Your company sends people out of the country for business and you are trying to figure out how to manage cell phone costs.
What should you think about? A few recommendations: 1.
Blackberry devices are the most cost effective approach from the data side.
Blackberries are the only devices that allow unlimited international data usage compared to other devices in the AT&T portfolio (WM, Good, iPhone).
With WiFi available for the Pearl, Curve, 8820 and Bold, users can further reduce costs by taking advantage of available WiFi hotspots.
2.
On the voice side, make sure users are on the international world traveller feature.
AT&T also offers a new business Global World Traveller feature, which you can request details of from your account manager.
Depending on the countries your employees are travelling to, this may offer a better per minute rate.
3.
Depending on your agreement, you may be able to take advantage of the OfficeReach Global User Group feature.
With this option, when your international users are in one of the roam zone countries and they call back into your PBX, they get the corporate discount applied to the per minute rate of that call.
There are a lot of qualifications to receive this feature, so again, you will need to speak with your account manager.
Ultimately, it's up to your company to educate your employees on the costs associated with utilizing devices internationally.
While AT&T does offer coverage, there is a significant cost associated with that availability.
If employees are going to be on a 2 hour conference call while they are out of the country, they should utilize a calling card or more cost effective solution than their mobile phone.
For a proven cost effective solution I suggest you consider the international cell phone packages offered by OneSim ..
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they've proven to be the answer for many businesses.
You'll find more information including a review of OneSim at the Broadband Nation blog.