i think its all what the company is willing to bear as far as cost/overhead v/s revenue intake. If they can benefit from it then they will supply devices that will help their employees do their jobs more efficiently.
Like edward said, some companies in our area provide laptops and phones, and even internet services, while others have programs in place to provide the devices but pass the cost on to the tech or personnel needing them including the billable time spent on the job using these devices to perform their job and/or interact with customers.

In this day and age and with the rise of electronic devices growing in leaps and bounds everyday it is almost a must to have this if you want to do your job well and be able to communicate efficiently with your employer and customer.

I saw this coming years ago and made it one of my hobbies (like edwardt) to become as proficient in computing as i possibly could just to stay on top of things. But the point made about the ever changing world of computing and the cost of keeping up with it is true, it is a very costly venture and todays 'favorite' device or application doesn't stay in the light very long before something else comes along that replaces it. So.... the big question is who is willing to 'foot the bill' for it? The cost could become astronomical with this ever changing electronic world. Personally i think having basic communication and the ability to utilize laptop and internet capability is all we need, anything else above that is just eyecandy and alot of overhead that will fall to the wayside before we know it. Handheld PDA's and 'onsite billing' has been in our company's eye for a few years now but they have not integrated that into our operations yet, and i feel by the time they 'get around' to doing it the technology will be obsolete or will have changed so much their original cost analysis not to mention the ability to integrate it into our system currently in place will have changed so much it will not be as attractive as they once thought it was.
Yes the cost of having an IT dept is expensive and the cost of the hardware and keeping it up as well.

I could go on and on about this and even though we have the tech provided to us there are sooooo many other things that fall to the wayside that almost make it a redundant gesture until the technology stabilizes to a point it would be useful in a long term venue, but it would take this thread way out of it's original intent so I'll shut up now about it heheh :o)