世論 What Japan Thinks

With MNP, Mobile Number Portability, having just started in Japan, japan.internet.com reported that JR Tokai Express Research performed a survey into people’s views on MNP. They interviewed just 330 people from their internet monitor group by means of a private internet-based questionnaire. 66.3% of the sample was male, 33.3% female, so where that places the remaining one person, I don’t know! 17.3% were in their twenties, 41.8% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 11.8% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

The sample size for Q1SQ is very small, so it is difficult to extrapolate these figures, but it does seem that DoCoMo is the biggest loser and au the biggest winner. This backs up unofficial figures I heard of about 400,000 net loss to DoCoMo, 600,000 gain for au, and 200,000 less customers at Softbank, despite their suicidal price slashing. UPDATE: I was out by a factor of ten or so! This morning’s TV (recalling from memory, so the figures might not be 100% accurate!) said that au gained a net 103,000 customers, DoCoMo lost 75,000, and Softbank 23,000 over the last week. The figures don’t add up because there are also brand new customers included in the overall totals, I believe, and each company perhaps uses different counting methods.

For me, I had enough problem working out how to use my new phone from the same maker and service provider, so I’d be put off taking advantage of MNP and having to learn a whole new service model too!

Q1: Do you plan to change your mobile phone service provider due to MNP? (Sample size=330)

Already changed	0.3%
Plan to change (to SQ)	4.2%
Won’t change	67.6%
Don’t know	23.0%
Have a PHS (non-MNP) phone	2.1%
Don’t have any mobile phone at all	2.7%

Even allowing for the small sample size, just one person has already changed, and less than five percent are planning on it, although perhaps the other 23.0% in the don’t knows are just waiting to see how the market goes.

Q1SQ: From which company to which company do you plan to move? (Sample size=14)

DoCoMo to au	28.6%
DoCoMo to Softbank	21.4%
au to DoCoMo	0.0%
au to Softbank	7.1%
Softbank to DoCoMo	7.1%
Softbank to au	35.7%

Q2: If you use MNP you need to change your email address. How much of a problem do you feel this might be? (Sample size=330)

Really problematic	34.8%
A bit of a problem	41.8%
No problem	15.2%
Have counter-measures if I change	3.9%
Have a PHS phone	2.4%
Don’t have a mobile phone	1.8%

I don’t know what counter-measures people might have; perhaps they use an external mail service? I also don’t know why the mobile phone companies don’t offer a low-cost forwarding service, say 300 yen per month, so at least they get some money off the quitters. Perhaps they feel they’d lose even more customers if they did this?