Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

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A RESEARCH REPORT ON “Comparative Analysis of various Companies of Telecom Industry” Submitted To Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra In the Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Of MASTER’S OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SESSION (2013-2015) SUBMITTED TO: - SUBMITTED BY:- KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY, Name: Versha KURUKSHETRA Class: MBA 4 th sem College Roll No.: 13501 University Roll No: 3010921 1

Transcript of Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Page 1: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

A

RESEARCH REPORT

ON

“Comparative Analysis of various Companies of Telecom Industry”

Submitted

To

Kurukshetra University, KurukshetraIn the

Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degreeOf

MASTER’S OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SESSION (2013-2015)

SUBMITTED TO: - SUBMITTED BY:-KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY, Name: VershaKURUKSHETRA Class: MBA 4th sem College Roll No.: 13501 University Roll No: 3010921

KARNAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT, KARNAL (Approved by AICTE, Affiliated to Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my pleasure to be indebted to various people, who directly or indirectly contributed in the development of this work and who influenced my thinking, behavior, and acts during the course of study.

I express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Sachin Wadhwa, worthy Director for providing me an opportunity to undergo Research Project on “Comparative Analysis of various Companies of Telecom Industry”

I am thankful to Ms. Isha Kalra, Head of the Department, MBA for her support, cooperation, and motivation provided to me during the research for constant inspiration, presence and blessings.

I also extend my sincere appreciation to Ms. Rekha who provided her valuable suggestions and precious time in accomplishing my project report.

Lastly, I would like to thank the almighty and my parents for their moral support and my friends with whom I shared my day-to-day experience and received lots of suggestions that improved my quality of work.

Versha

University Roll no. 3010921

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DECLARATION

I, Versha student of MBA 4th Semester, studying at Karnal Institute of Technology and Management, Karnal, hereby declare that the Research Report on “Comparative Analysis of various Companies of Telecom Industry” submitted to Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra in partial fulfillment of Degree of Master’s of Business Administration is the original work conducted by me.

The information and data given in the report is authentic to the best of my knowledge.

This Research Report is not being submitted to any other University for award of any other Degree, Diploma and Fellowship.

Versha

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ABSTRACT

Customer satisfaction has been the major challenge for the companies to retain the

customers. Almost every brand in the market today has reached parity in terms of

the features and technology. Almost every big brand in the market today meets a

certain threshold level of product and service performance. But certain brands

exceed customer expectations.

It is getting tougher for marketers to retain the customers. Till a few years back,

they could be reasonably certain that they would retain a customer’s who was

satisfied with the product and the quality of service they were providing. That is no

longer enough. Study after study shows that customer’s satisfaction alone is no

longer a real measure of loyalty. Companies now need to try harder and absolutely

delight the customer if want to retain him in their fold.

-

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER-2 LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER-3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

-RESEARCH DESIGN

-STATISTICAL TOOLS

-DATA COLLECTION

-SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

CHAPTER-4 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

CHAPTER-5 FINDINGS & SUGGESTIONS, CONCLUSION

-ANNEXURES

-QUESTIONNAIRE

-BIBLIOGRAPHY

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

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TELECOM INDUSTRY AT A GLANCE

1.1 ABOUT INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR

The telecom services have been recognized the world-over as an important tool for socio-

economic development for a nation. It is one of the prime support services needed for rapid

growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy. Indian telecommunication sector

has undergone a major process of transformation through significant policy reforms, particularly

beginning with the announcement of NTP 1994 and was subsequently re-emphasized and carried

forward under NTP 1999. Driven by various policy initiatives, the Indian telecom sector

witnessed a complete transformation in the last decade. It has achieved a phenomenal growth

during the last few years and is poised to take a big leap in the future also.

Evolution of the industry-Important Milestones

Year History of Indian Telecommunications1851 First operational land lines were laid by the government near Calcutta(seat of British power)

1881 Telephone service introduced in India

1883 Merger with the postal system

1923 Formation of Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT)

1932 Merger of ETC and IRT into the Indian Radio and Cable Communication Company (IRCC)

1947 Nationalization of all foreign telecommunication companies to form the Posts, Telephone and

Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's Ministry of Communications

1985 Department of Telecommunications (DOT) established, an exclusive provider of domestic and

long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system)

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1986Conversion of DOT into two wholly government-owned companies:

TheVidesh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam

Limited (MTNL)for service in metropolitan areas.

1997 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India created.

1999 Cellular Services are launched in India. New National Telecom Policy is adopted.

2000 Dot becomes a corporation, BSNL

Status of Telecom Sector

The Indian Telecommunications network with 621 million connections (as on March 2010) is the

third largest in the world. The sector is growing at a speed of 45% during the recent years. This

rapid growth is possible due to various proactive and positive decisions of the Government and

contribution of both by the public and the private sectors.  The rapid strides in the telecom sector

have been facilitated by liberal policies of the Government that provides easy market access for

telecom equipment and a fair regulatory framework for offering telecom services to the Indian

consumers at affordable prices. Presently, all the telecom services have been opened for private

participation. The Government has taken following main initiatives for the growth of the

Telecom Sector:

Liberalization

The process of liberalization in the country began in the right earnest with the announcement of

the New Economic Policy in July 1991. Telecom equipment manufacturing was delicensed in

1991 and value added services were declared open to the private sector in 1992, following which

radio paging, cellular mobile and other value added services were opened gradually to the private

sector. This has resulted in large number of manufacturing units been set up in the country. As a

result most of the equipment used in telecom area is being manufactured within the country. A

major breakthrough was the clear enunciation of the government’s intention of liberalizing the

telecom sector in the National Telecom Policy resolution of 13th May 1994. 

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1.1.2 REGULATORS OF THE TELECOM INDUSTRY

Dot

The Department of Telecommunications is part of the Ministry of Communications and

Information Technology in the executive branch of the Government of India. Telecom

services have been recognized the world- over as an important tool for socio-economic

development for a nation and hence telecom infrastructure is treated as a crucial factor to

realize the socio-economic objectives in India.

Accordingly, the Department of Telecom has been formulating development policies for the

accelerated growth of the telecommunication services. The Department is also responsible for

grant of licenses for various telecom services like Unified Access Service Internet and VSAT

service. The Department is also responsible for frequency management in the field of radio

communication in close coordination with the international bodies. It also enforces wireless

regulatory measures by monitoring wireless transmission of all users in the country.

TRAI

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI (established 1997) is the

independent regulator established by the Government of India to regulate the

telecommunications business in India.

The mission of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is to ensure that the

interests of consumers are protected and the same time to nurture conditions for the

growth of telecommunications, broadcasting and cable services in a manner and at a pace

which will enable India to play a leading role in the emerging global information society.

They also check that telecom regulators work according to the rules and regulations and

maintain favorable competition in the market.

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1.1.3 TELECOM REFORMSTelecom services and most of the manufacturing activities were totally under Government domain till Telecom Reforms began in 1980s with the launch of a “Mission Better Communication” Programmed. Private manufacturing of equipment for customers' use was allowed in 1984 and the Centre for Development of Telemetric (C-DOT) was established for the development of indigenous technologies. Two large corporate entities were spun off from Dot namely, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) in February 1986 for Delhi and Mumbai and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) in March 1986 for all international services. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) spun off BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) for meeting the requirements of telecommunication and other services on all India bases. This began the process of corporatization of services that had hitherto been under a Government department.

ENTRY OF PRIVATE SECTOR A paradigm shift in government policy came in the early nineties when the telecommunication sector was opened up to the private sector. The process of entry of private operators in providing telecommunication services in india commenced in 1992.

apart from privatizing basic telephone services government also decided to introduce a number of value added services through private operators, such as cellular mobile telephones, radio paging, e-mail, internet, closed user groups (cug), etc., which add to the value of the existing basic telephone services.

1.1.4 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Telecom Landscape In India Has Changed Completely Since Liberalization And Monopolies In Telecom Sector Have Been Replaced With Competitive Regime (Oligopolies). It Is A Well-Known Fact That BSNL Was Carved Out Of Erstwhile DOT To Provide Level Playing Field To Private Telecoms. Since Then Many New Business Firms Have Entered In The Arena And Today There Is Merciless Cutthroat Competition In This Sector.

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Even Though Competition Is Bonanza For Subscribers But For Corporate It Is The Question Of Survivability. If They Are Not In A Position To Earn Sufficient Revenue From The Operations Which Not Only Meets Their Growth And Expansion Plans But Are Necessary For Paying All Government Levies And Dues As Revenue Share, Spectrum Charges, USO Fund Contribution Etc. As Well As Meeting Internal Requirements Like Operation And Administration Expenditures, Staff Costs, Interest And Repayment Of Debt Etc.

Corporate Are Also Under Tremendous Pressure From Investors To Show Better Results So That They Also Get Handsome Returns On Their Investments In The Form Of Dividends Or Appreciation In Share Values. To Meet All Such Requirements Corporate Management Some Time Indulges Into Creative Accounting To Artificial Boost The Profit Figures Because At The End Of Day It Is The Profit, Which Matters Most To Any Business Organization If It Is Not A Non-Profit Organization.

