North American cellular telecom expense management is the heart of our business. Nevertheless, we keep abreast of trends beyond our primary market. There are compelling reasons for doing so - three “Ps.”

We’ve been blogging about the iPhone 3G a lot lately, and for good reason: Everyone working in telecom expense management will have to deal with its rigid plans and arcane activation procedures. But what’s really interesting is how the iPhone woke every other manufacturer up. They all know that people want stylish, high end smartphones now, and that they’ll go to considerable effort to get them.

Well, we got the iPhone in. To use a technical cellular expense management term, it’s getting all crazy in Canada.

Voice over IP technology is a mature technology that in many cases offers significant savings compared to conventional telephony. If you’re already paying for broadband, chances are switching to VoIP is a good idea. We routinely recommend it to clients.

Two or three years ago we braced for a yet another communications paradigm shift — one that was supposed to take effect now. The mobile WiMAX revolution would have been fascinating for use telecom expense management folks. Maybe it still will be, but despite the tremendous promises of the technology there’s been more fizzle than pop out of it.

Canadians are due for some unhappy developments. Bell and Telus will charge for incoming text messages starting in August (8th for Bell, 24th for Telus). Getting a text message will cost 15 cents a pop unless you have an unlimited texting plan.

So, it’s in Canada now. After much speculation, wailing and gnashing of teeth, Canadians can finally get their own iPhones. How did things work out for folks north of the 49th Parallel? Let’s look at the Good, the Not So Good, and the Telecom Expense Management Angle.

Let’s face it: As it currently stands, Apple’s iPhone gets by on being a stylish status symbol as much as it does on actual features. You can’t beat Apple’s aesthetics or interface design. But behind the hype, the iPhone’s appeal has been limited by its high price and the US’ chaotic business models and wireless network standards, which make some features frustratingly slow or expensive. Even though iPhones are a hot consumer product, few businesses opted for fleets of them. One might sneak into a corporate plan as an executive toy, but that’s about it.

Last time around I told you about a bunch of common cell phone plan-related slang and abbreviations. This time around, let’s look at some other terms in general (mobile and landline) telecom expense management. We use some of them as tracking codes for our Management and Reporting Software.

Cell phone plans are complicated for a number of reasons. One is the technology, which isn’t just driven my miniaturization and power, but by a shifting set of global standards that let us talk to each other and determine how we do it. Another reason is that standard telecom company practices aren’t always pretty. Most people don’t know, for instance, that phone companies deliberately hamstring flexible standards that are supposed to help users. If you haven’t read telecom expense management literature, you might not even know if it was possible to switch carriers as easily as SIM technology should allow.