Bill Hughes is on a crusade to get penny-pinching businesses to stop quibbling and pay the full cost of employees' wireless phone service.
Network World's Robert Mullins reports from the CTIA wireless convention in San Francisco that Hughes, principal wireless industry analyst at In-Stat, says companies are being "penny wise and pound foolish" by requiring employees to subtract the personal calls they make each month before seeking reimbursement for their wireless bills. Given the time it takes an employee to perform the task rather than the job they were hired to do, the monthly savings to the company averages out "to about 13 paper clips," he says.
"It used to make sense when cell phone calls were 30 cents a minute," Hughes says, but at today's prices, "it is a messed up way for organizations to reimburse for wireless."
In-Stat research shows that only 7 percent of employers are that short-sighted, but 25 percent provide no reimbursement at all, Hughes says.
That is also dumb, he continues, citing In-Stat research that if the company pays for the wireless bill, employees make an average of 216 minutes' worth of work-related calls per month, but that if employees have to pay the bill themselves, they make only 77 minutes of work calls.
An enlightened 44 percent of businesses pay for wireless service whether it includes personal calls or not, Hughes says.
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