Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Thesis Submitted to
Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University,
Department of Business Management
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
In
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Submitted by
BHARAT BHUSHAN CHAUDHARY
(Enrollment Number: DYP-PhD -066100005)
Research Guide
Prof. Dr. Vijay Wagh
Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University,
Department of Business Management
CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai - 400614
January 2012
i
A Comparative Analysis of Customer
Service Provided by Cellular Mobile
Service Providers (CMSP) in Mumbai
Region
ii
Declaration by the Candidate
Date: 20.1.2012
iii
Certificate
It is also certified that the thesis represents an independent work on the part
of the candidate .
Date: 20.1.2012
iv
Acknowledgements
I offer my sincere gratitude to my research guide, Professor Dr. Vijay Wagh, who
research work to his encouragement and effort and without him this research
Pradeep Manjrekar, Head of the Research Extension for his constant support in
studies. Last but not the least a big thank you to Ms. Sarita; my wife without her
Place: Mumbai
v
Contents
No.
Declaration iii
Certificate iv
Acknowledgements v
Contents vi
List of Abbreviations 1
List of Tables 4
List of Figures 11
Chapter-I
1.1 Introduction 27
vi
1.5 Cellular Mobile Services 38
Chapter-II
vii
Chapter-III
Chapter-IV
viii
4.7 Customers’ Expectations from CMSP 138
Chapter-V
Chapter-VI
ix
6.7 Research Hypothesis 168
Chapter-VII
Customer Expectations
Expectations
Service in Mumbai
Chapter-VIII
x
8.7 Role of TRAI in Pricing 209
9 Chapter-IX
development
Chapter-X
xi
for CMSPs
Chapter-XI
CMSPs
12 Findings 258-274
Expectations
Customer Service
Chapter-XIII
xii
13 Conclusions and Recommendations 275
Bibilography 280
Questionnaire
xiii
Glossary of the terms used
1. 1G First Generation
2. 2G Second Generation
3. 3G Third Generations
of India
1
SNo Abbreviation Full Form
2
Sno Abbreviation Full Form
3
List of Tables
No. No.
service.
March 2011
March 2011.
March 2011.
4
SNo Table Title Page
No. No.
Subscriber Model.
CMS
CMS
5
SNo Table Title Page
No. No.
22. 3.1 (a) Fault incidence and repair benchmarks for CMS. 100
23. 3.2 (a) The Network Performance bench marks for CMS. 103
25. 3.4(a) Fault incidence and repair parameters for CMS 104
Mumbai.
Mumbai
Mumbai.
retailers in Mumbai.
6
SNo Table Title Page No
No.
34. 6.1 The market share of the CMSP as on May 2007. 169
35. 6.2 Sample size of the CMSP used in the Study 170
43. 7.7 The two items of Value added services (VAS1). 177
46. 7.10 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 181
47. 7.11 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 181
48. 7.12 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 182
49. 7.13 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 182
50. 7.14 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 182
7
SNo Table Title Page
No. No.
51. 7.15 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 182
52. 7.16 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 183
53. 7.17 The Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed 183
58. 7.22 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 188
59. 7.23 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 188
60. 7.24 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 188
61. 7.25 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 188
8
SNo Table Title Page
No. No.
62. 7.26 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 189
63. 7.27 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 189
64. 7.28 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 189
65. 7.29 The Expectations, perception and Gap score for 189
66. 7.30 The Descriptive static’s for the eight dimensions 191
of service quality
71. 7.35 The relative value vector for four factors 197
9
No Table Title Page
No. No.
10
List of figures
SNo. Figure Title Page
No. Number
1. 1.2 Swot analysis of Telecom Industry in India 59
11
Executive Summary
12
Executive Summary
three new dimensions Network quality, Innovation and Value added services
Empathy and Tangibility. The three new dimensions were validated using
services were also studied in detail. The gap between the customer’s
perceptions and expectations was calculated to find out whether they are
(AHP) model to rank the CMSP on Network quality, Price, Promotion and
Physical Evidence.
Literature Review
The wireless service is also known as cellular mobile service, because the
coverage areas are split into small geographical areas called cells. It not only
13
provides voice and data communication but also plays an important role in
The Telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) service standards does not
enrolling new customers; they are not paying much attention on service
quality. In order to remain reachable the customers have opted for the mobile
Then the gap between perceptions and expectations is calculated to find out
the CMSP on the quality of the customer service. This analysis will assist the
(CMTS).
14
ii) To study service quality standards set up by telecom regulatory
expectation.
marketing agents and all those who are in the telecom trade.
H12: The CMSPs in Mumbai are not meeting the customer expectations.
15
Sample Plan
In this study two samples were used. The first sample consists of CMSP in
Mumbai region providing service for more than three years (in 2007), having a
market share of greater than 5% and more than 0.5 million customers. Only
six service providers Vodafone limited, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infocom, Loop
The modified SERVQUAL scale was validated by the collected data with the
help of the Cronbach’s alpha test to measure consistency among the scale
items. The factor analysis was done in the next step to reduce a large number
of variables into less number of factors. The items in the respective category
confirm unidimensionality of the scale and validity tests were performed. The
services and innovations with overall service quality was done. The eight
relative importance. The results were used to suggest the priority areas which
need improvement.
16
Findings
obtain CMTS license. The spectrum allotment also takes time in the
the call rates are lowest in the world due to the presence of eighteen
CMSPs in Mumbai.
The CMSPs are launching mobile service without proper testing and
The roll out obligations are not met as per the CMTS license
The spectrum is the core resource in providing the mobile services, the
lesser the spectrum more Base Transmission Stations are needed, and
the cost of the infrastructure increases for achieving the same service
quality. Both GSM and CDMA providers are facing congestion due to
scarcity of spectrum.
17
The spectrum allotment policy is technology dependent. The CMSP are
The customers are not aware about TRAI; all the customers’
perceptions about the mobile service are not included. The present
service.
included.
surveys done by TRAI from April 2003 to June 2005, CMSPs have
18
The notion of Quality of Experience (QoE, abbreviated also as QoX)
With the growth of mobile service, it has become very important for
mobile handsets.
As per the above findings it is concluded that the CMSPs in Mumbai region
are not meeting the TRAI parameter and hence the above null hypothesis
(H01) is rejected.
ever they go. The individual and the corporate customers have different
found that the expectations for the service quality dimension reliability (6.04)
and innovations (6.20) are more than six points. The value of expectations for
the remaining six dimensions was found between five and six, assurance
19
A higher perception also indicates higher satisfaction as service quality and
satisfaction are positively correlated. This means that the dimensions with
It can be concluded that the customers in Mumbai are looking for a mobile
As per the above findings it is concluded that the CMSP in Mumbai region are
not meeting the TRAI parameter and hence the above null hypothesis (H02) is
rejected.
iv) The Performance of the Customer Service Quality against the TRAI
The overall gap between the perceptions and the expectations was
expectations are always more than the perceptions and they keep on
increasing.
The overall average gap score for all the eight dimensions = - 0.793.
20
The gap score gives an idea about the quality of service provided by
CMSPs. It is seen form the results above that the gap is negative and it
proves that the CMSPs in Mumbai are not meeting the TRAI
Table: A1- Expectations, perception and Gap for eight dimension of SQ.
All the dimensions show a gap this means that CMSPs need to make
21
v) Gaps in customer service quality and suggestions to bridge the gap
and perceptions.
Reliability (P)
The value of mean for the reliability criteria is -1.091 and the median is -1.00.
Responsiveness (Q)
The value of mean for the responsiveness criteria is -1.0 and the median is -
Assurance (R)
The value of mean for the assurance criteria is -0.86 and the median is-0.75.
Empathy(S)
The value of mean for the empathy criteria is -0.68 and the median is -0.60.
Tangibles (T)
The value of mean for the tangibles criteria is -0.62 and the median is -0.50.
Network (NQ)
The value of mean for the network criteria is -0.72 and the median are -0.34.
The value of mean for the value added service criteria are -0.77 and the
median is -0.56. The value added service is rated medium by the customers.
22
Innovation (INNOV)
The value of mean for the innovation criteria is -0.89 and the median is -0.54.
and physical evidence were found important. It was found that network quality
contributes 49.6%, price 28.9%, physical evidence 13% and promotion 8.6%.
evidence, network quality and price. The result was multiplied with the %
weight age of the four factors. A six sets of pair wise comparisons how well
Nigam Limited, Loop Mobile and Tata teleservices limited perform in terms of
the promotion, network, price and physical evidence was obtained from the
customers.
It was found that Reliance Infocom is best in network quality and MTNL is
worst, the services of Tata teleservices limited are cheapest. The promotion
for MTNL is found to be the best and worst for Tata Tele services. The
physical evidence is best for MTNL and worst for Bharti Airtel limited.
23
In the final step the customer’s judgment as to the relative importance of the
SNo Factors R B T L V M
1 Network 0.12 0.09 0.07 0.06 0.90 0.03
2 Price 0.03 0.05 0.02 0.05 0.06 0.06
3 Promotion 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.04
4 Evidence 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
0.18 0.19 0.11 0.16 0.20 0.16
Source: research survey findings
As per the above parameters Vodafone limited is ranked first, Bharti Airtel is
ranked second, Reliance Infocom is ranked third, Loop Mobile telecom and
MTNL are ranked fourth and Tata Tele services is ranked last. The CMSP
ranked first and second are offering GSM services where as the last is a
ii) The CMSP shall optimize the radio frequency network to improve the
iii) The call centre shall be made more responsive; there is a need to improve
the first time resolution .The CMSP shall start measurement of the quality of
experience and make their services more friendly and easy to use.
24
Limitations of the Study
i) If this research will be done across India with larger sample one may arrive
ii) The findings in Mumbai region will not be applicable to any other metro.
iv) The mobile handset has a major impact on quality of customer service.
i) This study can be repeated for all the CMSPs in Mumbai region.
ii) There is an urgent need to ascertain the contribution of the mobile handsets
25
Chapter-I
1.1 Introduction
26
Chapter-I
Introduction to Cellular Mobile Service
1.1 Introduction
The cellular mobile service (CMS) not only provides voice and data
of products. It has eliminated the need of many physical products. The need
to travel from one place to another for business or socialization has reduced
concluded that a rise of ten mobile phones per hundred people boosts Gross
teledensity2 has brought many social and economic benefits to the developing
country.
Mobile Service Provider (CMSP) has gained more importance now. This
the fundamentals of the cellular mobile service (CMS), Code Division Multiple
Access4 (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile5 (GSM) and advantages and
short comings of one over the other before embarking on the main objective
27
of the research study a comparative analysis of customer service provided by
cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs) in Mumbai region. In this study six
cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) out of existing eighteen6 CMSPs are
included. Out of these Vodafone limited, Bharti Airtel limited, Loop Mobile and
MTNL7 offers GSM service while Tata Teleservices limited and Reliance
The history of the Indian telecom industry can be viewed in two time lines.
and Kolkata. In 1851, British East India Company10 started using telegraphy.
restricted to the urban areas only. The British were primarily interested in
using telecom to maintain law and order. In 1881, the British granted license
telephone connections were only 0.08 million12. The landline telephone was
28
socialist model of governance. The capitalism, foreign investment and foreign
monopoly. The telecom was included in the centre list13, it was decided that all
the policies will be decided by the Government of India. All the existing private
Department (P & T). The telecom department at that time was more a vehicle
customer service. The new telecom infrastructure was added only to cities
countries and adapted them to local networks. It was not in a position to meet
the required investment. The infusion of capital from the private sector was
In early 1980s, the policy makers realized that India’s closed economy had
not resulted in development. Since 1960s, the Government of India (GoI) had
made up for shortfalls in its economy, through financial aid from International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. In 1980s, the United States of
favorable terms to India. Under this pressure, the Government of India (GoI)
restrictions. In 1985, telecom was separated from Post and Telegraph, and
the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was set up, under the Ministry
29
telecom (DoT) became exclusive provider of both local and long distance
The government, businesses and private users were not satisfied with the
Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) was also created in 1986 to run international
In 1991 due to Gulf war India faced foreign exchange crunch, the rising oil
abroad, rising prices, and import costs. By mid-year 1991, India’s balance of
payments (BoP) fell to a serious low, with only about two weeks worth of
import funds left in treasury. India desperately sought the help of international
lending agencies, requiring devaluing the Indian rupee. The financial reforms
telecom services. The reforms also gave a big boost to enhancing telecom
30
infrastructure. The Liberalization of telecom services began in 1992, with the
build world class telecom infrastructure, so that the services can be provided
value added services (vas) such as wireless (cellular) services, radio paging,
etc. This policy gave major share of the telecom development to department
of telecom (DoT) and its public sectors. It allowed only a supplementary role
for private enterprises. The lucrative long distance services were retained by
telecom instead they chose a middle path, the new entrant were allowed to
compete for other services only after meeting their commitments in the local
loop. In order to meet the resource gap the private investments became
provide basic services in the local loop, licenses were granted to eight cellular
31
After liberalization it was felt necessary to separate the regulatory and
The National Telecom Policy (NTP) 1994 did not meet the expectations of the
(CMSPs) also missed the estimated revenue targets. A new telecom policy
(NTP) was announced in 1999 which became the genesis of the cellular
revolution being witnessed. The aim was to start afresh, as prior policy
changes had not brought forth the liberalization or the increase in teledensity
telecom (DoT) or telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI). The policy also
set several landmarks and targets to be achieved in the coming years. It also
announced to separate the policy and licensing functions of DoT from the
Services (DTS) and the Department of Telecom Operations, were carved out
In 2000, DTS was corporatized and renamed as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd
(BSNL), and thus the functions of the incumbent service provider were
separated from that of the policy maker. The DoT is now responsible for
32
services. The government realized that TRAI had to be reconstituted, with
more powers and independence. The TRAI Amendment Act of 2000 curtailed
The New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) provided a major fillip to private sector
basic service to migrate from a fixed license fee regime19 to a revenue sharing
regime20 to make their operations viable. It was decided that the growth in
telecom will be used to build up the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India.
In contrast of the duopoly practiced earlier, the new policy permitted multiple
helped to reduce their operational cost. The reduction in call rates provided a
providers (CMSP and Basic service operators) within the same areas of
The Telecom industry in India can be divided into two main segments namely
33
1.3.1. Wireline Service
providers such as public call offices (PCO). The Wireline services are also
known as the POTS (Plain Ordinary Telephone Services). The number of the
wireline connections from 2004 to 2011 is shown year wise in column ‘A’ of
the Table 1.1 it can be seen that the growth is negative for wire-line
segments.
Table 1.1 the number of wireline, wireless, total connections and teledensity
(in %) from 2004 to 2011 (In Millions).
Sno Financial Wire Line Wire Less Total Tele-density
year connections connections connections In %
‘A’ ‘B’ (A+B)
The telephone service provided without using cables in the local loop is called
GSM dominates the wireless segment. The Indian telecom industry has made
34
segment will be dealt in detail. The number of wireless connections year wise
from 2004 to 2011 is shown in column ‘B’ of table 1.1, it can be seen that the
percentage is also shown in column ‘C’. The rural teledensity is 32.11% while
the urban teledensity is 151%, there exist a wide disparity in the urban and
At present there are 22 circles or telecom service areas which are classified in
territories of varying population sizes ‘A’ circles are the largest in terms of the
population coverage ‘C’ contains the least population. The borders of the
circle roughly correspond to the borders of the Indian states but there are
exceptions. Some smaller states are folded into larger neighboring states and
some other smaller states are combined together to form one circle.
35
The DoT circles are now called as service areas; nevertheless the term circle
From the tables 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 it can be seen that there are three metro
circles, five ‘A’ circle, eight ‘B’ circle and six ‘C’ circle. The teledensity in New
among the ‘A’ circles, teledensity in Punjab is highest among the ‘B’ circles
From table 1.3 it can be seen that the teledensity in New Delhi is highest
among the metros and the teledensity in Kolkata is lowest.
36
From table 1.4 it can be seen that the teledensity in Maharashtra is highest
among the ‘A’ circles and the teledensity in Tamil Nadu is lowest.
From table 1.5 it can be seen that the teledensity in Punjab is highest among
37
From table 1.6 it can be seen that the teledensity in Himachal Pradesh is
highest among ‘C’ circles and teledensity in Assam is lowest. The teledensity
of Bihar is lowest in India and the teledensity of New Delhi is highest in India.
because the coverage areas are split into smaller areas called cells24. The
coverage area has one or more transmitters and receivers that communicate
with mobile handsets within its coverage area. It connects customer’s mobile
handset via radio25 channels to base stations. Some of the radio channels are
used for control purposes and the remaining is used to carry customer traffic.
The Cellular systems are designed to overlap each cell border with adjacent
cell borders to enable a handoff26 from one cell to the next. As customer
coordinates and transfers calls from one cell to another and maintains
continuity. The operators licensed to provide the cellular services are known
Cellular Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs) whereas the services are called
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) are deployed in India. Both these technologies have
is accounts for 78% and the remaining 22% is Code Division Multiplexing
Access (CDMA).
38
It can be seen from the table 1.7 below that the GSM connections are five
The birth of GSM can be traced to early 1980s when a group of 26 European
Mobile Communications (GSM). The group set out to design a system with a
vision to provide good speech quality and support International roaming27 and
a range of value added services. This standard was released in 1989, by the
The first Global System for mobile communication (GSM) call was made by
Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri on 1st July 1991. The historic call used
the Nokia handset. The GSM services were launched in parts of Europe in
39
1991 and the standard went to countries like Denmark, Finland, France,
The Global System for Mobile (GSM) is a form of multiplexing28, which divides
Access (FDMA)30. The FDMA part involves the division of frequency band of
25 MHz bandwidth into 124 carrier frequencies31 spaced 200 kHz apart. Each
15/26 ms (or approx. 0.577 ms). One physical channel is one burst period per
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) frame. The Global System for Mobile
which makes it easier to detect. It is portable from one hand set to another by
34
changing Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards; the user can change
phones and retain same mobile number. It is roaming friendly and allows user
greater flexibility, which accounts for its popularity. To ensure privacy, Global
System for Mobile communication (GSM) systems has to add an extra stage
of encryption.
signals. The idea remained dormant until 1957 when engineers at the
40
Sylvania Electronic Systems Division, in Buffalo, New York took up the idea,
and used it for secure communications during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
what has now become Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.
Hong Kong. The audio signal is first digitized into binary elements. The
secure transmissions.
optimizing the use of available bandwidth. This technology is used in the 800-
MHz and 9 GHz bands. The number of channels (users) that can be allocated
Access (CDMA) than for GSM. The cost of setting up a Code Division Multiple
Removable user identity Module (RUIM37) card. This means that cell phone is
locked or cannot be used with other cellular Mobile service providers (CMSP)
network. In India Minutes of Usage (MoU) for Global System for Mobile
41
Multiple Access (CDMA). It supports a maximum of 131 connections,
in a similar bandwidth. The GSM technology needs four time more Base
38
Transceiver System as compared to CDMA. It supports soft handoff good
voice quality (using Voice Coding) perfect power control. Its spectrum
main disadvantage that it does not support service portability and international
roaming.
