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INTRODUCTION 

Communication in India India's telecommunication network is the second largest in theworld based on the total number of telephone users (both fixedand mobile phone). It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the worldenabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-competitionamong them. It has the world's third-largest Internet user-basewith over 137 million as of June 2012. Major sectors of the Indiantelecommunication industry are telephony, internet and televisionbroadcasting. 

TelephonyThe telephony segment is dominated by private-sector and twostate-run businesses. Most companies were formed by a recentrevolution and restructuring launched within a decade, directed by

ministry of telecommunication and IT, department of telecommunication and ministry of finance. Since then, mostcompanies gained 2G, 3G and 4G licenses and engaged fixed-line, mobile and internet business in India. On landlines, intra-circle calls are considered local calls while inter-circle areconsidered long distance calls. Foreign Direct Investment policywhich increased the foreign ownership cap from 49% to 74%.Currently Government is working to integrate the whole country in

one telecom circle. For long distance calls, the area code prefixedwith a zero is dialed first which is then followed by the number (i.e.To call Delhi, 011 would be dialed first followed by the phonenumber). For international calls, "00" must be dialed first followedby the country code, area code and local phone number . Thecountry code for India is 91. Several international fiber-optic links

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include those to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, andGermany. Some major telecom operators in India include Airtel,Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications,TATA Teleservices, Infotel, MTS, Uninor, TATA DoCoMo,

Videocon, Augere, Tikona Digital. 

Fixed Telephony Until the New Telecom Policy was announced in 1999, only theGovernment-owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provideland-line phone services through copper wire in India withMTNL operating in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL servicing allother areas of the country. Due to the rapid growth of the cellular 

phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition fromcellular operators. This has forced land-line service providers tobecome more efficient and improve their quality of service. Land-line connections are now also available on demand, even in highdensity urban areas. India has over 31 million main linecustomers.

Mobile Telephony 

In August 1995, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri JyotiBasu ushered in the cellphone revolution in India by making thefirst call to Union Telecom Minister Sukhram. Sixteen years later 4th generation services were launched in Kolkata. With a subscriber base of more than 929 million, the Mobiletelecommunications system in India is the second largest in theworld and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s.GSM was comfortably maintaining its position as the dominantmobile technology with 80% of the mobile subscriber market, butCDMA seemed to have stabilized its market share at 20% for thetime being. By May 2012 the country had 929 million mobilesubscribers, up from 350 million just 40 months earlier. Themobile market was continuing to expand at an annual rate inexcess of 40% coming into 2010. 

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 According to data provided by Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora, as of 30 November 2012,India has 7,36,654 base transceiver stations (2G GSM & CDMA, and3G). Of those, 96,212 base transceiver stations provide 3G

mobile and data services. Out of India's 640 districts, 610 districtsare covered by 3G services as of 30 November 2012. The country is divided into multiple zones, called circles (roughlyalong state boundaries). Government and several private playersrun local and long distance telephone services. Competition hascaused prices to drop and calls across India are one of thecheapest in the world. The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by the Information Ministry. In

September 2004, the number of mobile phone connectionscrossed the number of fixed-line connections and presentlydwarfs the wire line segment by a ratio of around 20:1. Themobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundredand thirty, from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 929 millionsubscribers as of May 2012. India primarily followsthe GSM mobile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent operatorsalso operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant playersare Airtel, Reliance Infocomm,Vodafone, Ideacellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller players, withoperations in only a few states. International roaming agreementsexist between most operators and many foreign carriers. Thegovernment allowed Mobile number portability (MNP) whichenables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephonenumbers when changing from one mobile network operator toanother. India is divided into 22 telecom circles: 

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Background of AIRTEL 

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is anIndian telecommunications services company headquarteredat New Delhi, India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia,

 Africa and the Channel Islands. Airtel has GSM network in allcountries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4G servicesdepending upon the country of operation. Airtel is theworld's fourth largest mobile telecommunications company withover 261 million subscribers across 20 countries as of August2012. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 183.61million subscribers as of November 2012. Airtel is the third largest

in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind ChinaMobile and China Unicom. 

 Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and secondlargest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers itstelecom services under the airtel brand, and is headed by SunilBharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom serviceprovider to achieve Cisco Gold Certification. It also acts as a

carrier for national and international long distance communicationservices. The company has a submarine cable landing station atChennai, which connects the submarine cableconnecting Chennai and Singapore.

 Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategyof outsourcing all of its business operations exceptmarketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutesfactory' model of low cost and high volumes. Several

operators have since copied the strategy. Its network — 

basestations, microwave links, etc. — is maintainedby Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei, and businesssupport is provided by IBM, and transmission towers aremaintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. inIndia). Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid by the

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minute for installation and maintenance of their equipmentrather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel toprovide low call rates of 1/minute(US$0.02/minute). During the last financial year (2009 – 10),

Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner  Alcatel-Lucent tomanage the network infrastructure for the tele-mediabusiness. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded thethree-year contract to  Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an InternetProtocol access network (mobile backhaul) across thecountry. This would help consumer’s access internet atfaster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobilehandset

Sunil Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in anagreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-buttontelephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Mittalincorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his companybecame the first in India to offer push-button telephones,establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s,Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines andits first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a

cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Mittal incorporated thecellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched servicein Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to HimachalPradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JTHoldings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and

 Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of SkycellCommunications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquiredcontrol of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchangeand National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phoneoperations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004,Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. Thisexpansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India. In

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2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in SriLanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of theKuwait based Zain Telecom.In March 2012; Airtel launched amobile operation in Rwanda. 

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Background of

VODAFONE Vodafone Group Plc is a British multinational telecommunicationscompany headquartered in London and with its registered officein Newbury, Berkshire. It is the world's second-largest mobiletelecommunications company measured by both subscribers and2011 revenues (in each case behind China Mobile), and had 439million subscribers as of December 2011. Vodafone owns and operates networks in over 30 countriesand has partner networks in over 40 additionalcountries. Its Vodafone Global Enterprise division providestelecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65 countries. Vodafone also owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, thelargest mobile telecommunications company in the UnitedStates measured by subscribers.Vodafone has a primary listing on the London StockExchange and is a constituent of theFTSE 100 Index. It hada market capitalisation of approximately £89.1 billion as of 6

 July 2012, the third-largest of any company listed on theLondon Stock Exchange. It has a secondary listingon NASDAQ. The name Vodafone comes from voice data fone, chosen by thecompany to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones.” The evolution of 'Vodafone' brand started in 1982 with theestablishment of 'Racal Strategic Radio Ltd' subsidiary of  Racal

Electronics plc - UK's largest maker of military radio technology.The same year, Racal Strategic Radio Ltd formed a joint venturewith Millicom  called 'Racal Vodafone', which would later evolveinto the present day Vodafone.

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On 28 July 2000, the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group plc. In April 2001, the first 3G voice callwas made on Vodafone United Kingdom's 3G network.In 2001, the Company acquired Eircell, the largest wireless

communications company in Ireland, fromeircom. Eircell wassubsequently rebranded as Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone thenwent on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone,which had introduced camera phones first in Japan.On 17 December 2001, Vodafone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks", by signing TDC Mobile of Denmark. The newconcept involved the introduction of Vodafone internationalservices to the local market, without the need of investment by

Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafonebrand and services into markets where it does not have stakes inlocal operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under thedual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at theend of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.)In 2005, Vodafone entered into a title sponsorship deal withthe McLaren Formula One team, which has since tradedas Vodafone McLaren Mercedes .In May 2011, Vodafone Group Plc bought the rest of the sharesof  Vodafone Essar from Essar Group Ltd with value of $5 billionand became a solely owned of Vodafone Essar. In April 2012, Vodafone announced an agreement toacquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04billion. Vodafone was advised by UBS AG, while Barclays and Rothschild advised Cable & Wireless. Theacquisition will give Vodafone access to CWW's fiber network for businesses, enabling it to take unified communications solutions

to large enterprises in UK and globally; and expand its enterpriseservice offerings in emerging markets. On 18 June 2012, Cable &Wireless' shareholders voted in favors of the Vodafone offer,exceeding the 75% of shares necessary for the deal to go ahead.

