MNP - a week later

Thomas Husson | June 04, 2007, 04:27 AM

I finally switched easily to my new network operator.

The process was really smooth. The day after the Information System received my request, I had an SMS from Orange confirming the transaction would take place in a few days and welcoming me. I also received a call from my former operator, Bouygues Telecom, trying to know why I wanted to leave them after several loyal years and making me a last minute offer.

Actually, NEO (unlimited call to any mobile network) offering is probably more attractive than the Orange Intense subscription I know have, but as an industry analyst, I also wanted to make the most of my N95 and switch to an HSDPA network and test new services. And to be honest, I know I-mode services quite well and do not really believe in the future of the i-mode alliance in Europe. Interestingly, Bouygues Telecom just announced that TF1 (Bouygues' sister company and main French broadcaster) would take care of mobile advertising on the i-mode portal. Ad-funded business model are definitely interesting to test and the way forward to increase an audience (and hence data traffic) for services (news, weather, yellow pages,...) customers are not necessarily ready to pay for. Following the creation of SFR own mobile advertising agency sales business, it was definitely the right time for VCs to sell Screentonic to Microsoft !

Anyway, I haven't seen many agressive offerings in the market place since last week. So I don't think Mobile Number Portability will be the announced revolution. It is a good news for customers but at the end of the day, it will just be a good test to see:

- How effective are loyalty programms of the 3 main operators (only around 25% of customers are not locked in a 12 or 24 months contract)?

- How agressive will operators and particularly MVNOs be? How much money can they really invest to disrupt the market and make the most of this new tool?