Work Phones Make Comeback as More Employers Ban WhatsApp, TikTok
In a throwback to the Blackberry era, telecom-service providers are seeing strong growth from companies handing out phones to employees. The phenomenon, which started during the pandemic, picked up recently thanks to new compliance policies around the use of WhatsApp and TikTok. It's provided a "tailwind" for subscriber gains at AT&T, Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches said at a conference this week. At the same event, T-Mobile US Inc. Chief Financial Officer Peter Osvaldik said his company's corporate customer count "grew every quarter in 2022."
The phones are more than just a corporate perk, said Gartner analyst Lisa Pierce. "It's also about control" -- a means of restricting or blocking applications and keeping corporate data secure, she said. Businesses, especially those in finance, have grown concerned about the security of their data, and the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have stepped up their scrutiny over unauthorized private communication on applications such as WhatsApp and through personal email. Late last year, Congress, along with several states, banned China-owned TikTok from government employees' devices over national security concerns. This puts organizations in the position of either requiring their workers to remove apps from personal phones, or offering a secure second device. That second device helps explain how wireless carriers keep racking up millions of new subscribers long after the time when the mobile market passed saturation, with nearly every adult in the US owning at least one phone.
