may 1999z:\cottrell\slac\phone-int-may99.ppt1 slac’s international phone call usage les cottrell...

$: May 1999z:\cottrell\slac\phone-int-may99.ppt1 SLAC’s International Phone Call Usage Les Cottrell Manager of SLAC’s Telecommunications Presented at the$
May 1999z:\cottrell\slac\phone-int-may99.ppt 1

SLAC’s International

Phone Call UsageLes Cottrell

Manager of SLAC’s Telecommunications

Presented at the Research Division Group Leaders meeting, May 11, 1999

www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/scs/talk/phone-int-may99/


Outline of Talk

• How do we gather information• Results• Auditing - past, present, future


How do we gather information 1/2

• International services provided by STS– prices are very good, e.g. UK ~ $0.075/m, Germany ~

$0.13/m, France or Switzerland ~ $0.16/m, worst Chile/Sri Lanka/Iran >~ $1.00/m

• Monthly electronic bills from STS– ID cost, time & # called, but not extension


How do we gather information 2/2• Phone Switch Call Data Records (CDR)

– ancient system, SLAC written relies on uVAX II (over 10 years old) running old version of VMS (5.5

– person who wrote code long gone– listen to records and copies to Unix– solid as rock so far - but ...

• Provides:– ID time, # called, duration, extension, but not person or

cost.– Program to tie back extension to BINlist person etc. and– look up country code and use avg cost/min/country from

STS bills.


Results - Overall use - Sep98• Typical use ~ $2K/month,12K minutes, 4.5min/call• ~2K International calls/month, ~ $1/call• Calls made from ~ 200 extensions (out of 344)

– Over 50 extensions made > 60 minutes of calls• Over 500 different numbers successfully called

– ~ 40 called for > 60 minutes• > 50 countries called for > 30 minutes• 70 phones made calls of over 30 minutes each• 26 calls were over 30 minutes (23 hour total)• FAX 6% (80 phones), shared phones 15%, 8%

common area or not in BINlist


SLAC International calling use 1997-9

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Cost ($)Hours# exts used#'s calledLinear (Hours)Linear (Cost ($))

Usage 1997-99Started tracking use

&getting

authorizations,fixed bug in switch


Call DistributionSLAC International call length

distribution Sep-98

y = 1775.2x-1.7885

R2 = 0.8975

1

10

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1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 M

Minutes

# C

alls

0%

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Frequency

Cumulative %

Power(Frequency)


Results - Biggest Sept-98

• Group: BBR (2600m, $430, 16%), EC(14%), SLD(16%), THP(3%), SSR(6%)

• Extensions: biggest user 4033mins ($93)

• Countries (by minutes): – Italy (4285m, $1100, 36%), UK(2610m, 19%), France

(2482m, 14%), Switzerland, Germany, FSU

• Single call: China 60m, $36, Switzerland ~200m, $31


Auditing - past• Phone numbers have to be authorized to make

international calls – requires group/dept. leader email & account– records were very incomplete, now better than 99%– ~ 344 phones have international access, ~10%

• down 10% since Aug-98

• No charge back to users/groups

• Fran Balkovich used to scan the paper bills – look for exceptions (> 30 min calls, > N calls from

extension, unusual countries) – call ATOMs– took 20% FTE, Fran retired a year ago


Auditing - development 1 of 2• Developed Web forms & database to track

international authorizations

• Written suite of programs to analyze the bills & CDR records– Provide time, date, duration, cost, extension, person,

group, country etc.– ID exceptions:

• calls > 30 mins

• Exts making > 60 minutes of international calls in month

• Numbers called for > 60 minutes/month


• Improve information - this was the hardest task– for each phone get contact (grp ldr/ATOM), person,

location etc. (need for other reasons too)– get account, grp ldr authorization for 380 intl. phones

• Raised issue at ADCCs & Key mgrs & ATOMs• Developed automated email to contacts with web site

of instructions – www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/phone/int-contact.htm

– intsructions include: • who are the contacts, how to change a contact• SLAC policy on phone use• guidelines for exceptions, • what to do if suspect inappropriate use• how to change access for a phone

Auditing - Development 2 of 2


Auditing - Next Steps

• Sending email to 75 contacts with list of phones they are contacts for, to verify they are right people

• Ready to send email to contacts on a monthly basis:– includes: overview, link to instructions, list of phone &

calls, identifying:• SLAC phone #, user, time, number called, rough cost, country

– have tested out with several group leaders (4) and ATOMs (10)

• Interaction Point article next month


More Information

• Guidelines for contacts:– www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/phone/int-contact.htm

• List of contacts for phones with international access– www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/phone-line?type=contact

• Draft of IP article– www.slac.stanford.edu/~cottrell/int-ip.html

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