Costing Update

COSTING UPDATE JUNE 2000. (NETCHG00).

1:10 PM 28/06/2000

The latest Netcharge (Telstra Telephone costing tables) are a provisional release, subject to further confirmation about the following exceptions which have been assumed in this release. The data snap shot date is June 15,2000.

Please note that this is pre GST. GST on Telstra prices seems to be variable. For advice on charging for GST input costs please see your accountant.

As mentioned elsewhere, these call costs can only be estimates. This is because:

1. The PABX usually cannot tell the duration of the call, rather just the time of the last digit dialled and the termination of the call.
2. The location of destination mobile phones cannot be determined from the number and the duration.
3. The telecommunications companies vary their prices from and offer specials that would be impossible to keep up with.

All costing software has these issues. The duration is especially problematic, since to allow for the ring time, PABX's often assume a number of seconds (typically 24) as the ring time. Therefore some calls may have 0 duration that might have been charged, or are charged when they were never answered.

To highlight these issues, calls costs not reported directly by the PABX, are shown as ~$1.00 where this cost means approximately one dollar. Calls to Mobile phones are shown as *$1.00 to show that the location could not be determined, and well as the other approximation issues. Mobile phones are charged as though they were closer than 180Km.

Canberra and Hobart have been added as potential locations for a MonTel site.

ChargeLocation and RateCodeFileName both have to be set in the PABX.INI correctly. Systems set for the last Netcharge update will remain correctly configured. For details see PABX.REF.

The codes for ChargeLocation are:

• nbik - Perth
• nboy - Sydney
• nbav - Melbourne
• naln - Brisbane
• naej - Adelaide
• nanw - CANBERRA
• na1x - HOBART

The codes for RateCodeFileName are:

• ISDN - for timed local phone calls. (Use this for OnRamp or ISDN)
• PSTN - for standard "analogue" lines.
• PULS - for metre pulses (Metre pulses are unreliable and should NOT be used).

The following assumptions have been made for all charges types, that is PSTN, ISDN and PULS.

rate code 'NN' for 19001 and similar numbers is a zero charge call

rate code 'NK' for 0013 and similar numbers is a zero charge call

rate code 'VB' found for 0140 and similar mobile numbers has the same rate as in 1998. This assumption is almost by definition invalid, however by presenting the worst case it will tend to over recover rather than under recover phone call costs.