Although the vast majority (89%) of employers believe strong mobile coverage is important, only 17% have access to full-bar coverage. This is according to 'Building Connections,' a new report commissioned by telecoms provider Vilicom.
A mobile workforce
"The way people communicate has changed,” Curtis Peterson SVP Cloud Operations at RingCentral declared at IP Expo. This is certainly the case considering that 78% of adults own a smartphone and check it every 12 minutes on average. According to Curtis, the way people communicate has become “multi-modal, global, mobile, always-on.” As a result, it is no surprise that the number of static UK landlines has fallen 35%, from 10 million in 2010 to 6.4 million in 2017.
Despite this digital shift, over 1.5 million business owners are reportedly experiencing poor mobile coverage. Subsequently, companies are experiencing poorer productivity, customer satisfaction, and overall revenue. 23% of respondents said that customers had complained about the quality of mobile coverage on their premises.
In addition to this, more than one in four businesses received complaints from employees. However, enterprises are still struggling to resolve the issue. While 32% of businesses are currently paying to improve their mobile accessibility, just 17% are benefiting from full-bar coverage.
Taking control
“Many businesses assume that poor mobile coverage is someone else's problem or that changing networks or installing WiFi are acceptable solutions, without realising that they can take direct control of the issues for themselves,” Seán Keating, CEO at Vilicom said.
Despite this, telecom companies are investing huge amounts to improve coverage for customers. Keating insisted that data is also as cheap to purchase as it has ever been. “For businesses to truly take advantage of this, we need to help them understand where and why mobile coverage can work," Keating added. "Building owners and businesses need empowerment; you can't expect your electricity supplier to come and change your light bulbs for you, but you know instinctively how to deal with a broken lightbulb."
It is evident that strong indoor mobile coverage is essential to any enterprise, regardless of industry or size. Although many businesses are benefitting from mobile technology, more needs to be done to ensure that companies are fully connected.
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