[aljungberg]

Whatever that number is, it will be equal or less than the number already discussed. The network “hires” contractors to provide the services you mentioned and it pays a known figure for that. Not much else to it really. Since all we are discussing is whether the network is profitable or not in this thread we don’t need to dig into more specific analysis of the service providers’ internal costs (and indeed that would be difficult since they are globally distributed with different attendant costs and efficiencies). Just to note they are unlikely to themselves be making a loss is sufficient.

[lottin]

No, the costs incurred in providing a service is exactly what needs to be quantified in order to determine whether the provision of that service is profitable. If you insist that the contractors must be excluded from the analysis (for some reason), then you have to admit the possibility that the network is being subsidised by the contractors (as would occur if they were operating at a loss), at which point the entire concept of profitability of the network becomes rather meaningless. So you can't exclude the contractors. And you can't simply assume that contractors are unlikely to be making a loss either, because that's exactly the question that we're asking.