reached. Those
dissenting have thus far not proposed an alternative scheme.
Despite  several  efforts by TERENA and the NCC no consensus
has been reached at this point.

In this situation there is no alternative for the NCC but to
work  to  the  charging  scheme endorsed by the majority and
continue asking the contributors for a resolution.  At  this
point  contributions equivalent to 70% of the planned expen-
diture  have  been  confirmed  according  to  the   majority
endorsed scheme.  For more details see below.
                           - 2 -



2.  1995 Expenditure Budget


The 1994 budget based on 3.6FTE is presented for comparison.
"1995 Contributors Committee" is the budget presented to and
endorsed by the Contributors  Committee  on  September  21st
1994.   It  is  based  on  7 FTE available at the end of the
year.  "1995, Working Budget" incorporates  corrections  due
to better data and is the budget being worked to in 1995.


This budget is conservative because  the  revenue  situation
from  current customers is not stable and the growth in cus-
tomers is hard to predict.  It should be noted that as  soon
as  significant  additional  revenue  is  generated from the
growth in the number of customers, resources will have to be
increased beyond this budget.


                                1994           1995      1995
                                 for   Contributors   Working
                          comparison      Committee    Budget
_____________________________________________________________
Staff                         160000         290000    294000

Computing Equipment            15000          15000     15000
Computing running costs         5000           5000      5000

Travel                         30000          40000     35000

Rent & fixed service           25000          30000     34000
Variable service                5000           5000      5000

RARE Services                   5000          10000     10000

Recruitment                                    2500      2500

Unforseen                      10000          10000      7000
_____________________________________________________________
                              245000         407500    407500
                         ____________________________________
                           - 3 -



3.  1995 Charging Scheme


Below you find the the charging  and  billing  scheme.   For
more      details      see      ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/new-
registry/billing.txt.


        1995 RIPE NCC BILLING PROCEDURE and FEE SCHEDULE


1. The 1995 fee schedule is as follows:

        Enterprise registries:          ECU  1000.- / year

        Service Provider Registries

                        Small           ECU  2000.- / year
                        Medium          ECU  6000.- / year
                        Large           ECU 12000.- / year

        Start-up fee for registries
        established during 1995         ECU  2000.-

2. Registries established during the course of the year are
   charged as follows:

        established during      charge

        1st quarter             start-up fee + full yearly fee
        2nd quarter             start-up fee + 3/4 yearly fee
        3rd quarter             start-up fee + 1/2 yearly fee
        4th quarter             start-up fee + 1/4 yearly fee

3. The start-up fee is due with the first invoice.

4. Billing is in advance.

5. The billing period is the calendar year.

6. By prior special arrangement half-yearly and quarterly  billing
   is possible under the following conditions:

        - The minimum amount invoiced is ECU 1000.-.

        - An ECU 65.- service charge applies to each invoice.

7. Bills are due on the last day of the month preceding the
   billing period or 30 days after issuing of the invoice,
   whichever is later.

8. Late payments will be subject to an late payment charges of ECU 100.-
   and cause an immediate reduction in NCC service level.
                           - 4 -


   Interest according to the prevailing bank rate in the Netherlands
   may be charged on any late payments.



4.  1995 Revenue Situation


Notes

Below you find a summary of the state of RIPE NCC Income for
1995  based on the above charging scheme.  This reflects the
state of confirmations and commitments on  January  23rd  to
the  best  of the NCC's knowledge. This status has been com-
municated regularly to the NCC contributors on the contribu-
tors  committee  mailing list. This will continue as commit-
ments and payments are received.  The Estimated column has a
fair  amount of safety built in. This is to account for cus-
tomers dropping off and obviously wrong estimates.


Explanation of the Tables

REGISTRIES
     the (hopefully) paying  customers.   registry  IDs  are
     assigned  by the NCC and start with the ISO3166 country
     code.

GRANTSorganisations contributing  without  running  a  local
     registry.   This income is not structural and thus will
     be used to finance non-structural services.

Estimated
     a rough  estimation  of  appropriate  contributions  by
     registry size.

