* Consider world travelers in cellular planning
As enterprises attempt to get a centralized structure in place for purchasing and managing their mobile service plans and devices, they should factor in the traveling habits of roaming employees.
If, for example, a certain subset of your mobile workforce travels both domestically and internationally, the services and devices purchased for that classification of user should account for that in order to optimize usability and pricing. Many phones and other access devices will work only on North American frequencies and on certain types of networks, for example. Other newer ones support multiple frequencies and dual-mode communications in both the U.S. and other countries.
In February, for example, Sprint PCS and Cingular Wireless announced that special phones had become available for their networks to accommodate multinational business customers.
Sprint is making available a Samsung handset that works on its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks in the U.S. and GSM networks in other countries. You use the Sprint PCS International Phone IP-A790 with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card to make voice calls on both types of networks in more than 130 countries where Sprint has roaming agreements in place. The roaming price is a flat $1.50 per minute, and the retail price of the phone is about $550.
For its part, Cingular is offering the $250 BlackBerry 7100g, a quad-band phone that supports GSM-based technology running in the world’s 850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands. With the quad-band support, the device reportedly enables voice communications in 170 countries and data communications in 75 countries.
This latest BlackBerry model, from Research In Motion, has typical BlackBerry data and voice capabilities but is ergonomically styled more like a smartphone and includes Bluetooth support for headset connections.
Cingular unlimited data services with the BlackBerry are about $50 per month per user, but for an extra $20 per month, you can get unlimited international data roaming. Monthly voice plans start at an extra $40 per month per user, though Cingular’s recent institution of free mobile-to-mobile calling has been a big boon to enterprise customers.
