Choosing the right wireless provider and plan for your business could save your company thousands of dollars each year. But as anyone who has begun to compare offers knows, the process is anything but straightforward. There are numerous factors beyond price and coverage quality that affect overall costs and business operations — and add complexity to the decision-making process. Factors like rate structure, device promotions, and seemingly innocuous terms and conditions can have a material impact down the road. To make a better, more informed decision, it’s helpful to understand how industry experts approach this process.
Chris Kolar, CEO of Wireless Support, has helped countless businesses navigate the complexities of working with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. In this article, he shares insights on how industry insiders compare business phone plans, including key factors to evaluate and common pitfalls to avoid, as well as proven cost-saving strategies. By the time you finish reading, you’ll be well equipped to identify the carrier and plan that are best suited to your business needs at the best rate.
4 Most Important Factors For Comparing Wireless Carriers
Comparing wireless service providers and their offers won’t be a one-time task. It’s common for businesses to switch carriers every so often due to customer service issues, call service quality, or an enticing offer from a competitor. So being well equipped to effectively compare them will ensure you achieve the best result for your company any time you need to evaluate options. Chris breaks down the four main factors that you’ll want to thoroughly consider to ensure that the carrier and phone plan you choose and the contract structure you negotiate will serve your business well.
1. Actual Strength of Network Coverage
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when signing up for a carrier is not properly testing cell coverage. Those that tout they have the best coverage in the nation may not have great local service in the area where you do business.
“Each of the carriers publish coverage maps that you can access just by googling ‘coverage map’ and the name of the carrier,” Chris explains. “However, those are imperfect. And even though it says you should have great coverage in this particular location, in practice it's not a guarantee, and you might actually see spotty coverage in certain areas because of topography or other things.”
Chris recommends talking to people in the areas where you do business to see which carrier(s) they’ve used and what feedback they can share. If you’re working with a managed service provider like Wireless Support, you can ask for demo SIM cards that allow you to try out the local service before committing to a particular carrier.
2. Value of Promotional Offers
Price is deceiving because carrier offers can and will differ in terms of inclusions, billing structure, penalty fees, etc. These differences can have a material impact on your monthly bill. Instead of comparing on price alone, you need to consider the price in relation to the contract structure and additional features and benefits, keeping in mind that your business may not actually need some of the add-ons.
To effectively compare offers, Chris says, think critically about the devices and features your team needs and how they’ll use them: “One of the things that business owners are going to want to do is really understand how they use their cell phones, tablets, watches, whatever it is that they're utilizing from the telecommunications carriers. Things like, am I using a hotspot? Am I looking for high-end devices because I have a business with office employees? Or am I looking for a lower-cost device that maybe works better for field employees who are using it more sporadically and are more likely to break it?”
This exercise will help you pare down dozens of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile’s rate plans to just a few that make the most sense for your business.
3. Contract Structure
Receiving free iPhones with a three-year contract is an attractive offer, but are you comfortable getting locked into a carrier for that length of time? “If you want to leave in 12 months because the service has gone bad because they cut down some towers in your area, you're going to have to pay them to do that because you're in that contract, versus month-to-month, where you have complete freedom, but you're not going to get a free device as part of it,” Chris explains.
Assessing your comfort level with the financial implications of your decision — whether it’s paying more for month-to-month flexibility or a hefty penalty for breaking a multi-year contract — will help you further narrow down the right promotion for your business.
4. Policies and Contract Terms
Which contract terms aren’t as innocuous as they might seem? How do policies differ on paper versus in practice? You may find it difficult to answer these questions if you don't have much experience dealing with carriers. Working with an industry expert can help you understand the policies that may have a material impact in terms of cost and your level of satisfaction with the service. “We've run into scenarios that might be somewhat rare, but because we have so many clients, we deal with carriers regularly and we know which ones deal favorably with certain issues and which take the hard line,” Chris explains.
The line suspension policy is one that businesses often overlook when it comes to comparing Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile’s business phone plans. If an employee goes on short-term leave and you don’t need the phone line for a few months, you can either pay to cancel the line or you can suspend it. However, AT&T and T-Mobile charge a suspension fee. “If you're going to be using a suspension policy quite a bit, which a lot of our delivery service partner customers do, that might sway them to use Verizon, in this example, over the other two,” Chris notes.
Strategies to Save Money on Business Phone Plans
Now that you know how to effectively compare business phone plans, it’s time to get your rate offer slashed. Chris shares three strategies that will set you up to save big bucks.
Get competitive bids to compare
Even if you’ve picked your carrier, don’t settle for the first offer. Leverage their competition to drive down the rate, secure credits or discounts, or negotiate additional perks that will be useful to your business.
Timing
If you’re not pressed for time, then you’ll find some of the best offers at the end of the quarter as the carriers work to hit sales quotas. This is when sales reps are more likely to shell out additional incentives beyond the normal promotions. If you don’t have the luxury of time, then the end of the month can be a good option as well.
Added features
Look beyond price and consider the rate plan, incentives, and whether you’re getting inclusions like premium data or other features that add value to your business, such as cloud storage, device insurance, or mobile device management software at a low monthly rate.
Secure a Business Phone Plan That Works For You
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have scores of rate plans, each containing different terms, inclusions, and special offers. It can be challenging to compare promotions and understand which business phone plans will serve you best when this type of negotiation isn’t within your scope of expertise. Instead of sinking hours into calls with sales reps and working to calculate the true cost of each contract, we can step in to save you time and money.
At Wireless Support, our industry experts work with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile on behalf of our clients day in, day out. Our deep knowledge of these carriers, their service, and their offerings enable us to confidently provide recommendations based on your business needs and help you secure the best rate. All of our clients are assigned a dedicated account manager, and we pride ourselves on exceptional client service and delivering results. Reach out today and see how our industry experts can help take this and other mobile device management tasks off your plate and turn them into cost-saving endeavors for your business.