Since its earliest days, the mobile industry has been plagued with restrictive pricing and contract policies. It has also been largely impossible for channel partners to sell mobile solutions. Having spoken to many SME customers over the years, the consensus is that they would be willing to pay a premium just to avoid having to deal with the network operators directly. This led to some SMEs using mobile brokers, who sold contracts and managed the service (to a degree), but the billing and ultimate control remained with the mobile operator. It would make perfect sense for an SME to buy this one additional service from the provider who is already supplying their fixed line, internet and IT support services. The problem has been that until now, the mobile operators have not been willing play ball. It would seem they have been too focussed on their vastly expanding consumer market and have lost sight on what businesses actually need. Well, finally the tide seems to be turning. Digital WWW recently announced a deal agreed with Vodafone to offer a competitively priced mobile offering. One that is based on one month contracts and SIM only. Finally, this allows business to buy their mobile phones flexibly, increasing or decreasing their workforce as they need, and without penalty. Therefore users (employees) become device independent, and gone are the days where every new employee means a new 24 month contract. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), has been an industry buzz word for a couple of years now but without developments like this, it was largely impossible for businesses to actually implement. It has been more Bring Your Own Device….. And Contract. Now it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel. Daniel Priestman

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