The Average Revenue per user (ARPU) of the Global System of Mobile
Revenue per user (ARPU) of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
services also fell from Rs 202 to 66. The reduction in both the cases is
42
1.6 Postpaid and Prepaid Service
The cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs) offer Cellular Mobile Service
sign a contract with the cellular mobile service provider (CMSP), a rental is
charged every month the customer has a choice to select a plan as per his
calling pattern. A bill is generated for the rental and usage in the end of the
month. The prepaid services don’t require any contract and can be used
without any monthly rental charge. The customer has a choice to recharge his
customers while the prepaid services are mostly used by individuals. The
postpaid. The prepaid services are very popular in India, with a customer
base of 93%.
Table 1.9 the Postpaid and Prepaid component for GSM and CDMA.
SNo Technology GSM CDMA
globally. At this rate of growth it may touch six billion in the year 2012. It
43
means one connection in the hand of every single person aged fifteen years
analysis41 of five billion mobile connections it was found that only 4.1 billion
are active users, out of this 3.6 billion are unique users. Out of the 3.6 billion
unique customers, 1.1 billion have two or more connections and 300 million
people have three or more active connections. Of the above 1.1 billion people
with more than one account, 500 million have two connections they carry
around regularly.
The world human population of 6.8 billion is unevenly distributed; 1.2 billion
live in the developed nations like Europe and America where as remaining 5.6
billion live in developing nations like Africa, Latin America and Asia. The
52 percent in the developing nations. In the future the developing nations will
other consumer goods, at the end of 2009 world had just less than 1 billion
automobiles, a little over 1.1 billion landline connections, 1.2 billion personal
computers, 1.6 billion television sets and 2.2 billion bank account holders. It
can be seen that with more than five billion customers the mobile service
industry is a gigantic.
44
The digital divide in teledensity is due to the poor infrastructure in the rural
million which has grown to 671 million on date. The count of customers in
India will soon exceed the total customers count in China by 2013 at a growth
million people.
The cellular mobile service (CMS) has witnessed significant growth in the past
few years. The private sector has played an important role in the rapid growth
of wireless segment. Their market share consists of 86% of the total wireless
Vodafone limited, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Infocom limited, are pan India.
The remaining are regional players. The global system for mobile system
and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA sector is dominated by Reliance Infocom
45
1.9.1. Cellular Mobile Service Provider
Currently, both public sector players as well as the private sector cellular
Only two premier PSUs, Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) and
India. While MTNL operates in Delhi and Mumbai, BSNL provides services to
the rest of the India. In the post-liberalization era, these PSUs have made
counterparts. The license for operating the mobile service to BSNL and MTNL
was allotted in 1999 and 2001 respectively when oligopoly was allowed.
mainly active in the wireless segment. While some private players have a
pan-India presence, there are many regional players that cater to only certain
service areas. There are two types of private sector companies. They are
private companies with Indian ownership example Bharti Airtel, Spice etc and
private CMSP have played a very crucial role in the growth of telecom
industry, primarily in cellular mobile services. The private sector has been
46
increasing its foothold in telecom industry. The initiatives such as allotting
Table 1.11 the list of the Pan India and regional CMSP in India.
47
Radio Frequency Allocation (SACFA).It makes recommendations on
The role of TRAI is to provide a fair and transparent policy environment which
promotes a level playing field and fair competition. In order to meet these
Mandatory Functions.
A. Recommendatory Functions
In January 2000, TRAI was split into two agencies, a new TRAI, divested of all
48
(TDSAT). The TDSAT was empowered to adjudicate on disputes between the
licensor and licensee, between two or more CMSPs and between a CMSP
the benefits of affordable mobile telephony services to people of India. Its core
Industry in India. It also interacts with press and media to ensure that issues
The sales channel of the CMSPs consists of the CMSP, distributors, feeders,
runners and customers. The CMSP have divided the Mumbai region into five,
eight and nine zones as per their convenience and customer data base. Each
49
territory manager. The zonal and territory manager are appointed by Cellular
The distributors deal with cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) and
arrange SIM cards and recharge coupons for distributors as per the market
time to time. They have a number of retailers and feeder under their control
to reach out to the customers. The distributors supply the inventory to the
feeders that control the retail market with the help of the runners. The runners
report to the feeder on the orders booked and orders completed. They are
directly in touch with the customers. In Mumbai the runners are common for
50
growth of telecom services and improving teledensity and bringing value for
access to the emerging information society and global economy. The main
radiations between 9 kHz and 3000 GHz. It can be shared by different users
consumed upon its use and it can be shared amongst the various radio
electromagnetic spectrum and reserve their right to its unlimited use. In order
51
to support trade, cooperation and mutual protection against interference, they
The first radio telephone service was introduced in the United States of
America (USA) at the end of 1940s, and was meant to connect mobile users
in cars to the public fixed network. In the 1960s, a new system launched by
many improvements like direct dialing and higher bandwidth. The first analog
cellular systems were based on IMTS and developed in the late 1960s and
generations.
The first generation analog system for mobile communications saw two key
digitization of the control link between the mobile phone and the cell site.
AMPS (Advance mobile phone system) were first launched which were 1G
technology which allows users to make voice calls within one country. There
52
1.11.2. Second Generation (2G)
The second generation cellular systems were first developed at the end of the
1980s. These systems digitized not only control link but also the voice signal.
The new system provided better quality and higher capacity at lower cost to
consumers. GSM was the first commercially operated digital cellular system
voice, fax and Internet, anytime and anywhere with seamless global roaming.
The first 3G network was deployed in Japan in 2001. It supports 144 Kbps
bandwidth, with high speed movement (e.g. vehicles), 384 Kbps and 2 Mbps
for stationary.
The Indian telecom laws cover all the areas of telecom operations right from
exhaustive provisions for safe guarding the interest of the customers. Some of
As per this act Government of India is vested with the exclusive privileges to
make laws for the conduct of telegraph. It can take possession of the licensed
53
facility on railway tracks and can also notify the rates for transmission. It
and breach of the license conditions. A dispute concerning any telegraph line,
appliance or apparatus arises between the telegraph authority and the person
(GoI). The award of the arbitrator shall be conclusive between the parties and
The telegraphy authority constituted under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885,
telegraphy apparatus under this Act, and may issue licences in such manner,
The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 lays down the rights and privileges of
customer in India. The first and the only act of its kind in India, it has enabled
in each district and state and at the national level, called the district forums;
54
consumer protection act is an alternative in addition to that already available
wireless in local loop (WLL) with limited mobility using code Division
Multiplexing Access (CDMA) technology in their license areas. They were also
the popularity of these services, as the prices of these services were lower
than that for GSM. This created a disadvantage for the GSM cellular
operators as they had paid substantial amounts to obtain their licences and
WLL (M) services were increasingly seen as largely substitutable for GSM
Access Services Licensing (UASL) regime for basic and cellular services,
which was introduced in October 2003. Under the new licensing regime, both
basic service operators and cellular carriers gained freedom to offer basic and
or cellular mobile services using any technology, which has ensured a fair
55
universal service obligations as laid down in the New Telecom Policy (NTP)
1999. The Indian Telegraph Act (1885) has been amended and mobile
services have been included under basic telephony in rural areas to further
help the CMSP to access the universal service obligation fund (USOF), which
will help them to finance telecom infrastructure in rural areas. The resources
for meeting the USO would be raised through a ‘universal access levy’. The
implementation of the USO obligation for rural and remote areas would be
undertaken by all fixed service providers who will be reimbursed from the
It can be seen that there is a wide gap between the collection and
The Competition Act, 2002 was passed by the parliament in the year 2002. It
56
have been established. It deals with the anti-competitive agreements and
The aim of the Commission is to make markets work well for consumers
the price of the services. A variety of access networks fixed and mobile,
national long distance network and international long distance networks have
to interconnect with each other to make local, national and international calls
All the CMSPs come under the purview of this regulation. They shall provide a
call centre for redressal of consumer’s grievances and such toll free call
centre shall be accessible to its customers 24x7, 365 days. The calls shall be
57
answered as per service quality parameters. The CMSP shall advertise the
in three tiers call centre, Nodal officer and Appellate Authority and the
secretariat.
The appellate authority has to submit a report of the receipt and the disposal
of the complaints. All the CMSPs are also advised to publish a manual on
The Indian telecom industry is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in
the world. The reforms introduced by the government in the last decade have
improved the telecom infrastructure. India is the second largest market in the
58
TELECOM INDUSTRY IN INDIA
Strengths Weaknesses
Unexploited customer base. Requires huge initial fixed.
Lowest call tariff in the world. Non availability of spectrum.
Friendly economic policies. Slow pace of reforms and License
Large talent pool and low labour conditions are not clear.
Cost. The total regulatory fees are
Value added services are between 17 ~ 26%.
popular. The levies are also high.
Both GSM and CDMA in use. The low tariffs, falling ARPU’s.
External
Opportunities Threats
World’s largest untapped mobile The absence of clear separations
market with growth potential. in policy, regulation and
Wide acceptance of VAS. operations.
The telecoms trends in India will Delays in decision making.
have a great impact on other IT Integration during Mergers is
industry. challenging.
Small and medium businesses Increase in competition from new
in India are spending more on players.
telecom services. The hike in Value Added Tax
3G will further augment the (VAT) on cell phones from 4 to
growth rate and revenues. 12.5 percent.
SWOT Analysis Conclusion
The Indian telecom market is unexploited; still there is a possibility of 400-500 million
new connections. The citizens have started using the mobile applications. Hence
there is a huge scope for CMSPs.
Chart 1.1 the SWOT Analysis of telecom industry in India
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Chapter -II
The Process of Providing CMTS
60
Chapter -II
The Process of Providing CMTS
As per the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, a license is required for operating
the Indian Companies Act’1956, can apply for the license. The total foreign
equity in the company shall not exceed 49% at any time during the entire
license period. The license is awarded circle wise. A company can apply for
one time entry and license fee annually @ 17% of Adjusted Gross Revenue
frequency bands of 900 and 1800 MHz while Code Division Multiple access
61
which are being used world over for smooth operation of international
roaming 44 facilities and enable the customers to enjoy the services without
In India 25 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz band (890 – 915 to 935 – 960 MHz)
and 75 MHz in the 1800 MHz band (1710 – 1785 to 1805 – 1880 MHz) is
reserved for GSM services. In this band, a total of 20.2 MHz is available for
GSM networks and Railways out of 25 Mhz. where as in the GSM 1800 band
out of 75 MHz only 15 MHz is available for use the remaining 60 MHz is
occupied by Defense. With the GSM license an initial allotment of 2x4.4 MHz
spectrum is provided.
In India 20 MHz spectrum in the 800 MHz band (824 – 844 / 869 – 889 MHz)
1.25 MHz each are possible for assignment to CMSP. With the CDMA license
62
Government of India for pricing spectrum. It assessed the relative merits of
than 10 MHz. With the 900 MHz GSM band completely occupied, the
allocation beyond 8 MHz to each operator is possible only in 1800 MHz band.
In 800 MHz CDMA band, some licensees have been allotted up to 3 carriers,
out of a total of 4.
The CMSP has to submit a business plan along with its funding arrangement
for financing the project and how it will meet the roll out obligations. As per the
operations. As per the roll out obligations in metros, 90% of the service area
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2.3.1. Blocks of Cellular Mobile System
The details of the equipment required by the CMSP for offering the cellular
It mainly performs call processing and service related functions and store five
important data bases essential for the operation of the CMS. These five
It performs call switching functionality. It controls the calls to and from other
mobile numbers, which means it controls calls from same networks and calls
interfacing etc.
information about locations and permanent data. When new connections are
sold, the customer data is registered in HLR. It also stores the Individual
Subscriber Authentication Key (Ki) for each Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).
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requests the data about customer or Mobile station (MS) from the Home
Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) the Subscriber Authentication key (Ki), and
The base station system is outdoor unit which is responsible for connecting
transmission. The Base station System is further divided in two sub systems,
65
Chart 2.1 the block diagram of cellular Mobile system.
responsible for hand over etc. It creates physical link between customer’s
Station Controller (BSC) when MS goes out of the current range of BTS; it
helps in connecting to next BTS in range to keep the connection alive within
the network. The Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) acts as bridge between
different mobile networks. It provides the control function and physical links
between the MSC and BTS. The BSC provides functions such as handover,
cell configuration data, and control of radio frequency (RF) power levels in
This network element handles the radio interface for the mobile station. The
BTS is the radio equipment needed to service each cell in the network. The
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customer connects to mobile network through BTS; it handles communication
using radio transmission with mobile station. As name suggests, Base Trans
receiver station is the radio equipment which receives and transmits the voice
and data at the same time. One BSC controls a group of BTS.
The OSS helps in mobile networks to monitor and control the complex
The billing and customer care module is used for generation of bill, service
A network element which provides Short Message Service (SMS), voice mail,
It is a network element which supports the prepaid and value added services.
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iii) Gateway Mobile Services Switching Centre (GMSC)
This is the network element which interfaces with other data networks.
keeping them for a life time. The satisfied customers recommend service to
price, place and promotion. These variables form key elements within the
various factors that can be emphasized to meet customer needs. The market
product is radio frequency network. The customer pays for the use of network
to remain connected. The cellular mobile service is retailed through the shops
Radio Standard (GPRS).These are used for downloading ring tones, games,
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information and other value added services. The final product offered by
consists of seven P’s as compared to the four P’s of a product marketing mix.
The service marketing mix assumes the service as a product. It adds three
more P’s which are essential for optimum service delivery. The extended
service marketing mix places three further P’s which include People, Process
and Physical evidence necessary for optimum service delivery. The product in
services are easily duplicated and hence it is the brand which sets a service
apart from its competitor. Hence promotions have become a critical factor in
the mobile service marketing mix. The cellular mobile service providers
(CMSP) spend a big amount on promotion. The people are one of the
important elements of service marketing mix, who define the service. The role
of the people in case of mobile service marketing is very critical. The CSMP
are getting their staff trained in interpersonal skills with a focus towards
customer satisfaction.
As per the TRAI data for financial year 2010-11, 93% of mobile customers in
India use prepaid. Out of this around 25-30% are dual SIM46 customers. The
customers prefer mobile services which offer lowest call rates. In order to
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save money customers switch subscribers Identity Module (SIM) for making
distributors are unable to capture sufficient demographic data. The data which
CMSPs are facing challenge in segmenting the customers and have adopted
As the growth is getting saturated the impact on the value produced by each
Once these segments are created then targeted marketing strategies can be
to identify customers on the basis of their stage in life and hence to offer tailor
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group messaging services. This segment is very dynamic and
ii) Young Professionals: The youth entering the workforce and thus
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v) Special: This category includes a small but growing segment which
Executive Officers. The tailor made schemes for each segment have been a
great success so far. This customization, however, has reached such a stage
that every service provider has numerous schemes being provided at the
same time.
40 in value for customers who top up within a specified time. These extra
college students who primarily uses voice to make incoming calls and most of
money for top up. The average minutes of usage in India are highest about
400 minutes per month. This roughly translates into Rs. 160 to 200 monthly
usages. The free minutes of 50 to 100 minutes for a customer near the
average (400 minutes)48, this promotional offer looks very tempting. For
customers in the segment with higher monthly usage and nearing exhaustion
of their talk time this offer basically gives away value because these users will
before call setup. One way to increase customer life time value is to induce
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prepaid usage in this space, specifically, people using data services primarily
sports activities. Some sample segmentation that can enable better marketing
time access.
The cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) use market research agencies
to discover the most appropriate service marketing mix. In order to create the
right mix, they ensure that the product has the right features for example; it
must work well and look good and the price must be right. Making sure that
the service is offered when and where they are wanted is an important
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The CMSP monitor the success of marketing, by tracking the incoming calls
and branding as per the advice of the market research agencies to increase
about products, services, or about important issues. This is very essential for
informing the customers about the frequent tariff changes and launch of new
using the product. The advertising is just one way of promoting a product. A
Mobile Service Provider (CMSP) viz. in store promotion and giving away free
trail services.
The Market research agencies also help the CMSP build brand with a unique,
consistent and well recognized character. The branding of the mobile service
content, spectrum and others things by paying for them, and served their
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consumers with services like communication, entertainment, content, and
leased lines. This approach to business is called the one sided model where
the telecom operator owns, and controls all its assets to service customers.
The operator makes revenue from consumers and in turn pays to their
vendors.
application stores, content delivery platforms; rich value added services, and
between two entities on both sides with the help of platform services. The
upstream customer (employers, sellers), and the other side is called the
of scale.
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Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com accessed on 23rd Oct 2010
i) Subscriber led model: This model was used in the richer economies from
where cellular mobile services evolved. Since it was a new technology, the
cost of setting up a network was high. In the 1990s, most mobile operators
up the network remained high, very few subscribers signed up because the
ii) Minute Factory Model: In 2001 Minute Factory model a totally home
grown model in tune with the latest management theories was promoted by
considered core to the mobile service business and converted its fixed costs
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subscriber-led model didn’t allow. This allowed it to invest a minimum amount
to set up a network.
Table 2.1: Comparison between the Minutes Factory and Subscriber model.
The beauty of the Minutes Factory is that it can add small capacities fairly
specialist. The two-sided business model will be suitable for a volume driven
The life cycle of mobile service changes over time and must be managed as it
Saturation.
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Table 2.2 the four stages of the life cycle for mobile services.
i) They have a limited life; they become unattractive when all the
cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) offer the same
services at similar prices.
ii) The sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different
challenges, opportunities, and problems. The CMSP offer
different prices in different phases. They adopt different
resource and strategies in each stage of the life cycle.
The concept of the service (product) in the mobile service is little different as
products. The tariff plans for the Postpaid and Prepaid services are different.
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2.9.1 Voice Calls
i) In home network: Rental nil, Outgoing calls-‘a1’ps per minute (different rates
for on net and off net calls). The rate of the STD calls ’a2’ and ISD calls ‘a3’
depends upon the destination number called by the customer. The incoming
calls from all the destinations are free in the home network.
ii) In roaming network: Rental for roaming services- ‘r1’per month or per day,
Outgoing calls-‘b1’ps per minute. The rate of the STD ‘r2’ per minute and ISD
calls’r3’ per minute depends upon the destination number called by the
customer. All the incoming calls are not free in the roaming network.
i) In home network: Rental nil, Deposit nil, Outgoing calls-‘C1’ps per minute
(different rates for on net and off net SMS), incoming SMS are free. The rate
of the outgoing SMS for STD and ISD locations depends upon the delivery
ii) In roaming network: Outgoing SMS ‘d1’ ps per minute, incoming SMS are
free. The rate of the outgoing SMS for STD and ISD locations depends upon
the delivery destination number where the customer wishes to send the SMS.
