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The cost of Mobility………money on the table. 04.09.2006 Just back from holidays and sad to say, I spent a lot of time and money online, keeping an close eye on emails and other activities back at base. In the wilds (and not so wilds of Italy) there is little or no wireless hotspots in the tourist hotspots. So GPRS was the only choice of access to the web from my PDA. In parallel, we have seen lots of Roaming charge promotions and discounts from O2 and Vodafone locally, but my mobile phone bill was still massive, for roaming voice charges plus data charges. The reason I purchased a PDA was to provide the options to use GPRS and as well as Wireless access to the web. This would give me access to Skype and IP based applications without the need for GPRS (as associated costs), so the choices are varied, mixed access methods to keep costs down (and hassle high) or forget about the costs and use the always on GPRS (with low hassle levels). Keep it simple and pay more, or deal with a maze of alternatives and pay less. For any business (especially with lots of feet on the street) the use of communications on the go—mobile phones, mobile email gadgets, and ever-connected laptops—it's a decision that increasingly has to be made. From our own research in Ireland, telecom costs are top of the agenda for business IT and Telecom decision makers….top of the hit list are Mobile Phone costs, most of which have no basis in business benefit. How long can business owners ignore mobile phone costs…..for many the use of wireless LANs has been very difficult to justify in most working environments, except in places where cabling is difficult, such as some conversions to offices or listed buildings. WiFi and Intel’s Centrino has clearly helped and finally most new laptops have decent battery life. A little competition amongst the Hotpsot providers in Ireland would also help – our call is to make access free – will help further down the road. The problem for business users is how many contracts are necessary to ensure connectivity in any location with GPRS, 3G, and various Wi-Fi providers? This causes complexity for the user, and a lack of overall cost transparency for the finance department. More consistency and simplicity would make a big difference. ComReg are happy with the evolution of VoIP in Ireland, which is slowly benefiting from consumer adoption, seizing on zero cost, long distance calls, and the access to home broadband. Its patchy or unpredictable quality of service may be acceptable for consumers getting free calls, but is an issue that business users pay to resolve, through infrastructure investment. In a business context, we have seen continued testing and deployment of IP Telephony services, but still no big bang in terms of Telecom usage. The opportunity exists for a coordinated strategy across the new access types both WiFi and Wireless and deals are there to be done to nail down the costs of mobility across the mix of platforms. There is money to be saved, but effort and strategy is needed to balance the access options with the cost models (and associated hassle with devices and access plans)
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