How do you choose the right business mobile provider?

Network, reseller or direct: what's the difference?

There are only four mobile networks in the UK that own masts: EE, O2, Vodafone and Three (Vodafone and Three merged as VodafoneThree in June 2025 and are combining their networks). Every business mobile contract runs on one of them. What differs is who you buy from and who looks after you.

Direct from a network. You deal with the network's own business team. Larger accounts get an account manager; smaller ones usually get a business helpline. You're on one network by definition, so the advice you get will always be about that network.

Through a provider or partner. An independent provider buys from one or more networks, or from a business network such as plan.com (which runs on O2 and EE), and manages the account for you. A good one compares networks for your locations and handles the day-to-day admin: new starters, leavers, upgrades, lost phones and bill queries.

Through a general reseller or online broker. Often the cheapest headline price, but the relationship usually ends at the sale. Once the SIMs arrive, support goes back to the network.

Why does account management matter more than the tariff?

Because most of the cost of a mobile fleet appears after the contract is signed. New starters get added on whatever tariff is quickest. Leavers' lines keep billing. Someone travels without a roaming bundle. A handset breaks on a Friday afternoon. The tariff you negotiated only covers the first of those; account management covers the rest.

Ask any provider who, by name, will look after your account, how you reach them and how quickly they reply. Then ask what they do between renewals. If the honest answer is "nothing until the contract ends", the account will drift, and you'll be the one who notices.

How long should a business mobile contract be?

Business contracts run from SIM-only, often 12 months or rolling, to 24 or 36 months with handsets included. The choice comes down to the phones.

If your team already has decent handsets, SIM-only is almost always cheapest. If you need new phones, spreading their cost over 24 or 36 months keeps cash in the business, but you're committed for that term, so make sure the price and allowances will still suit you in year three. Many businesses end up with a mix: new handsets for the people who need them and SIM-only for the rest, on one account.

Since 17 January 2025, Ofcom has banned phone and broadband providers from putting inflation-linked or percentage price rises into new contracts; any rise must be shown in pounds and pence at the point of sale (Ofcom, 2024). These rules protect consumers and the smallest businesses and not-for-profits (ten or fewer people working for them), so if your organisation is larger, ask providers directly what price rises their contract allows.

What should device management include?

A business phone holds email, Teams chats, customer contacts and often files. If it's lost or stolen, you need to lock or wipe it, and if someone leaves, you need company data off their phone the same day.

That's mobile device management (MDM). Microsoft Intune is the most common choice for businesses already on Microsoft 365, and Intune Plan 1 is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It lets you enrol company phones, push email and apps, require a PIN and encryption, and wipe a device remotely. For staff using their own phones, Intune can protect just the company apps and data without taking over the whole device (Microsoft Learn). Cyber Essentials also expects phones that access company data to be supported, updated and locked, so MDM helps with certification too.

Ask a provider whether they set this up and support it, or just ship the handsets. A phone that arrives in a box and gets set up by the user is a phone nobody is managing.

How do you check coverage properly?

Don't rely on a national ranking or a single postcode check. List every place your people work: offices, depots, regular sites, customers' premises and the roads between them. Check each on the networks' own maps and Ofcom's mobile coverage checker, indoors and outdoors, then ask the staff who work there which networks drop out. In Scotland this matters more than anywhere else in the UK, and our guide to the best mobile network for business in Scotland covers it in detail.

How does switching and porting work?

You keep your numbers. For a single number, text "PAC" to 65075 and your current provider must give you a porting code immediately or by text within two hours. For two to 24 numbers, the same Auto-Switch process works; for 25 or more, you ask your provider directly. A PAC is valid for 30 days, and the number should normally move within one working day. Ofcom has also banned providers from charging for notice periods that run after the switch date (Ofcom, Switching mobile provider).

Larger switches are mostly about planning, not paperwork: new SIMs and handsets in people's hands before the port date, apps and email set up, and someone on call on the day. How switching to Indigo works →

Questions to ask any business mobile provider

1. Which networks can you offer, and will you check coverage at our sites before we sign?
2. Who manages our account day to day, and what do you do between renewals?
3. Can you set spend caps and user-level controls, and who approves extras?
4. Do you set up and support device management such as Intune, or just supply handsets?
5. What's the total cost over the contract, including handsets and any price rises, and what happens at the end?

In practice. When Celtic Football Club appointed Indigo as its official mobile supplier in March 2022, we moved the club's staff mobiles from its previous supplier in two days. On plan.com services, 98% of our customers stay with us (plan.com, December 2025).

How Indigo does this. Indigo Unified Communications supplies business mobiles on EE, O2 and Vodafone from our Glasgow office, with contracts from SIM-only to 36 months with handsets. Our mobile team, led by Sales Director Nicola Armstrong, checks coverage at your sites, manages every device through Microsoft Intune and reviews your account at the desk throughout the contract. The same team supports your IT, connectivity and phones. Business mobiles →

What to do next

1. List every location your team works from, and how many people are at each.
2. Find your current contract end date and notice period.
3. Decide who needs a new handset and who can go SIM-only.
4. Put the five questions above to at least two providers, including one that can compare networks.
5. Ask for a free business mobile bill review to see your likely saving and the best network for your sites.