《华尔街日报》最近一篇关于个人和公司账单风险的报道引起了员工和公司共同注意。不断上升的移动数据流量使外出旅游和出差的成本越来越高——漫游费让外出一周的成本提高了几百美元。移动数据使用增加对公司成本控制的效果带来挑战，这并不仅仅是发生在北美地区的情况——Alekstra公司欧洲客户的最新数据显示，2H11欧洲公司员工的移动数据流量的增长超过了预想。Alekstra公司专门帮客户公司减少花在移动数据上的成本，它对欧洲、加拿大、美国和部分亚洲市场的移动数据成本进行了跟踪调查。
2H10 和 1H11期间的移动数据增长平稳，从大约52MB每月微微上升到55MB每月。但是，接下来的6个月这一数字就飙升了20MB。2H11出现的增长可能是因为欧洲公司员工手中持有的iPhone 4S的数量突然增多。很多欧洲企业一直没有升级智能手机，直到新iPhone上市才升级。一款流行的新手机上市就可以引发一次应用程序的下载热潮，因为新手机用户这时候都想试试手机的功能。
与一些主要的公司谈后得知，欧洲可能也将步入基层员工用便宜智能手机替换功能性手机（或黑莓手机）的阶段。1到2年前，许多公司管理级别的员工创造了移动数据增长的最高纪录。然而，现在这种平衡将被打破，过去限定只能使用基本功能手机的员工，现在允许他们使用智能手机，这样就为庞大的iPhone和Android应用商店提供了很大的市场。
公司75MB的移动数据流量与很多家庭用户相比，似乎有些少了。但这是一个平均数，还有大量用户的数据流量使用很少、甚至为零，这些用户可能会影响整个平均数。2H11这一数字的突然飙升才真正反映了员工中一小部分人使用移动数据流量的浪费程度。移动数据流量的月使用情况报告反映，一些员工每月的移动数据流量账单竟超过700美元，这种情况很少见。一直相对平稳的移动数据流量，如果有一天突然开始疯狂增长，公司就不会坐视不管了。
这也是为什么公司每月追踪账单模式变得非常重要的原因。如果要追究细节，回应手机账单时的反映通常就足以说明一些问题。移动数据漫游费可以通过随时获得WiFi准入来实现。如果一个公司的漫游费用主要集中在1、2个国家内（通常情况也是如此），那么买无线热点覆盖区当地的SIM卡就很划算。
现在智能手机在技术发达国家的市场覆盖率高达50%，许多公司的设备基础安装结构都将面临巨大的改变。价格低廉的智能手机逐渐成为仅1年前才主动使用功能性手机的公司员工的第一选择。公司可能提高移动数据流量势必成为2012年最值得关注的事情。
A recent story in Wall Street Journal highlighted the risk of a “bill shock” to both individuals and companies. Growing mobile data usage presents a particular threat for traveling individuals and employees – roaming charges can boost the cost of one week’s trip by hundreds of dollars. North America is not the only region where mobile data growth is posing challenges to corporate cost control efforts – new data from the European customers of Alekstra demonstrates how strongly the mobile data usage among employees of European corporations surged in 2H11. Alekstra specializes in lowering mobile data spending of companies and it tracks spending trends across Europe, as well as selected Asian markets, Canada and United States.
The mobile data growth between 2H10 and 1H11 was modest, edging up from roughly 52 MB per month to 55 MB per month. But over the following six-month period, the monthly data usage soared by 20 MB. It is possible that part of the 2H11 surge can be attributed to the strong showing of the iPhone 4S among European company employees. Many European corporations held up upgrading smartphones until the new iPhone arrived. A popular new model can trigger a wave of application downloads as new owners of the device experiment with its functionality.
My conversations with several major corporations indicate that Europe may also be going through a phase of switching feature phones and/or Blackberries of lower-level employees to cheap smartphones. One to two years ago, executive employees generated the fastest mobile data growth in many corporations. But the balance is shifting now that employees who used to be limited to very basic devices are granted access to smartphones that can tap into the massive iPhone and Android application stores.
are used to. But this is an average number that is impacted by a substantial number of employees with zero or very low level mobile data usage. The strong uptick evident in 2H11 reflected truly prodigal mobile data consumption levels of a small group of employees. It’s not unusual to see monthly usage reports where several individual employees rack up more than $700 in monthly mobile data billing. Companies can get flatfooted when a period of relatively modest mobile date usage segues into a period of rapid data growth.
Corporate mobile data usage level of 75 MB may seem low compared to what many households
This is why monthly tracking of billing patterns is becoming increasingly important. Often a response to spikes in mobile billing are self-evident when you start drilling down into details. Roaming mobile data charges can be battled by enforcing WiFi access whenever possible. When a company’s roaming spending is focused on one or two countries (as often is the case), it can make sense to buy local SIM cards in the hot spots.
Now that smartphone market penetration is topping 50% in so many technologically advanced countries, many corporations face a sea change in the composition of their installed device base. Cheap smartphones are becoming a default choice for employees who were automatically assigned feature phones just one year ago. The possibility of accelerating corporate mobile data usage in 2012 is definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