There Is Mandatory Requirement For All Companies To File Following Three Audited Statements To Company Law Board At The Closure Of Every Financial Year I.E. Balance Sheet As On The Last Day Of Financial Year, Profit And Loss Account For The Whole Accounting Year And Cash Flow Statement. For Stake Holders And Investors It Becomes Necessary To Look Beyond The Figures Quoted In These Statements And Carry Out The In Depth Financial Analysis To Take Appropriate Decision Regarding Their Investment And Other Important Decisions. In Respect Of BSNL Analysis Carried Out Is Based On Its Audited Balance Sheet And Profit And Loss Accounts Taken From Its Annual Reports.

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1.1.5 ROLE OF COMMUNICATION SERVICES IN NATIONAL

GROWTH:Proportion of communication services in GDP is increasing at faster rate, as it is evident from the

following table.

SHARE % IN GDP GROWTH

CONSTRUCTION 5.4 7.3

HOTEL 1.1 4.0

RAILWAYS 1.1 5.7

COMMUNICATION 3.5 22.0

BANKING & INSURANCE 6.9 11.6

TRADE 14.0 4.5

TRANSPORT 4.3 6.0

TABLE1.1: TABLE SHOWING THE SHARE OF SERVICE SECTOR IN

GDP

FROM ABOVE TABLE IT IS CLEAR THAT GROWTH RATE (22%) OF COMMUNICATION

SERVICES IN GDP IS HIGHEST AND PROPORTION AND IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION

SERVICES IS CONTINUOUSLY INCREASING. IT IS CONSIDERED AS GROWTH ENGINE FOR

OVERALL ECONOMIC GROWTH. GRAPH GIVEN BELOW INDICATES THE EXPONENTIAL

GROWTH OF TELECOMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE IN INDIA. AS OF NOW TOTAL

TELEPHONES (BASIC + MOBILE) OF ALL OPERATORS PUT TOGETHER HAS CROSSED

30CRORES.

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1.1.6 TARGETS SET BY THE GOVERNMENT 

1. Network expansion

800 million connections by the year 2012.

2. Rural telephony

200 million rural subscribers by 2012

Reduce urban-rural digital divide from present 25:1 to 5:1 by 2010.

3. Broadband

20 million Broadband connections by 2010

Broadband with minimum speed of 1 mbps.

Broadband coverage for all secondary & higher secondary schools and public

health care centres by the end of year 2010.

Broadband coverage for all Grampanchayats by the year 2010

Broadband on demand is every village by 2012

4. Manufacturing

Making India a hub for telecom manufacturing by facilitating more and more

telecom specific SEZs.

Quadrupling production in 2010.

Achieving exports of 10 billion during 11th Five year plan.

5. Research & Development 

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Pre-eminence of India as a technology solution provider.

Comprehensive security infrastructure for telecom network.

Tested infrastructure for enabling interoperability in Next Generation Network.

1.1.7 NETWORK EXPANSION

The telecom sector has shown robust growth during the past few years. It has also undergone a

substantial change in terms of mobile versus fixed phones and public versus private participation.

The following data shows the growth trend of telecom sector from last five years:

The number of telephones has increased from 54.63 million as on 31.03.2003 to 621.28 million

as on 31.03.2010. Wireless subscribers increased from 13.3 million as on 31.03.2003 to 584.32

million as on 31.03.2010. Whereas, the fixed line subscribers decreased from 41.33 million in

31.03.2003 to 36.95 million in 31.03.2010. The broadband subscribers grew from a meager 0.18

million to 8.76 million as on 31.03.2010. 

Trend in Tele-density

Tele-density in the country increased from 5.11% in 2003 to 52.74 % in March 2010. In the rural

area Tele-density increased from 1.49% in Mar 2003 to 24.31% in March 2010 and in the urban

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areas it is increased from 14.32% in Mar 2003 to119.45% in March 2010.This indicates a rising

trend of Indian telecom subscribers.

Rural Telephony 

Apart from the 200.77million fixed and WLL connections on March 2011 provided in the rural

areas, 570000 uncovered VPTs have been provided as on March 2011. Thus, 96% of the villages

in India have been covered by the VPTs. More than 3 lakh PCOs are also providing community

access in the rural areas. Further, Mobile Gramin Sanchar Sewak Scheme (GSS) a mobile Public

Call Office (PCO) service is provided at the doorstep of villagers. At present, 2772 GSSs are

covering 12043 villages. Also, to provide Internet service, Sanchar Dhabas (Internet Kiosks)

have been provided in more than 3500 Block Headquarters out of the total 6337 Blocks in the

country. The target of 80 million rural connections by 2011 have already met during year 2008

itself. USOF subsidy support scheme is also being utilized for sharing wireless infrastructure in

rural areas with about 19,000 towers by 2012.

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Market Shares of Rural Subscribers

Market Shares of Wire line Subscribers

1.1.8 INDIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS AT A GLANCE

(As on 31st March 2010)

Rank in world in network size                  3rd

Tele-density (per hundred populations)        52.74

Telephone connection (In millions)

Fixed                                                        36.95

Mobile                                                    548.32

Total                                                                                  621.28

Village Public Telephones inhabited (Out of

5,93,601 uncovered villages)

      5,69,385

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Foreign Direct Investment (in millions)  (from

April 2000 till March  2010) 

      4070

Licenses issued

Basic                                                         2

CMTS           38

UAS                                                         241

Infrastructure Provider I                         219

ISP (Internet)                                           371

National Long distance        29

International Long Distance         24

TABLE SHOWING THE STATUS OF TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR AT A GLANCE

Opportunities

India offers an unprecedented opportunity for telecom service operators, infrastructure vendors,

manufacturers and associated services companies. A host of factors are contributing to enlarged

opportunities for growth and investment in telecom sector: 

An expanding Indian economy with increased focus on the services sector

Population mix moving favorably towards a younger age profile

Urbanization with increasing incomes

Investors can look to capture the gains of the Indian telecom boom and diversify their operations

outside developed economies that are marked by saturated telecom markets and lower GDP

growth rates.

Inflow of FDI into India’s telecom sector during April 2000 to Feb. 2010 was about Rs 405,460

million. Also, more than 8 per cent of the approved FDI in the country is related to the telecom

sector.  

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1.2 COMPANY PROFILE

BSNL: BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

Type State-owned enterprise

Industry Telecommunications

Headquarters New Delhi, India

Key people Rakesh Kumar

Upadhyay(CMD)

Revenue 32,045crore(US$7.15billion)

Net income -1,822crore(US$-.41billion)

Total assets 132,243crore (US$29.49 billion

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed on 1 st October ‘2000, is one of the largest & leading public

sector units providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India. 

BSNL has installed Quality Telecom Network in the country & now focusing on improving it,

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MISSION

expanding the network, introducing new telecom services with ICT applications in villages &

winning customer's confidence.

Today, it has about 43.74 million line basic telephone capacity, 8.83 million WLL capacity,

72.60 million GSM capacity, 37,885 fixed exchanges, 68,162 GSM BTSs, 12,071 CDMA

Towers, 197 Satellite Stations, 6,86,644 RKm. of OFC, 50,430 RKm. of microwave network

connecting 623 districts, 7330 cities/towns & 5.8 lakhs villages .

BSNL is the only service provider, making focused efforts & planned initiatives to bridge the

rural-urban digital divide in ICT sector. In fact there is no telecom operator in the country to beat

its reach with its wide network giving services in every nook & corner of the country & operates

across India except New Delhi & Mumbai. Whether it is inaccessible areas of Siachen glacier or

North-Eastern regions of the country, BSNL serves its customers with a wide bouquet of telecom

services namely Wire line, CDMA mobile, GSM mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service,

MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP, IN Services, FTTH, etc.

Be the leading telecom service provider in India with global presence.

Create a customer focused organization with excellence in customer care, sales and

marketing.

Leverage technology to provide affordable and innovative telecom service/products across

customer segments.

Be the leading telecom service provider in India with global presence.

Generating value for all stakeholders - employees, shareholders, vendors & business

associates

Maximizing return on existing assets with sustained focus on profitability.

Becoming the most trusted preferred and admired telecom brand.

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VISION

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OBJECTIVES

To explore International markets for Global presence

Creating a customer focused organization with excellence in customer care, sales&

marketing:-

Developing a marketing and sales culture that is responsive to customer needs.

Excellence in customer service-‘friendly, reliable, time bound, convenient and

courteous service’.

Leveraging technology to provide affordable and innovative products/ services across

customer segments:-

Offering differentiated products/services tailored to different service segments.

Providing reliable telecom services that are value for money.

Providing a conducive work environment with strong focus on performance:-

Attracting talent and keeping them motivated.

Enhancing employee’s skills and utilizing them effectively.

Encouraging and rewarding individual and team/group performance.

Establishing efficient business processes enabled by IT:-

Changing policies and processes to enable transparent, quick and efficient

decision making.

Building effective IT systems and tools.

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To be the Leading Telecom Services provider by achieving higher rate of growth so as to

become a profitable enterprise.

To provide quality and reliable fixed telecom service to our customer and thereby increase

customers confidence.

