PROJECT REPORT
ON
STUDY OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION FOR
BHARTI AIRTEL WITH RELATION TO
LUCKNOW
Towards partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Business
Administration (2014-2015)
Under Guidance of: Submitted by:
Dr. SANJAY SRIVASTAV ABHILASH OJHA
FACULTY SCM (MBA IV SEM)
Roll no. ____________
SHERWOOD COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT
INDIRA NAGAR, LUCKNOW
DECLARATION
I do hereby declare that the research report titled “STUDY OF CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION FOR BHARTI AIRTEL WITH RELATION TO LUCKNOW”
submitted by me in partial fulfillment of the requirement of Master of Business
Administration, exclusively prepared and conceptualized by me and is not submitted to any
other Institution or University or published anywhere before for the reward of any
Degree/Diploma/Certificate. It is the Original work of mine and has not been obtained from
any other part.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Accomplishment of tasks and objective is achieved by guidance and blessings of elders,
teachers, nears and dears and of course by the grace of Almighty. I completed summer
training project on the topic of “STUDY OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION FOR
BROADBAND CONNECTION IN BHARTI AIRTEL WITH RELATION TO
LUCKNOW”. It is a great opportunity for me to register my acknowledgements to all of
them.
I wish to acknowledge my deep sense of gratitude to _____________________ Faculty of
Management & Research And to all, faculty of MBA Department for accomplishment of
this project report as well as for every sphere pertaining to successful occupation of this
course.
Finally, I pay my regards to all, who directly or indirectly helped in collection, compilation,
editing and other related works for accomplishment of this project study.
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PREFACE
The project is an extensive report on strategies used by Airtel in prepaid sim and how the
company has been able in tackling the present tough competition and how it is coping up by
the allegations of the quality of its products. The report begins with the history of the
products and the introduction of the Airtel Company. This report also contains the detail of
Airtel Prepaid services and features that are used by the Airtel subscribers in Lucknow, Uttar
Pradesh East circle.
The report includes some of the key salient features of market trend issues. In today’s world
of cutthroat fierce competition, it is very essential to not only exist but also to excel in the
market. Today’s market is enormously more complex. Hence forth, to survive in the market,
the company not only needs to maximize its profit but also needs to satisfy its customers and
should try to build upon from there.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
COMPANY PROFILE
SWOT ANALYSIS
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
DATA ANALYSIS
FINDINGS
LIMITATIONS
CONCLUSION
SUGGESTION & RECOMMENDATION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
QUESTIONANNAIRE
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INTRODUCTION
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7
8
COMPANY PROFILE
9
COMPANY PROFILE
Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian
multinational telecommunication
s services company
headquartered in New Delhi,
India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands. Airtel
provides GSM, 3G and 4G LTE mobile services, fixed line broadband and voice services
depending upon the country of operation. It is the largest cellular service provider in India,
with 192.22 million subscribers as of August 2013. Airtel is the largest mobile operator in
South Asia and the fourth largest in the world by subscriber base.
Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business
operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes factory' model of
low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been adopted by several operators. Airtel's
telecom equipment is provided and maintained by Ericsson and Nokia Solutions and
Networks [8] whereas IT support is provided by IBM. The transmission towers are maintained
by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of Bharti including Bharti Infratel and Indus
Towers 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, which allowed Airtel to
provide low call rates of 1/minute (US$0.02/minute).
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HISTORY
Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement with
Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In
1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his company became 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 and its first
cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In
1995, Mittal incorporated the cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched
service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti
Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka
and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in
Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises
went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National
Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were rebranded under the
single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In
2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to
offer voice services all across India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile
network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the Kuwait-
based Zain Telecom. In March 2012, Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda.
Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a Caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in July 2004
becoming to the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel theme song, composed by A.R.
Rahman, was the most popular tune on that year.
During the 2009–10 financial year, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-
Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the tele-media business. On 31 May 2012,
Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet 11
Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers
access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.
On 26 February 2013, Airtel announced that it had deployed Ericsson's Mobile Broadband
Charging (MBC) solution and completely modernised its prepaid services for its subscribers
in India. As a part of the deal, Ericsson's multi service MBC suite allows prepaid customers
to have personalised profile-based data charging plans. Prepaid customers will be able to
customise their data plans across mobility, fixed line and broadband by cross bundling across
multiple domains (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE & Wi-Fi). It will also offer flexible multi service
charging in geographical redundant mode, making Airtel the first operator to implement
geographical redundancy at such a large scale. In May 2013, Bharti Infotel paid Rs 50,000 as
compensation to a customer "for unfair trade practices". The customer alleged that the
company continued to aggressively demand payment despite customer requests for
disconnection of service.
CORPORATE STRUCTURE
Airtel's initial corporate structure concentrated on the hierarchy of the operations inside the
company as a whole. The structure depicted the corresponding operation/region of different
in-charges and it didn't hold anyone responsible for each of its services. So, the company
found it better to restructure its corporate hierarchy. The transformed organisational structure
has two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with clear focus on B2C (Business to
Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) segments. Bharti Airtel's B2C business unit will
comprehensively service the retail consumers, homes and small offices, by combining the
erstwhile business units – Mobile, Telemedia, Digital TV, and other emerging businesses
(like M-commerce, M-health, M-advertising etc.). The B2C organisation will consist of
Consumer Business and Market Operations.
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WORLDWIDE PRESENCE
Airtel is the one of the largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and
has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands.
Its area of operations include:
The Indian Subcontinent:
o Airtel Bangladesh, in Bangladesh
o Airtel, in India
o Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka
Airtel Africa, which operates in 17 African countries:
o Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey, under the brand
name Airtel-Vodafone, through an agreement with Vodafone.
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Airtel operates in the following countries:
Country Site Remarks
BangladeshAirtel
Bangladesh
Airtel Bangladesh had about 8 million
customers as on Sep 2013.
Burkina FasoAirtel Burkina
Faso
Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player
with 1,433,000 customers representing 50%
market share.
Chad Airtel ChadAirtel Chad is the No. 1 operator with 69%
market share.
Democratic Republic of the
CongoAirtel DRC
Airtel is the market leader with almost 5
million customers at the end of 2010.
Gabon Airtel GabonAirtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its
market share stood at 61%.
Ghana Airtel GhanaAirtel Ghana had about 1.76 million
customers at the end of 2010.
India AirtelAirtel is the market leader with almost
193.4 million customers as on 30 Sep 2013.
Kenya Airtel KenyaAirtel Kenya is the second largest operator
and has 4 million customers.
MadagascarAirtel
Madagascar
Airtel is the market leader in Madagascar
with 39% market share and 2.5 million
customers.
Malawi Airtel Malawi Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a
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market share of 72%.
Niger Airtel NigerAirtel Niger is the market leader with a 68%
market share.
Nigeria Airtel Nigeria
Republic of the Congo Airtel Congo BAirtel Congo is the market leader with a 55%
market share.
Rwanda Airtel RwandaAirtel launched services in Rwanda on 30
March 2012.
SeychellesAirtel
Seychelles
Airtel is the leading comprehensive
telecommunications services providers with
over 55% market share of mobile market in
Seychelles.
Sierra LeoneAirtel Sierra
Leone
Sri Lanka Airtel Sri Lanka
Airtel Sri Lanka commenced operations on
12 January 2009. It had about 1.8 million
mobile customers at the end of 2010.
Tanzania Airtel TanzaniaAirtel Tanzania is the market leader with a
38% market share.
Uganda Airtel UgandaAirtel Uganda stands as the No. 2 operator
with a market share of 38%.
Zambia Airtel Zambia Airtel Zambia is the market leader with 69%
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market share.
Channel Islands† : Jersey
Guernsey
Airtel Jersey
and Guernsey
Airtel operates in the Channel Islands under
the brand name Airtel–Vodafone through an
agreement with Vodafone.
†Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries.
Therefore, Airtel's countries of operation is considered to be 20.
OUR VISION
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MOBILE SERVICES
Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India. Its network is present in 5,121 census towns
and 457,053 non-census towns and villages, covering approximately 86.6% of the country's
population as of September 2012. Airtel is the largest operator in rural India with 83.82
million subscribers as of April 2013.
Airtel is the 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand
Finance and The Economic Times in 2010.
3G
On 18 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel paid the Indian
government 122.95 billion (US$2.0 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount
spent by an operator in that auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of
India: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (West),
Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu &
Kashmir. Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharastra & Goa and Kolkata circles through
an agreement with Vodafone and in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea. This gives
Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India. Airtel is fined by DoT 3.50 billion for
not stopping offering 3G Services through Roaming Pacts outside its Licensed Zones in
Seven Circles.