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Table 2.3 the main and supplementary services for CMS.
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2.9.3 Data Services
platform. The data services are charged on per kb of data down loaded. A
The value added services like Caller Ring back tone a rental is charged per
month.
charged on addition of members. The local calls made on net, off net, other
CMSP, STD and ISD locations are charged at different rates on per minute
basis.
The tariff plan for the prepaid services is similar only deposit component is not
levied and the call rates are lower as compared to the Post paid services. In
some tariff plans CMSP offer free local, STD calls, ISD calls, data services so
that customers can try the new services. The total bill is calculated by
multiplying the number of SMS used and the rate per SMS.
The total usage is calculated by multiplying the minutes of usage and rate per
minute for all types of calls, SMS, Data and Value added services. This
(CMSP). The total of this revenue for all the customers divided by the total
number of the customers gives the average revenue per user (ARPU). The
total usage in minutes by all customers divided by the total revenue received
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gives average revenue per minute (ARPM). The average life of the tariff plan
year. The customers of the old tariff plan are given option to migrate to the
new plans. The price for the home and the roaming networks is different. It
can be seen that sixty percent of the users like to buy the services at the
market value and this percentage increases when the market value reduces.
Chart 2.4 the relation between the asking price and percentage of buyers.
It can be seen that most of the customers subscribe to the new services in the
first three weeks and the response dies after eight weeks. This is the reason
why the CMSP are launching tariff plans frequently. The tariffs for new
charges for local calls (in excess of free calls), charges for national and
international calls.
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2.10 Commercial Launch of Cellular Mobile Service
interconnection tests.
The sales channels of the cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs) are
The sales channel consists of four tiers. The CMSP sell mobile services to
distributors in bulk, who in turn sells it to dealers. The distributors sell the
utility shops known as retailers. The sales network is setup before commercial
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providers (CMSP). This affects all sales activities such as pricing, advertising
providers (CMSP) use different channels for retailing postpaid and prepaid
services, specialized agents are recruited for each channel. The merchandise
service providers (CMSP) end, there is a channel manager who controls the
mobile service providers (CMSP) owned stores, direct sales agency (DSA),
franchise networks and corporate accounts manager. All four channels are
prepaid sales here too, the direct sales agency (DSA) will have a direct sales
executive (DSE) attached to it. The postpaid connections are activated only
held responsible for the unpaid bills. This is the main reason why the postpaid
connections are not popular. The role of a direct sales executive (DSE) is to
organize the merchandise50 at the outlets, take orders for subscribers Identity
The channel managers are employed by CMSPs to assist the sales manager.
increasing the number of sales outlets and generate revenue as per targets. A
sales team along with their team leader assists the channel manager. They
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are responsible for converting leads by getting them enrolled. The sales report
complex day by day hence a number of software tools (ERP Tally51) are used
new retail channels are also evolving such as direct channels52, such as
websites and on-net delivery to meet the needs of the Information technology
(IT) savvy customers. The mobile distribution value chain focus mainly on
content53 also known as valued added services (VAS) is increasing. The value
added service (VAS) is sold in the form of recharge coupons through the
outlets. The content and value added service (VAS) providers have entered
the market with digital products, such as games and ring tones. These
services are offered from direct channel as part of the retail operations. The
The distribution channels is the most important for marketing mobile services
and are receiving attention from the cellular mobile services providers
(CMSPs). They are not only adding value to products and services, but also
creating customer and shareholder value, brand equity and market presence
for cellular mobile service providers (CMSP). The channel plays a significant
role in the flow of mobile service merchandise. The sales network in the
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and distribution of mobile services, providing credit to buyers, after sales
service (CMS) industry the consumer perceives all brands as substitutes for
each other this leads to a lower brand loyalty. The distributors and retailers
are selling the recharge coupons of all cellular mobile service providers
offers them more sales commission and volume discount. A majority of the
customers are using services of more than two cellular mobile service
providers (CMSP). This increases the distributor’s power because sales are
the distributor and not by what a particular brand offers. In view of this
channel relations55 play a very important role in the sales and distribution of
the mobile services. It becomes more than just getting products or services
gain competitive advantage. The customers are looking for superior value and
lowest cost. The competition between the cellular mobile service providers
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distribution functions, which make mobile service available to customers at
the right time, right place and at the right price. They play a crucial role in
The channel managers of all cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) work
with customers about the schemes, promotional offers and benefits. They
offer the product at right price and serve the customer’s requirements to avoid
shortage.
The CMSP shall operate and maintain the network conforming to service
quality standards mutually agreed between the CMSP and TRAI. The charges
from time to time. In the interests of national security CMSP shall have
agencies. They shall ensure that the Telecom installation carried out by it
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Chapter -III
Literature Review Part-I
Study of TRAI Service Quality Standards
88
Chapter -III
Study of TRAI Service Quality Standards
and act as a source of guideline for the definition, implementation and post-
implemental corrections in the telecom policy. It helps to ensure that short and
long term growth targets are achieved. The Cellular mobile service (CMS)
In Mumbai region the competition amongst the cellular mobile service provider
(CMSP) is very fierce. They are exploring the business models like CMM56,
selected benchmark for achieving the service quality. The same model is
adopted by telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) also. The main idea
parameters with others, and find the best practice and use it as a benchmark.
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improving performance both on the micro and macro level. A key challenge
three important parameters the digital divide, regulatory reform and economic
effectiveness of its use depends on the indicators and analytical tools applied.
which defines ‘Key indicators for analyzing the telecom sector is the source of
Benchmarking is named after the surveyor’s mark for the position and
et al 1999). It has now become one of the best measures of world class
providers (CMSP).
response from the call centers, and non availability of self service. The
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research technique like informal conversations with customers,
ii) Other industries having similar processes are identified: All the
Internet Service Providers are listed who are achieving service quality
parameters.
mobile service providers (CMSP) having the best service in India and
providers use the survey data to identify the best practices and
adopted by all the cellular mobile service providers to meet the bench
mark.
money. The benchmarks are finalized after running a data analysis program.
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3.2 Regulation on Quality of Service for Cellular Mobile Services
In exercise of its functions the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) Act,
Telephone Services, 2000” vide Notification dated 5th of July, 2000. This was
the first regulation on QoS. The Section 11 (1) (b) (v) of the above act
mandates the authority to lay down the standards on quality of service (QoS)
to be provided and ensure the quality of service and conduct the periodical
parameters were to be achieved in three stages viz. (i) in the short term
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before the end of 12 months, (ii) in the intermediate term before the end of 24
viz.
ease of use.
performance criteria.
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The Service quality monitoring by telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI)
prima facie cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) make measurements for
monitors the quality of service quality for several reasons. Some are more
important when competition is strong, and others are more important when
competition.
together.
The benchmark for cellular service prescribed in the regulation were based
offering GSM services. The voice quality in cellular mobile services (CMS) is
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measured on a scale from 0 to 7. As the quality deteriorates, the value
considered good. The network quality performance parameters like the call
success rate within the licensee’s own network, service access delay, call
drop rate and the voice quality are the parameters which are directly related to
the service quality that is available to the customer. These shall be measured
on sample basis during the Time Consistent Bust Hour (TCBH). The group
i) The time to connect the call: this is the time between the pressing the
send button and getting the ring back tone. This should not exceed four
seconds.
ii) The time to confirm instructions to connect: this is the maximum time
the user.
iii) The time to release the call: The maximum time for initiating the
iv) Time to alert mobile handset: the maximum time the public land line
mobile network (PLMN) receives a call for the mobile handset to when
upon the number of page attempts. The benchmark was fixed between
9-20 seconds.
attempt made from the mobile set within the coverage in 90% of the
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time. It does not refer to the performance of the called network, and
vi) Call drop rate: it is defined as ratio of the calls lost after
the entire exchange area due to the switch failure, BTS failure or trunk
viii) Hand over means the action of switching the call in progress from
It consists of three benchmarks listed in the table below the values for short
term, intermediate and long term is different. The measurement is done for a
period of one quarter and average is calculated. The survey was done by an
independent agency.
Table 3.1 Fault incidence and repair bench marks for CMS.
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3.4 Network Performance
It consists of three benchmarks listed in the table; values for short term,
It consists of three benchmarks listed in the table below the values for short
term, intermediate and long term is different. The measurement is done for a
period of one quarter and average is calculated. The survey was done by an
97
independent agency appointed by telecom regulatory authority of India
(TRAI).
It consists of seven benchmarks listed in the table below the different values
for short term, intermediate and long term is given. The measurement is done
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3.7 Review of QoS Benchmark by TRAI.
regulatory authority of India (TRAI) that the existing quality of service (QoS)
The telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) also decided to review the
it held a meeting with CMSPS. In this meeting the issues relating to non-
more purposeful some of the existing benchmarks were deleted and some
new were added. The new benchmarks were added in the network
agreed by all the stake holders were approved and came to be known as
and owned by the subscriber and it is his responsibility to maintain it. Hence,
these parameters were found irrelevant and were dropped. The serial number
i) and ii) of the table number 3.1 were deleted. The iii) parameter was
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Table 3.1 (a) Fault incidence and repair benchmarks for CMS.
parameter. It did not provide any valid measure pertaining to the network that
Instead of Call success rate a new benchmark Call Set up Success Rate
calls to attempts made. The established Calls meant that, the traffic channel
(TCH) is allocated and the call is routed to the outward main Switching centre
(MSC).Thus this included complete signaling in the call setup process and
does not aim to measure the performance of the called exchange. The
generated data only in Time Consistent Busy Hour for all days of week.
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3.7.2.2 Service Access Delay
i) Time to connect Call: time between pressing the send button and
getting ring back tone. This should not exceed four seconds.
ii) Time to confirm instruction to connect: this is the maximum time from
user.
iii)Time to release the call the time from initiating the disconnect
exceed 2 seconds.
iv) Time to alert the mobile set: the maximum time from when the
PLMN receives a call for a mobile set to when it is energized. This time
attempt.
The Blocked Call Rate a new benchmark was introduced as the occasion
where there is no free channel to serve a call attempt. Hence this parameter
dedicated control channel (SDCCH) level or traffic channel (TCH) level. This
hardware and software requirements in any network at TCH for all days.
measured as the ratio of the total attempts to the calls dropped /hundred calls.
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3.7.2.5 Service Coverage Added After Review
System drive tests shall be conducted at least once a quarterly to check the
one residential and one commercial each from North, South, East,
ii) Outdoor locations all major routes in city (main roads and some of
the other lanes) covering all the BTS sites in that city;
the out skirts of the city in all the highways connecting the town to other
cities;
iv) The cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) must also cover the
v) Each area where the tests are conducted should cover not less than
200 km or 5 hours driving time. The minimum sample size shall be 100
test calls.
It means that out of 200 calls between the operators only one call shall face
congestion. This is seldom achieved by the operators as the network of all the
operators is growing.
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Table 3.2 (a) The Network Performance benchmarks for CMS.
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3.8 Response Time for assistance after Review
As the CMSP are not having the sufficient number of positions at the call
centre the customers have to try again and again for assistance. Hence, it is
All the existing parameter of the table 3.4 was retained and a new category of
Table 3.4 (a) Fault incidence and repair parameters for CMS.
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3.10 Customer Help Lines
mobile service, the TRAI has started a quarterly audit of the QOS from July
2010 before this the data was submitted by the CMSP quarterly and the
audit of the QoS was done annually by the regulator to verify the QoS. In
February 2010 TRAI also directed all the CMSP to publish the performance
with respect to the TRAI Bench mark of QoS on their website on quarterly
basis. All the CMSP have to display this within 45 days after the end of the
every quarter.
The service quality is the ability of the cellular mobile service (CMS) network
technical concept. The TRAI model of service quality focuses on four main
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complaints and customer perception of services. The first three parameters
are purely technical they are measured, expressed and understood in terms
reliability, availability, usability and utility are not included in the customer
perception.
the dominating research perspective on service quality has become more and
performance parameters like packet loss rate, delay or jitter. The end users
usually are not bothered at all about technical performance; what they really
The cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) are experiencing that customer
need to include all the parameters which influence the perceptions of the
A paradigm shift in service quality is noticed in the industry. While the prior
grand challenges of QoS research have begun to disappear from the research
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counter movement has started to become visible, with the aim of interpreting
end-to-end quality in the proper sense of regarding the user as the end of the
communication chain.
used to describe this perception and how usable the customers think the
of networked services. With the growth of mobile services, it has become very
important for CMSP to measure the quality of experience (QoE) of its network
competitive edge.
comprising all the elements of a customer’s perception of the network and its
performance and how they meet expectations. There are several factors that
utility and fidelity. If a high experience is delivered to the customer then the
user is happy and satisfied. A low quality experience indicates that the user
does not have a good experience of the network. The concept applies to all
the interaction between cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) and the
customer. The experiences are created by the front line staff through a
subjective process.
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The Quality of Experience is a subjective measure from the user’s perspective
of the overall value of the service provided, and thus does not replace, but
As such, it extends the current QoS perspective described above towards the
actual end user, including technical QoS as well as the expectations of the
end users, the content of the service, the importance of service for the end
even the price of the service, to name but a few new ingredients.
The QoS is a subset of the QoE. Although a better network QoS in many
cases will result in better QoE, fulfilling all traffic QoS parameters will not
The QoE is how a user perceives the usability of a service when in use how
satisfied he or she is using a service. The term QoE refers to the perception of
the user about the quality of a particular service or network. These statistics
tell CMSP very little about the level of customer satisfaction flawless
transmission of garbled packets does not make for happy users. So to infer
that QoE is improved because QoS mechanisms are used to reduce jitter or
average packet delivery delay may not be accurate in all circumstances. The
goal of QoS should be to deliver a high QoE. The overall QoE for a user
depends on how well the operator organizes the entire value chain as seen by
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ii) Service & network providers, the mobile operators and mobile ISPs,
which are often owned by the operators themselves and transmit the
iii) User device and application software that enables the user to
although not seen by the user, enable the above three components in
the value chain. The Mobile operator is in the middle of this chain and
to the user.
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Chapter –IV
Literature Review Part-II
Study of Customers’ Expectations
110
Chapter –IV
Study of Customers’ Expectations
leads to consumer loyalty (Johnson and Sirikit, 2002) and future purchase. It
mobile service, the core offerings consist of primary deeds making available
is intangible but produces tangible results. It acts like a facilitator for the core
is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation
taking orders, dealing with billing issues, handling complaints and perhaps
mobile telecom industry can happen either on-site62 or via internet. The
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cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs) operate customer service from call
centers63 and sales outlets64. The customer services like activation, billing
information and tariff details are provided free. The retail sale outlets and
stores assist the customers in refilling their prepaid accounts. Today, with
mobile services product attributes have started blurring. The customer service
The cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) started with the voice and short
message services (SMS) to satisfy the core needs of the customers. As the
styling, color etc to make their offer distinctive to impress the customers. In
the next stage, they started very attractive customized tariff plans; value
added services and free Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards bundled with
the handsets65. As there is no copy right protection the tariff and services
copied by the others. Thus, it can be seen that, in mobile service industry, the
The service sector has grown by leaps and bounds due to consumerism,
prevalent in the Indian service sector. First the Industrial management model,
which focuses on revenues and operating costs, which ignores the role played
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by human resources in generating customer satisfaction and profits. This
providers (CMSPs).
cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs). It proposes that the firms should
equipments, office space, moral support and motivation initiatives. This model
The service strategy is reflected by the policies, mission and strategy of the
the service providers are called moments of truth or encounters68. While the
service strategy is the root strength of the cellular mobile service providers
(CMSP), the people and system are responsible for the encounter, which
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4.3 Service Triangle of Marketing
marketing is a powerful model and gives insight into management and service
provider69.
ii) The cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) does internal marketing
iii) The CMSP do interactive marketing with the customer. Both the
the quality of the customer service (QoCS). The provider keeps the
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i) The cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) makes promises to the
ii) The cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) enables the providers to
servers.
iii) The provider keeps the promises made by the cellular mobile
service provider.
are three entities in customer service marketing, each crucial to the quality if
the total experience of the service product is bound to each other. The
CMSPs proposes to offer new service and communicates with the customers
and enable them to keep the promises. The providers finally have on
sincerity of purpose and the validity of the promises that was supposed to be
kept. The service providers’ image is entirely dependent on the quality of the
thereby ensuring their survival. They have to reduce the gap between
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The customers are finding difficulty in evaluating and choosing because a
large part of the mobile services are intangible and non-standardized and
greater extent in the definition of mobile services. They feel more responsible
for their dissatisfaction when the service do not meet their expectations. The
consumers are more loyal to the brand as the cost of changing brands, the
availability of substitutes, the risks associated with the purchase and the
The consumers prefer service quality (SQ) when the price and other cost
elements are held constant (Boyer and Hult, 2005). It has become a distinct
and important aspect of the product and service offering (Wal et al., 2002).
According to Leisen and Vance (2001), service quality (SQ) helps to create
quality (SQ) was initiated in the 1980s as the world wide trend when
service attributes. They also mentioned that there are two dimensions for
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quality. The first, fitness of use, which refers to service that is supposed to do
and possess features to meet the customer needs. The second one is
perceive service quality. Rust and Oliver (1994) pointed out that companies
need to measure customer satisfaction with their services. The service quality
There are two perspectives of service quality (SQ) one which is implemented
called internal perspective. The other one called external perspective which
delight. The external perspective is the focus of this study. The external
customers.
dimensions of the service quality, which can affect their future behavior. Its
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unacceptable quality with some point along the continuum representing
expected service and the service perceived by the consumer. When the
expected service is more than the actual service, service quality is less than
more than satisfactory and will tend towards ideal quality with increased
service providers for assessing and managing their service quality levels by
quality is to maximize the difference between these measures, ‘P’ and “E’ i.e.
to maximize the difference between these measures, ‘P’ and ‘E’ i.e. to exceed
importance as they not only help in learning the factors associated with
trying to measure service quality many models have been developed such as
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the perceived quality model (Gronroos, 1982), the Kano model (Kano, 1984),
RATER (Zeithaml, 1990), SERVPERF (Cronin & Taylor, 1992), the GAP
notion was the basis of the SERVQUAL model, which views service quality as
the gap between the expected level of service and customer perceptions of
understanding the antecedents of service quality (SQ) which play major role in
conducted in the mobile service sector, it was found that service quality (SQ)
plays major role in affecting the perceptions of customers about the quality of
service consumers.
