Why Monthly Mobility Invoice Audits Still Matter (Even After Issues Are "Fixed") There's a common assumption in mobility expense management: once an issue is fixed with a carrier, it should stay fixed. In practice, that's not how it works. Large mobility carriers including AT&T, Verizon, and other operate highly complex billing systems with multiple platforms, provisioning paths, contracts, and automation layers. A change in any one of those layers can unintentionally rein

Federal Universal Service Fund (USF) recovery charges can appear on an invoice even when you don't see any separate "voice usage" line items that month. That's because USF isn't triggered by minutes. It's tied to the carrier's assessable end-user telecommunications revenue (primary interstate/international revenue) and how the carrier chooses to recover that cost. Importantly, the FCC does not require providers to pass their USF contribution through to customers, and it als

When enterprises shop wireless contracts, most of the attention goes to one number: the Monthly Recurring Charge (MRC) per line. In the U.S., that usually means comparing offers from the three facilities-based carriers: AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile . On paper, one carrier may look clearly cheaper than the others. But when the invoices start coming in, finance asks a painful question: "If we negotiated such a good rate, why is the bill still so high?" MRC vs

Most mobility cost strategies were designed around smartphones and tablets: one device, one user, fairly stable usage patterns. You trend each line's usage over time, pick the right plan, and revisit periodically. It's not perfect, but it's predictable. IoT is different enough that this approach can actually mislead you. In our Verizon IoT environment, we saw something that looked completely backwards at first glance: total data usage went down, but monthly recurring charge

Most U.S. carriers including AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless let you suspend a line with billing (you keep paying a reduced or even the full charge) or suspend without billing (you stop paying, but usually for a limited time). What I see over and over: companies put lines on suspend with billing, leave them there for months, sometimes years and quietly keep paying. At that point you have to ask: are we preserving value, or just paying rent on a parking spot nobody uses? T

Talking to decision-makers about how to control cost when data jumps even though the fleet size is flat. When the number of deployed devices holds steady but network usage surges, it can feel like the ground moved beneath a carefully planned budget. In IoT, that "step change" rarely comes from adding more SIMs; it comes from small behavior shifts, an over-chatty firmware build, a retry storm, a new payload format that ripple through pooled plans. If you manage Cisco IoT Con

An executives-friendly take on the Niquivest method for mobility invoices. Every month the wireless bill lands, the number moves, and someone asks, "Why?" The right answer isn't a data dump; it's a short, confident read on what changed and what we're doing about it. That's what the Niquivest approach gives you. No equations, just a consistent way to separate signal from noise. The three levers (plan English) When spend shifts, one of three things moved: Rate (the price y

Many employees who've relocated abroad but kept U.S. lines (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) create quiet double spend: plan MRC + international/roaming passes. Flag persistent roamers, confirm status, then move them to local service and park the U.S. number. What to look for (fast signals) Repeated pass/roam activity for 60-90 days. One dominant country in usage/roam records. Roaming most days in a cycle (practically living abroad). My take: 15+ roaming/pass days in a month for

Most people assume that once their wireless contract ends, their monthly bill automatically go down. After all, if the phone is paid off, shouldn't the cost drop too? Unfortunately, that's not how the big carriers, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile work. In fact, many customers are surprised to find their bills stay the same or even go up unless they take action. That's why a wireless plan audit can save you real money. Verizon: The Hidden Carryover Cost Imagine this: Sarah, a

When you return a phone or tablet to a carrier (AT&T, Verizon, etc.), a credit should show up on a later bill. In real life, that credit can be missed, short, or late, and busy teams don't notice. This short guide explains what goes wrong and how to keep your money without a big project. What usually goes wrong The return and the bill don't "talk." You send the device back, but the credit lands in a different month or even a different account and gets missed. Exchanges loo

Many enterprises assume that adding an international roaming plan like Travel Pass, Day Pass, or a monthly roaming bundle will protect them from surprise bills. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. In our mobility audits, we routinely find significant roaming overcharges, even when a plan is in place. These costs often unnoticed until they show up as a spike on the invoice, sometimes weeks or months after the trip. By then, disputes require extra time, documentation,

Most enterprise mobility bills contain hidden errors and not just small ones. In our audits, it's common to uncover 5-15% in overcharges that have gone undetected for months or even years. The reason? Many billing mistakes are buried deep within carrier invoices, hidden behind line items and codes that most finance or IT team don't have the time or resources to analyze. Unless you know where to look, these errors can quietly drain budgets. Here are 12 common billing err

Enhance telecom mobility data quality with principles like relevance, accuracy, and integrity for informed decision-making.

Imagine walking into an all-you-can-eat buffet. You grab a plate, pile it high, and go back for seconds, thirds, maybe even fourths. At first, it feels like a great deal - why not indulge when the price is uniform? But by the time you're done, you're uncomfortably full, and you start to wonder: was it really worth it? Now, translate that experience to your mobile data plan. Unlike the U.S. based mobility providers, European carriers, like EE in the UK, often offers variou