Picking the ideal mobile data provider for your business can be tough. Everyone claims to have the best coverage, and everyone claims to have the best plans and pricing.
If everyone claims to be the best, how can you make sure you pick the right provider?
Truth be told, many data providers do not live up to their reputations and claims. Many providers have poor coverage, high overage and early-termination fees, and data plans that are just flat-out unsuitable for businesses. Want to ensure that your company gets the best possible mobile data plan? Here are the 4 things you should look for when selecting a cellular data provider for your business.
1. Pick a provider that allows you to use your data across LTE, CDMA and GSM networks
Once you sign a contract with a carrier, you’re also committing to their network and their technology, for better or for worse. For some carriers, this means a network with poor service in rural areas, or densely populated cities with overloaded networks.
Instead of purchasing a plan from a major carrier, you should purchase a plan from a data provider with access to multiple networks, also called a multi-carrier provider. Purchase a plan from a multi-carrier provider, and you’ll never again have to worry about your employees being unable to access their wireless network. Simply have them select the wireless network with the best coverage in their current location.
2. Pick a provider that allows you to restrict unwanted data usage
Company cellular data is supposed to be used exclusively for work, but let’s face it, this is not always the case. If left unrestricted, many employees will use company phones and tablets to access entertainment sites like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Streaming from these sites requires tons of data, making them a significant cost for your business.
Most carriers have no adequate system in place for monitoring and filtering your employees’ data usage. After all, these carriers want you to use a lot of data, especially if it means more revenue.
Despite the lack of adequate filters for data usage amongst major carriers, many MVNOs allow you to restrict unwanted data usage while also monitoring for popular data-wasting sites, so you can determine which sites to blacklist or whitelist.
3. Pick a provider that allows you to easily purchase and manage data packages
Most major carriers have a consumer-centric business model for selling data packages. They lock customers into long-term agreements, and tack on overage fees and early termination fees. They also allocate data on a monthly basis, so unused data does not rollover to the next month. Also, due to coverage limitations, one carrier is rarely suitable for a large group of employees.
Rather than purchasing data on a monthly basis, you should purchase data from a provider that allows you to buy data as needed, so that you only pay for data that you use, and pay no overage fees. Additionally, you should avoid long-term contracts with early-termination fees.
4. Pick a provider that allows you to manage all of your devices and data services
When you purchase data plans and devices from several different providers it can get pretty confusing, difficult, and costly to manage. You’ll need to learn different processes, systems and billing formats from each vendor, which can be a particularly painful process for even the most savvy IT or Operations pro. Save yourself the time, money, and frustration, and find one provider for all your data and device needs.
Never again will you have to worry about paying multiple bills each month, communicating with multiple providers, or managing devices across several platforms. You’ll find that your devices and employees are much easier and much less costly to manage when you have just one single mobile data provider.
Next Steps
Picking the right cellular data provider is never easy, but hopefully you now have a much better idea of what exactly you should be looking for in a data provider. Remember, your data provider should:
- Give you access to multiple networks,
- Allow you to restrict unwanted data usage,
- Allow you to easily purchase and manage data packages, and
- Allow you to manage all of your device and data services from a single platform.
When picking a mobile data provider for your company, you should consider DataXoom, an MVNO that provides mobile data solutions developed exclusively for businesses. Interested in what DataXoom can offer your company? Give us a call or drop us a note today!
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