Businesses Have Many Options for Employee Mobile Plans
Email
Print
Some, including competitor T-Mobile suggest
that Verizons
plan is both expensive and punitive. Every other carrier, including
AT&T, offers individual plans in addition to the sharing plans.
The problem for your business is that your
employees can find themselves entering into a bewildering array of offers that
may not meet the goals of your organizations cost-control efforts, and more
importantly, may not meet your business data and voice needs. Most businesses
will find that the sharing plans dont work for business use at all, unless
theyre very small. We expect small/medium businesses to show more interest in
shared data plans than large enterprises, an AT&T spokesperson told eWEEK. A spokesperson for Verizon
Wireless told eWEEK much the same
thing, The program is not designed for large enterprise interests.
So in a way, your business is left with a quandary. Your employees are showing up with shared data plans and in some cases they may have a lower monthly cost than what they have now. Thats good, since it will save you money when they file their expenses. But depending on the plan the employee picks, it might be more expensive. So what do you do?
First, consider setting an upper limit for
reimbursements for monthly phone charges. Then, unless an employee gets
permission to charge more (for international travel, perhaps), you know what
your fixed costs will be. If the employees teen whos sharing the plan runs up
overage charges because of music videos, thats not your problem.
Second, consider getting a business plan for
your employee devices. Depending on the size of your company, you can negotiate
rates that can produce substantial savings, and offer services that arent available
on those family plans, such as push-to-talk. Both Verizon
Wireless and AT&T
have a broad range of wireless plans aimed at business users, and you dont
need to buy a shared data plan.
And you can look at other carriers if their
coverage and their data plans work for you. Sprint has its line of ruggedized
push-to-talk phones that are ideal for many industries, for example, and the
company has a highly flexible range
of voice and data plans. T-Mobile meanwhile has just launched an aggressive
set of business
rate plans that are overage free. In addition, T-Mobile is offering low fixed-rate
pricing for foreign travelers, so they dont get those nasty roaming
charges when they get back from a quick trip to Europe.
In other words, the new shared data plans
offered by Verizon and AT&T might save you money when you reimburse your
employees, but they might not. Depending on the needs of your business, you
might want to start thinking of other options when youre supporting BYOD
devices in your business.
So in a way, your business is left with a quandary. Your employees are showing up with shared data plans and in some cases they may have a lower monthly cost than what they have now. Thats good, since it will save you money when they file their expenses. But depending on the plan the employee picks, it might be more expensive. So what do you do?
Wayne Rash is a Senior Analyst for eWEEK Labs and runs the magazine's Washington Bureau. Prior to joining eWEEK as a Senior Writer on wireless technology, he was a Senior Contributing Editor and previously a Senior Analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center. He was also a reviewer for Federal Computer Week and Information Security Magazine. Previously, he ran the reviews and events departments at CMP's InternetWeek.He is a retired naval officer, a former principal at American Management Systems and a long-time columnist for Byte Magazine. He is a regular contributor to Plane & Pilot Magazine and The Washington Post.
