Many companies offer corporate discounts for products and services, from hotel rooms, to flights, vacations, car rentals, and more. As cell phones become more and more of a necessity in todays busy world, phone providers and resellers are taking note, and many now offer corporate discounts for cell phone plans, provided that the corporations meet certain criteria. If you and your employees use cellphones for business related purposes on a daily basis, it makes sense to do your research in order to discover if a corporate cellphone plan is right for you.

While the word corporate conjures up images of large scale operations, even if your company is small, you may still be able to qualify for a discount. The criteria varies, but many carriers and resellers offer discounts for companies with at least ten employees. In general, however, most require a significant amount of employees, and many larger corporations are even assigned their own individual service representatives. The discount amount also varies, so it makes sense to shop around. The average savings is approximately 15 to 20 percent per month per plan participant. This number depends on adherence to the allotted minutes in the plan, which may be difficult to track on your own, particularly if you have a lot of employees. Many larger corporations, the same ones that are typically assigned their own individual service representative, also use some type of cellphone account managing and tracking software. Ask your provider or reseller if they recommend this for your company.

Once you've chosen a plan for your company, be sure that you and your employees manage it correctly. Be sure that everyone understands that cell phone bills are not to be treated as an expensed travel item, and if possible, try to choose a carrier that offers the option of choosing more than one plan, since when it comes to cellphone usage, one size does not fit all. In other words, workers who never leave their local calling area don't need nationwide calling plans, and workers who are always on the road should not have regional only plan. Also make sure that you are not buying too many or too few minutes since this can lead to what the cell phone industry calls breakage, customer mistakes that account for approximately 50 percent of most carriers yearly revenues.

Corporate discounts on cellphone service can save you, your corporation, and your employees money, and provide a more economical way for your business to remain connected at all times.