SMEs welcome UK's lowest biz mobile tariff

UK: A business mobile phone line for five pounds a month is exactly the kind of deal the small and medium enterprise(SME) market has been crying out for and exactly the reason why abica is proving such a success in the business community.

Recognising there are significant improvements in the way firms could provide SMEs with their telecoms, Glasgow-based abica, the first mobile virtual network in the UK to target the SME community, has tailored its offering specifically for this market. 

One of abica’s tariffs is currently the lowest business mobile tariff in the UK, offering line rental at only £5 a month, with customers then paying for the calls and texts they make, at highly competitive rates.

By paying a low line rental and reasonable individual call rates, businesses could collectively save millions of pounds on their existing bills. At a time when recession is biting, these savings have never been more important to individual businesses. 

Established mobile phone networks currently pour their attention on two diametrically opposed groups of customers. At one end of the scale are the individual retail users and at the other are the giant corporates. Unfortunately SMEs have been left to fall down the gaping chasm in between the two and it has cost them dear.

Indeed, according to abica’s own research only 10 percent of smaller companies believe they are the networks’ most important customer group. The majority of SMEs run their mobile phones on a bundled contract, allowing them a certain number of calls and texts per month. In truth this is almost impossible to gauge accurately and businesses that underestimate their usage then get hijacked by the monstrous tariffs that come into play once they breach their limit. By contrast, those who fall short of their limit are paying for services they never use.

Instead, SMEs really need to be treated to the same sort of packages that bigger rivals can get their hands on. Low line rentals, per call charges and reasonable tariffs are the only way to go if the majority of businesses are to generate better efficiencies in their mobile phone outlay.

At the moment, abica’s research has found 60 percent of businesses are unable to find a suitable tariff for their needs or cannot tell if they are getting a good deal because their existing arrangement is so complicated. This no longer needs to be the case.

abica has also moved away from the impenetrable paper bills which land like breeze blocks on company doormats every month. Instead it has an online platform where customers can monitor their accounts.

Calls up to and including the previous day are listed, giving firms an immediate and accurate picture of where they are each month. The system also offers huge benefits as a business management tool. How many calls are sales staff making? When is their most active time? How many calls are being made out of office hours?

Born out of ABC, an established telecoms business with a profitable turnover of £1.1m last year, abica has ambitious growth plans for the Scottish market. To date, choosing between networks has offered few discernible benefits for the beleaguered business community, although abica now provides a much improved alternative.

With the business community carefully examining every aspect of its processes, taking advantage of a mobile virtual network that is dedicated to its needs will create significant savings.