Question

Assume that the federal government is interested in awarding a major R&D contract to conduct research on wi-fi technology changes that would support TTY.2 The government would like to award the contract to the firm that is currently processing the highest number of wi-fi calls per year because this would provide the largest potential sample for testing any new technology that is developed. Assume that AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile each claim that they host the most calls per year. Counts of the number of wi-fi calls of each carrier on 50 randomly selected days appears in an Excel spreadsheet on Canvas. Assume that it is not possible to know the actual annual number of calls, and that the number of calls differs each day, so a test of mean number of calls should be compared to determine which, if any, firm actually processes the highest volume of wi-fi calls (conduct a T-Test in Excel). Use the data in the spreadsheet and hypothesis testing to resolve the claims that each firm processes the most wi-fi calls. Be sure to interpret the hypothesis test results in the context of the contract award.

Answer 1

To determine which company processes the most wi-fi calls, a T-Test would be conducted on a sample of daily call counts to compare mean values. The results based on the sample will guide the contract award, with the company showing significantly higher means likely considered for the R&D opportunity.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question pertains to the use of hypothesis testing to resolve claims made by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile about which company processes the most wi-fi calls per year. A T-Test in Excel would be conducted to compare the means of daily wi-fi call counts gathered over 50 randomly selected days. The null hypothesis (H0) would typically state that there is no significant difference between the companies' mean number of wi-fi calls, while the alternative hypothesis (H1) would assert that at least one company has a different mean number of calls.

The test results would include calculations of the t-statistic and the p-value for each company. Companies are compared pairwise to ascertain if there is a statistically significant difference between their means. If the p-value is less than the chosen level of significance (usually 0.05), the null hypothesis would be rejected, indicating that the company with the higher number of calls has a significantly different mean.

Interpreting the results, if one company's p-value in comparison to the others is consistently low, there is enough evidence to suggest that this company processes the highest number of wi-fi calls and thus, could be awarded the federal contract.

The reliance on a sample of days rather than complete annual data, however, also introduces sampling error, which should be considered when interpreting the results. The focus on companies with the highest call volume assumes that this provides the best testing environment for new technology, which is a practical but not necessarily definitive measure of suitability for the R&D contract.