Hannah B. Kwik and her brother Otto own & run the bicycle courier company WheelNuts which operates in both Edmonton and Calgary. WheelNuts provides same day service for downtown businesses. In downtown Edmonton, Hannah takes bookings through her bluetooth headset while biking, picking up, or delivering packages. Otto performs the same tasks in downtown Calgary. Their business is exclusively through calls. Customers in Edmonton call Hannahs local number to book whereas Calgary customers call Ottos. They both have distinct phone numbers but the same plan: 12 per minute per connected call, with automatic call waiting, but no voice mail. While taking an order, a second call to their phone is put on hold (also 12 per minute) and additional calls receive a busy signal. During a typical workday, in each city, calls arrive following a Poisson distribution with a mean of 33 per hour. Call lengths follow an Exponential distribution with a mean of 42.14 seconds (rate of 85.42 calls/ hour). They collect an average of $25 per booking.

1. With the Qalculator, estimate the total hourly cost of the phone system (connection and blocking) for both cities (Cgy + Edm). Enter values in cells A to D, B7 & B8, and cost formulas in cells M and N.

Costs: blocking (M) __________, connection (N)__________, Total (O) _________

Hannah & Otto are considering asking Ada and Izzi, their younger siblings, to take calls and dispatch the orders by text to Hannah or Otto, depending on whether the caller is in Edmonton or Calgary. Both Ada and Izzi would be working out of the family home in Sherwood Park. Their work phones would share the same number (when one is on a call, the incoming caller is routed to the other phone). Moreover, their plan would have provision for up to 2 calls waiting when both are on calls. After completing a call, Ada or Izzi would dispatch a text with the shipment information and move to the next call waiting. The distribution of length of calls + texts would remain the same (85.42 calls/hour). It would again cost 12 per minute for calls being answered or waiting, but any calls beyond those four would receive a busy signal. All phones have unlimited texting included in the plans.

2. Use the provided Qalculator spreadsheet to estimate the total hourly cost (connection and blocking) for both cities combined. Enter values in cells A to D and cost formulas in cells M and N.

Costs: blocking (M) _________, connection (N) __________, total (O)_________