2001). Conversely, Johnson and Sirikit (2002) stated that service delivery
systems have the ability to allow managers to identify the real customer
feedback and satisfaction on their telecom service. Since, quality reflects the
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philosophies which was based on products and process. Service quality is
different from the quality of goods. Since, services are intangible, perishable,
Bitner, 2000).It is a major challenge for the cellular mobile service providers
1988). The above six main criteria are based on the generic characteristics of
which a, conceptual model of service was developed. This model is about the
perception and expectation aspects of the service quality and the experience
of the customers with the services was found quite relevant in assessing the
quality of the service in the service environments. They pointed out the factors
Many scholars agree that service quality can be decomposed into two major
(1984) as technical quality. The second dimension is concerned with how the
service is delivered: the process that the customer went through to get to the
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outcome of the service. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) refer to this
(2006) confirmed these distinctions, they often confusingly use service quality
when they mean service process quality. Thus to avoid any further confusion
Whenever the word service is used, it is taken as the total service which is a
and Zeithaml define service quality as the degree and direction of discrepancy
service quality and its determinants, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985)
from those businesses. One of the results of this investigation was the
to provide service.
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iii) Competence means possession of the required skills and
operators, etc.).
they can understand and listening to them. It may mean that the
using the qualitative research based on service quality data spread over five
The initial study based on the focus groups results in ten dimensions of
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service quality that included tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
called SERVQUAL which would measure the service quality based on five
empathy was derived. The authors defined service quality as the degree of
overlaps among the dimensions and shortened the list into five dimensions.
customer, on the other hand, were placed under a common dimension called
customers.
accurately.
prompt service.
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In their 1988 revision, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry claimed that these
five dimensions are generic and consistent across different types of services
by stating that there was consistent factor structure across five independent
samples.
validity. Buttle (1996) found serious concerns with the number of dimensions
other than those that were used by Parasuraman, Zeithaml &Berry , warned
that while the Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry items provide a start for item
development, all items need to have validity and reliability checks before
may have been over-generalized and suggests that some items of the ten
retained until further factor analysis shows that they really are not unique.
Peter et al. (1993) also suggested that the overlap between responsiveness,
in their original study. Woo and Ennew (2005), meanwhile, found that in
Thus, at its best, the five dimensions should only be considered as a starting
point rather than a tool that can be immediately used in the field. In their
each dimension that they are only referring to process quality rather than total
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service quality. Woo and Ennew (2005) confirm this finding when they stated
altogether and focus mostly on the functional side. Richard and Allaway
service (singular) refers to the supplement that accompanies the core offering.
to process quality. Because of this poor choice of words, it only added further
confusion.
quality is difficult to evaluate for any service, customers will often rely on other
characteristics of the service to determine its quality. That is, they will rely on
quality. Asubonteng, McCleary, and Swan did not provide any empirical data
to confirm this. Their claim that outcome quality is difficult to evaluate for any
service is flawed and some examples disprove their statement. Apart from
this, Richard and Allaway (1993) found that Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry
model measuring only process quality was less reliable than another model
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starting point, were declared an inadequate tool for measuring a firm’s total
service quality. Other than identifying the gap between expected service and
perceived service, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry also identified four other
The five gaps that organizations should measure manage and minimize:
•Gap 1 is the distance between what customers expect and what managers
think they expect - Clearly survey research is a key way to narrow this gap.
•Gap 4 is the gap between the delivery of the customer experience and what
will be provided to customers, or discuss the best case rather than the likely
•Gap 5 is the gap between a customer’s perception of the experience and the
shaped by word of mouth, their personal needs and their own past
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these gaps interacted with one another and with the customer gap. They were
not very clear about the purpose of some of the interconnecting lines between
the boxes. To clarify, the gaps are limited to the solid lines with double-
headed arrows.
The dotted lines, on the other hand, represent the direction of influence. For
customer’s perceived and expected service. Finally, the line that connects
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external communications with service standards may be taken to mean that
they must be coordinated with one another. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry
in their 1985 paper, identified the need for a tool that puts into operation the
five dimensions and gaps model of service quality. They later followed this up
in their 1988 paper with a survey tool named SERVQUAL. The tool is divided
into five major categories and labeled according to the five dimensions of
Within the categories, four or five items are listed, totaling twenty two. Each
item must be answered by the customer two or three times depending on the
format being used. The two column format asks for the customer’s expected
each item. The customer has to answer a total of forty four questions. The
three column format adds a third question that asks for the customer’s
questions are that it can potentially lead to respondent fatigue which can
negatively affect the quality of the data. Carman (1990) states that because of
SERVQUAL tool is that, while the criteria for judging are embodied by the five
dimensions of service quality and are therefore fixed, the scales of each
criterion may change from time to time depending on certain factors such as
the mood and past experience of the individual being interviewed. This is one
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the survey across a diverse sample of the market and across various time
periods to mitigate the effect of unrelated events that can affect the perception
of a group of people. The problem with this, however, is that it can increase
the survey cost. Carman (1990) also recognized the possibility that the
customer’s familiarity with the service can also play a role in setting his or her
expectations. While this seems like sound advice, it still does not make up for
the scenario where a user, after having experienced a service of low quality,
has lowered his expectations of future service encounters. The result might be
that management will mistakenly interpret the SERVQUAL scores in the next
testing period as a signal that their service quality has increased when, in fact,
been identified by other critics such as Buttle (1996) and not addressed by
The Critics such as Cronin and Taylor (1992) have responded to the work of
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry stating that SERVQUAL and the underlying
gaps model are conceptually wrong. Likewise, Buttle points out how
reasons why the theory is difficult to put into operation. In their 1988 work,
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry stated that service quality is similar in many
ways to an attitude. Cronin and Taylor (1992) on the other hand, found in their
research that service quality is indeed an attitude. In 1980 Oliver found that an
Taylor (1992) confirm this statement through literature review and empirical
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data. They further demonstrate that perceived service quality is, in fact, an
quality. Cronin and Taylor also state that it is satisfaction not perceived
these findings, Cronin and Taylor (1992) proposed a tool they call
performance and disregards expected service process level. The rationale for
the service is rendered is not always possible, leaving the firm to measure it
instead at the end of the service and measuring the expected service level
expectation, by then, has already been biased by the service rendered. Apart
also shortens the questionnaire from a maximum of sixty six down to just
A number of questions also arise regarding the validity of Cronin and Taylor’s
findings. The customer satisfaction and perceived service quality are entirely
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Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1994) believe that it is not a valid
comparison and point out that Cronin and Taylor’s paper is questionable at
further state that Cronin and Taylor’s work seem to discount prior conceptual
quality perceptions. Brady and Cronin (2001) state that work on service
be the dominantly used model for evaluating service quality (Woo and Ennew
2005) despite it being highly criticized by scholars such as Buttle (1996) and
Cronin and Taylor (1992). A recent empirical study by Brady et al. (2005)
found that service quality, customer satisfaction, and product value all had a
direct effect on behavioral intentions. Thus, they have effectively rendered the
irrelevant. From their findings, they produced what they call a comprehensive
survey questionnaire with only thirteen questions. While their work is fairly
new and rebuttals and reviews are yet to be made available, the model they
propose shows promise and its future development will be worth monitoring.
the liberalization and privatization of the sector, which also opened the
competition (Beard and Hartmann, 1999). It opens the opportunities for the
consumers to enjoy the choice among the service providers. These days, the
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competitive prices. The nature of the competition today in the global telecom
2001).
for them to meet the customer’s price and service quality expectations
research are first, both computed and measured disconfirmation are reliable
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of tool shall be guided by the research objectives (Pratibha, David and Dayle,
model is used. It was also found that the different measurement scales
scale if used singly or together, get more or less the same result (Grapetine,
1988).
1994). The competition has prompted firms to be more concerned with the
(Leonard and Sasser, 1982; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Gummesson, 1998;
Silvestro and Cross, 2000). As a result, there has been continued research on
deliver higher service quality, and suppliers can charge a premium for
quality with customer satisfaction (Danaher and Mattsson, 1994; Leisen and
Vance, 2001), customer loyalty and retention (Ranaweera and Neely, 2003),
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profitability (Thompson, DeSouza and Gale, 1985; Bloemer, Ruyter and
to explore the subject in the cellular mobile context. For the past few years,
cellular mobile service sector has been experiencing the highest growth rate
Despite the ongoing concern about service quality, most of the cellular mobile
base and tend to overlook investing in service quality. In the context of such
health care, education, etc.), the area of cellular mobile communication is not
aspects (i.e., issues concerning what is actually delivered). Wang and Lo,
2002; Johnson and Sirikit, 2002 emphasized that technical quality attributes
added services are becoming popular day by day which is not included in any
study. This, the study also aims at finding the importance of service quality
dimensions from the customer’s perspectives. This would enable the CMSPs
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Over the last few years, there has been a considerable research on different
1985, 1988; Carman, 1990) agree that service quality is an abstract concept,
difficult to define and measure. Also the issue of universal dimensions of the
researchers (Mangold and Babakus, 1991; Richard and Allaway, 1993) agree
capturing the service quality construct, as both of them focus only on the
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4.6 Customer Service Quality Studies in Telecom
accuracy in billing and timely information, and the dependent variable was the
preferred telecom brand. The empirical results predicted that the variety of
service and customer service were found the best indicators for brand
recommendation.
satisfaction, and loyalty. The author arrived on the conclusion that perceived
results in trust, price tolerance, and customer loyalty. A study was done in
evaluate the service quality with modifications made by Wang Po-Lo (2002) to
reflect the industry attributes of mobile telecom. The outcome of this study
concluded that four out of six dimensions of service quality were strong
predictors of service quality in Iran’s mobile telecom market and had positive
tangibles and responsiveness are weak ones and aren’t salient dimensions in
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forming service quality perceptions. According to the results of this study,
Wang and Lo (2002) studied the integrated framework for service quality,
found that the competition between two mobile phone service providers is
more intense than ever. Wang and PO-Lo applied the SERVQUAL instrument
As per the research done by Kim, Park and cellular mobile service quality has
that call quality is the most important issue that impacts customer satisfaction
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It can be concluded from the above studies that and literature review both in
market, it is very difficult for the companies to retain the customers, because
almost every CMSP has all advance technologies, talented personnel, good
that they can frame competitive marketing strategies to attract and retain their
customers for a long time. The present research work is focused on the
analysis of the quality of customer services so that they can gain competitive
The customer’s expectations are beliefs about service delivery that function
customers hold several different types of expectations about service. The first
blend of what the customer believes can be and should be. In case of mobile
services the customer expects that he gets facility to receive and make
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happens in the service delivery process that there are problems due to which
the provider is not able to provide desired service. The customer agrees for a
mobile services if there is congestion in the network at busy hours than Short
message services (SMS) facility should work so that the customers are
reflects the level of service customers believe that they will get on the basis of
their experience with service. The desired service is the upper limit of
The desired service level is less subject to change than the adequate service
level. Any service provided between these limits is tolerable by the customer.
This zone is called the zone of tolerance71. But it is interesting to note that
also varies for different service attributes. The fluctuation in the individual
service level which moves up and down due to situational circumstances then
in the desired service level which tends to move upwards incrementally due to
accumulated experiences.
personal needs72. The mobile telecom product should meet the physical and
psychological well being of the customer which shapes the desired service
level this keeps on changing. Some customers are more demanding than
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One of the important of these factors can be called derived service
these days are used in closed user group (CUG). Another enduring service
cellular mobile service provider (CMSPs) and service providers. The word of
mouth and past experience are two important factors that play a major role in
services.
The customer perceives services in terms of the quality of the service and
how satisfied they are with their experiences in receiving the incoming and
their best efforts to gain competitive edge over their competitors. But the
attraction and retention of the customers has become quite imperative for the
The CMSPs today recognize that they can compete more effectively by
common but they are fundamentally different. The service quality (SQ) is a
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Quality (SQ) is a focused evaluation that reflects the customers’ specific
tangibles while the satisfaction includes service quality product and price.
The quality of customer service depends on the fact that what customers
perceive about the quality of the service offered in relation to the expectations
Anderson, Forneil, and Lehman, 1994; Buzzell and Gale, 1987; Rust and
Oliver, 1994).
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Chapter -V
Cellular Mobile Service in Mumbai Region
5.1 Introduction
142
Chapter -V
Cellular Mobile Service in Mumbai Region
5.1 Introduction
the world and seventh largest country in area. It is well separated from the
rest of Asia by mountains, and the sea which gives it a distinct identity. With a
population of 1.2 billion73, it ranks second to China among the world’s most
populous countries. Its people are culturally diverse. In India language and
dialect change after every ten kilometers, eighteen major languages and more
than 1,000 minor languages and dialects are spoken here. This posses a
Mumbai lies on the west coast and has a natural harbor74. It is capital of
islands Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old
Woman’s Island also known as Little Colaba. These islands were home to
empires being ceded to the Portuguese and subsequently to the British East
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town known for its textile mills. In 1950, municipal limits of Mumbai were
expanded by merging the Bombay suburban district and Bombay city to form
Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation. In the late 1960s, Nariman Point and
Cuffe Parade were reclaimed and developed. The textile industry in Bombay
largely disappeared after the massive 1982 textile strike, in which nearly
Mumbai consists of two distinct regions Mumbai City district and Mumbai
The city district region is also commonly referred to as the Island City or South
Trust, Atomic Energy Commission and Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which
The coastline of the city is having number of creeks and bays. In 1995 the
As per the Cellular Mobile Telecom Service (CMTS) license the Location of
Source: DoT
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5.3.1 Climate
Mumbai has a tropical climate seven months of dryness and peak rains in
July. It gets flooded on rainy days during high tides which results in the failure
form the post-monsoon season. The cold season from December to February
is followed by the summer season from March to June. The average annual
temperature is 27 °c.
5.3.2 Economy
foreign trade. It is also one of the richest cities of India. Many of India’s
based in Mumbai. Many foreign banks and financial institutions also have
5.3.3 Politics
The first session of the Indian National Congress80 (INC) was held in Bombay
from 28 to 31 December 1885. The city played host to the Indian National
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Congress six times during its first 50 years, and became a strong base for the
5.3.4 Railways
The backbone of the city’s transport consists of three separate rail networks
Central, Western, and Harbor Line, running across the length of the city, in the
which is more than half of the Indian Railways daily carrying capacity. On an
1995. The mobile service coverage is extensive, and the main service
providers are Vodafone limited, Bharti Airtel, MTNL, Loop Mobile, Reliance
Infocom, Idea Cellular and Tata Indicom, Videocon, Aircel, MTS and Etisalat
DoCoMo. There are still dark spots where the network coverage is not
over fixed line up until 2000 and was the largest telecom infrastructure
provider.
5.3.6 Demographics
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population upto 14yrs is 31.5%, from 15 to 60 yrs is 63.3%, and 65 yrs is
5.2% only. The CMSPs are facing difficulty in providing adequate network
widely spoken and understood in the city. A colloquial form of Hindi, known as
Bambaiya a blend of Marathi, Hindi, Indian English and some invented words
5.3.7 Dharavi
Dharavi is a slum spread over parts of Sion, Bandra, Kurla and Kalina
Dharavi is one of the largest slums in the World. It exports goods like
traditional pottery, textile, leather goods and carpets all around the world and
has a large recycling86 industry. This area is very congested and it is very
difficult to install towers and other radio frequency infrastructure the area is
nearby localities.
147
Bharti Airtel, and third largest in terms of number of customers. It has a strong
mobile services in 1995 in the brand name Hutchison Max90. In the beginning
mobile service in thirteen of India’s twenty three license areas and after
acquired Essar Spacetel a subsidiary of Essar group that held license for the
brand and large distribution network all vital for long-term success. Then it
positions in India’s metro markets garnering the resources to expand its foot
print nationwide.
It was often praised for its award winning advertisements which all follow a
clean, minimalist look. A recurrent theme is its message Hello which stands
out visibly though it used only white letters on red background. Another
following a boy around in unlikely places, with the tagline, ‘wherever you go
our network follows’. The simple yet powerful advertisement campaigns won it
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products and services that meet specific needs in local markets. After
Hutchison Essar becoming part of Vodafone limited Group, the new campaign
was done by Vodafone limited on the transition from Hutch to Vodafone. The
from about 950 to 1300 under the Vodafone brand, and also co-branded
handsets sourced from major global vendors. It tied up with low cost mobile
handsets vendors across the globe into India, it bundled handsets with
attractive tariff plans through its existing sales network. In the past similar
like Reliance Infocom and Tata Teleservices limited. It was first GSM operator
who offered this. It is promoting self service from its website in a big way,
customer care executive to look for information on bill, talk plan or new
code91.
The Vodafone limited neighborhood store sells recharge coupons and prepaid
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5.4.1.2 Vodafone limited Mini Stores
The Vodafone limited mini store caters to the new connections and pay bills
1. 63 23 33 119
These are owned by Vodafone limited and they provide all the services
issue. It has somehow managed to keep quality people in their work force, but
still the technicalities haven’t let them work to their full strength.
1. 28 4 4 36
These centers located in vehicles that travel around the city, where the
customers can get the prepaid connections and recharge coupons, view
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demos and activate value added services. The information on the latest tariff
Bharti Airtel is pan India Global System for Mobile systems (GSM) Cellular
Mobile Service Provider. It provides mobile services under the brand name
of traffic forecasting traffic and network engineering, despite the fact that
these competencies are a must for every cellular mobile service provider
(CMSP).
also chose International Business Machine92 (IBM) to build and manage the
Billing and customer care network. The vendors were paid as a percentage
revenue from services. The local call tariff of mobile service in India is Re
0.10 to Re 0.60 per minute, perhaps the lowest in the world. Despite the
innovation.93
151
of its kind ‘check on Airtel’. It is the convergence of wireless communication
advantages viz. flexibility and ubiquity. This enabled the mobile customer to
ease of use & safety. It provided a secure and convenient channel to link
existing credit cards, debit cards or bank accounts and carry transactions,
including paying postpaid bills, recharging prepaid accounts, paying fixed line
and broadband bills, buying movie or air tickets, paying insurance premiums
Table 5.5 the area wise number of the Airtel stores in Mumbai region.