To provide customer friendly mobile telephone service of high quality and play a leading role

as GSM operator in its area of operation.

Strategy for:

Rightsizing the manpower.

Providing greater customer satisfaction.

Contribute towards:

Broadband customers base of 20 Million in India by the end of 2011-12 as per

broadband policy 2004.

Providing telephone connections in villages as per Government policy.

To leverage the existing infrastructure of BSNL for facilitating implementation of

other government programmes and initiatives particularly in the rural areas.

3.1.1MAIN SERVICES BEING PROVIDED BY BSNL

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BSNL provides almost every telecom service, however following are the main Telecom Services being

provided by BSNL in India:-

Universal Telecom Services Fixed wire line services & Wireless in Local loop (WLL) using

CDMA Technology called bfone and Tarang respectively. BSNL is dominant operator in fixed

line. As on March 31, 2010 (end of financial year) BSNL had 76% share of fixed and WLL

phones.

BSNL Mobile Pre-paid Mobile

Cellular Mobile Telephone Services: BSNL is major provider of Cellular Mobile Telephone

services using GSM platform under brand name Cellone. Pre-paid Cellular services of BSNL are

known as Excel. As on March 31, 2010 BSNL had 17% share of mobile telephony in the

country.

BSNL Broadband

Internet: BSNL is providing internet as dial-up connection (Sancharnet) and ADSL-Broadband

Data one. BSNL has around 50% market share in broadband in India. BSNL has planned

aggressive rollout in broadband for current financial year.

Intelligent Network (IN): BSNL is providing IN services like tele-voting, toll free calling,

premium calling etc.

3G Services: 3G Technology Provides high speed data services (2 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps) as

compared to:- (a) GPRS: which provides 110 kbps (b) EDGE: which provides 384 kbps. In 3G

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Technology Services such as High Speed Internet, Video Conferencing, Video streaming,

gaming, Video on Demand, Full track music, Multi screen TV, Video ring tone etc., are offered.

1.3 AIRTEL

Industry Telecommunications

Founded 7 July 1995

Founder(s) Sunil Bharti Mittal

Headquarters New Delhi, India

Profit $2.079 billion (2010)

Total assets $15.527 billion (2010)

Total equity $9.491 billion (2010)

Parent Bharti Enterprises(63.45%)

SingTel (32.15%)

Vodafone (4.4%)

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Bharti Airtel Limited commonly now known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications

company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It

operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the

country of operation. Airtel is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world with about

230.8 million subscribers across 19 countries at the end of June 20. It is the largest cellular

service provider in India, with over 171.85 million subscribers as of August 2011. Airtel is the

3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China

Unicom.

Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed

telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It

offers its telecom services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti

Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve this Cisco Gold Certification. To

earn Gold Certification, Bharti Airtel had to meet rigorous standards for networking competency,

service, support and customer satisfaction set forth by Cisco. The company also provides land-

line telephone services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in over 96 cities in India. It also

acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The

company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable

connecting Chennai and Singapore.

It is known for being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource everything except

marketing and sales and finance. Its network (base stations, microwave links, etc.) are

maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei, business support by IBM and

transmission towers by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India).Ericsson agreed for the

first time, to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather

than being paid up front. This enabled the company to provide pan-India phone call rates of Rs.

1/minute (U$0.02/minute). Call rates have come down much further. During the last financial

year [2009–10], Bharti has roped in a strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network

infrastructure for the Telemedia Business.

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1.4 IDEA

CELLULAR

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Industry Telecommunications

Founded 1995

Headquarters Mumbai, India

Revenue 15,389.00 crore2011

Total assets US$5.334 billion

Parent Aditya Birla Group (49.05%)

Axiata Group Berhad (15%)

Providence Equity (10.6%)

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Idea Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian wireless telecom company based

in Mumbai, India. Idea is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India, in revenue terms, and

recorded of over 98.4 million customers as of August 2011.

IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on BSE & NSE in March 2007. It is

the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India with wireless revenue market share at 13.9 % in

Q1 FY2012. Idea has joined the select global operator’s club servicing over 100 million

subscribers, as of September 2011. Idea is a pan-India integrated GSM operator and has its own

NLD and ILD operations, and ISP license.

 With traffic in excess of a billion minutes a day, Idea ranks among the Top 10 country operators

in the world. Idea operates across all 22 service areas with 2G services, and 3G services are

being progressively rolled out to cover over 3,000 towns by FY 2012.

 

Idea has a network of over 70,000 cell sites covering the entire length and breadth of the country.

Idea has over 3,000 Service Centres servicing Idea subscribers across the country, including 450

special Experience Zones for 3G promotion. Idea’s service delivery platform is ISO 9001:2008

certified, making it the only operator in the country to have this standard certification for all 22

service areas and the corporate office.

 Idea’s strong growth in the Indian telephony market comes from its deep penetration in non-

urban & rural markets. It has the highest share of rural subscribers as a percentage of total

subscribers, amongst other GSM players. In fact, 2 out of every 3 new Idea subscribers come

from rural/ semi-urban India. Idea Cellular Limited (IDEA Cellular) is a mobile services operator

in India. Idea is a pan-India integrated global system for mobile communication (GSM) operator

and has its own national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) operations.

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company.

The Company provides mobile services in all 22 service areas of India. The Company operates

in two business segments: Mobility Services and Long Distance. Mobility Services provide GSM

based mobile and related telephony services. Long Distance provides national and international

long distance services. In March, 2011, the Company launched its 3G services and same is

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extended to 9 out of these 11 service areas. On January 20, 2011, the Company launched mobile

number portability (MNP), an invite to all Indian mobile customers to change their wireless

operator, while retaining their mobile number.

1.5 RELIANCE COMMUNICATIONS

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Industry Telecommunications

Founded 2004

Headquarters Mumbai, India

Revenue 22766.00 crore2011

Total assets 80395 crore

Parent Reliance Group

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Reliance Communications Ltd. (commonly called RCOM) is an Indian broadband and

telecommunications company headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. RCOM is the world's

16th largest mobile phone operator with over 150 million subscribers. Established on 2004, a

subsidiary of the Reliance Group. The company has five segments: Wireless segment

includes wireless operations of the company; broadband segment includes broadband

operations of the company; Global segment include national long distance and international

long distance operations of the company and the wholesale operations of its subsidiaries;

Investment segment includes investment activities of the Group companies, and Other

segment consists of the customer care activities and direct-to-home (DTH) activities.

It ranks among the top 5 telecommunications companies. Reliance Communications

corporate clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800

global, regional and domestic carriers. The company has established a pan-India, next-

generation, integrated (wireless and wire line), convergent (voice, data and video) digital

network that is capable of supporting services spanning the entire communications value

chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns

and operates the next-generation IP-enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over

190,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the

Asia Pacific region.

Main subsidiaries:

Reliance Telecommunication Limited (RTL)

In July 2007, the company announced it was buying US-based managed ethernet and

application delivery services company Yipes Enterprise Services for a cash amount of 1200

crore (the equivalent of US$300 million). The deal was announced of the overseas

acquisition, the Reliance group has amalgamated the United States-based Flag Telecom for

$210 million (roughly 950 crore). RTL operates in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal

Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Kolkata and Northeast, offering GSM services.

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1.6 VODAFONE

Industry Telecommunications

Founded 1991

Type Public Limited Company

Headquarters London, UK

Profit $2.079 billion (2010)

Total assets $15.527 billion (2010)

Parent Bharti Enterprises(63.45%)

SingTel (32.15%)

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Vodafone (4.4%)

Vodafone Group (LSE: VOD, NASDAQ: VOD) is a British multinational

telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's

largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-

largest measured by subscribers (behind China Mobile), with over 391 million subscribers as

of September 2011.

Vodafone owns and operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over

40 additional countries. It owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile

telecommunications company in the United States measured by subscribers. The name

Vodafone comes from voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of

voice and data services over mobile phones".

Vodafone has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately £89.4 billion as of 23

December 2011, the second-largest of any company listed on the London Stock Exchange. It

has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

Vodafone India, formerly Vodafone Essar and Hutchison Essar, is the third largest mobile

network operator in India after Airtel and Reliance Communications. It is based in Mumbai,

Maharashtra and which operates nationally. It has approximately 146.84 million customers as

of November 2011.

On July 2011, Vodafone Group agreed terms for the buy-out of its partner Essar from its

Indian mobile phone business. The UK firm paid $5.46 billion to its Indian counterpart to

take Essar out of its 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It will leave Vodafone owning 74%

of the Indian business, while the other 26% will be owned by Indian investors, in compliance

with Indian law. On 11 February, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest

of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance

Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining

33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on 8 May,

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2007. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with

good presence in the metros.

Vodafone India provides 2.75G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM

technology. Vodafone India launched 3G services in the country in the January-March

quarter of 2011 and plans to spend up to $500 million within two years on its 3G networks.