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Significance of Airtel 

The unprecedented growth in the mobile is, perhaps, the most vivid facetof India’s economic transformation since the mid 1990’s. Mobile

technology and services came to India less than a decade ago. In theearly days, a mobile was seen to be a fashion statement for the rich.Today, it is expected as a basic communication medium for all socio-economic segments. As the pioneer and front runner, Airtel has beeninstrumental in leading and ushering in the mobile revolution in India.The Indian mobile market is, today, amongst the fastest growing and themost competitive in the world. Cellular Mobile Telephone Subscriberbase has increased from 471.73 million in September 2009 to 525.09million in December 2009, Airtel commands nearly 23% of the share of the market- making is the number one brand in the country. Airtel’s

world class service and innovative products have enabled it to establishthis position of leadership.

Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India operated by

Bharti Airtel.Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-VenturesLimited (BTVL) is among India's largest mobile phone and FixedNetwork operators. With more than 40 million subscriptions, thecompany is one of the world's fastest growing telecom companies. Itoffers its mobile services under the Airtel brand and is headed by SunilMittal, India's sixth richest man with a total worth of US$10 billion. Thecompany is the only GSM operator to provide mobile services in all the23 circles in India. The company also provides telephone services and

Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company complements itsmobile, broadband & telephone services with national and internationallong distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landingstation at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connectingChennai and Singapore. The company provides reliable end-to-end dataand enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its

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nationwide fibre optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line andmobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access throughthe gateways and landing station. Airtel is the largest cellular serviceprovider in India in terms of number of subscribers.

Significance of Vodafone In 1992, Hutchison Whampoa and its Indian business partner  – Max Group, established a company that in 1994 was awarded alicence to provide mobile telecommunications services in Mumbaiand launched commercial services as Hutchison Max in

November 1995. In Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan andHaryana, Essar Group was the major partner. But later Hutch tookthe majority stake. By the time of Hutchison Telecom's Initial Public Offering in 2004,Hutchison Whampoa had acquired interests in six mobiletelecommunications operators providing service in 13 of India's 23licence areas and following the completion of the acquisition of BPL Mobile that number increased to 16. In 2006, it announcedthe acquisition of a company (Essar Spacetel — A subsidiary of 

Essar Group) that held licence applications for the sevenremaining licence areas. Initially, the company grew its business in the largest wirelessmarkets in India — in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. Inthese densely populated urban areas it was able to establish arobust network, well-known brand and large distribution network – all vital to long-term success in India. Then it also targetedbusiness users and high-end post-paid customers which helped

Hutchison Essar to consistently generate a higher   AverageRevenue Per User  (ARPU) than its competitors. By adopting thisfocused growth plan, it was able to establish leading positions inIndia's largest markets providing the resources to expand itsfootprint nationwide. 

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In February 2007, Hutchison Telecom announced that it hadentered into a binding agreement with a subsidiary of VodafoneGroup Plc to sell its 67% direct and indirect equity and loaninterests in Hutchison Essar Limited for a total cash consideration

(before costs, expenses and interests) of approximately $11.1billion. Hutch was often praised for its award winning advertisementswhich all follow a clean, minimalist look. A recurrent theme is thatits message "Hi" stands out visibly though it uses only whiteletters on red background. Another successful ad campaign in2003 featured a pug named Cheeka following a boy around inunlikely places, with the tagline, "Wherever you go, our network

follows." The simple yet powerful advertisement campaigns won itmany admirers. Ads featuring the pug were continued byVodafone even after rebranding. The brand subsequentlyintroduced ZooZoos which gained even higher popularity thanwas created by the Pug. Vodafone's creative agency is O&Mwhile Harit Nagpal was the Marketing Director during the variousphases of its brand evolution. 

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Comparative analysis of 

Airtel and vodafone Innovation: The services provided by Vodafone are absolutely fantasticand one gets full network wherever he goes. Even in the remotest areasVodafone has full network where other service provider hardly have anynetwork. The schemes which are provided by Vodafone are Pro-active innature i.e. he does not wait for something to happen but instead makesthing happen.

How Airtel can respond (benchmark): First up he must improve his network. He must have as many network tower as possible and go even in the remotest areas and have his network there too. He must come up with schemes which no other serviceprovider is providing and become pro-active. At present Airtel is Re-active in nature i.e. he waits for other companies to come up withsomething new and then he follows him.