Confirmed
     contributions confirmed  informally  (e-mail,  aurally,
     ...).

Correction
     difference between Confirmed and Estimated.   The  pur-
     pose  of  this  is  to  keep an eye on how accurate the
     estimates  are  and  most   importantly   whether   the
     corrected total still meets the expenditure budget.

Committed
     contributions confirmed by written commitment, i.e. the
     signed service agreement.

PAID payments received.


REGISTRIES        Estimated   Confirmed   Correction   Committed   PAID
                           - 5 -


_______________________________________________________________________
ae.gulf              2000
at.aconet            6000        6000            0        6000
at.eunet             6000
at.spardat           2000        2000            0
at.vianet            2000
be.belnet            6000        6000            0
be.eunet             6000
be.inet              2000        2000            0
be.interpac          2000
be.kredietbank       1000
bg.eunet             2000
ch.chuug            12000
ch.switch           12000       12000            0       12000
cy.univ              2000
cz.cesnet            6000        2000        -4000        2000
cz.eunet             2000        2000            0
de.belwue            2000
de.dfn              12000       12000            0
de.eunet            12000
de.gtn               2000        2000            0        2000
de.maz               2000
de.nacamar           2000        2000                     2000
de.roka              2000
de.xlink             6000        6000            0
dk.denet             6000        6000            0        6000
dk.dknet             6000
dk.telebit           2000        2000            0
es.eunet             6000
es.rediris           6000        6000            0
fi.alands            2000
fi.clinet            2000        2000            0
fi.datanet           6000        6000            0
fi.edu               6000        1000        -5000
fi.eunet             6000
fi.funet             6000        6000            0        6000
fi.helsinki          6000
fi.nordic            2000        2000            0
fi.oulu              6000
fr.eunet            12000
fr.jeux              1000
fr.oleane            6000        6000            0
fr.renater          12000       12000            0
fr.societe-g         1000
fr.telecom           1000
fr.transpac         12000       12000            0
fr.transrel          6000        6000            0
gr.ariadnet          2000        2000            0
gr.forth             2000        2000            0
hr.carnet            2000
hu.hungarnet         2000        2000            0        2000
ie.eireann           2000
ie.eunet             6000
ie.heanet            6000        6000            0        6000
                           - 6 -


ie.iol               2000        2000
il.ilan              2000        2000            0        2000
il.netvision         6000        2000        -4000
is.eunet             2000        2000            0        2000
it.alpcom            2000        2000            0
it.eunet            12000
it.garr             12000       12000            0
it.itnet             2000        2000            0
it.nettuno           2000
lb.lir               2000
lt.litnet            2000
lu.eunet             2000
lu.restena           2000        2000            0        2000
mk.marnet            2000
nl.erisccon          1000
nl.ibm               6000        2000        -4000
nl.nlnet            12000
nl.philips           6000
nl.surfnet          12000       12000            0
nl.unisource         6000        6000            0
nl.xs4all            2000
no.daxnet            2000        2000            0
no.eunet             2000
no.telepost          6000        2000        -4000
no.uninett           6000        6000            0        6000
pl.eunet             2000        2000            0
pl.nask              2000        2000            0
pt.ccful             2000
pt.eunet             2000
pt.rccn              2000        2000            0
ro.rnc               2000        2000            0
ru.msu               2000        2000            0
ru.relcom            6000
ru.rosprint          6000        2000        -4000
se.electrolux        1000
se.eunet             2000
se.lund              2000        1000        -1000
se.sunet            12000       12000            0       12000
se.swipnet          12000        6000        -6000
se.transpac          6000        6000            0
se.unisource         6000        6000            0
si.arnes             2000        2000            0
si.eiger             2000
si.eunet             2000
sk.eunet             2000
sk.sanet             6000        6000            0
su.demos             6000
uk.bt               12000       12000            0       12000
uk.btent             1000        1000            0
uk.cns               6000
uk.demon             6000        6000            0
uk.energis           1000
uk.eunet            12000
uk.genesis           2000
                           - 7 -


uk.istel             6000
uk.janet            12000       12000            0
uk.marconi           1000
uk.mercury          12000
uk.nhs               1000        1000            0
uk.pipex            12000       12000            0
uk.racal             2000
uk.royal             1000
uk.trafalgar         1000        1000            0
uk.vbcnet            2000        2000            0
_______________________________________________________________________
Total              542000      287000       510000       80000      0
                 ______________________________________________________

