T-Mobile For Business’ Portfolio Includes Unlimited 5G Data Plans For Enterprises

T-Mobile is ‘going big’ with 5G for enterprises, the carrier’s CEO, Mike Sievert, says of the new T-Mobile WFX portfolio. But partners still see a need for ‘cottage industry’ consultants offering telecom expense management solutions.

T-Mobile’s business services unit on Thursday unveiled a three-piece portfolio of solutions geared toward enterprises working from home based on the self-proclaimed “un-carrier’s” increasingly robust 5G footprint.

The brand-new T-Mobile WFX portfolio includes T-Mobile Home Office Internet, a broadband solution for home workers; T-Mobile Collaborate, a cloud-based series of communication tool; and T-Mobile Enterprise Unlimited, wireless plans with unlimited 5G that compete with the other wireless carrier’s shared, or pooled cellular plans.

T-Mobile WFX will be available through T-Mobile’s channel in the coming weeks.

[Related: T-Mobile for Business Partner Program Relaunched Following Sprint Merger]

T-Mobile Enterprise Unlimited is a new wireless plan option offering unlimited 5G and 4G access for “the same or better price” versus competing carriers’ pooled and shared plans for business customers, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said. 5G will cause a nearly 38 percent surge every year for the next five years in mobile data usage, according to T-Mobile.

“Most enterprises today are not set up for success in our 5G future,” said Michael Katz, T-Mobile‘s executive vice president, during the portfolio launch live stream on Thursday. Nearly 50 percent of enterprise users today are on limited, or shared data plans, Katz said. “Every one of the organizations has to try and predict how much data they are going to use each month, and that’s virtually impossible when you consider these organizations have thousands of employees.”

Many businesses and agencies are relying on “an entire cottage industry of consultants” that exist to help companies manage their telecom expenses, Katz added.

One such organization, Advantix Solutions Group, is a Richardson, Texas-based firm specializing in telecom auditing and mobility management. But while unlimited plans were initially thought of as a detriment to the telecom expense management firms, the opposite has been true, said Natasha Royer Coons, chief revenue officer of Advantix.

“When carriers first came up with unlimited data on devices … people thought that experts like us wouldn’t have jobs, but that’s not the case,” she said. ”I think there’s absolutely still a need for what we do.”

Mobility management firms are still needed by businesses on a monthly basis to allocate costs back to specific departments or people, and for ongoing optimization needs, Coons said. “There are aspects of that, which never go away. In our industry, we saw this years ago, and there’s a ton of adoption around unlimited plans, but it has really not stopped the need for software that manages and reports on cost optimization.”

T-Mobile Enterprise Unlimited also includes mobile hotspot data, according to the Bellevue, Wash.-based carrier.

Sievert called T-Mobile “uniquely equipped” to deliver on the promise of 5G, because now combined with Sprint, the carrier has the largest and most available 5G network in the U.S. with more than 1.6 million square miles covered -- nearly 2.5 times larger than AT&T’s 5G network and nearly four times larger than the Verizon 5G network, he added.

“We have the scale and unmatched network assets … we’re going big for businesses and government organizations,” Sievert said.

T-Mobile Home Office Internet is an enterprise-grade, 4G and 5G broadband connection designed for employees working from home and can cover 60 million homes today. The offering will give remote employees the bandwidth and security needed to get work from home, while not competing with their existing residential Wi-Fi network so others in the home can continue to work, learn, and play, Katz said.

Cloud-based T-Mobile Collaborate, which was designed with mobility in mind, is a new solution set that includes business calling, messaging and conferencing from any device. The products use real-time AI for features like automatic meeting notes and action items from voice or video calls and can integrate with Office 365, among other workplace apps, said Mishka Dehgan, senior vice president of strategy, product and solution engineering for T-Mobile.

T-Mobile Collaborate can be installed remotely, Dehgan added. The solution set is based on technology from cloud communications provider Dialpad, a T-Mobile technology partner.

Businesses spend nearly $6 billion on legacy telephony infrastructure in 2019, Dehgan said. “All for employees who’d rather use the more capable smartphones in their pockets,” she said.

“Enterprise and government organizations today are paying billions to maintain legacy telecom infrastructure, [like] old PBXs, old on-premise collaboration technologies, and old desk phones,” all of which are residing in vacant office spaces right now, she added.

“Today’s news could not be more timely or urgent because it’s all about equipping businesses to success in times of systemic shifts in the way we all work,” Sievert said of the carrier’s latest product launch. ”In 2020, we saw a decade of change packed into a single year.”

T-Mobile in September introduced its the T-Mobile for Business Partner Program, which combined pieces of both Sprint and T-Mobile’s legacy channel programs for mobility and wireline partners. T-Mobile at the time said it was boosting channel investment by doubling sales and engineering teams dedicated to partners, as well as dedicated wireline implementation customer support, and marketing resources for VARs, agent partners, and MSPs.