Finally employees can use their mobiles as they wish

(Fornebu, 28 April 2015) One out of every two people in Norway have their mobile phone bill covered by their employer. Increased mobile usage means that employees and employers are looking for solutions that give staff the freedom to use their mobile the way they want to. Telenor is now launching a service that automatically divides mobile costs between work and private use.

A survey by Ipsos MMI carried out on behalf of Telenor found that four out of ten people have their entire mobile phone bill covered by their employer. One out of two people pay their own bill, while one out of ten share the balance with their employer.

Respondents estimated that 60 per cent of their mobile use was private, while 40 per cent was work-related.

'Nowadays we use mobile phones for all sorts of things like paying for parking, voting for our favourite singer on TV talent shows or donating money to the Red Cross. The trends we are seeing in terms of mobile use mean that we are now launching a solution that is also tailored to small and medium enterprises,' says Marina Lønning, Business Market Manager at Telenor Norway.

Straightforward contracts
Half of respondents in the survey did not expect their employer to pay for all mobile use. An equal proportion of survey participants thought the ability to switch over to paying personally when not at work was a good solution.

The freedom to use mobile services when you want to and straightforward contracts were the main reasons why many people wanted to distinguish between private and work mobile phone use.

Among decision-makers in companies who were surveyed, 70 per cent believe that their employees paying for their own private use would be a good solution. Among these respondents, most said they wanted to give employees the freedom to use the services they wanted to but that the company did not want to cover the expense of.

Most people thought that it was natural for an employer to pay for calls, text and media messaging and data use in Norway. Few people thought it was natural for work to pay for content services such as parking, voting and donations.

'Overall, we can see that decision makers in the biggest businesses think it's natural for an employer to pay for more mobile services than decision makers in smaller businesses,' says Lønning.

Avoid costs with new service
Telenor has also noticed a demand among business customers for solutions that distinguish between private and work-related use. They are now launching the service Fakturakontroll [Bill Control], which automatically divides mobile costs between work and private usage.
'There are several advantages with this service. For companies, it gives them more predictability and control over the company's actual mobile costs. Our understanding is that a shared solution will allow the business to avoid costs that are not really theirs to pay,' she says.

'For employees, Fakturakontroll makes it possible to use a company phone without worrying about which costs will be covered. Additionally, the employer will not have access to details of personal use. All in all, it will make the relationship between employer and employee more straightforward,' says Lønning.

Facts
• With Fakturakontroll, the company and the employee agree who will cover various costs associated with mobile use. The service can be adapted to each individual department and employee. All costs will subsequently be divided between the company and the employee.
• The employee's needs will be covered through giving them full control of their own use, while they are also provided with a phone containing the company's services and conditions.
• The service can, among other things, distinguish between domestic and international traffic, data traffic, content services and additional services. Several of these can be combined with spend limits.
• The employee will automatically receive a monthly email with links to detailed information about their mobile use and will then pay their own costs through payroll deduction.
• Fakturakontroll meets all the requirements for calculations of mobile taxes and VAT reports.
• Fakturakontroll is supplied in two versions: Medium and Large. Both services are web-based cloud services and require no on-site installation with the customer.

For further information, please contact:
Anders Krokan, PR Manager at Telenor Norway
Tel.: +47 952 09 037, Email: anders.krokan@telenor.com