The mobile phone market for business customers is even more confusing than for personal consumers. Although there are the same number of infrastructure networks owned by Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and ’3′, there are many sub-network operators who lease air-time, many tariffs and many agents and sub-agents who are prepared to negotiate their commission and or provide ‘free’, or should we say ‘inclusive’ handsets or other equipment.
A business consumer may have many users sharing the same airtime contract, with different needs in terms of the applications they use and the equipment they need to use those applications.
When negotiating a deal make sure the airtime contract includes enough but not too many shared minutes – it may be a false economy to contract for too many minutes because it attracts a free high spec handset; it may be cheaper to pay for the equipment you need up-front or with credit rather than commit to a high cost reccurring monthly rental agreement.
Also, beware of ‘redemption’ or ‘cash back’ deals – while it is a legitimate way for the dealer to discount their commission, they may make it very difficult to claim, and if the agent/dealer goes out of business you are still committed to the rental contract with the airtime provider but you won’t get the cash back – you have to be very sure of the dealer’s credit worthiness.
Small businesses in particular can get a reasonable deal direct from Vodafone – the best deals are by buying online. Follow this Vodafone link, click on the Business tab and navigate from there to find the contract and handsets, or SIM only deal, to suit your needs.