Much of the discussion focused around the practical experience of using a mobile phone when one of these lovable little devices is part of both your professional and your personal life. The reality, it seems is that a lot of people end up carrying more than one phone around with them all day - typically one which their employer gives them, and one of their own.
Let's be honest, this is daft. I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why people do this, but if you stand back and look at it, it's daft. Mobile phones have been with us for a quarter of a century and still nobody has sorted this out. If anything it's more common now than it was just 5 years ago. Not only that, but apparently the number of phones outnumbers the population in many of the more 'advanced' nations of our dear planet.
Personally I refuse to carry two devices, so I just use some of the many minutes I get on my personal tariff for business use. It's not ideal, and I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with effectively subsidising my employer's phone bill, but on the plus side I get to use the device of my choice and, most importantly, only carry one phone with me. That has its downsides too. How do I deal with business calls from workaholics at all hours, and when I'm on holiday? It hasn't been too much of an issue in practice, but not doubt it would be painful for some. The whole work/life balance is another topic for another day.
So, what's to be done about this? I'm assuming, dear reader, that you'd prefer to carry just one phone around with you. Am I right about that? Have I got that straight? Please let me know in the comments. I've heard about a couple of solutions to this problem :
- Dual SIM phones
- Dual identity SIMs
I don't think it's too hard to bat away the first of these. A dual SIM phone sounds like a great idea, except it probably wouldn't be very straightforward for the end user, especially if the two SIMs were on different networks. But what about the second option? Surely a service provider could make that work. Enable the customer to nominate identities for the SIM, eg. 'business' and 'personal', with separate billing options/tariffs, according to the customer's needs. Wouldn't that work?
So, what do you do? How many phones do you carry? Does your service provider offer any creative solutions to this problem? How would you envisage your ultimate solution? I'm interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.
