Bill shock

Glossary

Business phone glossary

Our glossary explains basic terms and abbreviations relating to mobile working, the use of smartphones and tablets in the corporate environment (Enterprise Mobility) and security aspects in the use of mobile devices.

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Bill shock

A shock experienced due to unexpectedly high mobile phone charges

In telecommunications, bill shock is a negative user experience generated by very high mobile phone bills.

Reasons for bill shock

Bill shock can occur, for example, when users grossly overuse their data plan (e.g. by streaming videos for a long time or processing large files).

Enormous costs can also be incurred through national or international roaming. This is usually due to a lack of information on the part of the user or a lack of understanding of voice and roaming charges.

Bill shock in a business context

Bill shocks can also occur in the use of company mobile phones. Similar to the consumer segment, extensive data consumption or telephoning abroad is often the reason for this.

Bills amounting to several thousand euros are not uncommon in this context. It should be noted in particular that the roaming cap of 59.50 euros set for consumers in the EU does not apply. This is because the provisions for business customers are usually set by the so-called framework agreements. And here, quite different conditions apply in the small print; different roaming services can also be agreed. Of course, agreements can also be made for the validity of a framework contract in non-EU member states.

Prevent bill shocks

If you want to avoid shockingly high mobile phone bills in your company, the first step is to identify the “high spenders”, i.e. those users who cause the excessive bills through their usage behaviour. Once this is done, you have two options.

Changing the usage behaviour

Make employees aware that roaming or extensive phone calls abroad can result in high costs. Arrange for them to adapt their behaviour to the circumstances and, for example, deactivate mobile data when abroad or only process large files when connected to a WLAN.

However, this procedure is not always opportune, for example in the case of important appointments abroad or if the users in question belong to the management.

Adjustment of the tariff

The more elegant solution is to adjust the tariff or add international options as needed. Everphone offers its customers both high-spender identification and booking of suitable tariffs as part of its B2B tariff support.