![\"Pesquisa](\"\/storage\/2009-journal-images\/mid-east-journal\/riyahd.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1234569912381\")
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Por Ahmad Al-Assad, Pesquisa Maktoob<\/p>\n
Minha esposa uma vez me disse em uma de nossas compras que se compr\u00e1ssemos esse sof\u00e1 eu nunca pediria nada. O sof\u00e1 era feio e caro, mas interpretei minhas palavras literalmente e fiquei tentado pela promessa dela: n\u00e3o pedir mais nada! Bem, eu deveria ter feito mais an\u00e1lises sobre isso. Descobri mais tarde que minha esposa queria dizer que ela nunca pediria nada a menos que gostasse de outra coisa!<\/p>\n
One of the most important questions in competitive mobile markets<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Como resultado deste incr\u00edvel potencial e refor\u00e7o da concorr\u00eancia, surgiu uma tecnologia chamada: Mobile Number Portability (MNP). O MNP permite que os usu\u00e1rios m\u00f3veis mantenham seus n\u00fameros de celular ao mudar de uma operadora de rede m\u00f3vel para outra.<\/p>\n Telecom professionals thought that introducing such technology would change the market<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n So, did MNP change the market shares in the Saudi Arabian mobile<\/a> 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?<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Resumindo: Se a MNP fosse introduzida num determinado mercado, as operadoras m\u00f3veis deveriam satisfazer verdadeiramente as suas necessidades ou correr o risco de perd\u00ea-las.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n