International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),

ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
74











DATA MINING APPROACH FOR GENERATION OF OPTIMAL INTERNET
TELECOM PLANS


Harshita Kotian
1
, Divya Bhat
2
, Charvi Kunder
3
, Prof. Snehal Kulkarni
4


1, 2, 3, 4
(Computer Engineering, St. Francis Institute of Technology/ Mumbai University,
Mount Poinsur, S.V.P. Road, Borivali (West), Mumbai 400 103, India)




ABSTRACT

Decision support systems combine individuals and computers capabilities to improve the
quality of decisions. There are several decision support systems in Modern organizations to ease
decision support. Data mining adds on the possibilities for decision support by discovering patterns
and relationships hidden in data and therefore enabling the inductive approach of data analysis. One
of its important applications is the price setting process or the calculation of expenditure and
modifying plans based on user usage for various services provided to the customers by various firms.
Telecom system is a system where information is very huge & continually updated. The main
purpose of the paper is to represent an intelligent decision support system that will enable the service
provider to gain vital insights into the prevailing trends and judge the upcoming profit and loss. The
knowledgeable information thus got can be used to identify the plans that need to be modifying
according to customer preference.

Keywords: Decision Support Systems (DSS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Optimize,
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), Threshold, Telecom Industry (TI).

1. INTRODUCTION

Decision support systems (DSS) are defined as interactive computer-based systems
intended to help decision makers utilize data and models in order to identify problems, solve
problems and make decisions. DSS provides support for decision making, they do not replace it.
Modern organizations use several types of decision support systems to facilitate decision
support. In many applications, tools based on OLAP are used in the business areas, which enable
multiple views on data and through that a deductive approach to data analysis. Data mining
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International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
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increases the potential for decision support by discovering patterns and relationships hidden in data
and therefore enabling the inductive approach of data analysis.

One of the complex decision-making methods in a telecom company involves Tariff plan
designing that require different types of information and knowledge.

1) Costs and how they alter with sales volume
2) Sales and how they vary with prices
3) Effect of competitor prices on the sales of the companys plans

In current scenario, there is a huge competition in the telecom industry between the service
providers to provide best services to the customers in available possible least cost in order to attract
new customers and also retain the older customers. In such scenarios, a telecom company has to
make efficient decisions while declaring new plans keeping the customer transactions in mind. The
customers buying patterns vary with time and also the data goes on increasing with time making
the task of analyzing each and every customers transactions too complex.
Here, comes a need for proposing a computerized system which while handle the task of
scrutinizing the customers data more efficient [1]. Based on the above need, the paper aims at
optimizing the internet tariff plans based on the profits made and customer preference.

2. RELATED WORK

Modern organizations use several types of decision support systems to facilitate decision
support. In many cases, tools based on OLAP are used in the business areas, which enable multiple
views on data and through that a deductive approach to data analysis. Data mining adds the
potential for decision support by discovering patterns and relationships hidden in data and therefore
enabling the inductive approach of data analysis.
DSS is user friendly software-based system proposed to help decision makers accumulate
useful Information from a combination of underdone data, documents and individual knowledge or
business models to recognize and resolve problems and make decisions. DSS can be used to
represent all the information from any association in the form of charts, graphs i.e. in an abridged
way, which helps the administration to take tactical verdict. The advantages of DSS are:

Increases personal efficiency
Fosters the speed of process of decision making
Makes up the organizational control
Encourages investigation
Speeds up problem solving in an association
Creates a aggressive advantage over competition
Enables finding out new approaches to thinking about the problem space
Helps automate managerial processes
produce pioneering ideas to speed up the performance.

The use of data mining to facilitate decision support can lead to the improved performance
of decision making and can enable the tackling of new types of problems that have not been
addressed before. The paper [2] gives the concept of data mining based decision support system,
which was intended for business users to enable them to use data mining models to make possible
decision support with only a basic level of knowledge of data mining. We can improve current
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp.

approaches used and create new approaches to problem solving by amalgamating the idea of data
mining and decision support system.
The paper [3] assumes that the market is segmented into two customer classes i.e. as time
sensitive customers and price sensitive customers. The customers who are ready to pay a premium
price for a shorter service time are called as Time
willing to accept a longer service time in return for a lower price are called as price sensitive
customers. It is seen that the optimal profit in a time sensitive market is always larger than the
optimal profit in a Price sensitive market. Thus a service provider will create more profit using
market segmentation.

