Mobile number portability disappoints

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 22 Nov 2007

A year after mobile number portability (MNP) was introduced in SA, consumer uptake remains low, with market watchers calling the facility "a damp squib".

According to the Mobility 2007 study, released this week, porting proportions between 2006 and 2007 remain similar, with 10% of respondents stating they would port in 2007.

This is slight drop from last year, when 11.2% of respondents said they would port to another network. However, only 8% said they ported in 2007, with nearly 60% porting from Vodacom, says Peter Searll, CEO of Dashboard Research.

Searll adds the sample used for the study was stratified to ensure representation of the local population in terms of region, gender, age groups and race.

The initial sample was 400 South Africans, with an additional booster sample of 175 mobile bankers for insight into the mobile banking segment of the research, he notes.

Non-event

BMI-TechKnowledge senior analyst Richard Hurst and Communication Users Association of SA (CUASA) spokesman Ray Webber agree MNP uptake in SA is low. Both call it "a damp squib".

They say mobile operators have put in place a number of customer-retention strategies, which includes providing new handsets for renewing customers.

The Mobility 2007 study bears this out: 50% of respondents said their handsets were less than a year old, and more than a third will get a new handset within a year.

Customers can`t be bothered to change networks when they know they could lose some functionality with a new operator, says Webber.

"In a way it`s a pity, because CUASA thought it would give consumers options, and in the end there is so little difference between the operators, people decide they might as well not port."

No great loss

Hurst says the seemingly high proportion of Vodacom losses through MNP in the past year is normal.

Vodacom has the highest subscriber numbers, and the 60% porting loss is in line with the company`s market share, he says. Vodacom previously stated the proportion of customers porting away from its network is miniscule compared to the customers it signs on a monthly basis.

The Mobility 2007 study was conducted by Dashboard Research and World Wide Worx, and sponsored by First National Bank.