A recent poll has revealed that nearly 90% of business people would choose a business mobile phone over a landline as their preferred method of communication.
Mobile telephony company GoHello carried out the poll, speaking to over 200 workers in London. Over half of respondents also found their business mobile the easiest handset to use. This displays a clear move away from the desktop phone. According to e-zine, the ITportal.com, ‘this makes good business sense to allow employees to use just one phone in and out the office.’

But it seems the business landline won’t be totally obsolete - 73 per cent of respondents still claimed that they would be hesitant to totally dispose of their office desk phone just yet. However, if they had to choose between the two, the mobile phone would emerge triumphant.
Skype and other VoIP systems barely registered in the poll (just one per cent chose it as their favourite and no one thought it was easier to use than their mobile or desk phone).

A quarter of respondents would love to throw their office phone in the bin and use their mobile exclusively – more evidence that the mobile is a clear favourite among employees who would prefer have a business mobile contract, and use their mobile in the office over and above all other phones.

O2 business mobile customers will see a change in the brand slogan for first time in two years.
O2 is to inject £5 million into a new brand refresh, which sees it introduce a new advertising slogan to its nationwide campaign, aimed at both consumers, and business mobile customers.

The 'It's your O2' tagline, launched in May 2006, will be replaced by 'We’re better, connected', which will feature on all O2 branding from now on, including business mobile contract communications.

A new advertising storyline, depicting creatures communicating within an underwater community, launches on April 10 through a range of media including TV, outdoor, cinema and online.

O2 UK marketing director Sally Cowdry said: "We've had incredible success with the O2 brand over the past six years, quickly establishing it as a leading UK brand.

"But we need to keep the brand fresh, reflecting changing market conditions and customer priorities. Customers are very much at the heart of our business but the role of O2 in their lives is changing. So our focus is now on empowering and enabling them to connect better to the people and things that matter."

Vodafone and RIM are introducing the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 in the UK. With an integrated GPS and a 2-megapixel camera, the 8110 is an improvement on the 8100.

"Small and elegant," the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphone is one of the smallest and lightest available. Ideal for the business mobile user, you can make calls, email, surf the net and more.

The smartphone includes the latest release of Vodafone Sat Nav, a 3D navigation application with live traffic and points of interest info. There is also room for an 8GB memory card.

"The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphone is designed for people who want business grade functionality along with advanced multimedia capabilities in a small and stylish package. The addition of built-in GPS along with Vodafone Sat Nav takes the experience a step further by helping you find your way", says Charmaine Eggberry, managing director, EMEA at Research In Motion.

"The BlackBerry 8110 offers all the same great features of the original Pearl 8100 but with some great software and hardware enhancements, including a 2-megapixel camera and built-in GPS. So, alongside our latest release of Sat Nav everyday Vodafone customers have the latest business tools all in one handset, helping them make the most of their working day, wherever they are", comments Kyle Whitehill, director of the Enterprise Business Unit, Vodafone UK.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is available on either BlackBerry personal or business mobile contracts.

Vodafone offering 6 months free line rental, plus unlimited UK data usage

Vodafone Business Mobile is offering 6 months free line rental with unlimited UK usage on Mobile Broadband business 24 month contracts. This offer is for a limited time period only, available until 31st March 2008.

The various promotions include:

• 6 months free line rental on mobile broadband business (£25.00 ex vat per month) when connected to a 24 month business mobile contract (this equates to £18.75 ex vat per month over a 24 month contract period)
• 3 months free line rental on mobile broadband business (£25.00 ex vat per month) when connected to an 18 month contract (this equates to £20.83 excl. vat per month over the 18 month contract period).

Both of the above offers are applied as a non-transferable bill credit; they cannot be combined with other offers.

Vodafone are also renaming their mobile broadband tariffs, with the introduction of ‘mobile broadband for business’.

Mobile broadband price plans will be renamed as follows: 

current name -new name

mobile broadband - mobile broadband business

mobile broadband 24 mobile - broadband business 24

mobile broadband travel - mobile broadband business travel

• fair usage on mobile broadband business and mobile broadband business travel will increase from 3gb to 5gb
• Mobile broadband will remain at £25.00 ex vat per month

To see more offers from Vodafone, click here

It has emerged that O2 Business Mobile dealers are outperforming O2’s own sales unit, in terms of customer retention and tenure. As a result, O2 is planning closer alliances with resellers such as Synergy Business Mobiles.

O2 has recently launched new tariffs for its business customers, capitalizing on the success of resellers and also looking to get customers a better deal. The package includes free calls to UK landlines as well as a 20% discount on line rental available at the point of sale, as opposed to after 12 months, as was previously offered. Another significant change is the fixed European calling rate, the lowest calling rate available on any network.

Synergy Business mobiles has successfully sold O2 contracts to its business users, offering bespoke, specialist advice, and providing tailored solutions after sourcing the best offers.

For more information on O2’s new tariffs, please see our O2 page.

The number of companies in the UK on business mobile phone contracts is significantly increasing, according to a new ICM poll of business travellers. Of those surveyed, 55% have seen the amount of time they need to spend out of the office increase over the past two years. Eighty-eight per cent said they felt it was important to have constant access to email and the corporate IT network wherever they are, and that the company mobile was gaining increasing significance.

Nearly eight out of ten claimed that being contactable is more important today than it was only two years ago.

It seems 73% of people consider the ability to work flexibly a deciding factor when choosing a new job; 52% believe they would enjoy a less stressful working life as a benefit of working remotely; and 36% cited ‘lack of proper equipment’ as the primary barrier to working away from the office.

Nokia's mobile phone sales to end users totalled 110.2 million units reaching a market share of 38.1% in the third quarter of 2007.

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users in the third quarter of 2007 reached 289 million units, a 15% increase from the same period last year, says Gartner, Inc.

This quarter, Nokia not only exhibited the highest year-on-year market share increase, but also raised operating margins thanks to effective cost management and global distribution strategy.  This was achieved despite the average price of its phones falling from €90 to €82.

 
  Gartner reckons sales of mobile phones in Western Europe reached 47.2 million units, with 45m sold in North America, 24.5m in India and 13.1m in Japan. Average penetration in Western Europe is 115%: everywhere except France, there are more mobile phones than people.

Orange has long offered a variety of business mobile tariffs to suit your company’s needs, and it is now taking its service one step further by becoming the first UK Mobile phone operator to sign a mobile content agreement with sports broadcaster Setanta.

So now with your Business Mobile contract you can now have access to Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2 and Setanta Golf. 

The streamed live coverage includes every televised match of the Barclays Premier League.  Other events include the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and Blue Square Premier PGA Golf Tour, and Magners Rugby League.

Steve Wallage, Head of Sports Partnerships & Services, Orange, “This partnership is all about bringing customers closer to the game they love. The addition of the Setanta Sports package to our existing football portfolio was essential to ensure our customers don't miss any of this season's action - we're now the true home for 'football on your mobile'.”

The Setanta package will be available to Orange mobile TV customers with a 3G handset for a subscription fee of £5 per month.

For more information on Synergy’s Orange Business Tariffs click here