%of Exp. Budget       133          70          125          20      0


     GRANTS     Confirmed   Paid
     ___________________________
     de.ecrc       3000
     eu.cern       3000
     eu.esa        5000
     fr.inria      2000
     ___________________________
                  13000      0
               _________________



5.  1995 Commitment and Billing Procedure


Due to the establishment of TERENA, other work pressures and
some  coordination  problems it took longer than expected to
produce the final agreement and work out  the  billing  pro-
cedures. Closer liaison procedures between the TERENA secre-
tariat and the RIPE NCC needed to be established for 1995 in
order  to make it possible to reliably determine the service
level of a customer at any time.  These procedures have been
established  now.   The  final  service agreements have been
circulated on December 22nd.

The agreement text, fee schedule,  billing  procedures  etc.
can be found in:

            ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/new-registry



1995 billing has now been initiated for all registries which
have either confirmed, committed or both.

As additional commitments come in these  customers  will  be
billed  as  well.   Confirmation only will not usually cause
                           - 8 -


billing to be initiated.

All questions and correspondence associated with this should
be directed to <billing@ripe.net>. They can also help you if
you prefer the documents to be sent  by  e-mail  or  surface
mail. But please use this facility only if absolutely neces-
sary.



6.  Service Levels


From February 1st 1995 the Committed column  will  determine
the service level a registry receives from the NCC:


     Registries which have signed the agreement will be ser-
     viced  normally  as  long  as they have no overdue out-
     standing invoices.


     All other registries as well  as  individuals  will  be
     served only as time permits and after all requests from
     paying customers have been dealt with.


Because the agreements have "only" been available for  about
a  month  now, registries which have confirmed contributions
but not signed the agreement yet will be treated as if  they
had signed until February 28th 1995.


7.  What you should do!


Please check the entries of the registries you are responsi-
ble for in the table above.

If there is no confirmation  (see  column  3  in  the  table
above),  please  contact  the  NCC  as  soon  as possible at
<billing@ripe.net> specifying your charging category. If  we
have  no  confirmation  your requests will be processed on a
time-permitting basis only from February 1st (next week).

If there is no commitment (see column 5 in the table above),
please  pick  up  the  files in ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/new-
registry, sign and send in  the  agreement.   We  also  have
hardcopies  available  during the meeting.  Please note that
you need to send two signed copies if  you  require  a  copy
signed  by  TERENA  to  be  returned to you.  If we have not
received a signed commitment by February 28th your  requests
will be processed on a time-permitting basis only.
                           - 9 -


If you are not sure that the billing  information  (address,
VAT#,  etc.)  we  have is correct, ask <billing@ripe.net> to
send you an electronic form  with  the  current  information
filled in and return it to us.

Local registries should  include  their  registry  ID  prom-
inently  in  their  requests  to  ensure the correct service
level.

If you  have  any  questions  or  comments,  please  contact
<billing@ripe.net>.



8.  1994 Finances


The accounts for 1994 have not been finalised. The financial
report  for 1994 is expected in March after the TERENA audi-
tors have reviewed the books.


There have been some problems with billing  for  new  regis-
tries  in 1994.  If you have any questions about 1994 bills,
please contact <billing@ripe.net>.  The 1995 procedures have
been  tightened  to  prevent  such  problems  from occurring
again.


9.  Conclusions


Commitments will have to reach the level of budgeted  expen-
diture  soon  or  expenditure levels will have to be reduced
with serious consequences for the NCC.  The NCC  is  already
suffering from this situation as it is.

This is a problem which needs resolution by the contributors
(committee).   The NCC can only help with this but not solve
the problem.

Those willing to contribute now should please sign the  ser-
vice agreement as soon as possible.