1. 5 6 11 6 28
Bharti Airtel has employed a multi regional sales team for both direct and
defining the sales and marketing strategies for their respective territories.
opportunities in each geographic region, it has put into place a network of on-
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sales teams there build both direct and indirect channels. The dealers are
It has employed urban distributors (UD) for urban area and rural distributors
(RD) for rural areas. It makes invoice of Subscriber Identity module (SIMs),
pay phones, and recharge coupons of small denominations of Rs. 10, 30 and
electronically. The Distributors pass on the above items among the retailers
(Field officer Sales) FoS SIM96. This three level distribution is used to reach
The second level distribution is suitable for urban areas because the demand
is higher, there is high population density and that’s why quick availability of
product and services is essential. All retailers are provided with a special SIM
(Lapu SIM97), which retailer falling under the particular beat is mapped with
corresponding (Field Officer Sales) FoS of that beat. The distributors use
FoS. It uses Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) to transfer the easy balance to
mapped retailer’s Lapu SIM. The distributor gets discount which is passed on
form(CAF), GSM pay phones, Lapu SIM, FoS SIM, replacement SIM as per
the requirement within its beat area. They activate mobile connections after
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Identity Module (SIM) activation details. These reports are shared with
Navi Mumbai. It is a pan India cellular Mobile service provider (CMSP) and
offer CDMA and GSM services under the following Brand names:
It offers multiple tariff plans in postpaid and prepaid category and value added
services. The company’s retail business has around 3,000 outlets; comprising
600 Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) owned stores and around 2,500 stores
choose where the customers can buy postpaid connections and prepaid
value added service bouquet, it offered services such as News, Games, Faith
and Prayers, ring tones, Streaming TV, Fun Shows, Video Zone, Song
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among others. It provided m-commerce, mobile advertising and social
communication (GSM) space, through its joint venture with NTT DOCOMO,
and offers differentiated products and service under the Tata DOCOMO brand
the first to pioneer the per-second tariff option part of its ‘Pay for What You
With a full portfolio of products and services for different categories of retail
customer care, it is well positioned to lead the market. It has been rated as
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The two companies have more
three pillar strategy for the brand’s growth. They have realized that there is a
growing market there to reach out to, and every minute, a new generation
mobile user walks in. The customers are in constant search for new, better
and latest services. If attention is not given to the customers they will churn
and go away.
For building brand image, which is the first pillar of strategy, they have
expanding its retail network as well. It converted all True value hubs stores
innovations, the company plans to leverage its mobile products for the youth
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with the objective of showing off its value added service offerings. It
branded reality show, showcases celebrities utilizing services. The third pillar
The television accounts for the maximum share of brand’s advertising pie.
Tata telecom (TTSL) has registered its name in the Limca book of records for
as the only cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) in India to inaugurate 100
true value Shoppe (TVS) across the nation on one single day. Since then the
company has rolled out more than 1000 store in one year. It has also co
branded the stores as Tata Indicom exclusive stores. They were earlier known
through two separate formats a True value hubs and True value Shoppe.
The branded retail business unit looks after the Shoppe retail chain of Tata
Indicom Exclusive stores. It has 3100 outlets comparing to the 600 company
owned stores and more than 2500 stores in the franchise format. The sales
Mumbai, India. It ranks among the top five telecom companies in the world by
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includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800 global,
and video) digital network that is capable of supporting services spanning the
entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000
cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
In July 2007, it took over United State based Yipes and merged with Flag
Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Kolkata and Northeast. It owns the
world’s largest private undersea cable system, spanning 65,000 km. It has
East, Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Reliance Infocom Internet Data Center
(RIDC) RIDC provides Internet Data Center (IDC) services located in Mumbai,
services to large, medium and small enterprises. It is one of the leading data
managed server hosting, virtual private server and data security. It has
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give the customer a delightful experience of the digital world of
Reliance Infocom World. All Reliance Infocom World outlets are connected to
digital services, eLearning, ticketing, virtual Office & many more services. It is
payment, value added services and much more. In Mumbai region the
number of the Reliance Infocom world has 24 outlets and, Reliance Infocom
Vodafone limited Essar Ltd. It has had the opportunity of providing of the
mobile services in Mumbai. Later, in the year 2009, BPL Mobile rebranded
itself as Loop Mobile and has been operating since then in Mumbai.
158
In an attempt to offer best customer service practices, BPL Mobile
the only cellular Mobile service Providers (CMSP) in India to have fulfilled the
service excellence constraints. It has also been ranked as the best set-up by
traversed the user’s mark of 2-Million in 2009. Its latest identity, Loop Mobile
and a better-quality mobile service. It pledges to sustain the same focus and
Loop Mobile Galleries conveniently within reach across Mumbai city. They are
and value added services (VAS) SIM replacements and mobile handset sales.
There are 24 Galleries and 8765 distributors which support the sales network.
159
cities of Mumbai and New Delhi. It was a monopoly until 1992, when the
telecom sector was opened. It provides fixed line service, cellular mobile
service both GSM Dolphin (postpaid) and Trump (prepaid) and wireless in the
local Loop Mobile WLL (CDMA) Garuda-FW and Garuda-Mobile and internet
TriBand. It has been actively providing connections in Mumbai and New Delhi
and the efficiency has drastically improved from the days when one had to
wait years to get a phone connection to now when one can get a connection
homes and small businesses. It is the largest Internet Service Provider (ISP)
international long distance services. It has also formed a 50:50 joint venture
with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) .The Joint venture (JV)
Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNL) with equal
equity participation. It will enter into new business stream of international long
160
significant competitive disadvantage compared to pan-Indian players. The
customer selects the cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) based on their
tariff plans. The tariff rate has fallen to ½ paisa per second the lowest
possible. The customer care can make or mar a brand now. MTNL lacks in
customer care. It has decided to create a separate arm for marketing and
systems are already made operational. The projects for data ware housing,
policy consultancy projects are in pipeline. It has plans to synergize all its
international level.
exchanges buildings. These outlets are not available on holidays and after
distributors for retailing mobile products in the market. The appointment of the
retailers is left at the sole discretion of the distributors. It consists of the CSC
zones100 of Mumbai. The numbers of the outlets are enough in each area, but
the customers are not happy with the response of the staff.
Table No: 5.6 the number of the service centre located in MTNL buildings.
SNo SOUTH CENTRAL NORTH WEST EAST Navi Mumbai
1. 7 5 8 39 25 11
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These distributor outlets are available in the market place it has no control
operate in the area of the other distributors. The sales commission paid by the
network is not organized properly. There are routine complaints about the
1. 22 2517
The CMSP in Mumbai are facing problems in rolling out networks and
i) Due to the non availability of the permission for installation of BTS and radio
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Chapter -VI
The Research Methodology
6.1 Introduction
163
Chapter –VI
Research Methodology
6.1 Introduction
This research study needed extensive field work. It was decided to complete
the field work in two stages. The first phase was planned to collect the
secondary data particularly historical data through various web sites and
publications. In the second phase the Primary data for this research was
enclosed in the end of this thesis. The printed copies of questionnaire were
The quality of service (QoS) is the ability of the cellular mobile service (CMS)
are purely technical they are measured, expressed and understood in terms
164
The benchmark for the perception of the customer services fixed by telecom
of factors such as price, product reliability, availability, usability and utility are
identify the Cellular Mobile Service Providers as per their specifications. It will
Service (CMTS).
customer expectations.
165
6.4 Deficiencies in the TRAI Standards
however, the dominating research perspective has become more and more a
perspective of the overall value of the service provided, and thus does not
perspective described above towards the actual end user, including technical
quality as well as the expectations of the end users, the content of the service,
the importance of service for the end user, the characteristics of the device,
the perception of security, and maybe even the price of the service, to name
With the growth of mobile services, it has become very important for CMSP to
measure the quality of customer service of its network accurately and improve
166
poor market perception and ultimately, brand dilution. There are several
equipments, distributors, marketing agents and all those who are in the
telecom trade. The study assumes greater importance in light of the present
It is acknowledged by one and all that, the cellular mobile services are a
primary need of the citizens today. It is also used in a big way to provide
demand the business processes for service delivery are becoming more
complex day by day. The count of cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs)
is also increasing day by day. Their first priority is to enroll new customers to
achieve the breakeven point. The Quality of the customer service is their
second priority. The customers are in a fix about how to select their cellular
mobile service providers (CMSP). They have opted for the service of more
167
6.7 The Research Hypothesis
Null Hypothesis H01: The CMSPs in Mumbai are meeting TRAI parameters.
Alternate Hypothesis H11: The CMSPs in Mumbai are not meeting TRAI
parameters.
Second hypothesis
which are not fully included in telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI)
existing SERVQUAL scale. The data collected by survey was used for testing
second hypothesis.
Null Hypothesis H02: The CMSPs in Mumbai are meeting the Customers
Expectations.
Alternate Hypothesis H12: The CMSPs in Mumbai are not meeting the
Customers expectations.
i) Primary Data collection the primary data was collected through the printed
questionnaire was also kept on the web site to get the electronic response
168
from the users. The sample of the questionnaire used in enclosed in the
For this study the CMSP who are providing mobile services in Mumbai for
more than three years (in 2007), having a market share of more than 5% and
more than 0.5 million customers is taken. Only six service providers Vodafone
Limited, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infocom and Loop Mobile, Tata Tele
services and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam limited as per the above criteria.
Table: 6.1 the market share of the CMSP in Mumbai as on May 2007.
Source: COAI, TRAI and AUSPI web sites for the month of May 2007,
169
There were more than 10 million mobile customers in Mumbai in 2007, using
the market share of the CMSP was taken which was distributed in Mumbai
region.
S= [z (p (1-P))]/ e2
170
Table 6.3 The Distribution of Sample in ten zones of MTNL.
Area V B R M L T TOTAL
1. South 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
2. Central 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
3. North 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
4. West-I 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
5. West-II 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
6. West-III 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
7. East-I 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
8. East-II 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
9. N- Mumbai 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
10 Kalyan 37 27 25 20 16 11 136
. Dombivili
TOTAL 370 270 250 200 160 110 1360
Source: own calculations
The following research tools and techniques are used for data collection and
analysis.
In the present research the service gaps between the expectations and
CMSPs.
171
6.11 Scope of the Study
There is a vast scope to undertake urgent research work in the functional area
i) Product
ii) Place.
iii) Promotion.
iv) Price.
v) Physical Evidence
It would be appropriate to study the trends of the telecom industry right from its
inception in general. A focused study will be carried out from seven years from 2004
to 2011.
172
Chapter -VII
Measurement of Service Quality and Customer
Expectation
7.1 Introduction
and Expectations
service
173
Chapter -VII
Measurement of Service Quality and Customer
Expectations
7.1 Introduction
This chapter deals with the measurement of the quality of customer service
quality against telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) and the customers’
the SERVQUAL model was reviewed. A qualitative study was done to review
validate the scale. The officers and staff of the customer care unit were also
involved in the study. The following was the focus of the study
media.
service.
174
vii) Find Gaps between the perception and expectations.
three new dimensions the network quality, value added services and
these three dimensions also affect the overall service quality. In all, eight
customers, four items were included in the questionnaire, whereas two items
were included in the case of innovation and value added services. All the
175
dimensions were measured based on customer perceptions. This confirms to
176
Table 7.5 the three items of Tangibles (T)
177
7.3 Validation of the Modified Scale
A Pilot study was done with a small sample size of 150 to clarify the overall
all items and confirmed face validity of items in the questionnaire. To confirm
Hence all twenty eight items were chosen. A sample from the customers of
the six service providers was taken to study the customer perception,
respondents.
ii) Part two of the questionnaire aimed to collect the data related to
the customer’s survey whether the CMSP are meeting the TRAI
about the QoS results published in the media and Key factors
178
iii) Part three of the questionnaire aimed to collect the data related
iv) Part four of the questionnaire aimed to collect the data related to
As part of the data collected for this study, the demographic profile of the
gender, education level; income level, occupation etc. may have impact on
the perception of service quality by the customers. The details are available in
the Annexure.
For the present study the demographic profile of the customers included age,
income. The collected data was analyzed using various statistical techniques.
In total 1360 questionnaires were used for the survey, out this 122 were not
returned by the customers, it was found that 163 were not filled properly by
the respondents. The valid 1075 responses were used for data analysis. The
179
i) It was found that 37.31% of customers are using services of more
ii) The network coverage and tariff were the most important factors in
iii) The friends and family play a major role in selecting the cellular
iv) The SIM cards and the recharge coupons are available in
vi) The Vodafone is the only operator who provides 24 X 7 stores and
vending machines. The MTNL out lets are available only on the
connection was within 6 hrs for all the CMSPs, where as there was
delay in the case of MTNL and the delay was some times more
than 48 hrs.
vii) All cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) have the infrastructure
for registering the complaints but the first time resolution was 79%.
180
ix) The website of all the operators except MTNL was found to be
customer friendly.
x) It was a surprise that 44.13% of the customers are not aware about
TRAI, 37% are not aware about the functions of TRAI. When TRAI
unable to understand and 85% are not aware about TRAI reports.
The Cronbach’s alpha test was done to measure internal consistency among
the scale items. The alpha values for all dimensions of the scale were
calculated. The alpha values for each of the dimensions and for the overall
Table 7.10 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed scale.
SNo Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
loading
1. Reliability(p1) Delivers service in time. 0.71 0.81
2. Reliability(p2) Takes sincere effort in 0.65
solving complaints.
3. Reliability(p3) Performs service right first 0.76
time.
4. Reliability(p4) Provides the correct billing 0.81
information in time.
5. Reliability(p5) Keeps informed when 0.86
services will be performed.
Source survey findings
The alpha values for the individual dimensions as well as for the overall data
181
Table 7.11 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed model.
SNo Item ID Item Factor Alpha
description loading
1. Responsiveness(q1) prompt services 0.81 0.73
2. Responsiveness(q2) Always willing 0.79
to help.
3. Responsiveness(q3) Queries taken 0.74
seriously.
4. Responsiveness(q4) Never too busy 0.80
to respond.
Source: survey findings
Table 7.12 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed scale.
Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
SNo loading
1. Assurance(r1) Instills confidence. 0.44 0.79
2. Assurance(r2) Safe while 0.75
transacting business.
3. Assurance(r3) Providers courteous. 0.83
4. Assurance(r4) Have the knowledge 0.78
to answer questions.
Source: survey findings
Table 7.13 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed scale.
Sno Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
loadings
1. Empathy(s1) Easily accessible. 0.52 0.76
2. Empathy(s2) Individual attention. 0.69
182
Table 7.14 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed model.
SN Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
o loadings
1. Tangibles(t1) Modern Equipment. 0.71 0.68
2. Tangibles(t2) Pamphlet appealing. 0.70
Table 7.15 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed scale.
SNo Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
loading
1. Value added Customization for the 0.734 0.77
services(vas1) value added
services.
2. Value Added The billing is correct 0.871
services(vas2) and done in time.
Source: survey findings
Table 7.16 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed scale.
Sno Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
loadings
1 Network Provides proper 0.73 0.79
quality(nq1) network Coverage.
2 Network Support voice calls of 0.84
quality(nq2) acceptable quality.
3 Network Easily reachable. 0.82
quality(nq3)
4 Network Meets the promised 0.65
quality(nq4) SLA.
Source: survey findings
Table 7.17 Factor loadings and Alpha for the proposed scale.
Sno Item ID Item description Factor Alpha
loading
183
Step 2: Factor Analysis
The factor analysis was done to reduce a large number of variables into less
number of factors. The number of the factors was determined by the Eigen
values. If the Eigen value is greater than one, the factor is considered; if it is
less than one then the factor is not considered. The appropriateness of factor
Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistic. In all the cases the value was found more than
Sno Particulars
1 Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistic. 0.789
Source survey findings
Component Analysis (PCA) using SPSS software with Varimax rotation and
Kaiser Normalization. The items having factor loadings less than 0.5 were
items, all having Eigen values of unity and above were extracted. Further, in
order to assess the appropriateness of the data for factor analysis, the
communalities derived from the factor analysis were reviewed. These were all
relatively large (greater than 0.5), suggesting that the data set is appropriate
184
Step 4: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
The CFA test was done to confirm unidimensionality of the scale. There are
the degree to which the measure spans the domain of the construct
instrument was ensured as the new dimensions and items were identified
measurement model was specified for each construct and CFA was run for all
the constructs, Individual items in the construct. A comparative fit index (CFI)
(Byrne, 1994). The values obtained for all is equal to or above 0.90.
for the Bentler-Bonett coefficient are summarized for eight dimensions. All the
convergent validity. The instrument to measure service quality (SQ) asked the
185
The, criterion validity is established by correlating the customer perceived
service quality scale scores with overall service quality, which is considered to
The correlations are presented above which shows that all the dimensions
2. Responsiveness 0.618
3. Empathy. 0.446
4. Assurance. 0.327
5. Tangibles. 0.243
8. Innovation. 0.571
Source research findings
186
It is clear that the correlation coefficient of all the three new dimensions
network quality, value added services and innovation with overall service
the eight service quality dimensions were made independent variables. Thus,
the average score for each of the dimensions were regressed on the overall
service quality score obtained from each respondent surveyed. The beta (β)
The network dimension with the largest coefficient was found to be the
quality perceptions. The Assurance dimension was rated least. The results of
that the overall regression model is significant (F=23.95, p<0.00), with 57% of
187
the variance in overall service quality explained by independent variables. All
the factors were found to be significant. The results of the regression analysis
are very useful for the CMSP, it was highlighted that not all the dimensions
mobile context. These results can be used for making improvements in the
The perceptions and the expectations of the customer were collected with the
help of the Questionnaire for all the items of the eight dimensions
188
Table 7.25 Expectations, perception and Gap score for Assurance.
SNo Dimension Item Expectation Perception Gap
1. Assurance (r1) 5.60 4.72 -0.88
2. (r2) 6.30 5.65 -0.64
3. (r3) 6.29 5.33 -0.96
4. (r4) 5.80 4.82 -0.98
Average=(r1+r2+r3 R 5.99 5.13 -0.86
+r4/4)
Source: research findings
Table 7.28 Expectations, perception and Gap score for Network quality.
SNo Dimension Item Expectation Perception Gap
1. Network quality (nq1) 6.12 5.16 -0.96
2. (nq2) 5.98 5.67 -0.31
3. (nq3) 5.80 4.83 -0.97
4. (nq4) 5.21 4.99 -0.22
189
Table 7.29 Expectations, perception and Gap score for VAS.
SNo Dimension Items Expectation Perception Gap
1. VAS (vas1) 5.43 4.47 -0.96
2. (vas2) 5.45 4.87 -0.58
Average=(vas1+va VAS 5.44 4.67 -0.77
s2/2)
Source: research findings
suggested that when the perceived service quality is high, then it will lead to
leads to customer satisfaction and this is in line with Saravana and Rao
(2007, p436) and Lee et al., (2000, p226) acknowledge that customer
satisfaction is based upon the level of service quality provided by the CMSP.
satisfaction are positively correlated (Fen & Lian 2005, p59-60). This means
that the dimensions with the higher perception scores depict higher
satisfaction on the part of customers and lower perception score depict lower
satisfaction. The expectations are higher than the perceptions. The negative
gaps indicate that customers expect more than what is offered by the CMSP
190
in Mumbai region. The mobile customers perceive service quality lower than
the expectations and hence they are not satisfied. The service quality is an
It means that since customers perceive service quality as low or poor and
therefore implies that consumers are not satisfied with the services offered by
CMSP in Mumbai.
added three additional items to the five existing items. This is in line with
functional and technical. The gap was calculated for all the eight dimensions.
