Major Mobile Syndicated Study results reveal customer attitudes towards mobile operators in Jordan, UAE, Egypt and KSA

The online study canvassed the opinions of 4618 cellular subscribers of various nationalities, aged 18 and above, across four countries with 1182 respondents from Jordan, 1163 from KSA, 1009 from the UAE and 1264 from Egypt.

The objectives in conducting the Mobile Syndicated Study were to obtain insights into the psychographics of mobile users, perception of mobile users with regard to brand visibility and brand personality of telecom operators, satisfaction levels with mobile services and mobile value added services, influences on choice of mobile operators, mobile spending trends, churn trends and mobile handset preferences.

"We set out on a similar study in May last year to determine what residents in the Middle East truly felt about the telecom services offered to them", said Tamara Deprez, Director of Maktoob Research. "While we have covered a few key areas from the previous survey, we have also sought to explore many different and equally important areas this time that will prove indispensable in helping telecom operators and mobile companies understand and respond to the needs and concerns of their customers."

Among the key findings of the survey are:
•Jordan's Umniah (77%), Egypt's Vodafone (76%), KSA's Mobily (73%) and UAE's Etisalat (52%) have once again beat competitors to become the highest scorers in overall customer satisfaction in their own countries. The previous study had recorded satisfaction ratings of 75%, 74% and 70% for Umniah, Vodafone and Mobily, respectively.

•Zain/Fastlink (80%) claims highest brand recognition in Jordan followed by Orange/Mobilecom (75%).

•Mobily (65%), Vodafone (59%) and Etisalat (79%) have the highest brand recognition in KSA, Egypt and UAE respectively. Of these, Mobily is not the primary operator in KSA.

•A majority of mobile users showed very positive feedback when asked whether they would be interested in using one mobile handset with 2 sim-card slots (68% Jordan, 75% Egypt, 60% KSA and 64% UAE).

•A growing percentage of respondents across the region use the mobile to browse the internet (18% Jordan, 24% Egypt, 35% KSA and 24% UAE).

•The best telecom operator logos were adjudged to be; Jordan - the Zain logo (31%), Egypt - Vodafone logo (32%), KSA - Al Jawal logo (43%) and the UAE - Etisalat logo (62%).

•69% of mobile users in Jordan, 63% in Egypt, 72% in KSA and 72% in UAE might be willing to change their current mobile operators. However, this decision will be based primarily on competitive pricing (most cited reason across all 4 countries).

•The predominant reasons for users not willing to change their current operators, if given the choice were; best customer care (Jordan), best network coverage (Egypt and UAE) and overall satisfaction and see no reason to change (KSA).

•If given the choice to keep their mobile numbers and move to a different telecom operator, 34% KSA respondents chose Mobily, 40% Egyptian mobile users chose Etisalat Misr and 34% respondents in UAE chose Du. 30% mobile users in Jordan chose Umniah, 15% chose Orange/MobileCom, 10% chose Zain, 17% said that they did not know, while 27% said that they were satisfied with their current operators and didn't want to move.

•Nokia is predominantly the most preferred mobile phone manufacturer (overall 79%). It is followed by Sony Ericsson (overall 7.5%), Samsung (overall 3.85%) and Motorola (overall 3%).

•An overwhelming majority of respondents in all four countries were not comfortable with the idea of watching live television on their mobiles (Jordan 78%, Egypt 88%, KSA 82% and UAE 58%)

•Conversely, a majority of mobile users showed interest to receiving advertisements on their mobiles (Egypt 52%, KSA 57% and UAE 57%). 49% of Jordanian respondents were open to mobile advertising.

"Customers have begun to continuously expect more for less on an ongoing basis", said Ahmad Al-Assad, Regional Research Manager of Maktoob Research. "They expect more mobile features, a significant increase in the quality of service accompanied by competitive pricing. In cases where expectations haven't been met, customers might select the next best telecom operator."

The Mobile Syndicated Study reports, which offer the most comprehensive research data on the region's mobile industry.