On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it had given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia
Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G
services in the country. These vendors would plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G–HSPA
(third-generation, high-speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the
company had won 3G licences. While Airtel awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles
to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment
vendor Huawei Technologies was introduced as the third partner for three circles. 17
Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore on 24 January 2011. On 27 January 2011, Airtel
launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. On 27 July 2011, 3G services were
launched in Kerala's 3 largest cities – Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.
Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through
intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 5.4 million 3G
customers of which 4 million are 3G data customers as of September 2012.
4G
On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in
India ended. Airtel paid 33.1436 billion (US$540 million) for spectrum in 4
circles: Maharashtra and Goa, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata. The company was allocated
20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. Airtel's TD-LTE network is built and
operated by ZTE in Kolkata and Punjab, Huawei in Karnataka, and Nokia Siemens
Networks in Maharashtra and Goa. On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services through
dongles and modems using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in
India to offer 4G services. The Kolkata launch was followed by launches in Bangalore (7
May 2012), Pune (18 October 2012), and Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula (Tricity) (Airtel
broadband authorized Distributor in Chandigarh) (25 March 2013). Airtel obtained 4G
licenses and spectrum in the telecom circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai after
acquiring Wireless Business Services Private Limited, a joint venture founded by Qualcomm,
which had won BWA spectrum in those circles in the 4G spectrum auction.
Airtel launched 4G services on mobile from February 2014. The first city to get the service
was Bangalore. Airtel provides voice services for its TD-LTE subscribers through its existing
GSM network, which made it the first operator in India to combine voice with TD-LTE
services through GSM network. Airtel selected Nokia Siemens Networks to deploy its Circuit
Switched FallBack (CSFB) voice solution in Airtel's TD-LTE network in Pune. With CSFB,
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the network can transfer customers to GSM platform to make and receive voice calls while
retaining the TD-LTE network for data services.
Airtel had 100,000 4G subscribers as of January 2014.
WiFi
Airtel has plans to launch WiFi services in India. It intends to start offering WiFi services in
Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore in initial phase. All plans will be on secure wireless
broadband internet with unlimited usage and will be session- or time-based. Users can use the
service by finding a hotspot, selecting 'airtel WiFi Zone', activating the voucher and then
login to start browsing.
Airtel intends to partner with establishments to set up hotspots which will be termed WiFi
Hangout for an establishment owner and WiFi Partner for the café and restaurant owners.
Airtel WiFi Partners can offer services at zero investments and can earn commission on every
WiFi session sold.
AIRTEL MONEY
Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money in collaboration with
Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). The platform was launched on 5 April
2012, at Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore. Using Airtel Money, users can transfer money,
pay bills and perform other financial transactions directly on the mobile phone. It has an all-
India presence. Certain charges are levied per Airtel Money transaction.
SMARTDRIVE
SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features voice-
based turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic, approximate time of
the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see their
location on the map and plan the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an
alternate route in case of traffic congestion on the normal route. According to Airtel,
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SmartDrive calculates the traffic on the basis of the number of GPS devices used on a
particular road, their average speed, as well as historical trends of traffic on that route.
SmartDrive also allows users to search for points of interest like restaurants, theatres and
shopping malls. The app also allows users to keep a record of all trips they make when using
voice navigation for later reference through the 'Trip Recorder' feature, Wikipedia
information of places for which information is available and the ability to add frequently
visited locations to favourites, in addition to weather information about the place.
Airtel will offer navigation at 10 per day or 99 per month. Live traffic will be cost 3 per
day or 49 per month. Search and map viewer are available for free. The costs do not include
data charges. Airtel states in SmartDrive's FAQ that data is only used when the user performs
searches or calculates routes.
The app is developed by Wisepilot, a mobile navigation solutions provider and
uses Navteq Maps for location and traffic info. It was launched on 12 September 2012. At the
time of launch, it was available only in Bangalore, Mumbai and NCR. Services are currently
available in Chennai. Service will be expanded to Pune and Hyderabad by December 2012.
NETWORK EXPERIENCE CENTRE
Airtel has a Network Experience Centre (NEC) which observes end to end customer
experience, in near real time, along with the standard network elements on Airtel's
operations. The NEC is located in Manesar, Haryana and went live on 31 October 2012. It is
the first such facility in India and will be able to monitor Airtel's network performance across
mobile, fixed line, broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, enterprise services, International Cable
Systems and internet peering points from a single location. It will monitor all Airtel and
partner NOCs. In case of an emergency, the NEC will enable the operator to prioritise actions
to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time.
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The NEC houses a video wall with 3600 square feet of solid state LED screen to monitor
Airtel's telecom network. This is the world's biggest video wall for a telecom operator. Each
cube in this wall is 1.6mx1.2 m and there are 175 cubes arranged in a 25x7 matrix.[52] The
clear span of the roof is 49 m x 18 m and the beams, which are fireproof and about 8 feet
deep, have been specially designed to hold the structure without columns. The NEC was
designed specifically to be used as a command center in case of national emergencies and
natural catastrophes. The facility is earthquake proof and also provides for a single control of
command and a fully redundant technology layout.
i-PHONE
The iPhone 3G was rolled out in India in 2008 by Airtel. However, high prices and contract
bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful as the iPhone is in other markets of
the world. Airtel introduced the iPhone 4 on 27 May 2011 and the iPhone 5 on 2 November
2012.
TELEMEDIA
Under the Telemedia segment, Airtel provides broadband internet access through DSL,
internet leased lines as well as MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) solutions, as well
as IPTV and fixed line telephone services. Until 18 September 2004, Bharti provided fixed
line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all
telecom services including fixed line services under a common brand airtel. As of September
2012, Airtel provides Telemedia services to 3.3 million customers in 87 cities. As on 30
November 2012, Airtel had 1.39 million broadband subscribers.
Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well
as unlimited download plans. However, Airtel's unlimited plans are subject to free usage
policy (FUP), which reduces speed after the customer crosses a certain data usage limit. In
some plans, Airtel provides only 256kbit/s beyond FUP, which is lower than the TRAI
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specified limit of half the subscriber's original speed. The maximum speed available for home
users is 16Mbit/s.
In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily blocked file sharing
websites such as vimeo.com megavideo.com, thepiratebay.se etc. with out giving any legal
information to the customers. The block was due to a Madras High Court issued 'John Doe'
order taken by Chennai-based Copyright Lab. In response to a petition filed by Vinay B, a
resident of Shimoga, Karnataka, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum ordered
Airtel to pay 20,000 to the petitioner for "deficiency in internet service" thereby causing
mental agony to the complainant. "By misinterpreting the Madras High Court order, Airtel
blocked entire websites. It is needless to say that the company's actions amount to deficiency
in service as well as unfair trade practice," said the forum.
DIGITAL TELEVISION
The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India under the
brand name Airtel digital TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and had about 7.9 million
customers at the end of December 2012.
MOBILE DATA SERVICE
The different services under mobile data are BlackBerry services, a web-enabled mobile
email solution working on 'Push Technology', USB modem that helps in getting instant
access to Internet and corporate applications, Airtel Data Card that gives the liberty to access
the internet anytime, Easy Mail is a platform that provides access to personal/corporate e-
mails independent of handset operating system and application services that shorten the
queues at the billing section, off-load the pressure on the billing staff and bring convenience
to the user.
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ENTERPRISE
The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and
national and international long-distance services to telcos through its nationwide fibre optic
backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and
international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing stations. It has two sections
under it.
ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
There are two kind of solutions offered by Airtel. One is GPRS Based Solutions like mobile
applications tools for enterprise, TrackMate, automatic meter reading solutions etc. and the
other is SMS Based Solutions like interactive sms, bulk sms, inbound call center solutions.
ANDROID-BASED TABLET
Beetel Teletech Ltd., a unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., on 18 August launched a 9,999
($220) 7-inch tablet in India based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The offering
is intended to capitalise on the expected demand for cheap computing devices in the world's
fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market
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INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
AFRICA
Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of Indian telecommunications company Airtel, that operates in
17 countries across Africa. It operates a GSM network in all countries,
providing 2G or 3Gdepending upon the country of operation.
In March 2010, Bharti purchased mobile operations in 15 African countries from Zain, a
Kuwaiti operator.
On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire Telecom Seychelles for
US$62 million.
BANGLADESH
Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. is a GSM-based cellular operator in Bangladesh. Airtel is the sixth
mobile phone carrier to enter the Bangladesh market, and originally launched commercial
operations under the brand name "Warid Telecom" on 10 May 2007. Warid Telecom
International LLC, an Abu Dhabi–based consortium, sold a majority 70% stake in the
company to India's Bharti Airtel Limited for US$300 million.
