Replacing Office Phones With Mobile Phones?

from the could-be-pricey dept

While there have been plenty of stories about home users ditching landlines for mobile phones, and enough stories about offices switching to VoIP, here's one of the first stories that suggests some employees prefer to use their mobile phones rather than their office landlines. While I do know a few people for whom this is true, no one had really mentioned it as a trend (in fact, the article linked here only mentions it in passing -- rather than as the main point of the article). While many mobile phone plans include large buckets of minutes, using a mobile phone exclusively as an office phone could certainly end up costing quite a bit of airtime for users who are on the phone all day. If this really is true, then it could bode well for even those crippled efforts at making a combined VoIP-cellular phone that does VoIP in the office (and only in the office) and cellular elsewhere. Of course, it would limit the choices of what phones to buy -- and since the new trend in selling to the enterprise is selling up through the consumer, it still may be a difficult sell. A lot of people buy their own mobile phones and have their employers reimburse, rather than taking a corporate-issued phone. Requiring a special phone would make that more difficult.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Paul J, 19 Jan 2005 @ 11:36am

    Actually....

    I have been doing just this thing for several years. It benefits both me and those business contacts who need to reach me.
    For me it means that when I work from home I don't have to call into a remote PBX and update a voicemail message saying I will be out of the office contact me at X number. Ditto if I am traveling. For contatcs it means they can reach me when they need to.

    Luckily I don't actually have to use a phone too much since email and IM accomplished most of my communication needs. Therefore business needs don't really even impact my included minutes.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Chris, 19 Jan 2005 @ 12:24pm

      Re: Actually....

      My experience is similar to Paul's. It was made practical when I joined on as a pilot member to one of the local networks and received unlimited minutes for a relatively low flat fee - a plan which I continue to renew. And while a lower usage plan will probably still beat mine in price, I often forget that other people have to keep track of minutes which is a headache I enjoy not having.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 19 Jan 2005 @ 12:56pm

    we're doing this at home

    We got rid of our landline and got 2 cellphones and we're saving 70 bucks a month without missing anything.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rick, 7 Jul 2005 @ 8:54am

    Going Mobile Only

    According to research done by Lippis Enterprises, desktop phone usage is down more than 15% and mobile usage is on the rise 28% CAGR. Ford cut the cord on more than 8,000 desk phones to go with mobiles only, see this story from Network World http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/012405ford.html

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.