MNP in Saoedi-Arabië

Door Ahmad Al-Assad, Maktoob Research

Mijn vrouw vertelde ooit tijdens een van onze winkelbezoeken dat als we deze bank zouden kopen, ik nooit meer om iets zou vragen. De bank was lelijk en duur, maar ik nam mijn woorden letterlijk en werd verleid door haar belofte: ik zou niets anders vragen! Nou, ik had er meer onderzoek naar moeten doen. Later kwam ik erachter dat mijn vrouw bedoelde dat ze nooit meer om iets zou vragen, tenzij ze iets anders leuk vond!

Een van de belangrijkste vragen in concurrerende mobiele markten is of u uw mobiele nummer kunt behouden wanneer u van mobiele operator wisselt: zou u bereid zijn om te veranderen? In de meeste onderzoeken zegt een percentage van twee cijfers van de respondenten altijd ja.

Als resultaat van dit ongelooflijke potentieel en de concurrentiebooster, ontstond er een technologie genaamd: Mobile Number Portability (MNP). MNP stelt mobiele gebruikers in staat om hun mobiele nummers te behouden wanneer ze van de ene mobiele netwerkoperator naar de andere overstappen.

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.

To summarize: If MNP was introduced in a certain market, mobile operators should either truly satisfy their needs, or risk loosing them.

Bijdragend bedrijf:
Maktoob research. Dubai, UAE. www.maktoob-research.com/
Contact: Ahmad Al-Assad, Regional Research Manager. [email protected].
Tel: +971 4 360 279