December.05.2006 The second Research on Users’ Interests in Mobile Number Portability (MNP) MM Research Institute, in Tokyo, conducted a research about Mobile Number Portability (MNP) on 2313 mobile-phone users and, on December 5th 2006, published a report about rate of users who intend to change mobile service providers. The research was conducted from beginning to the end of November.　According to the report, respondents who have already changed the service providers, utilizing MNP, and those who intend to do so in the future are 5% of the total. This second research aimed at examining users’ intention after nearly a month since the starting of MNP. MMRI employed the same research method as the first research, which was conducted in May 2006, and analyzed changes in users’ intention before and after the introduction of MNP. As a result, MMRI revealed that the number of users who are interested in switching mobile service providers with MNP has decreased from 11% in May to 5%.　Including the respondents who have already changed the service providers by November, which accounts for 0.5%, the rate has reduced by half since May.　In contrast, the rate of respondents who will not change the service providers has increased from 56% in May to 68%. A month has passed since the introduction of MNP and users are more informed about negative factors of MNP, such as commission charges for switching the providers, for cancellation of long-tern discounts, and necessity to change email addresses. This resulted in large drop of users’ ratio who would change the service providers with MNP. Looking closely into each service provider, the rate of users who will change the providers with MNP has decreased from 11% in May to 5% for NTT Docomo, 8% to 2% for ‘au’, and 16% to 9% for Softbank respectively. ■Users’ ratio who plan to change the service providers is only 4.9%, dropped considerably compared to 11% in May. Mobile Number Portability started in October 24th 2006. Yet, only 0.5% of the total research respondent has changed the service providers with MNP by November, when the research was conducted.　Although new sales campaigns and services of providers drew attentions with the introduction of MNP, very few users have actually changed the providers.　Also, the respondents who plan to change the service providers stayed 4.9% of the total. Adding this to the number of users who have already changed the provider, only 5.4% of the total will change the providers with MNP. In the first research conducted in May, 11% of the total respondents answered that they would make use of MNP and change the service providers. Yet this number has reduced by half in the second research conducted after the commencement of MNP.　In addition, the rate of users who intend to change the service providers by March 2007 is 1.6%, which indicates that very few users have actually decided to change the providers with MNP. ■The number of users who will not change the providers has increased to 68%. The ratio of respondents who are not interested in switching the service providers has increased from 56% in May to 68%.　Being well informed about MNP, users are more aware of demerits, commission fees for changing the providers and for cancellation of long-term discount contracts, and changing mailing addresses, which resulted in decreased number of users who are interested in changing the providers with MNP.　Similarly, service providers’ attempts to upgrade service quality for existing users, such as improving family discount service, widening calling area, and increasing product lineups, also contributed to increase the number of users who do not intend to change the service providers. With providers’ attempts to offer more unique services and various sales campaigns, the number of users who will change service providers decreased significantly.　In contrast, competition among the service providers increases severity in prices and service contents, which may influence future trend of MNP utilization.　Therefore, it is possible to state that the introduction of MNP has been effective in stimulating the market and led to increase product lineups, diversity, functionality and service contents, though the number of users who will take advantage of MNP will be limited in the immediate future.