ISP phone ratio's and Interoffice trunkage for voice

[mikebw@bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

  Fred R. Goldstein wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
  
   FRG> At least it's not like in the UK where they often use ODECS (18 
   FRG> seconds of calling, as in "octo-decimal call seconds"). 
  
  I have never heard of "ODECS" before.  Interesting.
  
   FRG> Now when you have a queueing network (not relevant here), the 
   FRG> average queue duration is expressed as a fraction of average 
   FRG> call duration, per the Erlang C formula.  But phone switches 
   FRG> block, not queue, calls. 
  
  That's functionally irrelevant: calls block, but users queue.  Obviously,
  queued users consume no network resources, but they do count.
  
   FRG> Traditionally, transmission costs more than switching.  But in 
   FRG> today's fiber optic local networks, the *incremental* cost of 
   FRG> transmission is very low too.
  
  Still, costs are proportional to peak demand, and the cost of supplying peak
  demand in transmission is far higher than in switching.
   
  -- Mike