CHAPTER 2

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LITRATURE REWIEW

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INTRODUCTION

The growth in demand for telecom services in India is not limited to basic telephone services. India has witnessed rapid growth in cellular, radio paging; value added services, internet and global communication by satel item (GMPCS) services. The agents of change, as observed from international perspective, have been broadly categorized into economic structure, competition policy and technology. Economic reforms and liberalization have driven telecom sector through several transmission channels of which these three categories are of major significance.

The effective research cannot be accomplished without critically studying what already exists in the form of general literature and specific studies. Therefore, it is considered as an important pre-requisite for actual planning and execution of research project. This helps to formulate hypotheses and framework for further investigation. In this research, the survey of literature has been classified into two parts - studies related to telecom sector and studies related to marketing strategies. STUDIES RELATED TO GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENTS IN INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR Muller (1990)1 in his a research focuses that the success of the mobile commerce can be attributed to the personal nature of wireless devices. Adding to this are its unique features of voice and data transmission and distinct features like localization, feasibility and convenience. The sustained growth of the mobile commerce around the world has been more because of the transfer of technology according to the needs of localy.

National Telecom Policy (1999)2 projected a target 75 million telephone lines by the year 2005 and 175 million telephone lines by 2010 has been set. Indian telecom sector has already achieved 100 million lines. With over 100 million telephone connections and an annual turnover of Rs. 61,000 crores, our present teledensity is around 9.1%. The growth of Indian telecom network has been over 30% consistently during last 5 years.

According to Wellenius and Stern (2001)3

information is regarded today as a fundamental factor of production, alongside capital and labor. The information economy accounted for one-third to one-half of gross domestic product (GDP) and of employment in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the 1980s and is expected to reach 60 percent for the European Community in the year 2000. Information also accounts for a substantial proportion of GDP in the newly industrialized economies and the modern sectors of developing countries.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) 16th Annual Report (2002)4 India like many other countries has adopted a gradual approach to telecom sector reform through selective privatization and managed competition in different segments of the telecom sector. India introduced private competition in value-added services in 1992 followed by opening up of cellular and basic services for local area to competition. Competition was also introduced

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in National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) at the start of the current decade.

World Telecommunication Development Report (2002)5 explains that network expression in India was accompanied by an increase in productivity of telecom staff measured in terms of ratio of number of main lines in 69 .

Indian Telecommunication Statistics (2002)6 in its study showed the long run trend in supply and demand of Direct Exchange Lines (DEL). Potential demand for telecom services is much more than its supply. In eventful decade of sect oral reforms, there has been significant growth in supply of DEL.

A study by Jeanette Carless on and Salvador Arias (2004)10 wireless substitution is producing significant traffic migration from wire line to wireless and helping to fuel fierce price competition, resulting in margin squeezes for both wire line voice tariffs in organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Countries have fallen by an average of three percent per year between 1999 and 2003.

T.V. Ramachandran (2005) analysed performance of Indian Telecom Industry which is based on volumes rather than margins. The Indian consumer is extremely price sensitive. Various socio-demographic factors- high GDP growth, rising income levels, booming knowledge sector and growing urbanization have contributed towards tremendous growth of this sector. The instrument that will tie these things together and deliver the mobile revolution to the masses will be 3 Generation (3G) services.

Rajan Bharti Mittal (2005)12 explains the paradigm shift in the way people communicate. There are over 1.5 billion mobile phone users in the world today, more than three times the number of PCOs. India today has the sixth largest telecom network in the world up from 14th in 1995, and second largest among the emerging economies. It is also the world’s 12th biggest market with a large pie of $ 6.4 billion. The telecom revolution is propelling the growth of India as an economic powerhouse while bridging the developed and the developing economics.

ASEAN India Synergy Sectors (2005)13 point out that high quality of telecommunication infrastructure is the pillar of growth for information technology (IT) and IT enabled services. Keeping this in view, the focus of 71 telecom policy is vision of world class telecommunication services at reasonable rates. Provision of telecom services in rural areas would be another thrust area to attain the goal of accelerated economic development and social change. Convergence of services is a major new emerging area.

segments in the cellular market were the youth segment and business class segment. The youth segment at the inaugural session of cellular summit, 2005, the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran had proudly stated that Indian telecom had reached the landmark of 100 million telecom subscribers of which 50% were mobile phone users. Whereas in African countries like Togo and Cape Verde have a coverage of 90% while India manages a merely mobile coverage of 20%.

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Marine and Blanchard (2005)16 identifies the reasons for the unexpected boom in mobile networks. According to them, cell phones, based on Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard require less investment as compared to fixed lines. Besides this, a wireless infrastructure has more mobility, sharing of usage, rapid profitability. Besides this, usage of prepaid cards is the extent of 90% simplifies management of customer base. Moreover, it is suitable to people’s way of life-rural, urban, and sub-urban subscribers.

Illustrating the lead achieved by Gujarat. According to Business and Economy (2005)17 the catalyst for Indian mobile operators in the future will undoubtedly be increased marketing and advertisement expenditure, along with better deals for mobile phone users like the previously mentioned full talk time Rs. 10 recharge card, will go a long way in not only retaining customers but also acquiring the vast market of lowered customers who are extremely sticky about value for money and have extremely low loyalties and almost non-existent switching costs.

According to Oliver Stehmann (2005)18the telecommunications industry is characterized by rapid innovation in the service and the transmission market. The legally protected public or private monopolist does not have the same incentive to foster innovation that would exist in a competitive environment. Thus, state intervention based on the natural monopoly argument neglects dynamic aspects, which are crucial in the telecommunications sector. Marketing White book (2005)19 explains with support of detailed data that bigger players are close to 20% of the market each. In CDMA market, it is Reliance Infocom and Tata Teleservices are dominating the scene whereas Airtel is lead in GSM operators. Between 2003 and 2004, the total subscriber base of the private GSM operators doubled. It rose from 12.6 million subscribers at the end of March 2003 to 26.1 million by the end of March 2004. And yet that 100% growth rate notwithstanding, total industry revenue for 2003-04 was around Rs. 8308 crores. Compared to Rs. 6400 crores that industry grossed in 2002-2003, that is an increase of 30%.

According Economic Times (2005)20Indian mobile phone market is set to surge ahead since urban India has a teledensity of 30 whereas rural India has a teledensity of 1.74. It indicates that the market is on ascent, with more than 85000 villages yet is come under teleconnectivity.

.

Virat Bahri (2006) explains the viewpoint of Sam Pitroda the Chairman of Worldtel that identifies opportunities for investments in telecommunications. He analyses that there is an increasing role for telecom in e-governance in India. According to him, technology can be leveraged to take India’s 74 development to next level.

According to Snyder (2006)23 Communications is a process that allows information to pass between a sender and one or more receiver’s and. the transfer of meaningful information or ideas from one location to a second location. Communications is a human process; humans communicate by sending information between themselves. Whereas, telecommunication is the transmission of data or information over a distance. Tele is a Greek word meaning at a distance, far off. Thus, it classifies smoke signals, semaphore flags, lanterns and signal flares, telegraph systems, televisions, telephones, written letters, and hand signals as capabilities that support

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telecommunications. The problems with these communications forms include reliability, speed of transmission, and comprehension purposes.

According to Rohit Prasad & V.Sridhar (2007)24 this is one of the first such attempt to analyze the tradeoffs between low market power and economics of scale for sustained growth of mobile services in the country. Our analysis of the data on mobile services in India indicates the existence of economies of scale in this sector. We also calculate the upper bound on the optimal number of operators in each license service area so that policies that make appropriate tradeoffs between competition and efficiency can be formulated.

STUDIES RELATED TO TECHNOLOGY UPGRADATION IN TELECOM SECTOR

Uehara (1990); King (1990); Glynn (1992); Mutoh (1994)26 emphasized that technological changes in the telecom and computers have radically changed the business scenario. In turn, the new demands of business have spurred many telecom based technological innovations. In order to exploit these innovations for competing in global markets, business community has been putting pressures on governments to revise the policy, regulation and structure of the telecom sector. Several countries across the world have responded by restructuring the state controlled telecom provider, increasing private participation and deregulating service provisions.

Business Today (1992) pointed out that due to lack of technical and financial resources especially foreign exchange, the DOT generally lagged behind in its level of technology. India’s indigenization program in the switching segment carried out by C-DOT was successful in the introduction of rural exchanges designed especially for Indian conditions characterized by dust, heat and humidity. According to Economic Commission for Europe (2000)28 this transition of the telecommunication area is mainly technology driven. The borderline between computers and electronics, on the one hand, and telecommunications, on the other, is disappearing. This convergence of technologies has led to the acceleration of the innovation process, which

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CHAPTER 3 RESEACH METHODOLOGY

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2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To get an overview of Telecom Industry.

Explore the services and products offered by the telecom service provider to

individual customers.

Understand the perception of the customers with respect to services offered by

telecom service provider.

To study the customer satisfaction and understand the current market scenario

in Telecom Sector.

Conclude and enumerate the innovations required to reduce the misconception

and increase the customer base of telecom service provider.

2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The purpose of research is to discover answers to the questions through the application of

scientific procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which

has not been discovered as yet. Though each research study has its own specific purpose, we may

think of research objectives as falling into a number of following broad categories:

To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it.

To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group.

