Von Ahmad Al-Assad, Maktoob Research

Meine Frau sagte einmal bei einem unserer Einkaufsbummel: „Wenn wir dieses Sofa kaufen, würde ich nie wieder um etwas anderes bitten.“ Das Sofa war hässlich und teuer, aber ich nahm meine Worte wörtlich und war von ihrem Versprechen verführt: „Ich würde nie wieder um etwas anderes bitten!“ Nun, ich hätte das genauer analysieren sollen. Später fand ich heraus, dass meine Frau meinte, sie würde nie wieder um etwas bitten, wenn ihr nichts anderes gefiel!

One of the most important questions in competitive mobile markets if you can keep your mobile number when changing between mobile operators, would you be willing to change. In most surveys, a two-digit percentage of respondents always say yes.

Als Ergebnis dieses unglaublichen Potenzials und Wettbewerbsschubs entstand eine Technologie namens Mobile Number Portability (MNP). MNP ermöglicht es Mobilfunknutzern, ihre Handynummer zu behalten, wenn sie von einem Mobilfunkanbieter zu einem anderen wechseln.

Telecom professionals thought that introducing such technology would change the market shares of operators in any Arab country. In mid 2006, Saudi Arabia was the first Arab country to introduce MNP, followed shortly by Oman. UAE, Jordan and other Arab countries are close to doing the same.

So, did MNP change the market shares in the Saudi Arabian mobile marker? No, it t! After six months of launching MNP to the public for free, less than 15,000 mobile users used it (out of around 20 million mobile lines in Saudi Arabia!). So what were the reasons behind the poor adoption MNP by subscribers? And does this mean that MNP was a failure in Saudi Arabia?

On the contrary, MNP was a success in Saudi Arabia, as it achieved its main objectives: Boost competition between mobile players and enhance quality of services provided in the market. As a reaction for introducing MNP, the Saudi Mobile operators were alarmed. The mobile operators have launched extensive campaigns promoting new services, new offers, reduced rates, as well as enhancing their network quality and coverage. Hence, the reasons behind willingness to change operators vanished. Another minor reason for poor embracement of MNP was the sluggishness of mobile users of going through the process of MNP which takes up to 5 days in some cases.

MNP can be considered a preemptive procedure for fighting monopolistic competition in mobile markets. The telecommunications s main goal of introducing such service is to push operators (and mainly the dominant ones) to compete on the bases of better services, rates and quality, thus boost competition in a healthy way. The regulator t want any operator to depend on the fact that subscribers would not change their operator just because their mobile number is very precious to them.

Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen: Wenn MNP in einem bestimmten Markt eingeführt wird, müssen die Mobilfunkbetreiber entweder die Bedürfnisse des Marktes wirklich befriedigen oder das Risiko eingehen, ihn zu verlieren.

Mitwirkendes Unternehmen:
Maktoob-Forschung. Dubai, Vereinigte Arabische Emirate. www.maktoob-research.com/
Kontakt: Ahmad Al-Assad, Regional Research Manager. [email protected].
Tel: +971 4 360 279