世論 What Japan Thinks

NEPRO Japan recently conducted a survey to find out what people thought regarding the introduction of mobile phone number portability. Over one day at the start of June they presented a public survey through the menu systems of the three main mobile phone providers; DoCoMo’s iMode, Vodafone’s (Softbank’s) Vodafone live!, and au’s EZweb. They received 3,982 valid responses, with 60% of them being from women, 3% in their teens, 38% in their twenties, 41% in their thirties, and 18% aged 40 or older. Note that sample sizes for each of the questions is not clear from the text.

Number portability is basically the ability to keep the same number when switching mobile phone providers; however,it doesn’t address email address portability, which if anything is more important than keeping the same phone number. Perhaps the service providers will forward mail on payment of a small fee, as there are certain differences between the services; the one I am most familiar with is that DoCoMo mail saves photos to a web site and mails just the URL whereas au does photos as attachments. (or so I believe anyway)

Also note that even though numbers may be portable, the handset will almost certainly not be.

Q1: Do you know about the introduction of number portability? (Sample size=3,982)

Understand the main points	40%
Vaguely understand it	23%
Just heard of it	13%
Don’t know of it	24%

Q2: If number portability is introduced, do you think you want to change mobile phone service provider?

Really do want to change	7%
Perhaps want to change	15%
Don’t want to change	31%
Can’t say or don’t know	47%

Q3: When changing mobile phone companies, what are you uneasy about? (Multiple answer)

Cannot continue my long-time user discounts	68%
Cannot move data across from my old phone	64%
Mail address will change	60%
Usability of handset will change	56%
Will incur a processing fee	48%
State of signal availability	39%
Handset price will increase	38%
Worry about paying two sets of bills	34%
Other	8%
Nothing in particular	4%

Q4: If there was a processing fee for number portability, up to about how much are you willing to pay?

Up to 1,000 yen	70%
1,000 to 2000 yen	21%
2,000 to 3,000 yen	8%
3,000 to 4,000 yen	0%
4,000 to 5,000 yen	1%
More than 5,000 yen	0%

Q5: If you changed mobile phone service provider, on what basis would you make the selection? (Multiple answer)

Cheapness of fees	80%
Sufficiency of functionality	54%
Ease of getting carrier signal	51%
Service provider’s service	51%
Handset price	50%
Handset design	43%
Sufficiency of contents	42%
Other	4%
Don’t want to change	15%