To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated

with something else.

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various

steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the

logic behind them.

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2.3 RESEARCH DESIGN

Descriptive Research:

Descriptive research, also known as statistical research, describes data and characteristics about

the population or phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research answers the questions who,

what, where, when and how.

The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the best

approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey investigation. Qualitative

research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up with examinations of

why the observations exist and what the implications of the findings are.

Sample

Sample Size: 100

Survey: Questionnaire

2.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Scope of the study is to understand the various services and the products offered by the

Telecom Service provider to the customers and to find out the perception of customers

about the services being offered and the customer expectations.

An effort is also made to suggest some effective measures of raising the customer

satisfaction level to Telecom Service provider.

The study was done taking five telecom service provider into consideration. They are

BSNL, Idea, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance.

The customers chosen for the survey are those who are rendering services of the public or

private sector for reasonable time and therefore are analyzed for their level of satisfaction

about the services being provided to them.

The survey was restricted to the customers in Delhi.

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2.5 METHODOLOGY:

The report aims to assimilate data about the various aspects of telecom services, to analyze the

perceptions of the customers regarding the services offered in Calling and messaging services

and their relative expectations. We have taken 5 Telecom Service providers which represent the

Public and Private telecom Industry in India-

BSNL

Airtel

Vodafone

Idea

Reliance

The criteria for selecting these Telecom Service Provider were their customer base. We have

limited our Service Category to the core services in Telecom and a few specialized services like

3G and mobile banking.

The report is a mixture of Secondary and Primary data, with Questionnaires being our

major instrument to collect primary data.

Major topics we have attempted to cover in this project are to: -

Explore the services and products offered by the Telecom Service Provider to

individual customers.

Understand the perception of the customers with respect to services offered to them.

Study different Growth drivers which act as an effective tool of development in the

Telecom Industry.

2.6 SAMPLING PLAN:

Sampling Unit:

Sampling unit has been done on Grade scale from 1 to 5 for each question.

Sampling Technique:

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The sampling was done by Filling up common questionnaires with 15 questions under

consideration by customers which provide the services of different telecom giants to the

customers.

Sample Size:

The sample size of the customers was 100.

2.7 DATA COLLECTION METHOD:

Secondary Data:

In order to have a proper understanding of the Telecom sector, a depth study was done from the

various sources such as Books like Telecommunication Network by J.E. Hood, Mobile

Communication by Jochen Schiller, Magazines like Alcatel Lucent on mobile and broadband

services were reviewed. A lot of data is also collected from the official websites of the telecom

service providers and the articles from various search engines like Google, yahoo search and

answers.com.

Primary Data:

The primary data was collected by means of a survey. Questionnaires were prepared and

customers were approached to fill up the questionnaires. The questionnaire contains 15 questions

which reflect on the type and quality of services provided by the Telecom sector to the

customers. The filled up information was later analyzed to obtain the required interpretation and

the findings.

2.8 FIELD WORK:

For the customers ‘cold calling’ was the approach employed. The customers coming to the

retailers were approached and as per their convenience and acceptance the questions were put to

them and the answers given by them duly filled up. Here too probing was employed where

deemed necessary.

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CHAPTER 4FINDINGS AND

ANALYSIS OF DATA

ANALYSIS OF DATA

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3.1 SEGMENTS OF TELECOMMUNICATION

Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments: Fixed Service Provider

(FSPs), and Cellular Services. Fixed line services consist of basic services, national or domestic

long distance and international long distance services. The state operators (BSNL and MTNL),

account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from basic services. Private sector services are

presently available in selective urban areas, and collectively account for less than 5 per cent of

subscriptions. However, private services focus on the business/corporate sector, and offer

reliable, high- end services, such as leased lines, ISDN, closed user group and

videoconferencing.

Cellular services can be further divided into two categories:

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

The GSM sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodafone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA

Sector is dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening up of international and domestic

long distance telephony services are the major growth drivers for cellular industry. Cellular

operators get substantial revenue from these services, and compensate them for reduction in

tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the main source of revenue. The reduction in

tariffs for airtime, national long distance, international long distance, and handset prices has

driven demand.

Classification of Telecommunication services

1. Basic services/Fixed line services

2. Cellular services

3. Internet Service Provider (ISP)

The telecom sector has shown robust growth during the past few years. It has also undergone a

substantial change in terms of mobile versus fixed phones and public versus private participation.

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1) Fixed Line Overview:

A monopoly sector controlled by Government until 1996

Today 6 service providers, 2 State Owned, rest private

Subscriber base 40.48 million (September 2011)

Sector growth slowed since mobile tariffs fell

Only 1.83 million subscribers were added in one year (May 2010-May 2011)

Increased competition from CDMA Services

The major players like BSNL, MTNL, and VSNL in the fixed line are coming up with new

tariffs and discount schemes to gain the competitive advantage. The Public Players and the

Private Players share the fixed line and the mobile segments. Currently the Public Players have

more than 60% of the market share.

There were 94.65 million telephony customers added during the year of 2010-11. Indian

telephony has achieved the growth of 53% from 2010 to 2011. Tele-density can be described as

telephones per hundred populations.

In India, fixed line service is firstly run by BSNL/MTNL and after there are several other private

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62

38

PublicPrivate

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players too, such as Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices and Airtel fixed line is facing stiff

competition from mobile telephones. The competition has forced the fixed line services to

become more efficient. The fixed line network quality has improved and connectionsare now

usually available on demand, even in high density urban areas. There were 1.12 million fixed line

subscribers added during March-2010. With this, total 49.42 million fixed line subscribers were

added in March- 2011.

2) Wireless Overview:

29 million GSM, 9 million CDMA subscribers (June 2011)

Both GSM 900 & 1800 present

CDMA operators use 1800 MHz Band

Number portability is missing

Government is yet to make decision on 3G spectrum

India's telecom sector is carved into 23 circles or zones, classified as "metro" and "A", "B" and "C" circles, based on subscriber potential

Unified licensing introduced in 2004

As a part of Unified license policy, 15% of operator revenues go to the government

To operate, each circle requires a different license

Lowest call tariffs in the world -- as low as one Euro cent a minute on average

The Wireless (Mobile and WLL) Market has reached 129.54 million as on 30 thSeptember 2010

against 112.14 million subscribers in the previous quarter. During this quarter, 17.4 million

subscribers were added, thus recording a growth of 15.52%. By the end of March 2011, total wireless

subscribers were increased to 1725.11 lakhs..

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• Cable TV

New technological developments in cable TV networks have made it possible to send data

in both directions via usage of different channels on separate blocks of 6 MHz frequencies,

making Internet access over cable TV a viable solution. Presently, there are 71millions Cable TV

subscribers in India, hence one can assume that this last mile infrastructure reaches more people

than even the copper loop infrastructure (40 millions) and can be leveraged in providing cable

operators with a new business model while giving a stimulus to broadband penetration. However,

this cable TV network requires lot of up-gradation, and, in turn, added cost. In the US and

Canada, the cable TV network is a dominant form of access for broadband services.

• Direct to Home

DTH is another technology that could be used for providing broadband services. At

present, it is being used for TV transmission only; however, it can be utilized as the downlink path

for providing broadband connections. Uplink (connectivity to the ISP equipment/node) shall

have to be through independent connections, may be, through dial up/GPRS/EDGE, but the cost

of the uplink is the main issue to determine success and popularity of this option.

• Satellite

The provision for broadband using satellite is another option but the cost of such a network

is extremely high. Hence, satellite can at best be used in remote and inaccessible hilly areas but

it might not be the most appropriate option where other technologies can provide cheaper

broadband service.

• Fiber Optics

The fiber optics technology can provide unlimited bandwidth and the national long

distance network has major deployment of this technology. This technology has also replaced

the copper network in the intra-city backbone network. The fiber-based models are capable of

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providing a huge amount of bandwidth in the last mile, as well as, provide a true IP and

converged network that can deliver high quality voice, data, and video. Fiber to the Curb (FTTC)

and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks make use of fiber cable into the last mile. Such a

network is quite suitable for providing high- speed broadband services. Some operators have

implemented overlay optical fiber networks in big towns for providing large bandwidths to

industrial and big commercial organizations. However, their initial deployment cost is very high,

mainly due to the high cost of laying the cable.

• Wireless Technology

Wireless network is another option to provide wider broadband access solutions. Initially,

wireless networks were considered a solution for providing telecom facilities to harsh

landscapes and lightly populated areas where it was difficult to provide conventional wire-line

networks, as the cost of wireless networks were comparatively higher. Technological

developments in the wireless facility during the last one- decade have completely changed the

telecom scenario.

Mobile services have taken over the fixed line network on account of reduction in the cost of

the equipment, ease of installation, operation and maintenance, flexibility for service providers,

and convenience to end users. Wherever the penetration of copper loops is not widely spread, the

laying of new copper cables and optical fiber cables is an expensive option due to high cost of

right-of-way and high operational cost. Therefore, wireless-based access is an ideal solution for

widespread last mile coverage through a combination of different technologies like WiMax,

Wi-Fi, etc. These technologies have the added advantage of interoperability and economy of

scale due to international standardization. However, for the deployment of any wireless

technology, suitable and sufficient spectrum availability and its efficient utilization is a must.