SRI LANKA
Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, the third largest mobile
operator in the world, with over 240 million mobile customers as of December 2011. Bharti
Airtel has been featured in Forbes Asia's Fab 50 list, rated amongst the best performing
companies in the world in the Business Week IT 100 list 2007, and voted as India's most
innovative company in a survey by The Wall Street Journal
Airtel Lanka commenced commercial operations of services on 13 January 2009. Granted a
licence in 2007 in accordance with the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act No. 25 of 1991, it
is also a registered company under the Board of Investment Sri Lanka. Under the license, the
company provides digital mobile services to Sri Lanka. This is inclusive of voice telephony, 24
voice mail, data services and GSM-based services. All of these services are provided under
the airtel brand.
CHANNEL ISLANDS: JERSEY AND GUERNSEY
On 1 May 2007, Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel, both wholly owned subsidiaries of
the Bharti Group, announced they would launch mobile services in the British Crown
Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone after
signing an agreement with Vodafone. Airtel-Vodafone operates a 3G network in Jersey and
Guernsey.
ONE NETWORK
One Network is a mobile phone network that allows Airtel customers to use the service in a
number of countries at the same price as their home network. Customers can place outgoing
calls at the same rate as their local network, and incoming calls are free. As of 2014, the
service is available in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
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ACQUISITIONS AND MERGERS
MTN Group merger negotiations
In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group,
a South Africa-based telecommunications company with operations in 21 countries in Africa
and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering
US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition
ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasised the tentative nature of the talks. The
Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up", as MTN had more
subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the talks fell apart
as MTN Group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the
new company.
In May 2009, Airtel confirmed that it was again in talks with MTN and both companies
agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009. Airtel said in a
statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a
significant partnership with MTN Group". The exclusivity period was extended twice up to
30 September 2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement and on 30 September 2009,
Bharti released a statement saying that it had decided to disengage from discussions with the
MTN Group when the exclusivity period ended. Informa analyst Matthew Reed, noted that a
reported factor in the failure was South Africa's worry that control of MTN, which is
perceived as a national champion, could pass into foreign hands. The South African
government is MTN's biggest shareholder. Bharti said in a statement regarding the failure,
"We hope the South African government will review its position in the future and allow both
companies an opportunity to re-engage".
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A solution was proposed where the new company would be listed on 2 stock exchanges, one
in South Africa and one in India. However, dual-listing of companies is not permitted by
Indian law.
ZAIN
In March 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy Zain's mobile operations in 15 African countries,
in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus in
2007. Bharti Airtel completed its $10.7 billion acquisition of African operations from
Kuwaiti firm, making the Airtel the world's fifth largest wireless carrier by subscriber base.
Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 grew by 53% to
US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year, newly acquired Zain Africa division
contributed US$911 million to the total. However, net profits dropped by 41% from
US$470 million in 2009 to US$291 million 2010 due to a US$188 million increase in radio
spectrum charges in India and an increase of US$106 million in debt interest.
TELECOM SEYCHELLES
On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire 100% stake in Telecom
Seychelles for US$62 million taking its global presence to 19 countries. Telecom Seychelles
began operations in 1998 and operates 3G, Fixed Line, ship to shore services satellite
telephony, among value added services like VSAT and Gateways for International Traffic
across the Seychelles under the Airtel brand. The company has over 57% share of the mobile
market of Seychelles. Airtel announced plans to invest US$10 million in its fixed and mobile
telecoms network in the Seychelles over three years, whilst also participating in the
Seychelles East Africa submarine cable (SEAS) project. The US$34 million SEAS project is
aimed at improving the Seychelles' global connectivity by building a 2,000 km undersea
high-speed link to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
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WIRELESS BUSINESS SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED
On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Wireless
Business Services Private Limited (WBSPL) at an investment of 907 crore (US$165
million). Airtel bought 26% in WBSPL from Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom
and the balance 23% by subscribing to fresh equity of Qualcomm. Global Holding
Corporation and Tulip Telecom had bought 13% each in the BWA entities for US$57.72
million (about 2.68 billion) in 2010. WBSPL was a joint venture founded by Qualcomm,
and held BWA spectrum in the telecom circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai.
Qualcomm had spent US$1 billion to acquire BWA spectrum in those 4 circles. The deal
gave Airtel a 4G presence in 8 circles. At the time of purchasing the BWA spectrum, Global
Holding Corp and Tulip Telecom had a 13% stake each in the company, while Qualcomm
Asia Pacific had the remaining 74% stake. Qualcomm Asia Pacific gradually reduced its
stake to 6.55%, while Airtel acquired a 93.45% stake. On 4 July 2013, Airtel announced that
it had acquired an additional 2% equity share capital (making its stake 51%) in all the four
BWA entities of Qualcomm, thereby making them its subsidiaries. On 18 October 2013,
Airtel announced that it had acquired 100 percent equity shares of WBSPL for an undisclosed
sum, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.
28
JOINT VENTURES
AIRTEL-ERICSSON
As per a five-year managed services agreement signed recently, Ericsson will manage and
optimise Airtel's mobile networks in Africa. Ericsson will modernise and upgrade Airtel's
mobile networks in Africa with the latest technology including its multi standard RBS 6000
base station. As part of the modernisation, Ericsson will also provide technology consulting,
network planning & design and network deployment. Ericsson has been the managed services
and network technology partner in the Asian operations.
REBRANDING
Logo used by Airtel till November 2010
On 18 November 2010, Airtel rebranded itself in India in the first phase of a global
rebranding strategy. The company unveiled a new logo with 'airtel' written in lower case.
Designed by London-based brand agency, The Brand Union, the new logo is the letter 'a' in
lowercase, with 'airtel' written in lowercase under the logo. On 23 November 2010, Airtel's
Africa operations were rebranded to 'airtel'. Sri Lanka followed on 28 November 2010 and on
20 December 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to 'airtel' in Bangladesh.
SPONSORSHIP
On 9 May 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United. As a result of the deal,
Airtel gets the rights to broadcast the matches played by the team to its customers.
Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of
the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. But now the deal is terminated and
Karbonn Mobiles is sponsoring Champions League Twenty20 cricket.
29
Airtel, also signed a deal to be title sponsor the inaugural Formula One Indian Grand
Prix during the 2011 season.
Airtel, signed a deal to be title sponsor the I-League for 2013–14 I-League.
SIGNATURE TUNE
The signature tune of Airtel is composed by Indian musician A. R. Rahman. The tune became
hugely popular and is the world's most downloaded mobile music with over 150 million
downloads. A. R. Rahman along with Anu Malik has re-used the same tune in Kannada
movie titled Love. A new version of the song was released on 18 November 2010, as part of
the rebranding of the company. This version too was composed by Rahman himself.
GREEN INITIATIVE
GREEN TOWERS P7 PROGRAM
Bharti Infratel is the only telecom tower company, which has installed almost 3 MWT of
solar capacity on their network, generating more than 5 million units of electricity every year.
The Green Towers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having
low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in
the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce
diesel consumption by 66 million litres per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction
of around 150,000 MT per year. Bharti Infratel bagged the 2011 'Green Mobile Award ' at the
GSMA Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and was also awarded the 2010 innovative
infrastructure company of the year award at the CNBC Infrastructure Awards for this
groundbreaking initiative. Bharti remains the first company in the world to introduce the
practice of sharing of passive infrastructure by collaborating with their competition to share
mobile towers and to reduce the collective carbon footprint of the industry. This has become
a subject of case studies in institutions including the Harvard Business School.
30
ENERGY CONSERVATION
The company has installed solar hot water generator at its main campus in Gurgaon for
fulfilling the hot water requirement in the cafeteria. Majority of its facilities across NCR
region are now equipped with LES (Lighting Energy Savers) which have reduced energy
consumption in the lighting system to the tune of 10–25%. Variable Frequency Drives
installed in AHU (Air Handling Unit) at its campus have helped in enhancing the efficiency
of cooling system by 10%. These measures have resulted in a total saving of 850,000 units of
electricity per year.
Airtel has embarked upon technology related initiatives like virtualisation of servers that has
helped it release over 500 CPUs. Also the drive of sending e-bills to the post-paid customers
is helping save 12,840 trees annually. Within its campus the 'Secure Print Solution' – an
automated queue management–based secured printing solution has led to an annualised
saving of about 8 metric tonnes of paper.
Alternative energy sources such as solar energy used at 1050 sites saving 6.9 mn litres of
diesel and approximately 280 million.
