A simple model to study the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) impact on dynamic behavi of a two-competitor mobile market: Stability versus Oscillations

The mobile market in Iran is experimenting a transition period from monopoly by the incumbent service provider to a relatively competitive market by introducing the third operator. This paper describes the result of a research concerning the dynamisms of helping the churn in the mobile network by the Number Portability service. The feature adds to the attractiveness of the whole market and potentially stimulates the players to increase their individual attractiveness by either increasing their service quality or reducing prices or both. This dynamism is illustrated by a causal diagram, and a flow diagram has been constructed. The simple proposed model suffices to explore the consequences of different scenarios provided by the policy makers, and helps developing suitable policies to launch this new service. It is shown that improper settings for the service, including the costs, the time to port and the flexibility of porting can cause undamped oscillations in the system.