• Wireless fidelity

• WiMax

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Wi Max (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a high- speed wireless

technology that supports fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobile access. It is claimed that WiMax

can provide speeds up to 14.4 Mbps and is likely to support much higher speeds with further

advancement. Due to the support for higher speeds, wider coverage and ease of installation,

WiMax is considered one of the most promising technologies to provide high-speed Internet.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND INCENTIVES

An attractive trade and investment policy and lucrative incentives for foreign collaborations

have made India one of the world’s most attractive markets for the telecom equipment

suppliers and service providers.

No industrial license required for setting up manufacturing units for telecom

equipment.

          100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is allowed through automatic route for

manufacturing of telecom equipments.

Payments for royalty, lumpsumfee for transfer of technology and payments for use of

trademark/brand name on the automatic route.

Foreign equity of 74% (49 % under automatic route) permitted for telecom services -

basic, cellular mobile, paging, value added services, NLD, ILD, ISPs - and global

mobile personal communications by satellite.

Full reparability of dividend income and capital invested in the telecom sector. 

3.2NETWORK EXPANSION

The telecom sector has shown robust growth during the past few years. It has also undergone

a substantial change in terms of mobile versus fixed phones and public versus private

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participation.

 

The number of telephones has increased from 54.63 million as on 31.03.2003 to 621.28

million as on 31.03.2010. Wireless subscribers increased from 13.3 million as on 31.03.2003

to 584.32 million as on 31.03.2010. Whereas, the fixed line subscribers decreased from

41.33 million in 31.03.2003 to 36.95 million in 31.03.2010. The broadband subscribers grew

from a meager 0.18 million to 8.76 million as on 31.03.2010. 

INDUSTRY GROWTH DRIVERS

Fixed Line Segment.

Capacity expansion of fixed line exchanges helped consumers avail

Quick connections.

Quick connection availability boosted number of fixed line

Wireless Segment.

Vast geographic expanse of India acted as a catalyst to boost mobility.

Low call costs since 2002 fueled the wireless segment.

Narrowing gap of call costs between fixed and wireless convinced

Customers to subscribe to wireless connections.

Nationwide roaming facilities on GSM.

SMS facility.

Internet + Subscription bundling.

The rationale behind the above segmentation is to identify customers on the basis of their stage

in life and hence to tailor-make schemes for each customer segment. The different segments are

explained as follows:

Youth:-

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Over the years, service providers have started giving greater attention to this segment, as it has

emerged as one of the biggest users of mobile phones. For the youth, mobile phones are not just a

necessity, but rather an indispensable accessory. This segment particularly values prepaid

schemes with free SMS services. It is further differentiated into various micro-segments based

on age and gender. For instance, youngsters in the age group of 19 to 23 years generally have a

large circle of friends and more access to money. Companies thus focus on providing services

like group talk and group SMS to these people. This segment is very dynamic as its needs keep

changing very frequently, driven by the latest trends and fads. For instance, downloading new

ring-tones is the latest fad among the youth today. This is a huge revenue source for service

providers and so they need to keep up with the changing tastes of this segment.

Young Professionals:-

People entering the workforce and thus moving out of the dependent bracket constitute this

market segment. They generally prefer using post paid schemes with value added services like

information about stock markets, news updates and so on.

Small and Medium Enterprise:-

This segment mainly consists of people who are switching over from landlines to mobile

phones, seeking a cost advantage. The focus here is on economy-packages rather than value

added services.

Family:-

Family as a segment consists of more number of dependents. These dependents are serviced

by prepaid schemes. Geographically dispersed families tied by the same cellular service

providers may get cost advantages in terms of lower pulse rates.

Special:-

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The 'Special' category includes a small but growing segment which requires largely customized

services sought by celebrities, politicians, CEOs and the super-rich. Tailor made schemes for each

segment have been a great success so far. This customization, however, has reached such a stage

that every service provider has numerous schemes being provided at the same time. Being short

term schemes, they keep changing frequently and customers thus start switching from one

service provider to another based on the attractiveness of the scheme. This has brought down

customer loyalty and hence service providers are finding it difficult to retain existing customers. It

is estimated that in the near future the plethora of schemes provided by the different service

providers will stop being a differentiating factor.

Market Factors:-

There are basically two market factors which are considered while segmenting the market as

well as deciding the strategic moves for the markets and competition.

1) Strategic Factors

Success Factors:-

It is very important for any company or service provider to stay in the market for a long period

otherwise it will be out of the market and suffer a lot. To taste the success, companies have to

perform well continuously and make their customers happy all the time by proper CRM and

other techniques. Apart from that, there are two types of factors for these companies: (1) shall

have and (2) must have factors.

1. Age Group:

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20-30

30-40

Above 40

20-30

30-40

Above 40

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

No. of Respondents

2. Gender

Male

Female

3. Which type of connection do you prefer?

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68

32

MaleFemale

62

38

Prepaid Postpaid

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Interpretation

Majority customers prefer prepaid connections over postpaid connection. Out of total

sample 62% people prefer using prepaid connection rather than postpaid connection.

4. Which technology do you prefer?

GSM (Global Sim Module)

CDMA (Code division Multiple Access)

Both

Interpretation

53

62

38

Prepaid Postpaid

69

26

5

GSMCDMABoth

Page 54: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

As per the data, it can be analyzed that in spite of tough competitions between GSM and CDMA

service providers, the GSM has earned a huge market share with 69%. There are only 5%

people who are willing to use both the technologies. Only 26 % people prefer CDMA which is

very less compared to the level of competition and GSM's market share

5. Whose service(s) you are rendering now?

Interpretation

Through the above analysis, we can easily find out that majority of the customers prefer

Vodafone, but in 26% customers prefer Airtel as their preferred connection. Vodafone is clear

winner whereas customer preference of Reliance is very low. Data shows that BSNL still has

its presence and it is still preferred by the customers because of different schemes like Vidyarthi

plan, low call rates etc.

6. How long have you been using this connection of your service provider?

54

13

26

30

20

92

BSNLAIRTELVodafoneIDEARELIANCEOthers

Page 55: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

< 3 months

3-6 months

6-12 months

> 1 year

Interpretation

From the above analysis, it can be found that, 42% of the total people have kept their connection

for more than a year period. Whereas, only 18% of the total people prefer to keep the existing

connection for 3-6 months. The graph also reveals that more the duration is, more people prefer

to keep the existing connection.

7. What is the satisfaction level of your service provider?

Very Bad

55

< 3 months 3-6 months 6-12 months > 1 year0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

12

18

28

42

Page 56: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Bad

Satisfactory

Good

Very Good

Very bad Bad Satisfactory Good Very Good0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

4

13

42

26

15

Interpretation

Customers' satisfaction plays a crucial role for the service providers. 42% people found the

services provided by their service provider satisfactory, whereas 15% of the people find their

services very good and are happy to be their current service provider. Though, there are also

people who are not happy with their connections.

8. Are you aware of role of telecom services in providing broadband without

using cable TV network?

5639

61

YesNo

Page 57: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Interpretation

As per the findings and from the above chart, it can be found out that people are not much aware

of the broadband services without using cable TV network. 69.54% people are unaware of this

facility and only 31.27% people are aware of it.

9. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider?

Price Voice Quality Network Good Services0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35 32

12

35

21

Interpretation

As per the research, people ofthe city are more inclined towards network of their service

providers followed by prices offered by service providers. Here, the price not only includes

amount of the pre-paid or post-paid connection but it also includes different schemes, tariff plans

etc. As per the data, almost 35% of the sample selected prefer network as a priority than the other

features. Customers are mainly looking for the money's worth so price is a second highest factor

for them.

10. How much do you spend per month on your mobile connection?

57

39

61

YesNo

Page 58: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Upto 500

501-1000

1001-1500

More than 1500

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

12

27

40

21

29

44

18

9

PrepaidPostpaid

Interpretation

Spending pattern is also another criterion which is crucial for any telecom service providers.

Customers' spending habits ultimately help in deciding their loyalty towards the product. For

example, if a customer frequently spends money on the same product then it shows that he

prefers to buy that product than other products which ultimately leads to his loyalty towards that

brand.

Maximum spending is between Rs. 501- Rs.1000 ranges, done by 43.71% of the total Postpaid

connection users out of surveyed people. Whereas, the lowest spending is in the range of above

Rs. 1500 by 8.9% people. Whereas, in case of Pre-paid connections, highest spending is done up

to Rs. 500-1000 which is done by 72.22% of the total surveyed people and the lowest is in the

range of more than Rs. 1500 which is done only by 8-9% people. Here, it can be also seen the

usage difference in the range of Rs. 501- Rs. 1000.

11. How do you find the behavior of customer care executives of your service

provider?

