Mobile-Carrier & Mobile-Phone Choice Behavior Analysis Using Supervised Learning Models

The customer number of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) is increasing in Japan, though the mobile phone market in Japan was mainly shared by three Major Mobile-Carriers (3MMC): docomo, au and SoftBank. The purpose of this study is to understand the preference for 3MMC vs. MVNOs considering the current mobile-phone market. In order to clarify the difference of the characteristics between 3MMC customers and MVNO customers, we classified these two customer segments into two customer segments: stable customers and unstable customers, respectively. Stable customers mean customers who would like to continue to use the same mobile carrier. We analyze the differences between two segments: stable 3MMC customers and stable MVNO customers on the basis of a new original survey conducted in January 2018. And we analyze the differences between iPhone users and Android phone users in each customer segment. Supervised learning models to create differential descriptions of these customer segments are constructed in order to clarify the differences between these segments.