Gce Model Questions Vol1 2024 Commerce Question 42

A company must send a 12 000‑word report to its overseas branch. Assume an average word contains 6 characters and each character is stored as 8 bits. The report can be transmitted by one of three methods: (i) Email: negligible monetary cost, transmission speed 2 Mbps, protocol overhead 5 %, and a probability of error of \(0.001\) per 1 000 bits, which requires retransmission of the whole file. (ii) Courier a CD: cost ₦15 000, delivery time 3 days, no transmission errors. (iii) Satellite fax: cost ₦8 000, transmission speed 64 kbps, protocol overhead 10 %, and a probability of error of \(0.0005\) per 1 000 bits, requiring retransmission of the whole file. The company incurs a penalty of ₦500 for each hour of delay beyond the first 8 hours. Calculate the expected total cost (monetary cost plus any penalty) for each method and state which method has the lowest expected total cost.