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Page 59: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Professional Warm & Helpful Lazy and Slow No responding0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

5047

27

16

10

Interpretation

Acceptance or rejection of any product is largely depended on the services provided by the

customer care which is also known as after sales service or Customer Relationship Management

(CRM). If a company provides better services to the customer by solving their queries, it can be

successful to retain them. Similarly, in case of the telecom service providers play a major role to

retain customers by solving their problems. As per the survey, it was found that around 47% of

the surveyed people find the executives are professional and prompt in their approach and only

16% customers feel that they are lazy and slow in their approach and % customers are not happy

with the services which means customer care executives are not responding to them properly.

12. What do you think about the competition in the market?

233

52

13

No ChoiceSome ChoiceEnough ChoiceCan't say

Interpretation

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Page 60: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

There is a huge competition in the market in today's scenario. Many companies try to gain as

many customers as they can by providing them different schemes and try to retain the existing

customers with the same. So competition is an important factor and plays an important role to

earn more market share.

13. Rate the following attributes of your service provider.

1. Customer Care

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0

102030405060708090

100

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

Interpretation

60

  Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNLReliance

Very Poor 2 2 4 12 9Poor 2 4 9 32 11Average 7 5 41 28 19Good 20 35 19 11 29Very Good 69 54 27 17 32

Page 61: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

As per the survey conducted and its findings, it was concluded that Airtel is leader in

maintaining a good relations with its customers and it solves customers' problems efficiently and

effectively. It has got the highest preference by the customers with 69%, followed by Vodafone

with 54%. The lowest preference is of BSNL. Its customer care is not as good as the other

players in the market, as per the findings. It is preferred by only 17% customers

2) Per call charges:

2.1) ISD (International Subscriber Dialing)

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNLReliance

Very Poor 6 9 12 9 20Poor 12 19 29 11 29Average 23 22 28 27 21Good 30 27 14 25 14Very Good 29 23 17 28 16

Interpretation

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Page 62: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

As per the findings, it was concluded that, once again Airtel's ISD charges are very good

compared to the other operators. 29% people think that it has very good ISD charges, followed

by BSNL and Vodafone having 28% and 23% preference respectively. The poorest ISD call

charges are of Reliance which is voted by 20% people. Among the average category, highest is

28% of Idea which means 28% customers feel that Idea has an average ISD call charges.

2.2) STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing)

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNLReliance

Very Poor 12 7 9 6 14Poor 15 9 16 14 13Average 19 31 26 12 29Good 24 25 27 31 26Very Good 30 28 22 37 18

Interpretation

As the graph shows, it can be said that STD call charges are very good in case of BSNL, 37%

people prefer that, followed by Airtel and Vodafone which is preferred by 30% and 28.66%

customers respectively. In case of very poor category, Reliance is having the poorest STD call

rates with 14.02% customers' preference.

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3) Message Service

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNLReliance

Very Poor 6 5 11 13 10Poor 11 15 17 32 31Average 31 21 34 12 25Good 22 23 12 19 14Very Good 30 36 26 24 20

Interpretation

From the survey, the information related to message service was found and it was concluded that

Vodafone provides the best messaging services to its customers and it is preferred by 36.20%

customers, followed by Airtel with 30.41% customer preference. In case of the poorest message

service, BSNL is rated highest with 13.89% customers, followed by Idea with 11.63%. There is

very close rating in very poor section. Reliance is just behind Idea with 10.11% rating. In case of

average rating, Idea is at the top place with 33.91% customer preference, followed by Airtel with

31.01% ratings.

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4) Network

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNLReliance

Very Poor 4 2 9 13 13Poor 7 6 11 17 19Average 14 16 24 28 27Good 43 29 22 18 21Very Good 32 47 34 24 20

Interpretation

As per the findings on the basis of this attribute, it was found that Vodafone has very good

network coverage with 47% rating, followed by Ideawith 34.24% rating. It shows very close

competition for network. BSNL got this higher average rating because according to the survey,

people also take roaming network into consideration and on the basis of that it was found that.

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5) Schemes

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  AirtelVodafone Idea BSNL

Reliance

Very Poor 6 7 11 4 6Poor 12 9 21 18 14Average 37 29 21 22 17Good 19 23 24 29 29Very Good 26 32 23 27 34

Interpretation

As the graph shows, the customers' preferences in case of service providers' different schemes

are maximum in case of Vodafone for its new schemes related to -- as per the customers'

responses and findings. Airtel is rated highest among the average category with 37% customer

preference. Here, the graph also shows that there is a close competition between BSNL and

Reliance in case of good rating category because of its cheap schemes related to talk time and

validity. Vodafone is just behind Reliance with 32% rating.

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6) Talk time and Validity

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNLReliance

Very Poor 3 7 5 4 5Poor 15 9 10 12 10Average 18 19 31 20 28Good 28 29 26 23 26Very Good 36 36 28 41 31

Interpretation

Customers' choices differ from area to area. Here,it was found from the gathered information that

BSNL has got very good talk time and validity. In spite of the close competition, BSNL has

leaded the market with 41% customers' preferences, followed by Airtel and Vodafone with

35.70% and 36% ratings respectively. In case of the average customers' preferences, Idea is a

leader with 31% ratings followed by Reliance with 28% customer ratings.

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Page 67: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

7) Value Added Services (VAS)

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  AirtelVodafone Idea BSNL

Reliance

Very Poor 3 4 10 11 10Poor 2 7 7 22 18Average 17 14 25 24 21Good 37 32 27 19 25Very Good 41 43 31 24 26

Interpretation

As the above graph clearly depicts that extra benefits i.e. VAS are very well provided by

Vodafone with 43.06% followed by Airtel with 41% customers' preference. There is a tough

competition between Vodafone and Airtel in the market. But the poorest and the lowest VAS are

provided by BSNL as per the customers' preferences survey. It has the highest rating i.e. the

poorest rating of 11%. The average VAS preferred by the customers is of Idea which has the

rating of 25%.

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Page 68: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

8) Availability:

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  AirtelVodafone Idea BSNL

Reliance

Very Poor 5 4 3 7 8Poor 7 7 6 10 12Average 12 10 33 13 29Good 32 33 27 31 23Very Good 42 46 31 39 28

Interpretation

As the above graph reveals, the very good availability of the telecom brand is Vodafone having

45% customers' ratings. Airtel is at the second place with the minor difference of 42%. There is a

tough competition going on among Vodafone, Airtel and BSNL in case of availability as per the

data gathered. The average availability is of Idea with 33% followed by Reliancewith 29%. Very

poor availability is of Reliance. It has got 8% customers' ratings.

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Page 69: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

9) Billing system:

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  AirtelVodafone Idea BSNL

Reliance

Very Poor 2 3 2 11 6Poor 6 5 6 16 14Average 15 20 27 23 24Good 36 33 28 22 25Very Good 41 39 37 28 31

Interpretation

As the above graph shows, the billing system is very good of Airtel with 41% customer

preferences followed by 39% of Vodafone. As it can be seen from the graph that all the operators

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Page 70: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

10) Voice clarity:

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very GoodGoodAveragePoorVery Poor

Percentage Breakup

  AirtelVodafone Idea BSNL

Reliance

Very Poor 3 2 4 8 6Poor 5 4 3 14 10Average 11 12 23 18 19Good 37 33 31 29 31Very Good 44 49 39 31 34

Interpretation

From the survey conducted and from the above graph, it was concluded that voice clarity is

much better of Vodafone which is rated highest having 49% customers' preferences. At the

second place, it is Airtel with 44% rating. The average quality of voice clarity is of Idea with

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Page 71: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

23% ratings. Voice clarity of Reliance and BSNL got low customer preference as compared to

others. BSNL has the poorest voice clarity and rated as the worst operator by 8% people.

FINDINGS

There is a huge competition in the market in today's scenario. Many companies try to gain as

many customers as they can by providing them different schemes and try to retain the existing

customers with the same. So competition is an important factor and plays an important role to

earn more market share.

As per the survey, it was found from this question that there are only 2% customers who do not

have any choice to choose their service providers and change them if they are not satisfied with

their services and facilities. But 33% customers said that they have some choice and 52% said

that they have enough choice for the same. But 13% customers were in dilemma and were no

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Page 72: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

3.3CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The telecom sector has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy in thepast

4 years. This has been witnessed due to strong competition that has brought downtariffs as well

as simplification of policy environment that has promoted healthy competition among various

players.

The mobile sector alone has been growing rapidly and has emerged as the fastest growingmarket

in the whole worlds. Currently of a size nearing 70 million (GSM and CDMA), thissector is

expected to reach a size of nearly 300 million subscribers by financial year 2013.The

government has eased the rules regarding inter circle and intra circle mergers. This hasled to a

slew of mergers and acquisitions in the recent past. Also as the sector is movingcloser to

maturity, further consolidation is a reality and this will lead to the survival of moreprofitable

players in this segment.

In order to further promote the use of Internet in the country the government is takingproactive

steps to develop this sector with the help of the various players in this segment.For this purpose,

the use of broadband technology is being mooted and this will go a longway in improving the

productivity of the Indian economy as well as turn out to be the nextbig opportunity for telecom

companies after the mobile communications segmentNon-voice services and VAS are the gold

72

Page 73: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

mines. The big takeoff is expected with the rolloutof 3G services in early 2012, once the

spectrum issues are sorted out.