Figure 1: Representation of problem statement [2]

In this system, the in charge of the company can get a complete view of probed customer
with the help of pie-charts, bar-charts and other forms of graphical representations. The system will
work with dynamic data making it more efficient for the company in implementing decisions.
The benefit is that the admin will get to know the percent
different plans offered by the company. This will ensure the reasoning of less used plans and help
them publicize more. This will enable the service provider to gain vital insights into the prevailing
trends and judge the upcoming profit and loss. The knowledgeable information thus got can be used
to identify the plans that need to be modifying according to customer preference.

International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976
6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
76
approaches used and create new approaches to problem solving by amalgamating the idea of data
support system.
The paper [3] assumes that the market is segmented into two customer classes i.e. as time
sensitive customers and price sensitive customers. The customers who are ready to pay a premium
price for a shorter service time are called as Time sensitive customers, while the customers who are
willing to accept a longer service time in return for a lower price are called as price sensitive
customers. It is seen that the optimal profit in a time sensitive market is always larger than the
ofit in a Price sensitive market. Thus a service provider will create more profit using

Representation of problem statement [2]
In this system, the in charge of the company can get a complete view of probed customer
charts and other forms of graphical representations. The system will
work with dynamic data making it more efficient for the company in implementing decisions.
The benefit is that the admin will get to know the percentage of contribution of revenue of the
different plans offered by the company. This will ensure the reasoning of less used plans and help
This will enable the service provider to gain vital insights into the prevailing
the upcoming profit and loss. The knowledgeable information thus got can be used
to identify the plans that need to be modifying according to customer preference.
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
approaches used and create new approaches to problem solving by amalgamating the idea of data
The paper [3] assumes that the market is segmented into two customer classes i.e. as time
sensitive customers and price sensitive customers. The customers who are ready to pay a premium
sensitive customers, while the customers who are
willing to accept a longer service time in return for a lower price are called as price sensitive
customers. It is seen that the optimal profit in a time sensitive market is always larger than the
ofit in a Price sensitive market. Thus a service provider will create more profit using
In this system, the in charge of the company can get a complete view of probed customer data
charts and other forms of graphical representations. The system will
work with dynamic data making it more efficient for the company in implementing decisions.
age of contribution of revenue of the
different plans offered by the company. This will ensure the reasoning of less used plans and help
This will enable the service provider to gain vital insights into the prevailing
the upcoming profit and loss. The knowledgeable information thus got can be used
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp.

3. BLOCK DIA /FLOW CHART OF DSS TI)

Figure 2: A step-by-step process for obtaining

The system will work with dynamic data making it more efficient for the company in
implementing decisions. The customer data will be segregated into time
data based on the plans which the customer has recharged to. Based on th
sets of customers-Time Sensitive Customers and Price Sensitive Customers.
On each of these two customer sets, a variant of FP
Following these steps will lead to selection of a threshold
value for classifying the plans to obtain optimal plans.
After getting the likelihood of this data, the company can take the necessary steps in
discarding or advertising or modifying these plans in order to mini
Based on this data, new profitable plans can also be created with proper judgments. The plans which
are less than threshold but are very close to it can be suggested to publicize the plans more so than
more customers can avail than plan and its usage can be increased. The plans which are least used,
i.e. which have very lesser value of plan count can be suggested to be discarded in the benefit of the
company. The plans which are lesser than threshold and do not come in the a
be modified in an efficient way by adjusting their parameters in such a way that customers will
prefer it and start making use of it.
Another benefit is that it will get to know the percentage of contribution of revenue of the
different plans offered by the company. This will ensure the reasoning of less used plans and help
them publicize more.

3.1. FREQUENT-PATTERN MINING ALGORITHM
The FP-Growth Algorithm, proposed
the complete set of frequent patterns
structure for storing compressed and crucial information about frequent patterns named frequent
pattern tree (FP-tree). This method outperforms
e.g. Apriori Algorithm.
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976
6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
77
BLOCK DIA /FLOW CHART OF DSS TI)
step process for obtaining suggestions for optimal plans
The system will work with dynamic data making it more efficient for the company in
implementing decisions. The customer data will be segregated into time-sensitive and price sensitive
data based on the plans which the customer has recharged to. Based on this the company will get two
Time Sensitive Customers and Price Sensitive Customers.
On each of these two customer sets, a variant of FP-Tree algorithm is applied as given below.
Following these steps will lead to selection of a threshold value which be considered as a reference
value for classifying the plans to obtain optimal plans.
After getting the likelihood of this data, the company can take the necessary steps in
discarding or advertising or modifying these plans in order to minimize risks and maximize profits.
Based on this data, new profitable plans can also be created with proper judgments. The plans which
are less than threshold but are very close to it can be suggested to publicize the plans more so than
ail than plan and its usage can be increased. The plans which are least used,
i.e. which have very lesser value of plan count can be suggested to be discarded in the benefit of the
company. The plans which are lesser than threshold and do not come in the above two categories can
be modified in an efficient way by adjusting their parameters in such a way that customers will
Another benefit is that it will get to know the percentage of contribution of revenue of the
erent plans offered by the company. This will ensure the reasoning of less used plans and help
PATTERN MINING ALGORITHM
proposed by Han, is an efficient and scalable method for mining
patterns by pattern fragment growth, using an extended
for storing compressed and crucial information about frequent patterns named frequent
tree). This method outperforms other popular methods for mining frequent
Customer Data
Customer
Segmentation (Time
and Price)
Apply Frequent
Pattern Mining
Algorithm on Time
Sensitive Set
Suggestion based on
Speed, Validity, Cost
and Capacity
Apply Frequent
Pattern Mining
Algorithm on Price
Sensitive Set
Suggestion based on
Speed, Cost and
Capacity
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),

