'Happy' mobile users hides underlying malcontent

The latest AME Info survey, among mobile phone users, has found that most customers say they are happy with their service.

When asked, 40 per cent of readers said they were satisfied with their service operator and 18 per cent said they were very happy.

The rest though, were either not satisfied, indifferent or very unhappy with their operator (18 per cent, 17 per cent and seven per cent respectively).



It also found that most people had no plans to change their operator in the coming 12 months.



Although on the surface it looks like good news for Middle East telcos, a look at why they don't plan to change paints a different picture. Many said they won't change because the alternative is no better.

Even though more operators are setting up, while some are still part owned by the government customers said this presents no real difference. This lack of competition, many said, meant that there was no point in switching service provider.

As you would expect, those who are unhappy were far more vocal than those who are happy. But there was a feeling that Middle East telcos still have a long way to go to catch up with the customer service, product offerings, prices and ease of use that is available to customers in Europe and the US.

'Terrible coverage, inconsistent network reliability, intermittent signal strength during phone calls - an absolutely unsatisfactory service. Some third world countries have better service. Current service is where the US and Europe was 20 years ago,' said one unhappy customer.

No real competition

A cynical view of the competition emerged among UAE residents, who particularly felt that with the government owning a slice of both operators, there was a need for a third, truly independent operator in the market.

While the lack of real competition was the most common reason people gave for sticking with their current provider, there were a sizeable number who were happy with their operator and had no plans to change. Not wanting to lose their phone number was also cited as a reason for sticking, suggesting that if customers could transfer their number many would consider changing.

Of those that intended to change, or wanted to change, costs, lack of coverage and poor service were the most common reasons. A number also fell into the 'if' bracket. 'If there is a viable alternative', 'if ever the tariffs become cheaper', 'if the new service provider can get me the same mobile number', 'if the services and the quality is better in the other operators', 'if i could find a better one who supports more features' they would change.

Again, while companies may quote big numbers now, it means that as alternative operators appear, they have a better chance of grabbing market share, particularly if they already have a trustworthy name.

Pointing to the saturation now happening in some parts of the Middle East, the breakdown between those who have one line and two lines was almost the same (43 per cent and 40 per cent respectively). Ten per cent claimed to have three, although this could be down to the large number of expats that also keep a phone from their home country. And many who had two lines said one was for personal use, the other business, or that one was their phone and the other bought for a member of their family.



In the UAE, Etisalat was by far the dominant provider, with 87.5 per cent compared to du's 11 per cent (just under two per cent said they use a phone from their national carrier). Du now claims to have one million mobile phone customers, but with so many people either happy or not wanting to lose their phone number, it offers du an opportunity to attract more customers once they can port users' numbers over to its service from Etisalat.



However, as we found elsewhere in this report, du has admitted that the one million includes both active and inactive customers. An insider who recently left the company said that du was gearing up to offer number portability in 2008.

Equally, du came in for more criticism than any other service provider, with complaints about poor customer service and poor coverage. However, a note of warning for Etisalat, some people were attracted by the per second billing. One respondent commented on Etisalat: 'The service is very good but Etisalat is still very expensive....Etisalat should decrease the call charges.'

Also obvious from the responses was that a number of those critical of du had not used the service. With potential customers forming their opinions based on hear-say, it leaves du with a major public relations exercise to change the perception of its coverage and customer service, both of which were cited as poor.

In Saudi Arabia, 78 per cent of respondents used Al Jawal (part of STC, or Saudi Telecom Company), with the rest on Mobily.



Again, their was a feeling among Saudi users that competition would help improve services, with mixed opinion on Mobily and the effect it has had on the market. Mobily has grown quickly in Saudi Arabia, and the chief executive Khalid Omar Al Kaf recently said the company would spend 10 per cent of its revenues strengthening its technology, amounting to billions of Saudi Riyals.

SMS still rules

In terms of services, it may be the grand daddy, but SMS is still the most often used mobile phone service (93.5 per cent). It came about as an unexpected killer application - when first launched companies did not think it would be hugely popular - but even today it continues to dominate.



Bluetooth is also regularly used (64 per cent); no surprise considering the number of devices, such as bluetooth headsets, on the market that rely on the technology.

The obligatory camera/video feature and mobile internet are also popular among phone users (53.5 per cent and 45 per cent respectively). However, some of the newer services being pushed by customers are less popular - no surprise as they have not been around for long.

Mobile TV has made little dent in the market, and according to analysts, is unlikely to prove as popular as the industry hoped. As we'd expect, MMS, despite the amount of time the technology has been available, is little used, as are video calls - both services introduced with much fanfare by the industry. Email and internet were used regularly by 39 and 45 per cent of the audience, and this should continue to rise.

A third of respondents spend between $51 and $150 a month on their mobile phone bill, while 23 per cent spend between $151 and $300 a month. Sixteen per cent said they spend a whopping $301 or more a month on their phone.



Just over half of those who took part in the survey are on a monthly contract (57 per cent) with 40 per cent opting for pay as you go pre-paid phones. Three per cent were unsure of their contract.

How the survey was conducted

The survey was conducted between 12 November and 3 December. All respondents had to pass two qualifying questions - that they have a mobile phone and that they live in the Middle East. Anyone who did not reach this criteria were not allowed to complete the survey.

The survey was answered by 1,093 respondents (excluding those who did not qualify), of which 46 per cent lived in the UAE, followed by 19 per cent in Saudi Arabia. Eleven other Middle East countries made up the rest of the survey, but within individual countries we considered numbers too low to be statistically accurate, and therefore have not broken these out.