Internet users base fast reaching near the English speaking population base. Local languageand

content required for further growth Infrastructure equipment cost is down to a fraction of what

prevailed just a few years ago.Operators can plan better expansion plan nowIncreased viability

for the operators to expand to semi-urban and rural markets, hence,accelerate growth furtherIt’s

not without reason that India is tipped to be the world’s third-largest economy by 2050!

CHAPTER 5

73

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CONCLUSIONS

IMPLICATIONS AND

RECOMADATIONS

CONCLUSION

IDEA IS THE BEST SORCE OF NETWORK CONNECTION

74

Page 75: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian wireless telecom company based in Mumbai,

India. Idea is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India, in revenue terms, and recorded of

over 98.4 million customers as of August 2011.

IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on BSE & NSE in March 2007. It is

the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India with wireless revenue market share at 13.9 % in

Q1 FY2012. Idea has joined the select global operator’s club servicing over 100 million

subscribers, as of September 2011. Idea is a pan-India integrated GSM operator and has its own

NLD and ILD operations, and ISP license.

 With traffic in excess of a billion minutes a day, Idea ranks among the Top 10 country operators

in the world. Idea operates across all 22 service areas with 2G services, and 3G services are

being progressively rolled out to cover over 3,000 towns by FY 2012.

 

Idea has a network of over 70,000 cell sites covering the entire length and breadth of the country.

Idea has over 3,000 Service Centres servicing Idea subscribers across the country, including 450

special Experience Zones for 3G promotion. Idea’s service delivery platform is ISO 9001:2008

certified, making it the only operator in the country to have this standard certification for all 22

service areas and the corporate office.

 Idea’s strong growth in the Indian telephony market comes from its deep penetration in non-

urban & rural markets. It has the highest share of rural subscribers as a percentage of total

subscribers, amongst other GSM players. In fact, 2 out of every 3 new Idea subscribers come

from rural/ semi-urban India. Idea Cellular Limited (IDEA Cellular) is a mobile services operator

in India. Idea is a pan-India integrated global system for mobile communication (GSM) operator

and has its own national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) operations.

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company.

75

Page 76: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

The Company provides mobile services in all 22 service areas of India. The Company operates

in two business segments: Mobility Services and Long Distance. Mobility Services provide GSM

based mobile and related telephony services. Long Distance provides national and international

long distance services. In March, 2011, the Company launched its 3G services and same is

extended to 9 out of these 11 service areas. On January 20, 2011, the Company launched mobile

number portability (MNP), an invite to all Indian mobile customers to change their wireless

operator, while retaining their mobile number.

IMPLICATIONS

The telecom sector has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy in thepast

4 years. This has been witnessed due to strong competition that has brought downtariffs as well

as simplification of policy environment that has promoted healthy competition among various

players. The mobile sector alone has been growing rapidly and has emerged as the fastest

growingmarket in the whole worlds. Currently of a size nearing 70 million (GSM and CDMA),

thissector is expected to reach a size of nearly 300 million subscribers by financial year

2013.The government has eased the rules regarding inter circle and intra circle mergers. This

76

Page 77: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

hasled to a slew of mergers and acquisitions in the recent past. Also as the sector is

movingcloser to maturity, further consolidation is a reality and this will lead to the survival of

moreprofitable players in this segment.

No wonder if it happens much earlierInvestors can look to capture the gains of the Indian

telecom boom and diversify theiroperations outside developed economies that are marked by

saturated telecom markets andlower GDP growth rates.At a time when global telecom majors

are struggling to cope with their losses and the rolloutof 3G networks, which has been a non-

starter for close to a year now; India, with its telecomsuccess story, represents an attractive and

lucrative destination for investment.

According to the study done on Customer perception of Telecom Sector. It has been concluded

that

Vodafone and Airtel cover the maximum amount of market share. The reason for

having such positive customer perception is due to the service quality and

network service, for which customers demand and expect the most.

The study reveals that BSNL has been a major player in Telecom Sector but due

to the new and fresh entrants in the Telecom market, the market position of BSNL

has decreased. From the leader to loser, If the same trend continues in the next

few years than we can see death of this giant company.

Idea has been a consistent player but it still needs to backup to capture more

market by enhancing its services and quality.

Reliance is one of the leading Telecom Service providers which provide CDMA

technology to its customers. New schemes like free talk-time on the same

77

Page 78: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

network has led Reliance to make sustainable development in the market. It has to

come up with more services to compete with the major players of GSM like

Vodafone and Airtel.

RECOMMENDATIONS

On the basis of the primary research and secondary research, the following recommendations can

be concluded:

Lowering the tariff plans of service providers will increase morecompetition.

In order to allow technological up gradation, segment policies should be technology-neutral,

and not specifically prescriptive.

Resolve spectrum allocation and create need-based licensing of spectrum bandwidth to

facilitate the policy of unlimited new entrants in basic services.

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Page 79: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Pass rules on number portability (service migration) to allow free market conditions for

fixed line customers, without taxing new entrants or consumers for moving away from a

monopoly service provider.

Bringing more up gradation in VAS for the betterment of the users.

Improvement of network infrastructure in both the urban and the rural areas.

Reducing the call rates for the users.

More FDI inflows can be enhanced.

More Direct To Home (DTH) services will give benefits to the customers.

CDMA technology providers i.e. TATA and Reliance are slowly coping up with the

competition with GSM operations which gives a good benefit to the end users. These

operators should also indulge into providing various services.

The above recommendations for customer's satisfaction can be shown from the chart

below:

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Page 80: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

After talking to customer care executives of telecom sector, the following recommendations can

be concluded as a part of their strategies for acquiring or retaining new customers:

The telecom operators should take less time for solving customer’s queries.

Majority of the operators focus on the special occasions to launch new schemes but they

can also be advised to launch new schemes on weekly or monthly basis to attract new

customers.

TV media is more effective for the operators as per the findings. But they should also

focus on radio and newspapers for more effectiveness.

Customer care executives should concentrate more on pre-paid connections for the price

sensitive customers and post- paid connections for business class people. They should

use their media tools accordingly.

They should concentrate more on the attributes like talk-time facility, network, voice

clarity etc. apart from SMS, VAS and other schemes.

They should focus more VAS like GPRS facilities, games, astrology and music for

young people and business news for business people.

Telecom service provider should also focus on pilot projects before launching a product

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Page 81: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

or service specially in case of rural areas

REFRENCESREFRENCESBooks:

1. C.R.Kothari, “Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques”, 2nd Edition.

2. J.E. Hood, “Telecommunication Network”, 2nd Edition.

3. Jochen Schiller, “Mobile Communication”, 2nd Edition.

4. Naresh K. Malhotra, Satyabhushan Dash, “ Marketing Research”, 5th Edition, Pearson

Education.

Web links:

1. http://www.bsnl.co.in/company/result2010/AR%202009-10.pdf

2. http://mp.bsnl.co.in/course_material/e1e2/finance

3. http://www.trai.gov.in/Default.asp

4. www.bsnl.co.in

5. www.airtel.in

6. www.dot.gov.in/osp/Brochure/Brochure.htm

7. www.ideacellular.com

8. www.investopedia.com

9. www.telecomnewsindia.com/2011/.../national-telecom-policy-2011-p

10. http://www.financialexpress.com/news/airtel_brand_promotion_in_india

11.http://www.cci.in/pdf/surveys_reports/indias_telecom_sector.pdf

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Page 82: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Reports and Publications:

1. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Annual Report 2010-11.

2.DoT (Department Of Telecommunication), Annual Report 201

ANNEXUREThis survey is conducted for the purpose of finding out the feasibility of the telecomservice providers and to find out the customer perception.

Name -----------------------

Occupation -----------------------

Designation ----------------------

Q1. Age Group 20-30 30-40 Above 40

Q2. Gender M F

Q3. Which type of connection do you prefer?

Postpaid - Prepaid

Q4. Which technology do you prefer?

GSM (Global Service for Mobile)

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

Both

Q5. Whose service(s) are you rendering now?

Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL Reliance Others

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Page 83: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Q6. How long have you been using this service provider?

Less than 3 months

3-6 months

6-12 months

More than 1 year

Q7. Rate your satisfaction level of your service provider?

Very bad Bad Satisfactory Good Very Good

Q8. Are you aware of role of telecom services in providing broadband without using cable TV network?

Yes No

Q9. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider?

Price Voice Clarity Network Good Services

Q10How much do you spend per month on mobile connection?

upto Rs 500

Rs. 501 -1000

1001-1500

More than 1500

Q11How do you find the behavior of customer care executives of your service provider?

Professional Warm and Helpful Lazy No response

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Page 84: Comparative analysis of various companies of telecom industry

Q12 What do you think about the competition in the market?

No choice Some choice enough choice Can’t Say

Q13. Given a choice with same number, which service provider will you select?

BSNL Airtel Idea Vodafone Reliance None of them

Q14. How will you rate the following attributes of your service provider?

No. Attributes Very good Good Average Poor V poor1 Customer care2 Per call charges

ISDSTD

3 Message Service4 Network5 Schemes6 Talk time7 Value added

service8 Availability9 Billing System

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85