suggestions for optimal plans
The system will work with dynamic data making it more efficient for the company in
sensitive and price sensitive
is the company will get two
Tree algorithm is applied as given below.
value which be considered as a reference
After getting the likelihood of this data, the company can take the necessary steps in
mize risks and maximize profits.
Based on this data, new profitable plans can also be created with proper judgments. The plans which
are less than threshold but are very close to it can be suggested to publicize the plans more so than
ail than plan and its usage can be increased. The plans which are least used,
i.e. which have very lesser value of plan count can be suggested to be discarded in the benefit of the
bove two categories can
be modified in an efficient way by adjusting their parameters in such a way that customers will
Another benefit is that it will get to know the percentage of contribution of revenue of the
erent plans offered by the company. This will ensure the reasoning of less used plans and help
by Han, is an efficient and scalable method for mining
tended prefix-tree
for storing compressed and crucial information about frequent patterns named frequent-
for mining frequent patterns,
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
78

FP tree Algorithm is used to find the usage of plans used by the customers. On applying the
first half of the algorithm of finding the support of each item, we will obtain the actual support or
count of each plan used by the customers. In the Second Step, a threshold value will be selected by
the company in-charge which will decide the range of the optimal plan counts. Threshold value as
referred above is the marginal value of the plan count. This value will serve as a line of separation
between the most used plans and the least used plans of the company. The plan counts which are
greater than and equal to the threshold value will be categorized into most used plans while the
remaining plans which are lesser than threshold value will be categorized into least used plans. From
here the company in-charge can get major insights regarding the popular plans and he can hence
work on the less popular plans in order to maximize profits.

4. INPUT DATA SELECTION

According to problem statement, there are many factors to be considered for giving best
decision support system.

The factors which we have considered are listed below,

Current Customer Details

The sample data set can be shown as,


Figure 3: Details of all customers (Only few records shown)
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
79

All the customer details including time sensitive and price sensitive customers are displayed.
Basic customer details such as phone number, name, age gender and location has been displayed.
Apart from this, it gives a clear idea of the plan the customer has opted for, how recently has the
customer recharged, the number of times he has recharged and the total recharge amount paid by
him/her, number of complains and plan change made, if any.

Internet Plans Details
Each internet plan is identified by the speed of the internet, its price premium, the validity of
plan, i.e. whether yearly or half-yearly or monthly or on day basis. The validity of the plans will
decide whether it is time-sensitive plan or price sensitive plan. Based on the plan which the
customer recharges, he/she will be categorized into time-sensitive or price sensitive customer.
The sample data set can be shown as,

PID SPEED COST DURATION CAPACITY TYPE
(TIME/PRICE
SENSITIVE)
1 2 5999 1 year 25 GB Price
2 2 3999 1 year 15 GB Price
3 2 1499 3 months 5GB Price
4 2 2050 1 month 150 GB Time
5 2 1550 1 month 80 GB Time
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
11 2 99 1 month 350 MB Time
12 2 79 15 days 200 MB Time
13 2 56 7 days 150 MB Time
14 2 22 1 day 150 MB Time
.
.
.

.
.
.

.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Figure 4: Details of all plans


5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The results are displayed by using a certain customer dataset of a company which gave
certain useful results in the benefit of the company. It was found out that about 82 % of the customers
were time-sensitive while the remaining 18 % were price-sensitive customers as shown in Figure 5.
Thus this analysis based on customer segmentation gave an idea of the kind of service that the
customers prefer thus enabling them to take profitable decisions. A threshold percentage value was
chosen. The admin has the flexibility to select the threshold. The plans have been further segmented
into Time and Price sensitive plans.

International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp.

