GuideWireless & IoT · 6 min
How do we manage AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile under one plan?
Put every line from every carrier in one inventory, decide which carrier serves which people and places, then review each carrier's rates on a regular schedule.
The Clectiv team ·
Three carriers can be the right answer, if one plan runs them. Without it you've got three bills, three renewal dates and three sets of rates drifting apart. This is how to run the mix you have, once the bill itself is fixed.
Why do companies end up on three carriers?#
It builds up by accident. Each decision made sense to whoever made it, and nobody planned the mix. It grows one decision at a time:
- An acquisition brings its own carrier, and its contract, along.
- One site gets poor signal on the carrier everyone else uses, so it picks another.
- A department buys phones by itself, on whatever plan the rep offered that month.
- A leader's phone is on a carrier they like, and a few more lines follow.
Three carriers isn't wrong. Signal is local, and a split can fit the way your people work. The cost is that each carrier only prices its own lines, so nobody's pricing your whole footprint.
Ask what you'd choose today. Start from zero: which carrier would you put at each site? The gap between that answer and what you have is the work.
Before you call anyone#
Let Clectiv AI see all three bills before any carrier does. Next, Clectiv AI runs the process: it bids the job out to the providers that fit, they compete on the same plan, and you choose. Call one carrier first and it quotes its own lines, and nobody competes for the rest.
Who should be on which carrier?#
Decide by group of people and place, not line by line. Put every line from every carrier in one inventory with Clectiv AI, then ask four things of each group.
| Factor | The question |
|---|---|
| Coverage | Does the signal hold where this group works, tested on real phones at your sites? |
| Role | What does this group need from a phone: calls, data, a hotspot, travel abroad? |
| Devices | Which phones and tablets are in use, and are they company-owned or BYOD (bring your own device)? |
| Contract | When does this carrier's agreement end, and what happens to its lines if you move them? |
A coverage map isn't proof. Test at the sites that matter, with the phones people carry.
A group doesn't have to share a carrier, either. Two offices in different regions can land on different ones if the signal says so.
Check what a move costs before you make it. Phones still being paid off can stay with the old carrier, and promotional credits can end when a line leaves.
The big three all sell it. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile each do, and your plan can keep all three, two, or one. Granite sells multi-carrier mobility, which puts a device on more than one network.
Those names are a sample of our wireless and IoT providers, and Clectiv AI runs the process with them for you: start a project.
This is familiar ground for us. Clectiv AI runs the process we've run many times, so you start where other companies finished. Taking the plan straight to these providers is how you get the best pricing, terms and contract we can.
The plan decides the split. The proposals show what each option costs you.
How do we keep the rates right between renewals?#
Rates drift when nobody's checking them. Promotions end, new lines come on at list price, and people change plans without telling anyone. A renewal fixes the rates once. Then the drift starts again.
Four habits keep them right:
- Audit every invoice, every month. That's telecom expense management (TEM): each line checked against the person, the plan and the usage. Tangoe and Granite both sell it.
- Check plans against usage. People change roles and teams shrink, so a plan that fit last year can fit badly now.
- Track every contract's end date. A renewal nobody saw coming renews by default.
- Name one owner. Someone has to hold all three relationships, and the review dates.
That's who we work with in wireless and IoT, and Clectiv AI runs the process for you, start to finish: start a project.
Set the review dates when the plan's written, not after the first surprise.
Common questions#
Should we move everyone to one carrier?#
How do we get one view of three carrier invoices?#
Does device management change with the carrier?#
What happens when one carrier's contract ends before the others?#
How often should we review our carrier rates?#
How does Clectiv AI get this done?#
Take it to Clectiv AI. Tell it which carriers you're on and how many lines sit with each. It scopes the project with you and writes your plan: who's on which carrier and why, what's company-owned and BYOD, which contracts end when, and who keeps the rates honest.
Then the Clectiv team takes your plan to the carriers and mobility providers that fit, all at once, through our partner network of 620+ providers. Their bids land in one view, they compete for the work, the team pushes on terms, and you choose.
Other companies already made this move. Clectiv AI runs the process we've used with them, so you start where they finished. The best pricing, terms and contract we can get come from the plan going straight to the providers that fit.
You pay nothing: it's free to you, and it's days, not months. The wireless and IoT page has everything we cover in wireless and IoT.
Still sorting out the bill itself? Read how to fix a corporate mobile bill.
Sources and method. No prices appear in this guide. Carriers are named because the question names them, and nothing here ranks or compares them. Provider names are examples of who sells mobility and expense management, from Clectiv's provider directory, not a ranking.