The mobile phone services sector in Saudi Arabia, whether in terms of its total subscription\ud
numbers or volume of usage, is a booming market with extensive reach across all sections of\ud
consumers. There are now three mobile phone providers in the KSA and the competitive\ud
environment will require careful management by the companies to attract and retain customers,\ud
especially young customers, as the industry continues to be privatised. But the Saudi mobile\ud
phone services market has not yet been subjected to a comprehensive study outlining the factors\ud
that influence Saudi customers in their choice of service provider and their decision to either\ud
retain or terminate their subscription with a particular provider. This study examines customer\ud
satisfaction, choice of service provider and usage characteristics of young Saudis, with a crosssectional\ud
survey of data gathered through self-reported questionnaires from 323 students at\ud
universities in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and other cities.\ud
The results show that STC was the most popular provider followed by Mobily and Zain.\ud
Majority of the students were dissatisfied with their service providers due to poor pricing and\ud
service quality, and one-third of the customers intended to terminate their contracts after\ud
expiration date. Minimum cost service packages, lower rates of call, and free allowances on the\ud
contract for social calls were significant predictors of the intention to change provider. Inferential\ud
statistics revealed that gender is a relevant demographic factor in determining the respondents'\ud
satisfaction and usage characteristics, whereas location is was tangentially related to satisfaction\ud
due to a gender skew in some locations. Males tended to pay their own bills and use their phone\ud
more than females for social calls than business/education, and males were more likely to change\ud
their providers when their contract expired