The results are given in tables 7.24 to 7.31. The overall gap between the
The overall average gap score for all the eight dimensions = - 0.793.
The items with the expectations more than six are Reliability (6.24, 6.35, 6.16
Quality (6.12) and Innovation (6.47). The items with the perception scores
more than five are Reliability (5.03 and 5.05), Responsiveness (5.01 and
5.14), Assurance (5.65, 5.33 and 5.13), Tangibles (5.23, 5.11 and 5.10),
Network (5.16, 5.67 and 5.16) and Innovation (5.68 and 5.10).
191
Table 7.31 Descriptive statics for the eight dimensions of service quality
The gap scores give an idea about the QoS provided by the CMSP. It is seen
form the results above that the gap is always found to be negative and it
proves the null hypothesis that the customers in Mumbai are not meeting the
A statistical analysis was done for all the eight dimensions of the service
Reliability (P)
The value of mean for the reliability criteria is -1.091 and the median is -1.00.
The mode score is -0.20. The standard deviation is 1.12 indicating the spread
of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is positively skewed with a
skewness of -0.676 which indicates that the figures are deviated more to the
right. The kurtosis value is 0.891 which mean that there is clustering
Responsiveness (Q)
The value of mean for the responsiveness criteria is -1.0 and the median is -
0.75. The mode score is 0.75. The standard deviation is 1.18 positively
indicating the spread of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is
positively skewed with a skewness of -1.00 which indicates that the figures
192
are deviated more to the right. The kurtosis value is 0.98 which mean that
Assurance (R)
The value of mean for the assurance criteria is -0.86 and the median is-0.75.
The mode score is-0.50. The standard deviation is 1.11 indicating the spread
of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is positively skewed with a
skewness of -0.74 which indicates that the figures are deviated more to the
right. The kurtosis value is 0.84 which mean that there is clustering
Empathy(S)
The value of mean for the empathy criteria is -0.68 and the median is -0.60.
The mode score is -1.00. The standard deviation is 1.22 indicating the
spread of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is positively skewed with
a skewness of -0.95 which indicates that the figures are deviated more to the
right. The kurtosis value is 1.26 which mean that there is clustering
Tangibles (T):
The value of mean for the tangibles criteria is -0.62 and the median are -0.50.
The mode score is -0.25. The standard deviation is 1.057 indicating the
spread of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is positively skewed with
a skewness of -0.136 which indicates that the figures are deviated more to the
right. The kurtosis value is 0.226 which mean that there is clustering
193
Network (NQ)
The value of mean for the network criteria is -0.72 and the median is -0.34.
The mode score is -0.21. The standard deviation is 1.13 indicating the spread
of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is positively skewed with a
skewness of -0.256 which indicates that the figures are deviated more to the
right. The kurtosis value is 0.76 which mean that there is clustering
The value of mean for the value added service criteria are -0.77 and the
median is -0.56. The mode score is -0.21. The standard deviation is 1.13
indicating the spread of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is
positively skewed with a skewness of -0.43 which indicates that the figures
are deviated more to the right. The kurtosis value is 0.65 which mean that
Innovation (INV)
The value of mean for the innovation criteria is –0.89 and the median are -
0.54. The mode score is-0.45. The standard deviation is 1.21 indicating the
spread of gaps away from the mean. The distribution is positively skewed with
a skewness of -0.54 which indicates that the figures are deviated more to the
right. The kurtosis value is 0.91 which mean that there is clustering
somewhere away from the mean. It can be seen from the table 7.31 that the
standard deviation score is fairly consistent which indicate that all the
respondents surveyed.
194
7.5 Comparative analysis of the Customer Service
important from the customers point of view. The response was called for all
a comparative study and rank the Cellular Mobile service Providers on the
matrix is made putting the entire four matrix on the rows and columns in which
all the principal diagonal entries are 1, as each factor is important as itself.
In the next step is the calculation of a list of the relative weights, importance,
or value, of the factors, such as price and promotion all other three factors.
195
Table 7.33 showing the values of Eigen vectors after normalization.
The Eigen values obtained are (0.086, 0.496, 0.289 and 0.130) these indicate
the relative values of the Promotion, network, Price and physical Evidence. As
per the above analysis the weights of various factors are as follows:
Out of the above four factors the network quality 49.6% is the most important
for the customers, the price 28.9% is the second important factor. Physical
evidence 13% is the third important factor and promotions 8.6% is the least
important factor.
A six sets of pair wise comparisons how well Reliance Infocom, Bharti Airtel,
196
evidence, network quality and price. The result was multiplied with the %
weight age of the four factors. The detailed analysis using the AHP about the
terms of the promotion, Price, Promotion and physical evidence which are
important for the customer. Reading down each column, it somewhat states
the Reliance Infocom is best in the network quality and MTNL is worst, the
services of the Tata Teleservices limited are cheapest and MTNL. The
promotion of the MTNL is found to be the best and worst for Tata Tele
services. The physical evidence is best for MTNL and worst for Bharti Airtel.
In the final step the customer’s judgment as to the relative importance of the
Price, promotion, physical evidence and network net work 49.6, promotion
8.6, price 28.9% and physical evidence 13% is multiplied with the option
SNo Factor R B T L V M
1. Network 0.25 0.19 0.15 0.17 0.19 0.06
2. Price 0.12 0.18 0.06 0.17 0.22 0.26
3. Promotion 0.07 0.24 0.06 0.13 0.19 0.27
4. Evidence 0.13 0.2 0.09 0.14 0.19 0.24
Source research findings
197
Calculation of the Ranking of Cellular Mobile Service Providers
SNo Factor R B T L V M
1 Network 0.12 0.09 0.07 0.06 0.90 0.03
2 Price 0.03 0.05 0.02 0.05 0.06 0.06
3 Promotion 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.04
4 Evidence 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
0.18 0.19 0.11 0.16 0.20 0.16
Source survey finding
The relative value vector is used to calculate the ranking of the Cellular Mobile
Findings on ranking
ii) Reliance Infocom is ranked third, Loop Mobile telecom and MTNL
iii) It can be seen that the CMSP ranked first and second are GSM
198
Chapter VIII
Review of Price Management
8.1 Introduction
199
Chapter VIII
Review of Price Management
8.1 Introduction
The Price is one of the most important aspects of the mobile services
marketing mix104, which creates revenue whereas all the others are costs. The
mobile service provider (CMSP). In order to take advantage of the lower tariff
plans many customers are using two separate mobile connections of different
fragmented industry which has delivered low prices inspite of the high Minutes
of Usage (MoU). Since the launch of the mobile services the call rates are
falling. In 1995 at the time of launch of mobile service the cost of outgoing
local call was Rs 16 per minute which now costs less than 1p/sec. The
incoming calls were also billed. A high and low call rate was applicable for the
The CMSP are permitted to offer a maximum of twenty five tariff plans at a
time. It is mandatory to list the details of the tariff plans on their website. It was
found that the CMSPs offer custom built tariff plans to postpaid corporate
customers who are not listed. TRAI decides the price caps, floor price and
interconnect charges from time to time. The price plays a vital role in telecom
availability, and promotional offer. It includes rental charges which are fixed
200
and call charges which are variable. According to Kollmann (2000) the income
The cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) are adopting cost based,
market oriented and competition based pricing approach. The price is a very
ii) Image pose value means a high price to have prestige value.
iii) The customers resist a very high price on the other hand a cheap
iv) The buyers require different price levels; good value for money is
India is one of the fastest growing mobile telecom markets in the world. It has
large inequality in its income distribution with nearly a third of its national
income being concentrated among the 10% of the rich. It is a real challenge to
offer tariff plan which appeals to both high and low income customers. The
average revenue per user (ARPU) of low income group customers is not
sustainable and their count is more. All cellular mobile service providers
competition.
Another reason for a high degree of price competition is an early stage of the
Product Life Cycle (PLC) where low prices are offered to gain market share.
201
The following objectives are followed by the cellular mobile service providers
customer base.
ii) Market Share: The large market shares enable a firm to operate
have to follow.
iii) Price Stability: All the CMSP offer similar tariff plans, which is a
The telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issues regulations in the form
of the TTO (Telecom tariff order) in order to guide the CMSP on the pricing,
and the interconnect issues105. It interacts with all stake holders to promote
of market power and redistributes benefit amongst all the stake holders. The
Indian telecom sector has moved from full monopoly to full market system.
202
has developed, regulators become more confident about the provision of
form of regulation has been introduced mainly to decide the price of the calls
of telecom services.
vi) Setting the terms (administrative, financial and technical) for the
related matters.
In the past there was unsatisfied demand of telecom customers, due to two
reasons. One, congestion in the network and two, there was excess demand
203
from users who have not got linked to the network. There was a waiting list for
compute the demand elasticity for telecom services in India. It was not
There was low demand elasticity, particularly for local calls and for access to
the phone. In such a situation, a price increase would actually result in a rise
in revenue, and not much fall in demand for the service. This is even more
likely because of the excess demand and supply constraints that existed for
level. In the Indian situation, such a response could be expected for the
relatively high priced services, particularly from those subscribers who are
currently making only a few of these high priced calls. In the present scenario
The total costs incurred in offering the mobile service is equal to the sum of all
fixed costs and variable costs; fixed costs are costs which do not vary with
variable costs are costs which change with a change in volume of traffic. The
operational costs are higher during the peak period. Therefore, not only
demand but costs also provide a basis for charging higher prices for the peak
period.
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8.6 Pricing of CMS
criteria have been used to determine mark-up on telecom costs by the cellular
two part pricing which involves levying an access or rental charge while
pricing the use of the service at its marginal cost, or pricing different levels or
units of the service at different rates (slab rates).The India’s current pattern of
tariff for mobile services includes a specified number of free calls and a
The negative mark up also called subsidies in telecom is provided for various
arise because this sector is an important part of the economic and social
infrastructure of a nation.
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8.6.3 Demand Based Pricing
willingness of the user to pay for a service, which in turn is an indication of the
advantage or value that the user derives from the product. Based on this
The telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has started giving telecom
operators greater control to fix their prices. This flexibility has helped the
price structures for the mobile services. The price cap is a very flexible pricing
related to telecom tariffs. An important reason for adopting price caps has
been to facilitate the process of tariff restructuring, i.e. change the prevailing
operator’s annual costs, the large number of telecom services in the market
service. The price caps for the mobile service are announced by telecom
The current trends in India show higher level of competition in a market, the
telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has left the pricing of the voice
calls and some data services to the market forces. The unfair competition is a
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major concern in the telecom sector, which normally has a dominant
argued that low introductory prices need to be offered for a new service. In
high price being charged to customers which happened when the mobile
stand-alone costs have been considered for addressing this concern. The
such externalities do not exist, e.g. a situation where universal coverage has
been achieved. Such externalities provide one of the reasons for focusing on
There are a number of methods to fund the deficit. The government of India
has announced to collect funds from all cellular mobile service providers
This fund is used to provide telecom services to the rural areas. The fund is
allotted to the CMSP for improving the telecom infrastructure of the places
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8.6.4 Interconnect Charges
the scope and efficiency of the telecom network, and is especially important
for new operators entering the market who normally use the existing facilities
takes place between operators possessing networks, and the latter between
an operator with a network and another without one. Three broad types of
value-added networks.
the PSTN.
payment for supplementary services and for ancillary and other facilities.
There are basically two methods for charging for interconnection. One is
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interconnection charges on the basis of costs. In a cost-oriented
interconnection charges.
normal commercial return, and there should not be any discrimination among
In India charges are imposed on a per-minute basis for the calls made.
India (TRAI). The cellular mobile service (CMS) tariff includes the following
for local calls (which are in excess of the relevant free calls basket, and
charges for national and international calls. The national long-distance calls
(subscriber trunk dialing or STD) are metered and charged according to the
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time of call and the distance covered. The telecom regulatory authority of
Therefore, the primary objective of the tariff review process was to rebalance
In March 1999, the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) issued its
distance rates.
It used Fully Allocated Costs (FAC) as a starting point. It attempted to cost the
services by allocating all capital and operating costs across four categories
rental, local calls, long distance and international calls. The analysis used a
representative cost estimate for the current capital costs of the local network
and long distance transmission network. Operating cost estimates were based
number of minutes of local, national and international calls as the real data
The current tariff structure for mobile telephony is set out in the TRAI’s Tariff
CPP (Calling Party Pays) regime, a new tariff structure and a new revenue
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sharing scheme between operators. This Amendment set the down ward
trend in tariff rentals were also decreased for metro regions. The new
structure also provided for free incoming calls, in line with the calling party
pays (CPP) regime. It is the most common pricing structure for mobile
communications, under which the mobile customer pays for outgoing calls,
and the fixed customer also pays for calling the mobile network. The person
initiating the phone call is responsible for the cost of each call. It was argued
that calling party pays regime will make mobile services more affordable to
low-end customers and increase airtime in both the prepaid and subscription
charges apply to the link established between the two networks (set-up cost),
based on costs, and or charged in the form of revenue sharing between the
211
relationships arising through interconnection. In its second consultation paper
the CPP regime. For mobile-to-mobile traffic, a ‘sender keeps all’ arrangement
would exist. However, the TRAI felt that such a policy would not be
costs of the two networks. Hence, a migration to the CPP regime would have
calls, the telecom authority of India (TRAI) proposed a charge of Rs. 3.90 per
minute, with the revenue being shared between the fixed and mobile operator
i) At Rs. 3.90 per minute, the fixed to mobile charge would be about 9
ii) A sharing of 15:85 would ensure that the fixed line operator
(MTC) to the mobile operator of Rs.1.60 for the first minute and Rs. 0.80 for
each successive minute. This represents a 33:67 % share between the fixed
and mobile operators. This arrangement was temporary and was replaced the
The mobile tariffs are of significance because they are a good gauge of sector
price and value were the most important considerations for those choosing a
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and the amount of use thereafter. The study also proved that standardizing of
tariffs was essential for the benefit of all stakeholders. The consumers
complained about the lack of organization and consistency in the way tariffs
connection charges, monthly line rental, free call allowances, call charges and
billing charges; and within call charges, they would like to be able to compare
daytime rates, evening rates, weekend rates, peak/off peak times, rates to the
same network, rates to different networks, voicemail rates, SMS rates and
innovative tariff plans. It has created revolution in the market. Some popular
Bharti Airtel was the first to announce the lifetime validity for incoming calls
scheme from among the GSM players. The customer will have to pay Rs 999
to avail of the new scheme, following which the user can receive incoming
calls ‘free for a lifetime’ on the condition that the user recharges the card once
in every 6 months. The call charges were much higher than normal charges.
The One India plan by launched by offered by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited,
offered Re 1.00 tariff for STD calls anywhere in India from anywhere in India.
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The call charges remained untouched. This tariff was applicable in the home
network only.
(TTSL) in 2010, the local calls where charged at the rate of 1ps per second.
Later the STD calls in home network and roaming where also charged at 1ps
offered ½ ps per second the lowest tariff in India for local calls in their
network.
pack offers unlimited onnet free calls to any local Reliance Infocom
network.
recharge of Rs. 599 only. This Pack offers unlimited free calls to any
plan with free GPRS and lots of benefits for its existing and new
214
prepaid mobile subscribers. With this plan Loop Mobile prepaid
subscribers can enjoy all local Calls within group will be charged at
just 10 paisa per minute till first 300 minutes every month.
Bharti Airtel has launched full talk time recharge coupon, named as
Chota Full Talk time Recharge.RC20 for Rs. 20 with full talk time of Rs.
20. The Chotta Recharge has offered many benefits like ability to
fisherman’s to find the right price for their fishes among various sea-
In order the study the Comparative analysis for the product factor the
The AHP method was used for analysis. The values are given the Table 8.1
and 8.2
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Table: 8.1 the customer’s response on price
SNo R B T L V M
1 R 1.00 0.25 4.00 0.33 1.00 0.33
2 B 4.00 1.00 4.00 0.25 0.33 1.00
3 T 0.25 0.25 1.00 1.00 0.25 0.33
4 L 3.00 4.00 1.00 1.00 0.25 0.33
5 V 1.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 1.00 0.25
6 M 3.00 1.00 3.00 3.00 2.00 1.00
Total 12.2 9.50 17.00 9.58 4.83 3.24
0.08 0.11 0.06 0.10 0.21 0.31
Source survey findings
SNo R B T L V M Avg
1 R 0.08 0.03 0.24 0.03 0.21 0.10 0.12
2 B 0.32 0.11 0.24 0.03 0.07 0.31 0.18
3 T 0.02 0.03 0.06 0.10 0.05 0.10 0.06
4 L 0.24 0.44 0.06 0.10 0.05 0.10 0.17
5 V 0.08 0.33 0.24 0.40 0.21 0.08 0.22
6 M 0.24 0.11 0.18 0.30 0.42 0.31 0.26
0.98 1.05 1.02 0.96 1.01 1.00 1.00
Source survey findings, Legends same as table 8.1
i) The values for the price factor received for all the CMSP are almost similar
(0.98, 1.05, 1.02, 0.96, 1.01 and 1.0).
ii) The maximum value corresponds to Bharti Airtel limited and the lowest
value belongs to Loop Mobile.
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Chapter -IX
Review of Product Management
9.1 Introduction
Service
Development
217
Chapter -IX
Review of Product Management
9.1 Introduction
Whenever the customer calls the first thing they ask is ‘What’s new?’ The new
success. In the present scenario ‘innovate or die’ has become a rallying cry as
technology savvy consumers demand the latest and the best products. The
speed to market factor has become perhaps the most critical factor in product
service providers (CMSP) to get their product to market first. They can
succeed only if they have focused product line architecture. It tells how
product line will look, what types of products in what markets, how they will be
positioned, and in what sequence they will be introduced. After the product
line architecture has been established and a new product is being developed;
At this stage an advertising or public relations agency can come into play.
Once the CMSP creates its overall strategy and determines how it will target
its customer, it can map out exactly what product lines it will choose to
achieve that goal. The CMS is a service industry; a proper approach is a must
customer feels they are getting better treatment, or more service options, or
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more free talk time or data download as part of their purchase, they are more
likely to migrate. If CMSP stop innovating and adding new services to its core
business, then the service becomes a commodity and clients look at only
price when deciding on what to choose. The cellular mobile service provider
(CMSP) faces more pressure to innovate and develop new products. They
can stay ahead of their competitors by innovations and make their services
The cellular mobile service providers (CMSP) have to pay attention to the
needs of customers and offer them quality products or services which satisfy
Mumbai region the need of the hour is to improve the existing products. The
analyze the customer’s expectations and the motive of the purchase in order
to produce products which click in the market. Once these expectations are
products are launched by the Cellular Mobile service providers (CMSP) every
month. The products launched by one are immediately copied by the others.
The cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) who is slow in bringing new
products loose the market and their customers migrate to the other providers.
The new services launched do not remain new for a long period. The product
there is pressure to differentiate the products and gain the market share by
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accelerating the product development. The new products shall be ready
before the old ones expire. The new products shall bring revenue to pull the
des, including objects, services, organizations, places, people and ideas. The
satisfaction that are offered for sale. They are intangible and do not result in
people, for the consumers, it is the bundle of perceived benefits that meets his
consumer needs, for the product manager it is the task for the advertising
source of revenue. The product is the sum total of three things the Intrinsic
extrinsic characteristics its packaging, brand or trade mark and the intangibles
associated with it, like warranties, guaranties and after-sales service etc.
The product in the cellular mobile services (CMS) industry can be thought of a
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communicate any where any time this is also called the core benefit, this is
what the customer is really buying. The second level consists of the
mechanism by which the customer can achieve the core benefits. In case of
the cellular mobile services it consists of the radio frequency network, it is not
The third level consists of the expected product, a set of attributes and
conditions that customers normally expect and agree, in the case of the CMS
service provider. Sometimes a bundled handset and free talk time and data
down load are also offered. These features are offered by all the CMSP now.
The customer settles for the services which are easily available and least
expensive.
At the fourth level the augmented product is offered to the customer which is
customer’s desire and beyond their expectations. The CMSP offer a bundle of
value added services in order to satisfy the customer. The competition today
is not on the quality of the radio frequency coverage alone but what the CMSP
are able to offer in the form of service advice, delivery and assistance in
customizing the value added services on the customers hand set. At the fifth
level called potential product which encompasses all the augmentations and
transformations that the product might undergo. The CMSPs go an extra mile
and provide value added products like mobile banking and e-commerce.
These features not only satisfy and surprise the customer but delight them.
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9.3 Challenges in Developing New Products
In the CMS market there exists only two major segments the postpaid
services and the prepaid services. The majority of the customers in Mumbai
region prefer prepaid services. The new products are developed keeping in
mind the needs of the prepaid customers. The new products are offered
mostly in sachet which cost between Rs. 4 to 100 this is an advantage for the
customers and they can test the services before they subscribe it for one
month or more.
This function is dealt by vice president level in most of the CMSP. The
i) Idea generation: the new product development starts with the search of
new ideas the objectives of which are defined by the senior management it
product. The highest percentage of ideas comes from the group dealing in
customer services.
ii) Ideas screening: The ideas are collected by product champion and filtered
by as per the business needs. While screening the ideas the CMSP take
commercialization. A product failure occurs in both the cases out of the twenty
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five to thirty new products launched by the CMSP hardly three to four
succeed.
concept of the ideas selected. The concept is derived from the product idea
depending on who will be the user of the product the postpaid or the prepaid
iv) Testing: The customized product is then tested by making test calls and
The product is offered to the test group who perform the acceptance testing of
the product keeping the business plan as the benchmark. The new products
continue to fail in the CMS market may due to pushing an idea in spite of the
negative research findings or the idea is good but the market size is not
development cost is higher than expected and the rivals copy the products
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competitiveness of the products. As per Juran customer satisfaction is
share and sales income. The quality function deployment (QFD) is the basic
total quality management (TQM) tool that develops customer’s needs and
driven. This tool considers industry factors as well as the customer needs.
The voice of the customers collected from the call centers and the customer
service departments are the main input for new product development. The
quality function deployment (QFD) was born out of the quality movements in
the 1980s.
on how the expectations and needs of the customer can be fulfilled. This tool
also helps how the customer’s interest can be paralleled with the provider’s
interest.
The CMSP are striving hard to achieve long term profits by satisfying the
organization by first focusing on customer’s needs and wants and then design
and market services that customer wants to purchase. It strives to achieve the
total quality objective by translating and diffusing the customer needs and
wants, the voice of the customer, vertically and horizontally throughout the
organization.
224
The core principle of the QFD is a systematic transformation of customer
that can be used for reduction in the overall cycle time. Thus overall cost is
tell the CMSP how they are doing as compared to the competitors, and then
The survival and growth of the CMSP demands systematic development and
package, design and price of the product with a view to add something to
and preferences .
225
As per the TRAI guidelines on the tariff plan there is a limitation on the
number of the tariff plans a CMSP can offer to the customers, but there is no
restriction on the number of products. . The sales team sells the products by
The product manager’s main job is to design, implement and modify the
product mix. It will be appropriate to explain the concepts used in the cellular
mobile services. The “Product mix is the set of all products and items that a
Product width, Product length and Product consistency. The “Product line is a
group of products that are closely inter-related since they perform a similar
function and are sold to similar groups and are marketed through the same
channel. ” In the example shown above the CMSP have three product lines
namely prepaid, post paid and the value added services. “Product Width, on
other hand, is measured by the number of product lines.” The product mix
here comprises of four product lines. The product mix length refers to the total
The length of product mix is of 13 products. In the given example, the product
consistency is very close as they are dispensed through the same distribution
226
In order to analyze the quality of the services provided by the CMSP in
evidence, network quality and price. The result was multiplied with the %
services
Voice & data Voice & data SMS, Ring back tones,
services, SMS, STD, ISD friends mobile banking
STD, ISD, and Family, Night and television.
Friends& Family, talk, one India, pay GPS, EDGE,
Night talk, one Per second billing GPRS, 3G and
India, Pay per packs. HSDPA.
second billing
packs.
Source: own Illustration
In order to the study the Comparative analysis for the promotion factor the
promotion of one CMSP with respect to the remaining five. The AHP method
was used for analysis. The values are given the Table 9.1 and 9.2
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Table: 9.1 Customer responses on network quality.
SNo R B T L V M
1 R 1.00 2.0 3.0 3.00 0.33 3.00
2 B 0.50 1.00 3.0 1.00 2.00 2.00
3 T 0.33 0.33 1.00 3.00 1.00 3.00
4 L 0.33 1.00 0.33 1.00 4.00 2.00
5 V 3.00 0.50 1.00 0.25 1.00 3.00
6 M 0.33 0.50 0.33 0.50 0.33 1.00
Total 5.49 5.33 8.66 8.75 8.66 14.00
0.18 0.19 0.12 0.11 0.12 0.07
Source survey results
SNo R B T L V M Avg.
1 R 0.18 0.38 0.36 0.33 0.04 0.21 0.25
2 B 0.09 0.19 0.36 0.11 0.24 0.14 0.19
3 T 0.06 0.06 0.12 0.33 0.12 0.21 0.15
4 L 0.06 0.19 0.04 0.11 0.48 0.14 0.17
5 V 0.54 0.10 0.12 0.03 0.12 0.21 0.19
6 M 0.06 0.10 0.04 0.06 0.04 0.07 0.06
Total 0.99 1.01 1.04 0.96 1.04 0.98 1.00
Source survey findings
i) The values for the promotion factor received for all the CMSP are almost
similar (0.99, 1.01, 1.04, 0.96, 1.04, 0.96 and 1.01).
ii) The maximum value corresponds to Vodaphone limited and the lowest
value belongs Loop Mobile.
228
Chapter -X
Review of the Physical Evidence
10.1Introduction
Servicescape
229
Chapter -X
Review of the Physical Evidence
10.1 Introduction
The services are performances or objects rather than objects; they can not be
seen, felt, tasted or touched in the same manner that we can sense tangible
goods. The cellular mobile service (CMS) is actions provided by the cellular
by the customer although the customer may be able to see and touch tangible
Cellular mobile Services are intangible; customers often rely on tangible cues,
or physical evidences, to evaluate the mobile service before its purchase and
to access their satisfaction with the services during and after the consumption.
and where the cellular mobile service provider (CMSP) and the customer
communication of the services. The actual physical facility where the service
service gap.
tangibles. They include all the aspects of the organizations physical facility as
230
parking, landscape) and interior attributes (such as the design lay out,
physical evidence. The elements of the physical evidence and other tangible
Each of the above evidence listed above communicate something about the
service. A number of consumer researches have shown that the design of the
other behaviors.
It is seen that the customer are influenced by the smell, decor, music and
store lay out. It is also observed that the layout of the work place affect the
balance between the managements concern for their feelings and job
who actually comes into the service facility and thus is potentially influenced
by its design customers, employees or both. In the olden days the telecom
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facility was offered in such a way that the customer ever see the service
facility. The facility was installed in a remote location. This has changed after
the launch of the cellular mobile services the service scape for offering the
the customers and the cellular mobile service provider specially for the
interactions. The cellular mobile service needs many elements and many
10.1.1 Package
Similar to a tangible product’s package the service scape and other elements
The physical evidence does the same through the interaction of many
complex stimuli.
The servicescape is the outward appearance of the organization and thus can
a visual metaphor for the intangible service. This plays an important role in
creating expectations for the new customers and for the newly established
uniforms or dress and other elements of their out ward appearance. It is seen
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that the same care and importance as given in package design in product
10.1.2 Facilitator
persons in the environment. A well designed, functional facility can make the
pleasure to perform the employee’s. On the other hand, poor and inefficient
10.1.3 Socializer
The design of the service scape aids in the socialization of both the employ’s
and customers in the sense that it helps to convey the expected roles,
behaviors, and relationships. The design of the facility can also suggest to
servicescape they are welcome and which are for the employees only, how
they should behave while in the environment, and what types of interactions
are encouraged.
10.1.4 Differentiator
The design of the physical facility can differentiate a firm from its competitors
and signal the market segment the service intended for. Given its power as a
firm and/ or to attract new market segments. The design of a physical setting
can also differentiate one area of the service organization from another. Price
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differentiation is also often partially achieved through variations in physical
settings.
the organism that responds to the stimuli, and behaviors directed at the
environment are the responses. The assumptions are that dimensions of the
servicescape will impact customers and employees and they will behave in
react to places with two general, and opposite, forms of behavior; approach
and avoidance. The approach behavior include all positive behaviors that
and affiliate. Avoidance behaviors reflect the opposite – a desire not to stay.
234
In addition to attracting or deterring entry, the servicescape can actually
influences the nature and quality of customer and employee interactions, most
directly in interpersonal services. The physical container can affect the nature
progression of the events. The servicescape can help define the social rules,
what influence their behaviors. The internal responses are independent they
The perceived service scape can have an effect on people’s beliefs about a
place and their beliefs about the people and the products found in that place.
235
distinguish a firm by influencing how it is categorized. The overall perception
response to physical settings. They have concluded that any environment will
pleasant and arousing would be termed as exciting while those that are
ways. Noise that is too loud may cause physical discomfort, the temperature
of the room may cause people to shiver or perspire, the air quality may make
it difficult to breathe, and the glare of lighting may decrease ability to see and
cause physical pain. All of these physical responses may, in turn directly
236
10.2.7 Variations in the Individual Response
environment. The response of the individual will not be same every time.
environment stimuli.
such as temperature, lighting, noise, music, scent and color. All these factors
can profoundly affect how people feel, think, and respond to a particular
service establishment. If the ambient conditions are in the comfort zone they
get unnoticed. They have greater effect when the customers and employees
machinery, equipments and furnishings are arranged the size and shape of
237
these items and the spatial relationship between them. The spatial layout and
in self service environments where they have to perform the service on their
that communicate about the place to its users. Signs displayed on the exterior
than signs, giving implicit cues to the users about the meaning of the place
and norms and expectations for behavior in the place. The signs symbols and
particular service establishment, they will look for environmental cues for help
them categorize the place. Signs, symbols and artifacts can also be important
in forming first impression and for communicating new service concepts. They
The servicescape has a profound effect both on the customers and the
238
both a marketing and organizational behavior perspective firms need to
organization can learn about the user’s reaction and preferences by the
following methods.
10.5.1 Observations
10.5.2 Experiments
Experimental methods are among the best ways to assess specific customer
reactions.
at each customer set up action. They are extremely useful in providing clear
239
and logical documentation of the physical evidence as it currently exists in a
given service situation. The photos and video tapes give more depth to the
process blue print and it forces certain logic on the analysis of the blue print.
The CMSP follow the guidelines given below for effective physical evidence.
In order the study the Comparative analysis for the promotion factor the
promotion of one CMSP with respect to the remaining five. The AHP method
was used for analysis. The values are given the Table 11.1 and 11.2
240
Table: 10.1 physical evidence option performance matrix.
SN0 R B T L V M
1 R 1.00 0.14 4.00 0.33 1.00 2.00
2 B 5.00 1.00 4.00 0.25 0.33 4.00
3 T 0.20 0.25 1.00 5.00 0.25 0.33
4 L 5.00 4.00 0.20 1.00 0.25 0.33
5 V 1.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 1.00 0.50
6 M 4.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 2.00 1.00
7 16.20 11.39 16.20 13.58 4.83 8.16
0.06 0.09 0.06 0.07 0.21 0.12
LEGEND R-Reliance Infocom Infocom–Bharti Airtel, T- Tata
Teleservices limited, L- Loop Mobile(old name BPL), V-Vodafone
limited (Hutch), M-Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited Mumbai.
Table: 10.2 Normalized Results obtained by multiplication with %
weight.
SNo R B T L V M Avg
1 R 0.06 0.01 0.24 0.02 0.21 0.24 0.13
2 B 0.30 0.09 0.24 0.02 0.07 0.48 0.20
3 T 0.01 0.02 0.06 0.35 0.05 0.04 0.09
4 L 0.30 0.36 0.01 0.07 0.05 0.04 0.14
5 V 0.06 0.27 0.24 0.28 0.21 0.06 0.19
6 M 0.24 0.27 0.18 0.21 0.42 0.12 0.24
0.97 1.03 0.97 0.95 1.01 0.98 0.99
i) The values for the promotion factor received for all the CMSP are almost
similar (0.91, 1.00, 0.93, 0.98, 0.99 and 1.01).
ii) The maximum value corresponds to Bharti Airtel limited and the lowest
value belongs to Loop Mobile.
241
Chapter - XI
Review of Promotion Management
11.1 Introduction
CMSPs.
242
Chapter - XI
Review of Promotion Management
11.1 Introduction
The competition in the cellular mobile service (CMS) industry calls for not only
customers, but also to communicate with the customers about its quality and
usefulness. The cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs) use almost the
similar quality of the telecom equipment and manpower it is only how much
they spend and in what way they spend on communication with the customers
that matters. The CMSPs have to communicate with the dealers, distributor’s
communicate with each other about the quality of the service and availability
of the products in the market. This creates a very strong opinion about the
firms for handling their promotion campaign by spending large sums on high-
profile celebrities to serve as their spokes persons. The CMSP have signed
up Bollywood stars for promotion of cellular mobile services. They are using
promotional strategy requires the marketer understand how promotion fits with
243
other pieces of the marketing puzzle (e.g., product, distribution, pricing, target
markets). The promotion decisions are very crucial and are taken at a senior
The CMSP are attempting to develop a unified promotional strategy as per the
message across all options. In this way no matter where customers are
information.
The act of communicating has been evaluated extensively for many, many
years. One of the classic analyses of communication took place in the 1940s
participants:
through advertising).
244
ii) Message Receiver – The receiver of communication is the intended
meets the objectives of the sender. The sender uses a transmission medium
to send the message. In marketing the medium may include the use of
way flow of information in the form of a feedback channel. This occurs if the
this way, the original message receiver now becomes the message source
and the communication process begins again. There are many potential
obstacles to the message successfully reaching the receiver the way the
include poor encoding, poor decoding, and media failure and communication
noise.
245
i) Intended Audience Promotions can be categorized based on the
targeted.
promotions have is the ability for the message sender to adjust the
information flow that does not allow for easy response by the message
receiver.
the CMSP having pan India presence advertise very aggressively. The call
246
centre is the place from where the response of the promotion campaign is
cost-per-action (CPA). The CPI metric relates to how many people are
exposed to a promotion in relation to the cost of the promotion. With CPA the
The CMSP target audience for the promotion is not limited to just the
directed at the target market, there are many other groups that serve as
247
marketer may be able utilize these influencers to its benefit. Influencers
include the news media, special interest groups, opinion leaders (e.g.,
have roped in film stars, prominent sports person and Chief Executive
are also target markets since they must recognize a product’s benefits
and agree to handle the product in the same way as final customers
the CMSP every month with promotion schemes for the distributors
and dealers.
who provide services, support or, in other ways, impact the company.
248
customers to buy cellular mobile services and value added services, to retain
The CMSP know that getting customers to subscribe their services is only
customers are very price sensitive and before turning into a repeat customer,
they analyze their initial purchase to see whether they received a good value,
and then often repeat the purchase process again before deciding to make
the same choice. The repeat purchase is very important from the angle of
prepaid services.
The CMSP have at their disposal four major methods of promotion. Taken
radio is the most preferred media by the CMSP who have a pan India
presence.
249
offer a favorable mention of the marketer’s company or product without
direct payment to the publisher. The CMSP sponsor the local festivals
like Ganesh Chaturthi and Dahi Handi in Mumbai and offer trail plans.
promotion mix.
increase the number of customers and increase the sale of the prepaid
customers.
limited and Reliance Infocom having pan India foot print and spend
lavishly.
advertises its services moreover it informs the customer about the new
launches.
250
communicates with customers. The promotion by the CMSP is always
prepaid while personalized selling is used for the post paid services. As
a product moves through these stages the product itself may evolve
partners can reach the final customer either directly using a pull
and promote the product to their customers. The CMSP use both
approaches.
