Best business mobile plans and SIM-only deals

What to look for

Check coverage at your office and at the places your team works most, using each network's own coverage checker. Then pick a data allowance based on real usage from your current bills rather than guesswork.

Look carefully at roaming. A daily roaming fee of £2 to £2.38 adds up quickly for frequent travellers, so a plan with roaming included or an add-on can be cheaper overall.

• Coverage: at the office, at home and on regular routes
• Data: use current bills to size allowances, or choose shared or rollover data
• Roaming: included destinations, data caps and the daily fee without a bundle
• Contract length: 30-day for flexibility, 24 months for lower prices
• Price rises: the fixed amount added each spring
• eSIM support: lets you set up new lines remotely
• Security and management: controls for lost phones and adding or removing users

How to choose for a team

For a small team, putting everyone on the same provider keeps billing in one place. If usage varies a lot between people, shared data or rollover, such as Sky Business's Databank, avoids paying for big allowances that only one or two people use.

If staff travel often, compare Vodafone's Premier plans, O2's Plus and Ultimate tariffs or Three's Go Roam add-ons against EE's unlimited plans with EU roaming. For teams that also need new broadband, bundling can bring extras, such as Virgin Media's speed boost with an O2 SIM or Sky's discount for its broadband customers.

• Pull three months of usage from current bills
• List who travels abroad and where
• Check whether 30-day plans suit short-term or seasonal staff
• Ask about multi-SIM discounts before ordering
• Port existing numbers using a PAC code so nobody loses their number

Tax: when a work phone is a taxable benefit

Business mobile comparisons rarely mention tax. GOV.UK says there is nothing to report and no tax or National Insurance on a work phone if you provide only one mobile phone or SIM card to an employee and the contract is between your business and the supplier.

• Second phones or SIMs for the same employee fall outside the exemption
• Paying an employee's own personal contract is treated differently from a company contract
• Phones provided through salary sacrifice must be reported
• So for staff phones, put the contract in the company's name

Keeping your numbers when you switch

Ofcom's text-to-switch service lets you text PAC to 65075 to get a code that moves your number, and the new provider must complete the switch within one working day. Ofcom says that if an account has more than one number on it, you request the codes by calling the provider or using its website.

For a team, ask the current provider for a PAC for every line, use them promptly, and agree a single switch date with the new provider so nobody is without a working number.

Price rises: check the clause

Ofcom's pounds-and-pence rule for new contracts since 17 January 2025 gives small businesses and not-for-profits less protection than consumers: providers must state the monthly price in pounds and pence before you sign, but business contracts can include other types of price increase. If a rise goes beyond what the contract says, Ofcom says you must get at least 30 days' notice and can leave within 30 days without exit fees.