How to find the best business mobile deal for your business

Why the best business mobile deal depends on your team

Lists of the best business mobile deals are easy to find. The trouble is that a deal that suits a sales team on the road all day can be poor value for an office team on Wi-Fi, and the reverse is also true. The best deals are the ones built around your own people.

What decides the right deal for you:

• Where your people work: coverage at your premises, on your routes and at customers' sites
• How they use their phones: calls, data, video and laptop hotspotting vary hugely from person to person
• Whether they travel: roaming needs differ by person and destination
• How many lines you have, and will have: networks run different ranges by business size
• How long you want to commit: the minimum term, and how prices can change during it
• How you manage devices: account tools, spend controls and device management

Work through those and the shortlist almost writes itself. Our guide to business mobile deals explains what drives the cost.

Best business mobile phone deals start with the airtime

The best business mobile phone deals are the ones where you can see exactly what you are paying for. We focus on getting airtime costs down, so companies can buy their phones separately, outright or through their usual procurement. That can save a lot of money over the life of a fleet, and it means you can refresh devices when it suits you.

So the best mobile phone deals for business usually come from two separate decisions:

1. The airtime: the right plan for each line, on the right network and term, at a clear monthly cost.
2. The phones: the right device for each role, bought separately and kept in use for as long as it still receives security updates.

For the phone side, our guide to the best phone for business covers what to look for, and mobile phones for business explains the options for a fleet.

Choosing the best business mobile phone plan

The best business mobile plan for a team is usually a mix rather than one plan for everyone. Business mobile plans fall into a few types, and most accounts combine several:

• Voice plans for staff phones, with calls, texts and data
• Data-only plans for tablets, laptops and routers
• Shared or pooled data, where the network offers it, for teams whose usage varies from person to person
• Unlimited data, subject to each network's fair use policy, for heavy users and people who hotspot laptops
• Roaming add-ons or inclusive roaming for the people who travel

The best mobile plans for business match each of these to a role, not a job title. Our guide to business mobile phone plans explains each type and how to size data, and our sister site covers business SIM only deals for phones you already own.

What the best business mobile phone contract looks like for you

The best business mobile contracts are the ones you are still happy with at the end of the term. Before you choose, look for:

• A term that suits your plans: networks set their own minimum terms, and shorter terms are available on some SIM only plans
• Room to grow: new lines can join the account as you hire, usually on their own term
• Clear wording on price changes: each network's terms say whether and how monthly charges can change during the contract
• An account in the business's name: the business owns the numbers, so they stay with you when people leave
• Prices on the same VAT basis: business prices are usually shown excluding VAT
• Airtime only: a contract that covers the airtime is easy to compare and easy to resize

Our guide to business mobile phone contracts explains how terms, credit checks and switching work.

Matching tariffs to how your team really uses data

The best business mobile tariff for each person is the one that matches how they actually work. Guessing leads to paying for data nobody uses, or to people running out. Use evidence instead:

1. Pull the last few months of usage for each line from your network's online account tool or your bills.
2. Group people by how they work: mostly on Wi-Fi, mobile and on the road, or heavy users who stream video or hotspot a laptop.
3. Match each group to a tariff, or put people with uneven usage on shared data where the network offers it.
4. Give laptop users a plan that suits hotspotting, or a separate data SIM for the laptop.
5. Review after a few months and move people between plans within the network's rules.

Done this way, the right tariffs are often smaller than people expect for office staff and larger for the field team, and the total usually comes down.

Best business mobile deals for small businesses

For a sole trader or small team, the best deal is usually the simplest one to run: a business account in the business's name, spend caps on every line, data sized to each person and a term that does not commit you to more than you need. Networks run small business ranges separately from their large business services, and sole traders can open business accounts as well as limited companies.

Our guide to small business mobile contracts covers the features that matter most for a small team, including eSIM, device security and how each network segments small business.

Coverage where you work comes first

However good a deal looks, it is only good value on a network that works where your people do. Coverage is the hardest thing to change once you have signed, so check it first:

• Use each network's own postcode coverage checker for your offices, sites, staff home addresses and regular routes
• Test indoors: thick walls, basements and metal-framed buildings make a big difference
• Consider Wi-Fi Calling: compatible phones can make calls over your Wi-Fi where indoor signal is weak
• Ask your team: people who travel your routes every day often know where signal drops

Our business mobile coverage guide explains how to test on site, and we help you check coverage for your locations before you choose.

Questions to ask before you choose

Before you settle on any deal, get clear answers to these:

1. Does the network have good signal inside your premises and where your team works?
2. Is each person's data sized on their real usage?
3. How long is the minimum term, and how can prices change during it under the network's terms?
4. Can you add lines later, and on what term will they run?
5. How does roaming work for the places your people travel?
6. Which spend caps, bars and account tools come with the plan?
7. What is the total cost of every line over the whole term, on the same VAT basis?

Our guide to how to compare business mobile deals turns these questions into a checklist you can use on every quote.

Get a recommendation

We help businesses find the deal that fits them, not a one-size-fits-all answer. We look at your current bills, users, devices, sites and contract end dates, check coverage where you work, then set out the options that fit, line by line. We supply EE Business and Three Business, and can also supply O2 Business and Vodafone Business, so you can choose the network that works where your people work.

Plans and prices are confirmed at quote. Contact us and we will help you find the right business mobile deal for your team.