Por Ahmad Al-Assad, Pesquisa Maktoob

Minha esposa uma vez me disse em uma de nossas compras que se comprássemos esse sofá eu nunca pediria nada. O sofá era feio e caro, mas interpretei minhas palavras literalmente e fiquei tentado pela promessa dela: não pedir mais nada! Bem, eu deveria ter feito mais análises sobre isso. Descobri mais tarde que minha esposa queria dizer que ela nunca pediria nada a menos que gostasse de outra coisa!

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 deste incrível potencial e reforço da concorrência, surgiu uma tecnologia chamada: Mobile Number Portability (MNP). O MNP permite que os usuários móveis mantenham seus números de celular ao mudar de uma operadora de rede móvel para outra.

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.

Resumindo: Se a MNP fosse introduzida num determinado mercado, as operadoras móveis deveriam satisfazer verdadeiramente as suas necessidades ou correr o risco de perdê-las.

Empresa Contribuinte:
Pesquisa Maktoob. Dubai, Emirados Árabes Unidos. www.maktoob-research.com/
Contato: Ahmad Al-Assad, Gerente Regional de Pesquisa. [email protected].
Tel: +971 4 360 279