Figure 5: Results showing analysis based on customer segmentation
PID SPEED
4 2
6 2
7 2
8 2
10 2
11 2
12 2
14 2
1 2
Figure 6: Results showing the list of most used plans after a threshold of 50% was selected
A threshold value is entered by the user, based on which all internet plans in the database are
segmented into most used and least used plans. Plans
Most used plans whereas plans below the threshold level are the least used plans.
Above figure displays the result for Most used plans when the threshold value is inputted as
50%.
Most used plans imply that most
be profitable enough for the service provider.

PID SPEED
5 2
9 2
Figure 7: Results showing suggestion for
Time Sensitive
Customers
Price Sensitive
Customers
0% 20%
Analysis Based On Customer Segmentation
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976
6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
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sults showing analysis based on customer segmentation


COST DURATION CAPACITY COUNT
2050 1 month 150 GB
1050 1 month 30 GB
580 1 month 18 GB
499 1 month 12 GB
299 1 month 1.1 GB
99 1 month 350 MB
79 15 days 200 MB
22 1 day 150 MB
5999 1 year 25GB
Results showing the list of most used plans after a threshold of 50% was selected

A threshold value is entered by the user, based on which all internet plans in the database are
segmented into most used and least used plans. Plans which are above the given threshold are the
Most used plans whereas plans below the threshold level are the least used plans.
the result for Most used plans when the threshold value is inputted as
Most used plans imply that most of the customers prefer these plans and they are proving to
be profitable enough for the service provider.
COST DURATION CAPACITY COUNT
1550 1 month 80 GB
520 1 month 1.3 GB
Results showing suggestion for modification of optimal plans for time sensitive customers
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Analysis Based On Customer Segmentation
Percentage Of Customers
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),

sults showing analysis based on customer segmentation
COUNT
12
12
14
11
16
9
12
13
15
Results showing the list of most used plans after a threshold of 50% was selected
A threshold value is entered by the user, based on which all internet plans in the database are
which are above the given threshold are the
the result for Most used plans when the threshold value is inputted as
of the customers prefer these plans and they are proving to
COUNT
6
5
optimal plans for time sensitive customers
Percentage Of Customers
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 6, June (2014), pp. 74-81 IAEME
81


PID SPEED COST DURATION CAPACITY COUNT
13 2 56 7 days 150 GB 3
Figure 8: Results showing suggestion for discarding of optimal plans for time sensitive customers

Plan suggestions are provided for least used time sensitive plans and least used price sensitive
plans. Three suggestions are provided for each of these two groups i.e. discard plans, modify plans
and advertise plans as shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8. Plans closer to the threshold are advised to
advertise to people and plans farthest to the threshold are most preferably advised to be discarded.
The remaining plans in between the two have been suggested to be modified.
Modifications could either be in the form of increasing or decreasing the speed, capacity or
cost of the plans which would be decided by the company decision makers.

7. CONCLUSION

Telecom companies are taking advantage of an opportunity to become a highly distinguished
and recognized industry leader in the cellular communications industry by using the field of
computerized decision support which is expanding to use new technologies and to create new
applications. In order to achieve this goal, important achievement factors will be to recognize
emerging trends and integrate them into operations, respond quickly to advancement in technology,
provide high-quality services, and stay ahead of the technology curve by providing the best plans to
its customers. The company should focus on 2 target markets that will provide with the greatest
market penetration. The intention must be to offer service packages that are priced appropriately for
each segment and will offer the services that best suit each segment's needs.

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

[1] Charvi Kunder, Divya Bhat and Harshita Kotian, Decision Support System for Telecom
Company, International Journal of Computer Engineering & Technology, January 2014.
[2] RokRupnik, MatjaKukar, Marko Bajec and MarjanKrisper, DMDSS: Data Mining Based
Decision Support System, 28th International Conference on Information Technology
Interfaces(ITI),2006
[3] Ki-sung Hong & Chulung Lee, Integrated pricing and capacity decision for a
telecommunication service provider, Springer, 14 March 2012 [4] MortezaNamvar,
[4] Mohammad R. Gholamian and SahandKhakAbi, A Two Phase Clustering Method for
Intelligent Customer Segmentation, International Conference on Intelligent Systems,
Modelling and Simulation, 2010.
[5] Charvi Kunder, Divya Bhat and Harshita Kotian, Decision Support System for Telecom
Company, International Journal of Computer Engineering & Technology (IJCET), Volume 5,
Issue 1, 2014, pp. 103 - 111, ISSN Print: 0976 6367, ISSN Online: 0976 6375.
[6] A.Thirunavukarasu and Dr.S.Uma Maheswra, Fuzzy Metagraph Based Knowledge
Representation of Decision Support System, International Journal of Computer Engineering &
Technology (IJCET), Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 157 - 166, ISSN Print: 0976 6367,
ISSN Online: 0976 6375.