Unlimited consumer plans pose a threat to business mobile, but B2B teams have some options to respond

Many businesses rely on employees using their personal mobiles for work purposes. Indeed, the results of our 1Q 2025 business survey indicate that in the average company, about half of employees use a mobile for business purposes, but only 15% are provided with a company mobile; the remainder use their personal mobiles and may or may not be reimbursed for the cost of this. Most telecoms operators would prefer businesses to buy business-grade mobile packages on behalf of their employees, but trends in consumer mobile services reduce the incentives for businesses to do this.

The B2B divisions of mobile operators have limited influence on consumer offers, and the traditional strategy of trying to convert businesses from consumer plans to business plans may be a losing battle. However, we think there are some new ways in which B2B divisions may be able to capture additional value from businesses’ use of mobile services.