Oftel has repeated its mystery shopping research that first was conducted in 2001 to see whether the advice given to consumers by the mobile industry has improved. The new research was conducted in February/ March this year on behalf of Oftel by Synovate. The results show that the advice given to consumers by the industry about mobile number portability has improved. The latest mystery shopping research showed some significant improvements in advice, notably an increase in the proportion who were told that they could keep their number when changing provider - 9 in 10 were correctly told that this was possible in March 2003, up from 7 in 10 (69%) in March 2001. There has also been an overall improvement in advice given to consumers on SIM unlocking. The mystery shopping research in March 2003 found that in just under 6 in 10 (57%) cases correct advice was given on whether SIM unlocking was possible. This was a significant improvement from March 2001, when 40% were given the correct advice - being advised incorrectly on this issue is likely to represent the biggest deterrent to unlocking. However, despite this encouraging finding there is still room for improvement, according to Oftel. Only 6% of mystery shoppers were given correct advice all the way through their enquiry – similar to the proportion given correct advice all the way through in March 2001.
