世論 What Japan Thinks

With it being just about one full year since MNP, Mobile Number Portability, was introduced to Japan, japan.internet.com reported on goo Research’s 34th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey, focusing on this MNP issue.

Demographics

Over the 15th and 16th of October 2007 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample was female, 1.8% in their teens, 19.3% in their twenties, 40.6% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 14.1% aged fifty or older.

Looking at the data from last year just before MNP was made available, around 18% said they would be interested in taking advantage of MNP, but Q2 shows that after a year less than 4% have actually done so. A similar question that may have been interesting to hear the answers to (or it may indeed have been asked, but not reported on) would be how many have changed provider but not used MNP.

Research results

Q1: Who is your current mobile phone service provider? If more than one, select the one you use the most. (Sample size=1,000)

NTT DoCoMo	51.0%
au by KDDI	28.0%
Softbank	16.5%
WILLCOM (to end of survey)	4.5%

For the remaining questions, since Willcom is not part of the MNP scheme, these 45 users were excluded.

Q2: Have you used Mobile Number Portability to change mobile phone carrier? (Sample size=965)

Yes	3.9%
No	96.1%

Q3: Do you plan to use Mobile Number Portability to change mobile phone carrier? (Sample size=965)

Have plan to change	1.8%
Don’t have plan, but if the situation warranted it, I could change	35.4%
Have no intention of changing	62.8%

Note that the above question includes those who have changed, as they may plan to change again.

Q4: How would you like to see mobile phone pricing plans change? (Sample size=1,000)

Handset price increase but call charges decrease	49.9%
Call charges increase, but handset price decrease	9.7%
Can’t say either way	40.4%