Energy efficiency measures such as Integrated Power Management Systems and variable
speed DC generators have resulted in reduction in the rate of diesel consumption by 1.2
million litres, leading to savings of 47 million across 900 sites.
Demand side management like Free cooling Units (FCU) instead of air conditioners has been
implemented across 3400+ sites, saving consumption of 4.1 million litres of diesel.
31
TIMELINE
The chronology of events since Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated in 1995:
1995
Bharti Cellular launched cellular services as "AirTel" in Delhi.
2004
On 19 October 2004, Airtel announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution
in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited and
Research in Motion (RIM).
2010
On 18 May 2010, Airtel won 3G spectrum in 13 circles: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan, West Bengal,
Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir for 122.95 billion.
Bharti Airtel wins broadband spectrum in four circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Punjab and Kolkata for 33.14 billion.
On 18 November 2010, Bharti Airtel announced a re-branding campaign wherein,
they would be referred as Airtel, with a new logo.
On 20 December 2010, Airtel launched its new identity for Bangladesh subscribers.
On 23 December 2010, Airtel opened its first underground terrestrial fibre optic cable
built in alliance with China Telecom.
2011
On 24 January 2011, Airtel announced the launch of its 3G services in India.
On 31 January 2011, Airtel launched wallet service – Airtel Money in the millennium
city of Gurgaon.
On 18 February 2011, Airtel Digital TV brings cricket world cup in High Definition.
On 14 March 2011, Bharti Airtel announced the launch of 'Airtel Broadband TV'. 32
On 11 April 2011, Bharti Airtel and Apple bring the iPhone 4 to India.
On 18 April 2011, Bharti Airtel enters into a partnership with photo service
Zoomin.com.
On 17 May 2011, Airtel launches the world’s first USSD-based Facebook access
service in India – Facebook by Fonetwish.
On 2 June 2011, Bharti Airtel offers on-demand online movie viewing services –
launches 'Airtel Movies'
On 16 June 2011, Airtel digital TV launches iKisaan – the world's first interactive
service in Hindi.
On 27 June 2011, Airtel 3G launches international video calling services.
On 7 July 2011, Bharti Airtel announces new organisation structure for its India and
South Asia operations.
On 18 July 2011, Airtel digital TV adds 41 new channels.
On 25 July 2011, Bharti Airtel Launches Facebook For Every Phone.
On 16 August 2011, Wide availability of Airtel Service Centers in Rajasthan creates
easy touch points for customer service.
On 19 September 2011, Bharti Airtel announces GO! GO! GOAL Contest 2011.
On 22 September 2011, Airtel digital TV brings the TV series "Johnny Test" to India.
On 26 September 2011, Airtel Youth Star kicks off 'Friends Dance Carnival' in
Andhra Pradesh.
On 28 October 2011, 2011 Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix of India Winner's Trophy
Revealed.
On 1 November 2011, Airtel digital TV now has 11 True HD channels, Expands total
channel count to 262.
33
On 11 November 2011, Bharti Airtel named amongst the top 25 companies for leaders
globally.
On 25 November 2011, Mr. Sharlin Thayil, CEO – Bharti Airtel, AP launches iPhone
4S in Hyderabad.
On 1 December 2011, Airtel introduces India's first free mobile access to Twitter.
On 12 December 2011, Bharti Airtel recognised for the delivery of best network
services with customer focus at Telecom Centre of Excellence Awards.
On 21 December 2011, Airtel launches exciting recharge offers for mobile customers
in Rajasthan.
2012
On 11 January 2012, Airtel launched Comedy FM on Airtel Mobile.
On 12 January 2012, Airtel launches all new "BBM Plan" for its postpaid mobile
customers on BlackBerry.
On 23 January 2012, Airtel prepaid mobile recharge made easier with net-banking at
www.airtel.in
On 30 January 2012, Airtel digital TV launches iKidsworld.
On 2 February 2012, Airtel launched Vh1 Radio GAGA powered by Hungama on
Airtel Mobile.
On 3 February 2012, India's largest collection of Hello Tunes is now available online
for Airtel mobile customers.
On 4 February 2012, Bharti Airtel announces consolidated IFRS results for the third
quarter and nine months ended 31 December 2011.
On 10 February 2012, Bharti Airtel launched 3 Pack Education Portal for its mobile
customers across India.
34
On 27 February 2012, Bharti Airtel selects Infosys as its technology partner for airtel
money.
On 29 February 2012, Bharti Airtel appoints Nokia Siemens Networks to supply,
manage 4G network in Maharashtra.
On 27 May 2012, Bharti Airtel announced its strategic foray into the mobile
advertising (m-Advertising) segment, in India.
In 2012, Bharti Airtel signed a pact with Opera Software, to provide its customers
with Opera Mini browsers.
On 24 October 2012, Bharti Airtel's mobile user base in Africa crosses 60 million.
2013
On 4 February 2013, Bharti Airtel launches its emergency alert service in eastern
region In 2013 the department of telecommunications (DoT) was investigating Bharti
Airtel for violations of a license agreement the company violated between 2003 and
2005.
35
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
36
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Communications in India
Revenue (Total) USD 33,350 million
Telephony
Telephone Subscribers (Total)
(2013)
915.19 million (December 2013)
Fixed lines (December 2013) 28.89 million
Mobile phones (December 2013) 886.3 million
Monthly telephone additions
(Net) (December 2013)
5.5 million
Teledensity (2013) 74.02%
Rural Teledensity 42.67%[2]
Internet access
Percent household access (total),
2012
10.2% of households (137 million)
Percent broadband household
access
1.18% of households (14.31 million)
Broadband internet users 55.20 million (December 2013)[2]
Internet Service Providers (2012) 155
country code top-level domain .in
Broadcasting
Television broadcast stations
(2009)
1,400
Radio broadcast stations (1997) 800
37
Telecom is one of the fastest-growing industries in India. Today India stands as the second-
largest telecommunications market in the world. The mobile phone industry in India would
contribute US$ 400 billion in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) of the country in 2014.
This sector which is growing exponentially is expected to generate about 4.1 million
additional jobs by 2020, as per Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA).
In the period April 2000 to January 2014, the telecom industry has got in foreign direct
investments (FDI) of about US$ 59,796 million, which is an increase of 6 per cent to the total
FDI inflows in terms of US$, as per report published by Department of Industrial Policy and
Promotion (DIPP).
India’s global system for mobile (GSM) operators had 4.14 million rural subscribers as of
January 2014, bringing the total to 285.35 million.
Data traffic powered by third generation (3G) services grew at 146 per cent in India during
2013, higher than the global average that saw usage double, according to an MBit Index
study by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).
India's smartphone market grew by 171 per cent in 2013, to 44 million devices from 16.2
million in 2012, as per research firm IDC India. The increasing popularity of bring-your-
own-device (BYOD) in the workplace is further adding momentum to the smartphone
market.
Indian telecom industry has grown from a tele-density of 3.58% in March 2001 to 74% in
June 2013. This great leap in both number of consumers as well as revenues from telecom
services has not only provided sufficient contribution in Indian GDP growth but also
provided much needed employment to India youth.
38
TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN INDIA
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total
number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone). It has one of the lowest call tariffs
in the world enabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-competition among them. It
has the world's third-largest Internet user-base. According to the Internet And Mobile
Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at 190 million at the
end of June, 2013. Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephony,
internet and television broadcast Industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of
transforming into next generation network, employs an extensive system of modern network
elements such as digital telephone exchanges, mobile switching centres, media
gateways and signaling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of
transmission systems using fibre-optics or Microwave radio relay networks. The access
network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different
copper-pair, optic-fibre and wireless technologies. DTH, a relatively new broadcasting
technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The introduction of
private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in India. Telecommunication in India
has greatly been supported by the INSAT system of the country, one of the largest domestic
satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified communications system, which
links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio, television and satellite. Indian
telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalization and growth since the 1990s
and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom
markets. The Industry has grown over twenty times in just ten years, from under 37 million
subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011. India has
39
the world's second-largest mobile phone user base with over 929.37 million users as of May
2012. It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base with over 137 million as of June 2012.
The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 2832 billion (US$46 billion)
for 2010–11 financial year, while revenues from telecom equipment segment stood at 1170
billion (US$19 billion).
Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a
significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. It also has
helped to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in
India. The government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver
mass education programmes for the rural folk of India.
40
HISTORY
The history of Indian telecom can be started with the introduction of telegraph. The Indian
postal and telecom sectors are one of the world’s oldest. In 1850, the first experimental
electric telegraph line was started between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour. In 1851, it was
opened for the use of the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department
occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department, at that time.
The construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines was started in November 1853.
These connected Kolkata (then Calcutta) andPeshawar in the north; Agra, Mumbai (then
Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south; Ootacamund an
Bangalore. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India,
belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom
throughout this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities
were opened to the public.
In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The
Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to
establish telephone exchanges in India. The permission was refused on the grounds that the
establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself
would undertake the work. In 1881, the Government later reversed its earlier decision and a
licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening
telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal
telephone service was established in the country. On 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring,
Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges
in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange"
had a total of 93 subscribers in its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the
opening of a telephone exchange.41
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS AND MILESTONES
Pre-1902 – Cable telegraph
1902 – First wireless telegraph station established between Sagar Island and Sandhead.
1907 – First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur.
1913–1914 – First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla.
1927 – Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with Imperial Wireless
Chain beam stations at Khadki and Daund. Inaugurated by Lord Irwin on 23 July by
exchanging greetings with King George V.
1933 – Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India.
1953 – 12 channel carrier system introduced.
1960 – First subscriber trunk dialling route commissioned between Lucknow and Kanpur.
1975 – First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri telephone
exchanges.
1976 – First digital microwave junction.
1979 – First optical fibre system for local junction commissioned at Pune.
1980 – First satellite earth station for domestic communications established at Sikandarabad,
[[Uttar Pradesh|U.P.] Noida Sector 62SCMS ].
1983 – First analogue Stored Programme Control exchange for trunk lines commissioned at
Mumbai.
1984 – C-DOT established for indigenous development and production of digital exchanges.
1995 – First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis on 15 August 1995
in Delhi.
1995 – Internet Introduced in India starting with laxmi nagar Delhi on 15 August 1995
42
Development of Broadcasting: Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became state
responsibility only in 1930. In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it
has been called Akashvani. Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and
complete broadcasting followed in 1965. The Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting owned and maintained the audio-visual apparatus—including the television
channel Doordarshan—in the country prior to the economic reforms of 1991. In 1997, an
autonomous body was established in the name of Prasar Bharti to take care of the public
service broadcasting under the Prasar Bharti Act. All India Radio and Doordarshan, which
earlier were working as media units under the Ministry of I&B became constituents of the
body.
Pre-liberalization statistics: While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked
with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 numbered
only around 80,000. Post independence, growth remained slow because the telephone was
seen more as a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. The number of
telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991,
the year economic reforms were initiated in the country.
43
LIBERALIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION
Liberalization of Indian telecommunication industry started in 1981 when Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state
owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year. But soon the
policy was let down because of political opposition. Attempts to liberalise the
telecommunication industry were continued by the following government under the prime-
minister-ship of Rajiv Gandhi. He invited Sam Pitroda, a US-based Non-resident Indian NRI
and a former Rockwell International executive to set up a Centre for Development of
Telematics (C-DOT) which manufactured electronic telephone exchanges in India for the
first time. Sam Pitroda had a significant role as a consultant and adviser in the development
of telecommunication in India.
In 1985, the Department of Telecom(DoT) was separated from Indian Post &
Telecommunication Department. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire country
until 1986 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam
Limited (VSNL) were carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of metro
cities(Delhi andMumbai) and international long distance operations respectively.
The demand for telephones was ever increasing and in the 1990s Indian government was
under increasing pressure to open up the telecom sector for private investment as a part of
Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation policies that the government had to accept to
overcome the severe fiscal crisis and resultant balance of payments issue in 1991.
Consequently, private investment in the sector of Value Added Services (VAS) was allowed
and cellular telecom sector were opened up for competition from private investments. It was
during this period that the Narsimha Rao-led government introduced the National
Telecommunications policy (NTP) in 1994 which brought changes in the following areas:
ownership, service and regulation of telecommunications infrastructure. The policy 44
introduced the concept of telecommunication for all and its vision was to expand the
telecommunication facilities to all the villages in India. Liberalization in the basic telecom
sector was also envisaged in this policy. They were also successful in establishing joint
ventures between state owned telecom companies and international players. Foreign firms
were eligible to 49% of the total stake. The multi-nationals were just involved in technology
transfer, and not policy making.
During this period, the World Bank and ITU had advised the Indian Government to liberalize
long distance services to release the monopoly of the state owned DoT and VSNL and to
enable competition in the long distance carrier business which would help reduce tariff's and
better the economy of the country. The Rao run government instead liberalised the local
services, taking the opposite political parties into confidence and assuring foreign
involvement in the long distance business after 5 years. The country was divided into 20
telecommunication circles for basic telephony and 18 circles for mobile services. These
circles were divided into category A, B and C depending on the value of the revenue in each
circle. The government threw open the bids to one private company per circle along with
government owned DoT per circle. For cellular service two service providers were allowed
per circle and a 15 years licence was given to each provider. During all these improvements,
the government did face oppositions from ITI, DoT, MTNL, VSNL and other labour unions,
but they managed to keep away from all the hurdles.
In 1997, the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which
reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The political
powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadership of Atal Bihari
Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalization policies. In 2000, the
Vajpayee government constituted the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate
Tribunal (TDSAT) through an amendment of the TRAI Act, 1997. The primary objective of
45
TDSAT's establishment was to release TRAI from adjudicatory and dispute settlement
functions in order to strengthen the regulatory framework. Any dispute involving parties like
licensor, licensee, service provider and consumers are resolved by TDSAT. Moreover, any
direction, order or decision of TRAI can be challenged by appealing in TDSAT. The
government corporatized the operations wing of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it
as Department of Telecommunication Services (DTS) which was later named as Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The proposal of raising the stake of foreign investors from
49% to 74% was rejected by the opposite political parties and leftist thinkers. Domestic
business groups wanted the government to privatize VSNL. Finally in April 2002, the
government decided to cut its stake of 53% to 26% in VSNL and to throw it open for sale to
private enterprises. TATA finally took 25% stake in VSNL.
This was a gateway to many foreign investors to get entry into the Indian Telecom Markets.
After March 2000, the government became more liberal in making policies and issuing
licences to private operators. The government further reduced licence fees for cellular
service providers and increased the allowable stake to 74% for foreign companies. Because of
all these factors, the service fees finally reduced and the call costs were cut greatly enabling
every common middle-class family in India to afford a cell phone. Nearly 32 million handsets
were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile
market. Many private operators, such as Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom
Vodafone, Loop Mobile, Airtel, Idea etc., successfully entered the high potential Indian
telecom market.
In March 2008 the total GSM and CDMA mobile subscriber base in the country was 375
million, which represented a nearly 50% growth when compared with previous year. As the
unbranded Chinese cell phones which do not have International Mobile Equipment
Identity (IMEI) numbers pose a serious security risk to the country, Mobile network operators
46
therefore suspended the usage of around 30 million mobile phones (about 8% of all mobiles
in the country) by 30 April. Phones without valid IMEI cannot be connected to cellular
operators. 5–6 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1
million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions.
However, after a number of proactive initiatives taken by regulators and licensors, the total
number of mobile subscribers has increased rapidly to over 929 million subscribers as of May
2012.
India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile
communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in
the mobile sector. In addition tolandline and mobile phones, some of the companies also
provide the WLL service. The mobile tariffs in India have also become lowest in the world. A
new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only. In
2005 alone additions increased to around 2 million per month in 2003–04 and 2004–05.
47
SECTORS
Major sectors of telecommunication industry in India are telephony, internet, Data centers
and broadcasting.
TELEPHONY
The telephony segment is dominated by private-sector and two state-run businesses. Most
companies were formed by a recent revolution and restructuring launched within a decade,
directed by Ministry of Communications and IT, Department of
Telecommunications and Minister of Finance. Since then, most companies
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 are considered long
distance calls. Foreign Direct Investment policy which increased the foreign ownership cap
from 49% to 74%.Now it is 100%. The Government is working to integrate the whole
country in one telecom circle. For long distance calls, the area code prefixed with a zero is
dialled first which is then followed by the number (i.e., to call Delhi, 011 would be dialed
first followed by the phone number). For international calls, "00" must be dialed first
followed by the code, area and local phone number. The country code for India is 91. Several
international fibre-optic links include those to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and
Germany. 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 the Government-
owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper
wire in India with MTNL operating in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL servicing all other areas
48
of the country. Due to the rapid growth of the cellular phone industry in India, landlines are
facing stiff competition from cellular operators. This has forced land-line service providers to
become more efficient and improve their quality of service. Land-line connections are now
also available on demand, even in high density urban areas. India has over 31 million main
line customers.
