Por Ahmad Al-Assad, Investigación Maktoob

Mi mujer me dijo una vez en una de nuestras compras que si compráramos este sofá nunca pediría nada. El sofá era feo y caro, pero tomé mis palabras literalmente y me sentí tentado por su promesa: ¡no pedir nada más! Bueno, debería haber hecho más análisis al respecto. Más tarde descubrí que mi esposa quería decir que nunca pediría nada a menos que le gustara otra cosa.

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.

Como resultado de este increíble potencial y refuerzo de la competencia, surgió una tecnología llamada: Portabilidad de Número Móvil (MNP). MNP permite a los usuarios de telefonía móvil conservar sus números de móvil cuando cambian de un operador de red móvil a otro.

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.

En resumen: si se introdujera MNP en un mercado determinado, los operadores móviles deberían satisfacer realmente sus necesidades o correr el riesgo de perderlas.

Empresa colaboradora:
Investigación de Maktoob. Dubai, Emiratos Árabes Unidos. www.maktoob-research.com/
Contacto: Ahmad Al-Assad, Gerente Regional de Investigación. [email protected].
Teléfono: +971 4 360 279