Mobile simulator - Model assumptions

This page describes the various assumptions that are used by the mobile telephony simulator. Assumptions are necessary to perform an accurate calculation.

Assumptions have to be made either because the user does not know the useful data or because the introduction of the necessary data would render the use of the simulator not much user-friendly.

Below is a grid that shows the current assumptions that are used by the mobile simulator on a real-time basis for Malta. After the grid a detailed description of each assumption is provided together with a description of how it is used.

Assumption name Description
Operator Market shares The Operator Market Shares show the percentage taken by every operator on the mobile telephony market in Malta.

In general most mobile operators in Malta charge a different rate per minute (or per call) depending upon which operator you are calling. So for example if your subscription is with Operator A and you make a call to a subscriber of Operator B then you will normally be charged more than if you made that same call to a subscriber of Operator A.

For this reason it is important that the simulator knows the percentage of the user's calling time to each operator and this is based on the market share.

The market shares assumptions are necessary when the user of the simulator cannot spread his calls over the different operators.   On the initial screen of the simulator the user is asked what percentage of calls he makes to a particular operator.  If the user doesn't know the answer to this then distribution has to be performed according to the market shares of the various operators.
Average Call Durations The Average Call Durations show the average time spent on a call dependent upon whether the call is rated per minute or per call. It is also detailed for each type of call because typically a user will spend longer on a call to fixed lines than the relatively more expensive mobile phone.  

The Average Call Durations are needed because during the calculation process some parts of the costing process need to know the number of calls that were made for the minutes being costed.  To do this the minutes are divided by the average call duration to give the number of calls. An assumption has to be used because it is very rare for a user to know how many calls he made for each particular call type.

Here are the cases where the number of calls made is needed:

  1. Calculating the cost of per call rated minutes - some tariff plans charge by call rather than by minute
  2. Calculating the cost of call set up fees - these are fees that are charged by operators for each call irrespective of how long the call lasts
Call Time Splits Call Time Splits determine on an aggregate basis calls to the different call types as well as to the consumer's network.
Miscellaneous The Miscellaneous assumptions are used in various places when costing a mobile tariff plan.

The Percentage of calls below the minimum call charge is used to determine how many calls in general fall below the minimum call charge of an operator. Many operators impose a minimum call charge where by all calls below a certain value are rounded up to that value. This assumption helps the mobile calculator determine the number of calls that fall into that category and cost the tariff correctly.

The percentage of SMS and MMS traffic to international destinations is used because the consumer is not required to specify how many SMS or MMS messages he sends to international locations. These 2 assumptions are therefore used to split the input SMS and MMS text values input by the consumer into national and international amounts so the relevant rates can be applied.

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