I just cant see the argument about small business' employee mobile phone costs being such an big deal.
I get that running a small business, employees and all the associated regulations, costs etc are enormous. In the scheme of things though, providing a mobile phone service to an employee would be absolutely minescule.
Its a matter of picking a coverage requirement .. then you get the price.
- Vodafone reseller, $20 / month for unlimited calls and sms with lots of data.
- Optus reseller $22 / month for unlimited calls and sms with lots of data.
- Telstra reseller $25 / month for unlimited calls and sms with lots of data.
For larger companies with their on phone systems, there is more integration, complexity and contract considerations. Which presumably is why few have signed on any dotted lines, or paid any material money to NOR for the last 6 years.
There is of course, a larger expense than $20 / month / employee to provide a mobile phone if they want or require one. There is the handset cost, replacement, insurance etc. But, this is the case whether employee supplier or employer .. and NOR offers no solution/advantage in this regard.
This margin squeeze, like the original roaming proposition is in my view why they have struggled for so many years to get any traction, with any product.
There is no doubt they have working product/s but they appear to continue to try and tackle problems of questionably longevity.. ie, the see a high margin, high cost service and try and provide a 'cheaper' service. By the time they make their product, the market and its many dozens of multi-billion dollar competitors has closed the margin gap, making their product much less compelling.
We saw it first with the apparent huge savings in global roaming that would be offered. This is barely talked about any more.
Then we say it for SME and larger companies mobile phone spend .. so far, little traction.
I suspect we will see the same with Messaging .. and most probably Wifi.
I mean seriously, who exactly has a problem with getting a message to someone , or finding wifi!
There are absolutely areas where wifi and messaging could be improved or disrupted. Again its the big question though .. will NOR do it effectively and profitably whilst competing with again, many hundred of billion dollar competitors with existing customer bases and research teams. The track record so far is all holders have to work with and they can draw their own conclusion.
