작성자: Ahmad Al-Assad, Maktoob Research

제 아내는 쇼핑 중 한 곳에서 이 소파를 사면 절대 아무것도 요구하지 않을 것이라고 말한 적이 있습니다. 소파는 보기 흉하고 비쌌지만 나는 내 말을 문자 그대로 받아들이고 그녀의 약속에 유혹을 받았습니다: 다른 것은 요구하지 않습니다! 글쎄, 나는 그것에 대해 더 많은 분석을 했어야 했다. 나중에 알고 보니 아내는 자신이 좋아하는 것이 아니면 아무것도 요구하지 않겠다는 뜻이었습니다!

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.

이러한 엄청난 잠재력과 경쟁 촉진제의 결과로 MNP(Mobile Number Portability)라는 기술이 등장했습니다. MNP를 사용하면 모바일 사용자가 한 모바일 네트워크 사업자에서 다른 모바일 네트워크 사업자로 변경할 때 자신의 휴대전화 번호를 유지할 수 있습니다.

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.

요약하자면, MNP가 특정 시장에 도입된 경우 이동통신 사업자는 자신의 요구 사항을 진정으로 충족하지 않으면 이를 잃을 위험이 있습니다.

기부 회사:
막툽 연구. 두바이, UAE. www.maktoob-research.com/
연락처: Ahmad Al-Assad, 지역 연구 관리자. [email protected].
전화: +971 4 360 279