The $2B hole: Research shows businesses should pay for wireless

Businesses in the United States are wasting in excess of $2 billion each year by not paying their mobile employees’ wireless bills, according to new research from In-Stat.
These findings should lead carriers to convince their business customers to apply more enlightened wireless policies, increase productivity and save money, while increasing overall airtime for the carriers, said Bill Hughes, principal analyst at the research firm.
Relying on mobile employees to pay their own bill or submit expense accounts to address the cost threatens security and wastes money, according to the analyst.
“The message to businesses of all sizes is that the only effective method to pay for mobile services is to pay for company-driven use and accept incidental personal calls,” Hughes said. “It’s the ‘right thing to do’ for businesses, their customers, their employees and the carriers.”
When employees are asked to cover their own wireless costs or submit expense accounts for them, they tend to make fewer business-related calls-thus impacting the productivity mobility is intended to improve-and they tend to be lax about device security, even when proprietary data may be at risk, according to Hughes.
“Antiquated” notions held by management that wireless devices are a luxury or a privilege are no longer supported by lower airtime rates and the relatively low cost of devices, the analyst said.
Well under half of U.S. companies of all sizes-44 percent in the In-Stat study-simply cover the wireless bill, no questions asked, no expense reports submitted. In-Stat data also revealed that when the business covers the cost of mobile, there is incrementally less time spent on personal calls-an average of 54 minutes per month when the business pays, 58 minutes when the employee pays-but time spent on business-related calls nearly triples, from an average of 77 minutes per month when the employee pays to 216 minutes when the business pays. The advantages far outweigh the costs, Hughes said.
The cost in employee time spent filling out expense reports and lost productivity due to self-restraint in using wireless service amounts to $2 billion each year under a conservative estimate, according to the research firm.