MOBILE TELEPHONY
In August 1995, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Abhishek Yadav ushered in the
cellphone revolution in India by making the first 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 Mobile telecommunications system in
India is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the
1990s. GSM was comfortably maintaining its position as the dominant mobile technology
with 80% of the mobile subscriber market, but CDMA seemed to have stabilised its market
share at 20% for the time being. By May 2012 the country had 929 million mobile
subscribers, up from 350 million just 40 months earlier. The mobile market was continuing to
expand at an annual rate in excess of 40% coming into 2010.
According to data provided by Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora, as
of 30 November 2012, India has 736,654 base transceiver stations (2G GSM & CDMA,
and 3G). Of those, 96,212 base transceiver stations provide 3G mobile and data services. Out
of India's 640 districts, 610 districts are covered by 3G services as of 30 November 2012.
The country is divided into multiple zones, called circles (roughly along state boundaries).
Government and several private players run local and long distance telephone services.
Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest 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 connexions crossed 49
the number of fixed-line connexions and presently dwarfs the wireline segment by a ratio of
around 20:1. The mobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundred and thirty,
from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012. India
primarily follows the GSM mobile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent operators also
operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players are Airtel, Reliance
Infocomm, Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller players, with
operations in only a few states. International roaming agreements exist between most
operators and many foreign carriers. The government allowed Mobile number
portability (MNP) which enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone
numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.
INTERNET
The history of the Internet in India started with launch of services by VSNL on 15 August
1995. They were able to add about 10,000 Internet users within 6 months. However, for the
next 10 years the Internet experience in the country remained less attractive with narrow-
band connections having speeds less than 56 kbit/s (dial-up). In 2004, the government
formulated its broadband policy which defined broadband as "an always-on Internet
connection with download speed of 256 kbit/s or above." From 2005 onward the growth of
the broadband sector in the country accelerated, but remained below the growth estimates of
the government and related agencies due to resource issues in last-mile access which were
predominantly wired-line technologies. This bottleneck was removed in 2010 when the
government auctioned 3Gspectrum followed by an equally high profile auction
of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband
market. Now Internet access in India is provided by both public and private companies using
a variety of technologies and media including dial-up (PSTN), xDSL, coaxial cable, Ethernet,
FTTH, ISDN, HSDPA (3G), WiFi, WiMAX, etc. at a wide range of speeds and costs. The 50
country has the world's third largest number of Internet users with over 205 million in
October, 2013.
According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in
the country stood at 190 million at the end of June, 2013. As of October, 2013 report, it is
over 205 million. The number of broadband subscribers at the end of May 2013 was 15.19
million. Cumulative Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of broadband during the five-year period
between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per cent. DSL, while holding slightly more than 75%
of the local broadband market, was steadily losing market share to other non-DSL broadband
platforms, especially to wireless broadband.
There were 161 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in India as of
31 May 2013. The top five ISPs in terms subscriber base were BSNL (9.96 million), Bharti
Airtel (1.40 million), MTNL (1.09 million), Hathway (0.36 million) and You Broadband
(0.31 million). Cyber cafes remain the major source of Internet access. In 2009, about 37 per
cent of the users access the Internet from cyber cafes, 30 per cent from an office, and 23 per
cent from home. However, the number of mobile Internet users increased rapidly from 2009
on and there were about 274 million mobile users at the end of September 2010, with a
majority using 2G mobile networks. Mobile Internet subscriptions as reported by
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2011 increased to 381 million.
One of the major issues facing the Internet segment in India is the lower average bandwidth
of broadband connections compared to that of developed countries. According to 2007
statistics, the average download speed in India hovered at about 40 KB per second
(256 kbit/s), the minimum speed set by TRAI, whereas the international average was 5.6
Mbit/s during the same period. In order to attend this infrastructure issue the government
declared 2007 as "the year of broadband". To compete with international standards of
defining broadband speed the Indian Government has taken the aggressive step of proposing
51
a $13 billion national broadband network to connect all cities, towns and villages with a
population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013. The
network was supposed to provide speeds up to 10 Mbit/s in 63 metropolitan areas and 4
Mbit/s in an additional 352 cities. Also, the Internet penetration rate in India is one of the
lowest in the world and only accounts for 8.4% of the population compared to the rate in
OECD counties, where the average is over 50%. Another issue is the digital divide where
growth is biased in favour of urban areas; according to 2010 statistics, more than 75 per cent
of the broadband connections in the country are in the top 30 cities. Regulators have tried to
boost the growth of broadband in rural areas by promoting higher investment in rural
infrastructure and establishing subsidized tariffs for rural subscribers under the Universal
service obligation scheme of the Indian government.
WIRELESS INTERNET
2nd Generation Internet is the most prevalent in India. Wireless ISPs in India use
both CDMA and Edge technologies for 2G.
India's wireless Internet frequencies are:
2G : GSM 900 MHz, GSM 1800 MHz
3G : UMTS 2100 MHz
4G : TD-LTE 2300 MHz
DATA CENTRES
BSNL Internet Data Centers, in collaboration with Dimension Data
Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services Limited - Tier III data centers in Mumbai and
Bengaluru
Sify Technologies Limited
CtrlS Datacenters Ltd
52
Tata Communications Limited
Netmagic Solutions
Reliance Datacenter
Web Werks IDC
Net4 Datacenter
RackBank Datacenter
GPX Global Systems Inc.
BROADCASTING
Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 by Doordarshan, a state run medium of
communication, and had slow expansion for more than two decades. The policy reforms of
the government in the 1990s attracted private initiatives in this sector, and since then, satellite
television has increasingly shaped popular culture and Indian society. However, still, only the
government owned Doordarshan has the licence for terrestrial television broadcast. Private
companies reach the public using satellite channels; both cable television as well as DTH has
obtained a wide subscriber base in India. In 2012, India had about 148 million TV homes of
which 126 million has access to cable and satellite services.
Following the economic reforms in the 1990s, satellite television channels from around the
world—BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other private television channels gained a foothold in the
country. There are no regulations to control the ownership of satellite dish antennas and also
for operating cable television systems in India, which in turn has helped for an impressive
growth in the viewership. The growth in the number of satellite channels was triggered by
corporate business houses such as Star TV group and Zee TV. Initially restricted to music and
entertainment channels, viewership grew, giving rise to several channels in regional
languages, especially Hindi. The main news channels available were CNN and BBC World.
In the late 1990s, many current affairs and news channels sprouted, becoming immensely 53
popular because of the alternative viewpoint they offered compared to Doordarshan. Some of
the notable ones are Aaj Tak (run by the India Today group) and STAR News, CNN-
IBN, Times Now, initially run by the NDTV group and their lead anchor, Prannoy
Roy (NDTV now has its own channels, NDTV 24x7, NDTV Profit and NDTV India). Over
the years, Doordarshan services also have grown from a single national channel to six
national and eleven regional channels. Nonetheless, it has lost the leadership in market,
though it underwent many phases of modernization in order to contain tough competition
from private channels.
Today, television is the most penetrative media in India with industry estimates indicating
that there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite connexions,
compared to other forms of mass media such as radio or internet. Government of India has
used the popularity of TV and radio among rural people for the implementation of many
social-programmes including that of mass-education. On 16 November 2006, the
Government of India released the community radio policy which allowed agricultural centres,
educational institutions and civil society organisations to apply for community based FM
broadcasting licence. Community Radio is allowed 100 watts of Effective Radiated
Power(ERP) with a maximum tower height of 30 metres. The licence is valid for five years
and one organisation can only get one licence, which is non-transferable and to be used for
community development purposes.
54
NEXT-GENERATION NETWORKS (NGN)
Historically, the role of telecommunication has evolved from that of plain information
exchange to a multi-service field, with Value Added Services (VAS) integrated with various
discrete networks like PSTN, PLMN, Internet Backbone etc. However, with
decreasing ARPU and increasing demand for VAS has become a compelling reason for the
service providers to think of the convergence of these parallel networks into a single core
network with service layers separated from network layer. Next-generation networking is
such a convergence concept which according to ITU-T is:
A next-generation network (NGN) is a packet-based network which can provide services
including Telecommunication Services and able to make use of multiple broadband, quality
of Service-enabled transport technologies and in which service-related functions are
independent from underlying transport-related technologies. It offers unrestricted access by
users to different service providers. It supports generalized mobility which will allow
consistent and ubiquitous provision of services to users.
