Office Equipment – Business Phones: Mobile Phones
You may feel that it is important for customers to get hold of you should you be away from the business premises. The ideal solution would be the purchase of a mobile phone, which gives you constant availability (unless you turn it off!) and allows you to communicate quickly with your office, customers, or suppliers.
It is important to buy a phone that matches your needs, there are so many different types and features available it is easy to waste hundreds of pounds on technology you will never use. Are features such as WAP, GPRS, Colour Screens, Infra-red, etc worth paying for if all you are making is a few basic calls?
There is also little point in buying one of the latest 3G mobile phones. The ability to make video calls is the only real benefit (and this is only a minor benefit to a small number of businesses), and the cost of the phones and video calls is very high.
Mobile phones are available on monthly paid contracts or pre-payment schemes. With a monthly contract you pay a set amount each month, you are then given a number of free minutes; any calls you make outside of or above those minutes are billed alongside the next monthly payment. With a pre-payment scheme you buy ‘top-up’ credit (e.g. A £10 top-up card) from a shop; this is then added to the phone; when you make a call or send a message the cost is deducted from the remaining credit. If you run out of credit you can not make calls.
Choosing the right package is vitally important to getting the best value from your mobile usage. You need to look carefully at how much you believe you will use it, and use this as the basis for finding the best value contract. Businesses waste millions of pounds every year because they are using packages that are not suited to their needs.
Relevant Articles
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- Office Equipment - Technology in Small Business
- Office Furniture to Get You Started
- Office Consumables - Using and Buying Paper in the Office
- Mobile Communication
Article Index
- Office Equipment - Business Phones
- Business Mobile Phones
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