[mod.telecom] Average cost of phones in business

goldstein@delni.DEC.COM (Fred R. Goldstein dtn226-7388) (08/22/86)

While most companies consider their actual phone bills to be proprietary
information, one guideline commonly used by consultants, PBX companies
etc. is to expect a usage bill to average $50/month/phone.  So if a
company has 1000 phones, their annual phone bill, exclusive of equipment,
runs about $600k.  Of course there's a HUGE range of variation around
that seat-of-the-pants number.

If Aberdeen has 12k employees and $25k monthly bill, then they're
making most of their calls off the bill.  Perhaps the $25k bill is
for the local phone company only, and most usage is on Autovon and FTS.

Heavy e-mail users run smaller phone bills.  Purchasing agent types run
huge bills; if they don't, they're not doing their job!
     fred