Access network: The user can connect to the IP-core of NGN in various ways, most of which
use the standard Internet Protocol (IP). User terminals such as mobile phones, personal digital
assistants (PDAs) and computers can register directly on NGN-core, even when they
are roaming in another network or country. The only requirement is that they can use IP
and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Fixed access (e.g., Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable
modems, Ethernet), mobile access (e.g. W-CDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, GPRS) and wireless
access (e.g.WLAN, WiMAX) are all supported. Other phone systems like plain old telephone
service and non-compatible VoIP systems, are supported through gateways. With the
deployment of the NGN, users may subscribe to many simultaneous access-providers
providing telephony, internet or entertainment services. This may provide end-users with
55
virtually unlimited options to choose between service providers for these services in NGN
environment.
The hyper-competition in telecom market, which was effectively caused by the introduction
of Universal Access Service (UAS) licence in 2003 became much tougher after 3G and
4Gcompetitive auction. About 670,000 route-kilometer (419,000-mile) of optical fibres has
been laid in India by the major operators, including in the financially nonviable rural areas
and the process continues. Keeping in mind the viability of providing services in rural areas,
the government of India also took a proactive role to promote the NGN implementation in the
country; an expert committee called NGN eCO was constituted in order to deliberate on the
licensing, interconnection and Quality of Service (QoS) issues related to NGN and it
submitted its report on 24 August 2007. Telecom operators found the NGN model
advantageous, but huge investment requirements have prompted them to adopt a multi-phase
migration and they have already started the migration process to NGN with the
implementation of IP-based core-network.
56
MARKET SIZE
India’s GSM operators added 2.58 million rural subscribers in April 2014, taking the total to
297.16 million. Also, Cellular Operators Authority of India’s (COAI) data suggests that the
overall GSM subscriber base increased by 4.97 million in April 2014 taking the total GSM
subscriber base to 726.90 million customers.
The COAI data also suggests that telecom provider Bharti Airtel provided the most number
of customers in the month of April, about 990,000 new subscribers followed by Vodafone
and Idea Cellular.
It has been predicted by Ericsson that India's mobile subscriber base will grow from 795
million in 2013 to 1145 million subscribers by 2020.
Data traffic powered by third-generation (3G) services grew at 146 per cent in India in 2013,
higher than the global average, according to an MBit Index study by Nokia Siemens
Networks (NSN).
With Bharti Airtel becoming the second largest telecommunications provider in Nigeria and
Tata Communications entering into strategic partnerships with countries such as Australia,
Germany, Austria and Malaysia, it can be observed that Indian telecommunication providers
are doing quite well in the global market.
The wireless segment (96.6 per cent of total telephone subscriptions) dominates the market,
while the wireline segment accounts for the rest.
57
WIRELESS MARKET SHARE IN INDIA
The wireless segment (96.6 per cent of total telephone subscriptions) dominates the market,
while the wireline segment accounts for the rest.
COMPOSITION OF TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBERS IN INDIA
The wireless segment (96.6 per cent of total telephone subscriptions) dominates the market,
while the wireline segment accounts for the rest.
58
INVESTMENTS
The telecommunications sector in India is rapidly growing and due to its potential, there has
been a number of investments in the recent past. Some of the notable few are as follows:
Aircel, in a move to expand its retail footprint in India, plans to set up 200 more XPRESS
stores in the country, thereby taking the total number of these franchisee-owned, franchisee-
operated model XPRESS stores to 500 by the middle of 2015.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed deals with Ascend Telecom Infrastructure and Tower
Vision to share their towers. Tower Vision has a portfolio of 8,400 towers while Ascend
Telecom has 4,250. These deals will help the telecom unit of Reliance Industries to roll out
its much awaited high speed data and voice services sooner and at a lower cost across India.
Vodafone India has extended its Project Samridhi to Karnal in rural Haryana, in a bid to
boost sales and provide employment opportunity to women in the region. Under the project,
Vodafone has appointed 100 women, to sell e-top-ups and prepaid recharges.
Reliance Communications (RCom) has entered into inter-circle roaming partnerships with
Aircel and Tata Teleservices Ltd to offer 3G services on a pan-India basis. This agreement
will enable RCom’s GSM customers to access 3G services while on roaming even outside its
network.
Tata Communications has entered into strategic partnerships with NEXTDC in
Australia, Interxion in Germany and Austria, and Pacific Link Telecom in Malaysia. These
partnerships will help the company to scale up data centre footprints in newer geographies.
Vodafone Business Services (VBS) launched managed video conferencing service for
enterprises to offer an experience of world class virtual face-to-face-like interaction with
various participants anytime, anywhere. The service offers a seamless conferencing
experience and is independent of device and network boundaries.
59
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES
The Government of India has taken several initiatives to boost the telecommunications sector
in India. Some of the recent notable initiatives are as follows:
The Government of India has planned to establish a nearly 1,200-km direct subsea
optic fibre cable link between the Indian mainland and Andaman and Nicobar Islands
to improve telecom connectivity in this strategically located archipelago.
The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is planning to extend
basic mobile coverage, including voice calling, in far-flung areas of eight northeastern
states, at an estimated cost of over Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 843.5 million).
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has planned to set up an application development
centre with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore (US$ 168.54 million) over a three-year period.
The move aims to generate income for the Universal Services Obligation (USO) fund
in addition to the revenue share received from telecom operators.
The Department of Space (DoS) plans to waive satellite bandwidth charges payable
by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to sustain the state-run telecommunication
operations in the Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep archipelagos and strategic
border regions across the northeastern states.
A top-level team from DoT has been sent to participate in a global convention in
Israel to showcase India as a world-class networks gear manufacturing hub. The team
has been sent to showcase India's telecom gear manufacturing abilities and policies, in
a bid to boost bilateral trade.
60
ROAD AHEAD
To propel the Indian economy forward, the government is using the telecom industry as an
effective channel to reach and serve its citizens. The NTP-2012 has targeted 100 per cent
tele-density and 600 million broadband connections by 2020. It has visualised doubling the
current telecom capacity and increasing its reach to 95 per cent of India while providing
broadband level of internet capability.
DoT is promoting a vision of ‘green telecom’ by which it plans to convert 50 per cent of
urban and 30 per cent of rural towers to renewable energy. Various policy initiatives by the
Indian government have led to a complete transformation of the industry in the last decade. It
has achieved a phenomenal growth during the last few years and is poised to grow further. It
has also been speculated that this sector will generate about 4.1 million additional jobs by
2020.
Exchange Rate Used: INR 1 = US$ 0.01687 as on June 5, 2014
61
BROADBAND KEY DEVELOPMENTS
The fixed broadband market was growing at an annual rate of around 25% in early
2013;
Fixed broadband penetration (population) was around 2%;
The take up rate for wireless broadband was accelerating rapidly;
The government has prepared a National Broadband Plan, although it does not have
the profile expected of such a key document;
The government has placed a major emphasis on getting broadband into the rural
areas.
BSNL launched its first foray into enterprise cloud services in India in early 2013.
ROAD AHEAD
Revenue from fixed broadband services in India is likely to grow at 7.8% annually for the
next five years, helped by demand for bandwidth driven by cloud and video, but the growth is
far slower than an expected yearly subscriber growth of 13.9.
It is expected that India's fixed broadband market to reach $2.12 billion by 2017, from $1.46
billion in 2017.
The difference between broadband subscriber number and revenue growth shows continuous
average revenue per user (ARPU) decline in India. One reason is the high price pressure and
fierce competition in India telecom market.
The study points out that increasing preference for broadband on mobile devices was hurting
the fixed services, especially on the low-bandwidth side.
Sustaining revenue growth and profitability will be challenging" as over the top players
(OTTPs), or apps, are eating into operators' revenue streams through services like voice, at a
time when the telcos are spending top dollars to upgrade their network to meet market
demand.62
This has forced operators to change their business models. "Some have partnered with
OTTPs to enrich the portfolio and to drive innovation.
The broadband market in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to grow at 12.1%
annually for the next five years, boosted by fast growing bandwidth demand and the
government-driven broadband projects, IDC added.
Exchange Rate Used: INR 1 = US$ 0.01687 as on June 5, 2014
63
THE FUTURE OF BROADBAND REVOLUTION
In the National Telecom Policy 2012, the government laid out an ambitious target of 600
million broadband subscribers in total by 2020. However, the onus to achieve this target lies
primarily with the service providers.
A number of stakeholders are part of the developing broadband market in India, but each
faces a unique set of challenges to implement solutions and get the ball rolling.
Newer technologies: On the fixed side, DSL continues to hold the major portion of the local
fixed broadband market in India. Emerging technologies such as fibre and cable are making
waves. Fibre has had an important role to play in developed markets. Due to the high
throughputs it offers, the technology can provide greater bandwidth, security and flexibility
but in India the opportunity is limited by high deployment costs. This needs to be addressed if
we truly want to progress to be an inter-connected country.
