That sinking feeling hit Allen Wong, corporate affairs specialist at Samsung Electronics' Canadian division in January when the monthly wireless bill from included CDN$100,000 in data roaming charges racked up by a staffer who used a smart phone tethered to a laptop during a five day trip to Europe.

The experience was a lesson in the demands required by telecom expense management. Some consultants and software companies offer solutions to organizations, but Canadian carriers are also responding to customer pressure to help them rein in costs.

For example, one recently slashed its international roaming charges by 60 per cent.

The Samsung staffer's European trip was legitimate, as was the wireless work done on a laptop tethered to a smart phone. In fact, all the staffer downloaded was a mere 2 gigabytes of data. However, the carrier, BCE Inc.'s Bell Mobility, charged CDN$51 a megabyte.

"At the beginning, we were shocked," recalled Wong, whose job includes overseeing wireless spending. Samsung's contract with Bell specified that those using its service would only be charged CDN$5 a megabyte. However, to get that rate the carrier has to be notified before a staffer began using a mobile device out of the country.