More broadband frequency bands equal more spectrum and higher data growth:
There is an immediate requirement to make more spectrums and radio waves available to
service operators for deployment of newer technologies in order to increase broadband
speeds. Why? According to Nokia Siemens Networks' MBit Index study in 2013, the
consumer consumption of data has never been higher, with the country seeing a 92 per cent
increase in mobile data traffic last year. Broadband prices in India will fall drastically with
this telecom foray. Increased penetration of devices through affordable mobiles and tablets is
driving this trend and the need for service providers to upgrade their core and backhaul
network infrastructure to cater to this demand has never been higher.
Responsible and service provider friendly regulations: According to the IAMAI 2013 study,
India's average connection speed is 1.3 Mbps, the lowest among Asian countries. Only 2.4
per cent of India's internet connections have speeds higher than four Mbps and barely 0.3 per
cent have 10 Mbps or higher. The Indian government last year revised the minimum 64
broadband speed in the country for download speeds from 256 kbps per second to 512 kbps.
We agree that this is a step in the right direction but this needs to be taken up a notch if we
are to catch-up with the emerging as well as developed economies.
Although we are facing functional and regulatory challenges, there is a positive outlook to be
found in India's telecommunication industry. A number of factors are contributing to India's
telecom growth engine:
Improving economy
Rapid expansion of the country's middle class population
Low tariffs
Low prices of data capable handsets
Highly competitive market created by the government and the regulators
While we have a positive outlook for the coming years, Indian service providers remain
under significant pressure to stay profitable in the face of a lower voice ARPU, data deluge
driven by video streaming, mobile data, cloud computing and internet-connected devices. To
develop and introduce new revenue generating services to the market quickly, carriers need to
lower investment risk by minimising capital and operational costs. In addition, their product
and architecture decisions must take into account the needs of future services and provide a
scalable, open and secure infrastructure. Open standards-based software-defined networking
approach is one of the most promising way to enable carriers to accelerate service creation
and build networks that deliver a customised end-user experience.
65
OBJECTIVE OF THE
STUDY
66
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
To understand the customer perception about Airtel broadband services.
To study about customer expectation from the Airtel Broadband Service.
The problems faced by the Airtel customers.
To study the satisfaction level of Airtel Broadband users.
To understand the strategies used by Airtel to increase prepaid customer base.
SCOPE OF STUDY
The study shows the impact of different factors like network coverage, tariff plans,
offers and relations with the retailers.
The study pertains only to the Airtel broadband users.
67
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
68
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
As the research was conducted on the topic of “STUDY OF CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION FOR BHARTI AIRTEL WITH RELATION TO LUCKNOW” so
there was nothing big problem in doing the research.. First of all I was explained about Airtel
Company and what are the products and services of Airtel. He also explained what should be
my introduction words when I meet the customer for first time. What can be their queries and
what are the ways through which the telecom company works. A proper training was given to
me.
After that I was asked to frame a questionnaire keeping in mind what can be the questions
through which I can deeply get the knowledge of the company, so that while the sales
executives can have a brief idea about the Airtel and with the help of which they can
explaining the products to the customer very easily and according to their needs. After I
framed a rough Questionnaire it was cross checked by the In charge Manager. The purpose of
crosschecking was to delete such questions which will not be answered by the customer or
which are of no use.
After that I finalized the Questionnaire and started my research. The methodology used was
Framing the Questionnaire and getting it filled by the Institutions by reaching to them in their
office. I have to meet the key person running the institute and then have to convince him to
fill the form so that I can collect the data for my project and also for the banks sales
executives.
69
A preliminary study of the mothers using baby soaps was done by this method of research.
For this purpose structured and non-structured questionnaire was prepared and
administered to various customers in different market segments and income groups. It
includes;
1. Survey method, and
2. Personal Interview.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
It is one of the most complicated and tough jobs for my research work though I thoroughly
enjoyed it. For data collection the primary and secondary sources of data collection were-
(1) Primary sources:
Primary Source of data collection with Airtel customers in Lucknow.
Main source of information is questionnaire with personal interview & other source is
Tele calling.
Sample size: 100
(2) Secondary sources:
Past records,
Files,
Internet,
I have used Questionnaire as a data collection tool.
70
DATA ANALYSIS
71
DATA ANALYSIS
72
FINDINGS
73
FINDINGS
All respondents use internet.
Most of the respondent use internet at home.
Most of the respondents use Airtel broadband for Internet whether BSNL is at second
place.
Above graphs showing that 40% of the respondents use internet because of
entertainment, 30% due to gaining knowledge, 20% said email and others and
remaining 10% said downloading.
Most (58%) of the respondent use 5GB-15GB data per month whether 23% use less
than 5GB data and 19% use more than 15GB data.
Most (40%) of the respondent said they prefer high internet connection, whether 20%
says they look at price.
Maximum respondent think that Airtel Broadband plans are quite expensive.
Most (78%) of the respondent are satisfied with their internet connection.
Most (78%) of the respondent are satisfied with their network connection and they
don’t want to switch on another network.
Most of the respondents chose Reliance communication in case they quit Airtel
broadband. Tikona is preferred at 2nd place while BSNL is behind at 3rd place in
competition to new service providers.
74
LIMITATIONS
75
LIMITATIONS
1. There is time constraint for me.
2. Not exact & true information given by people.
3. Inadequate data.
4. It is tough to take appointment.
5. Frequent changes in schemes make customer and dealer confused.
76
CONCLUSION
77
CONCLUSION
India has one of the world’s largest telecommunication networks. The telecom story
continues to be the best evidence of the efficacy of the reforms process. After analyzing the
findings of the research, it can conclude that Airtel is the leader in broadband service and
availability. The maximum number of people who use the broadband is business person and
office executives. Airtel Broadband is popular type of internet connections, as they are
consumer friendly and data speed of the connection is not a problem. People prefer Airtel
broadband due to better post sale service. Maximum no. of people use more than 5GB data
per month and use 2MPBS or higher plan. As Airtel is the only company having the
maximum no of broadband connections so it must seriously look into the loop holes of the
existing customer service department such as the pricing.
78
RECOMMENDATION
79
RECOMMENDATION
Improvement in coverage area:
During the study it is observed that Airtel broadband is not available in specific areas like
Sitapur road etc. Airtel should increase the coverage area considering the high population
nearby the mentioned location.
Reduction in rates:
Airtel charges its customers quite high charges for their broadband plans They should launch
a lesser value plan for domestic connections.
Clear tariff plans:
Airtel is offering various tariff plans under various names. During the study it is observed that
people are confused about the tariff plans. Therefore efforts should be put in educating the
customers on tariff plans at the point of purchase.
Customers meet:
Most of the customers have the problems relating problems like modem, service and
downloading speed etc. In order to resolve this problem regular customers meet can be
arranged in these towns where customers can seek solutions for their problems.
80
BIBLIOGRAPHY
81
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.ibef.org/industry/telecommunications.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_India
http://info.shine.com/industry/telecom/9.html
http://www.airtel.in/mobile/prepaid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-06-20/news/50739148_1_idc-
broadband-revenue-growth
http://www.budde.com.au/Research/India-Broadband-Market-Internet-Services-and-
Forecasts.html
http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/india-s-broadband-nirvana-
114040600673_1.html
http://wiki.broadbandforum.in/home/inter/broad/airtel-broadband/airtel-broadband
http://ekikrat.in/Airtel-Broadband
http://plandekho.in/airtel_broadband_plans_for_lucknow_uttar_pradesh_east-2396/
http://www.newtechnology.co.in/airtel-broadband-plans-in-lucknow/
82
QUESTIONNAIRE
83
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1. Do you use internet?
Yes
No
Q2. Where you use Internet?
Home
Office
Cyber Cafe
Others
Q3. Which service provider do you use for broadband internet?
Airtel
BSNL
Reliance Communication
Others
Q4. What is the purpose of using internet?
Gaining Knowledge
Entertainment
Downloading
Email and others
84
Q5. How much data do you use per month?
Less than 5GB
5GB-15GB
More than 15GB
Q6. Which factor you consider the most before purchasing the connection?
High Speed
Price
Data usage
Others
Q7. According to you which area is mostly concerned with Airtel Broadband?
Speed
High Price
Post Sale Service
Others
Q8. Are you satisfied with Airtel Broadband?
Yes
No
85
Q9. Would you like to switch on another network?
Yes
No
Q10. Which service provider you will choose if quit the Airtel Broadband?
BSNL
Tikona
Reliance Communication
Others
THANK YOU
86
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