11.6.1 Advertising
selected media outlets that, under most circumstances, require the marketer
to pay for message placement. It has long been viewed as a method of mass
promotion in that a single message can reach a large number of people. But,
advertising message may not be within the marketer’s target market, and
251
an advertising effort. Some of the CMSP have employed market researchers
CMSP use different type of advertising in the different phases of the product
life cycle.
always advocate that mobile services are better than landline service
There is a major cultural shift occurring in how people use media for
customer base eroded by the emergence of new media outlets. The Internet
252
has become the major driver of this change. The SMS is very frequently used
by the CMSP to inform about the tariff changes and new services.
sales promotion. The CMSP use sales promotions very frequently. It is used
ii) Creating Interest: CMSP have found that sales promotions are
packages.
which offers value to purchasers typically by lowering the customer’s final cost
for acquiring the product. While rebates share some similarities with coupons,
they differ in several keys aspects. First, rebates are generally handed or
253
offered to customers after a purchase is made and cannot be used to obtain
immediate savings in the way coupons are used. Second, rebates often
request the purchaser to submit personal data in order to obtain the rebate.
ask those seeking a rebate to provide additional data such as indicating the
One of the most powerful sales promotion techniques is the short-term price
the frequent use of this technique can lead customers to anticipate the
occurs again.
and products with its key publics through the use of a variety of
print and broadcast media. But today the role of public relations is much
254
ii) Closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment
The Public relations offers several advantages to CMSP not found with other
promotion. One of PR’s key points of power rests with helping to establish
that the decision to include the name of the company and the views
expressed about the company is not based on payment but on the media
outlet’s judgment about the product. For example, a positive story about a
new product in the business section of a local newspaper may have greater
market being exposed to more detailed information than they receive with
other forms of promotion. That is, media sources often provide more space
and time for explanation of a product. Third, depending on the media outlet, a
Finally, in many cases public relations objectives can be achieved at very low
255
direct cost of other promotions, in particular advertising, the return on
Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party uses skills and
techniques for building personal relationships with another party those results
in both parties obtaining value. The selling involves personal contact, this
CMSP are:
In order the study the Comparative analysis for the promotion factor the
promotion of one CMSP with respect to the remaining five. The AHP method
256
Table: 11.1 the customer’s response on promotion
SNo R B T L V M
1 R 1.00 0.20 5.00 0.20 1.0 0.16
2 B 5.00 1.00 7.00 0.20 0.16 6.00
3 T 0.20 0.14 1.00 6.00 0.20 0.20
4 L 5.00 5.00 0.16 1.00 0.25 0.20
5 V 1.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 1.00 0.20
6 M 6.00 0.16 5.00 5.00 5.00 1.00
18.20 12.50 23.16 16.40 7.61 7.76
0.05 0.08 0.04 0.06 0.13 0.13
LEGEND R-Reliance Infocom Infocom–Bharti Airtel, T- Tata
Teleservices limited, L- Loop Mobile (old name BPL),V-Vodafone
limited (Hutch), M-Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited Mumbai.
Sno R B T L V M Avg.
1 R 0.05 0.02 0.20 0.01 0.13 0.02 0.07
2 B 0.25 0.08 0.28 0.01 0.02 0.78 0.24
3 T 0.01 0.01 0.04 0.36 0.03 0.03 0.08
4 L 0.25 0.40 0.01 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.13
5 V 0.06 0.48 0.20 0.24 0.13 0.03 0.19
6 M 0.30 0.01 0.20 0.30 0.65 0.13 0.27
Total 0.91 1.01 0.93 0.98 0.99 1.0 0.97
i) The values for the promotion factor received for all the CMSP are almost
ii) The maximum value corresponds to Bharti Airtel limited and the lowest
257
Chapter -XII
Findings
12.1 Introduction
Quality
services
258
Chapter -XII
Findings
12.1 Introduction
expectations.
obtain CMTS license. The spectrum allotment also takes time in the
259
A lot of effort is required for building interconnect network for local,
the call rates are lowest in world due to the presence of eighteen
CMSPs in Mumbai.
optical fiber and erection of towers and as all of them follow different
sets of rule.
The CMSPs are launching mobile service without proper testing and
The roll out obligations are not met as per the CMTS license
The spectrum is the core resource in providing the mobile services, the
lesser the spectrum more Base Transmission Stations are needed, and
the cost of the infrastructure increases for achieving the same service
quality.
Both GSM and CDMA cellular mobile service providers are facing
GSM and CDMA. The CMSP are allotted spectrum in different blocks
260
some in 900 MHz some in 1800 MHz; maintenance cost is different for
different bands.
region are not meeting the TRAI parameter and hence the null hypothesis
The customers are not aware about TRAI; the existing model focuses
The first three parameters are purely technical they are measured,
factors such as price, reliability, availability, usability and utility are not
included.
261
surveys done by TRAI from April 2003 to June 2005, CMSPs have
mobile handsets; more than 40% customers use low cost and
refurbished handsets.
and there is a need to include all the parameters which influence the
customer’s perceptions.
With the growth of mobile service, it has become very important for
262
accurately and improve it further to achieve and maintain competitive
edge.
Mumbai region are not meeting the TRAI parameter and hence the null
ever they go. The individual and the corporate customers have different
The customers’ expectations were measured for all the eight dimensions
expectations were measured using the seven point Likert scales whereby
263
Table 12.1 Expectations on Reliability dimension.
SNo Reliability item Expectation
1. Delivers promised service in time (p1) 6.24
2. Takes sincere efforts in solving complaints (p2) 6.35
3. Performs the service right first time (p3) 5.63
4. Provides the correct billing information in (p4) 6.16
time
5. Keeps inform when the services will be (p5) 5.82
performed
Average=(P1+P2+P3+P4+P5/5) p 6.04
Source: research survey findings
264
Table 12.4 Expectations on Empathy.
SNo Empathy Item Expectation
1. Easily accessible (s1) 4.88
2. Gives individual attention (s2) 5.21
3. Have best interest of customer (s3) 5.12
4. Understand your specific needs (s4) 5.53
Average=(s1+s2+s3+s4/4) S 5.18
Source: research survey findings
265
Table 12.7 Expectations on value added service.
SNo Value added services Items Expectation
1. Provides adequate customizations (vas1) 5.43
2. Billing is correct and done in time (vas2) 5.45
Average=(vas1+vas2/2) VAS 5.44
Source: research survey findings
It is seen that the value of the expectations for the service quality
dimension reliability (6.04) and innovations (6.20) is more than six points.
The value of expectations for the remaining six service quality dimensions
was found more than five and less than six, assurance (5.99), network
quality (5.77), tangibles (5.47) and empathy (5.18). It can be concluded that
the customers in Mumbai are looking for a mobile service which is highly
266
12.5 The performance of the Customer Service Quality and
Expectations.
In order to find the performance of the customer service quality against the
TRAI and customers’ expectations the gap between the perceptions and the
expectations was calculated for all eight dimensions of the service quality.
The overall gap between the perceptions and the expectations was found
per Parasuraman et al., (1988 p30) the negative gap is common as the
customers’ expectations are always more than the perceptions and they keep
on increasing.
Table: 12.9 Expectations, perception and Gap for eight dimension of SQ.
The overall average gap score for all the eight dimensions = - 0.793.
267
The overall service quality is measured by obtaining an average gap score of
the five existing dimensions. This is in line with Gronroos, 1982 who proposed
The gap score gives an idea about the quality of service provided by the
CMSPs. It is seen form the results above that the gap is negative and it
proves that the CMSPs in Mumbai are not meeting the TRAI parameters and
customers expectations. From the above table it can be seen that standard
deviation scores fairly high for all the eight dimensions and suggested a wide
service quality.
268
All the dimensions show a gap this means that CMSPs need to make
The Gaps in the service quality dimensions for all the eight dimensions were
Reliability (P)
The value of mean for the reliability criteria is -1.091 and the median is -1.00.
The mode score is -0.20. The reliability dimension is rated high by the
customers.
Responsiveness (Q)
The value of mean for the responsiveness criteria is -1.0 and the median is -
0.75. The mode score is 0.75. The responsiveness is also rated medium by
customers.
Assurance (R)
The value of mean for the assurance criteria is -0.86 and the median is-0.75.
The mode score is-0.50. The assurance dimension is rated high by the
customers.
Empathy(S)
The value of mean for the empathy criteria is -0.68 and the median are -
0.60. The mode score is -1.00. The empathy dimension is rated lowest by the
customers.
269
Table: 12.10 Descriptive statics for the eight dimensions of service quality
Tangibles (T)
The value of mean for the tangibles criteria is -0.62 and the median is -0.50.
The mode score is -0.25. The tangible dimension is rated medium by the
customers.
Network (NQ)
The value of mean for the network criteria is -0.72 and the median is -0.34.
The mode score is -0.21. The network dimension is rated high by the
customers.
The value of mean for the value added service criteria are -0.77 and the
median is -0.56. The mode score is -0.21. The assurance dimension is rated
270
Innovation (INNOV)
The value of mean for the innovation criteria is –0.89 and the median are -
0.54. The mode score is-0.45. The innovation dimension is rated highest by
the customers.
customer satisfaction.
implies that consumers are not satisfied with the services offered by
CMSP in Mumbai.
A survey was done to find out which ‘P’ of the customer service is important
from the customer’s point of view. Out of the seven Ps of services marketing
271
price, promotion; product and physical evidence were found to be important.
The Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used for ranking CMSP on
Out of the above four factors it was found that network quality contributes
49.6%, is the most important for the customers, the price 28.9% is the second
important factor, the physical evidence with 13% is the third important factor
A six sets of pair wise comparisons how well Reliance Infocom, Bharti Airtel,
Tata teleservices limited perform in terms of the promotion, network, price and
physical evidence was obtained from the customers. In order to analyze the
price. The result was multiplied with the % weight age of the four factors.
The findings are given in the matrix below; it summarizes the respective
promotion, Price, Promotion and physical evidence which are important for
the customer. Reading down each column, it states the Reliance Infocom is
best in the network quality and MTNL is worst, the services of the Tata
teleservices limited are cheapest and MTNL. The promotion of the MTNL is
found to be the best and worst for Tata Tele services. The physical evidence
272
Table: 2.11 the option performance matrix.
Sno Factor R B T L V M
1 Network 0.25 0.19 0.15 0.17 0.19 0.06
2 Price 0.12 0.18 0.06 0.17 0.22 0.26
3 Promotion 0.07 0.24 0.06 0.13 0.19 0.27
4 Evidence 0.13 0.2 0.09 0.14 0.19 0.24
Source: research survey findings
In the final step the customer’s judgment as to the relative importance of the
price 28.9% and physical evidence 13% is multiplied to obtain the Relative
Sno Factor R B T L V M
1 Network 0.12 0.09 0.07 0.06 0.90 0.03
2 Price 0.03 0.05 0.02 0.05 0.06 0.06
3 Promotion 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.04
4 Evidence 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
0.18 0.19 0.11 0.16 0.20 0.16
Source: research survey findings
As per the above parameters Vodafone limited is ranked first, Bharti Airtel is
ranked second, Reliance Infocom is ranked third, Loop Mobile telecom and
MTNL are ranked fourth and Tata Tele services is ranked last. It can be seen
that the CMSP ranked first and second are GSM where as the last is a CDMA
operator.
273
12.8 Suggestion to bridge the gap
The CMSP shall optimize the radio frequency network to improve the
The call centre shall be made more responsive; there is an urgent need
experience
274
Chapter -XIII
Conclusions and Recommendations
13.1 Conclusions
13.2 Recommendations
13.3 Limitations
275
Chapter -XIII
Conclusions and Recommendations
13.1 Conclusions
The main aim of this research study was to do a comparative analysis of the
276
viii) The quality of customer service offered by GSM service providers,
ix) The price and quality of network offered by CMSP; influences the
13.2 Recommendations
and friendly.
iv) The spectrum shall be allotted in the same frequency band so that
the CMSP can design cellular mobile networks which support better
mobile service.
277
vii) There is an urgent need for all the CMSPs to reduce the gap
viii) The TRAI should start focusing on the quality of experience instead
of quality of service.
which are in operation for the last three years, having more than 5%
market share and more than 0.5 million mobile connections. As per the
ii) The findings of the research are based entirely upon the study
conducted for the CMSPs in Mumbai region and hence will not be
across India one may arrive at results with higher confidence level.
services in Mumbai.
iv) The customers are using mobile service of more than one CMSP.
of the network. If the mobile handset lacks the capability to provide the
278
vi) The ranking of CMSPs on the quality of customer service will
for all the CMSPs in Mumbai. The research can be repeated for other
279
Bibliography
1
[1] This study was done by Wavermen et al., in the year 2005, at the London business School.
2
[2] The number of the telephone connections per 100 populations.
3
[3] Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
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4
[4] CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) refers to any of several protocols used second-generation
(2G) and third-generation (3G) wireless communications. It is a form of multiplexing, which allows
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The technology is used in ultra-high-frequency (UHF) cellular telephone systems in the 800-MHz and
1.9-GHz bands.
5
[5] GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) is a digital mobile telephony system that is widely
used in Europe and other parts of the world. GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a
channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. It operates at either the
900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band.
6
[6] GSM Operators: Airtel, Vodafone limited (formerly Hutch/Orange/Max Touch) , Loop Mobile,
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7
[7] MTNL also offers CDMA services at very small scale hence it is taken as a GSM operator for this
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8
[8] Telegraph uses electrical signals, usually conveyed via telecommunication lines or radio. The
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widespread social and economic impacts.
9
[9] Diamond Harbour is in the southern suburbs of Kolkata, on the banks of the Hooghly River quite
near where the river meets the Bay of Bengal. This small town is a popular weekend tourist spot, this
charming place was named Diamond Harbour by British.
10
[10] The East India Company was a joint-stock company that was formed by Britishers initially for
pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and
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11
[11] The Government organization entrusted with the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges,
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12
[12] As per the data available in the DOT 2010-11 years book supplement.
13
[13] The subjects of administration in INDIA are divided in three lists the centre list, the state list and
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280
14
[14] In 1990 Shri Chandra Sekhar Prime minister of India set up the telecom restructuring committee
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[15] For a variety of purposes, India's telephony regulators have divided the country up into a number
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16
[16] The Mumbai region consists of Mumbai, Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Navi Mumbai,
Dombivili and Bhyander.
17
[17] BPL Mobile Communications is the country’s oldest mobile telecom service provider been
established in 1994 and currently operates in Mumbai, with over 3 million subscribers. However, BPL
Mobile was renamed to Loop Mobile in March 2009, following the expiry of its brand-use agreement with
the TPG Nambiar-owned BPL Group. It has consistently met and exceeded TRAI benchmarks, and is
now ISO 9001:2008 certified. Loop Mobile Mobile has had several firsts to its credit in the Value-added
service (VAS) space which are technologically state-of-art and yet customer friendly.
[18]18 In 1992, Hutchison Whampoa and its Indian business partner Max Group established a company
that in 1994 was awarded a license to provide mobile telecommunications services in Bombay (now
Mumbai) and launched commercial services as Hutchison Max in November 1995.
19
[19] In this regime a fixed license fee was charged by DoT to the operators irrespective of the revenue
earned by them.
20
[20] In this regime the CMSP were supposed to pay a percentage of the AGR (Annual Gross
Revenue) on yearly basis.
21
[21] The telecom connectivity between CMSP and BSO for routing the mobile calls from one net work
to another.
22
[22] As per the TRAI press release 2010-11.
[23]23 The digital divide refers to the gap between people with the effective access to digital and
information technology and those with very limited or no access at all.
24
[24] The region covered by each base station is known as its cell .There are five different cell sizes in
a GSM network, macro, micro, Pico, femto and umbrella cells. The coverage area of each cell varies
according to the implementation environment.
25
[25] Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves
with frequencies below those of visible light.
26
[26] Every time a mobile or portable cellular subscriber passes from one cell into another, the network
automatically switches coverage responsibility from one base station to another. Each base-station
transition, as well as the switching processor sequence itself, is called handoff. In a properly functioning
network, hand off occurs smoothly, without gaps in communications and without confusion about which
base station should be dealing with the subscriber. The call is made over from one cell to another in
such a way that the conversation does not break.
27
[27] In GSM Roaming is defined as the ability for a cellular customer to automatically make and receive
voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services, including home data services, when
281
travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network, by means of using a visited
network.
28
[28] A method to provide access to same resource will be given to more than one user.
29
[29] Bandwidth (signal processing) or analog bandwidth, frequency bandwidth or radio bandwidth: a
measure of the width of a range of frequencies, measured in hertz.
30
[30] FDMA allows multiple users simultaneous access to a transmission system, Frequency Division
Multiple Access. It gives users an individual allocation of one or several frequency bands, or channels.
31
[31] Carrier signal: A frequency in a communications channel modulated to carry analog or digital
signal information. They carry the mobile traffic.
32
[32] FDMA (frequency division multiple access) is the division of the frequency band allocated for
wireless cellular telephone communication into 30 channels, each of which can carry a voice
conversation or, with digital service, carry digital data.
33
[33] The burst period is used for carrying data where as the others are used for control information.
34
[34] A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module (SIM) is an integrated circuit that
securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) used to identify a subscriber on mobile telephony
devices (such as mobile phones and computers).
[35]35In July 1985, seven industry veterans came together in the den of Dr. Irwin Jacobs’ San Diego
home to discuss an idea. Those visionaries—Franklin Antonio, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein
Gilhousen, Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi and Harvey White decided to build “Quality Communications”
which evolved into one of the telecommunications industry’s greatest start-up success stories:
QUALCOMM Incorporated. It plays a central role in the rapid adoption and growth of 3G and next.
36
[36] A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representations.
37
[37] Is used to hold and protect all subscriber data necessary to receive wireless services. The
customers may remove the RIUM cards from one phone and insert them into another without the loss of
data. This portability makes it easy for them to change the phones while keeping the services of same
operator.
[38]38 Refers to a feature of the CDMA where a cell phone is simultaneously connected to two or more
cells during a call.
39
[39] The average number of the minutes used per month
40
[40] http://www.brightsideofnews.comnews/2010/the-five-billion-world-analysed.aspc.
41
[41] Communities Dominate brands news paper August 6 2010. http://communities-
dominate.blogs.com/brands/
42
[42] The union cabinet of India approved Unified license regime for fixed line and mobile telecom in
November 2003. In this regime the service providers were permitted to offer both landline and mobile
services under one license after paying additional fees.
[43]43 This is a method of the charging used by the mobile operators in India where the call originator
has to pay.
44
[44] The facility to keep the wireless devices connected even when the customer travels from one
country to another. This allows the customers to make and receive calls from almost anywhere in the
world and abroad.
282
45
[45] The CMSP have to 3% of AGR (annual gross return) up to 6.2 + 6.2 MHz, 4% to 15 + 15 MHz.
46
[46] The dual SIM offers the capability in which two live SIM cards can function simultaneously with
features like call hold and swap, providing real time switching facility between the SIM at the touch of a
button.
47
[47] Is the type of marketing where a large amount of the money is spending on advertisements to
every one?
48
[48] Source of data TRAI SURVEY Report 2009-10.
49
[49] The specific area allotted to a particular manager for sale.
50
[50] The mobile merchandise consists of SIM cards, recharge coupons and value added services.
51
[51] A software used by the distributors and CMSP for book keeping, sales and purchase, multi stock
management and other business use.
[52]52 The direct channel is used by the CMSP for selling new connections, recharge coupons and other
value added services directly to the end customers. The retailer and distributors are not employed in this
channel.
53
[53] The content is a textual, visual or aural that is encountered as part of the user experience on
websites. It may include the text, sound, images, video and animations. The agencies which provide the
contents are called content providers.
54
[54] A traditional street side building that deals with the customers face to face in an office or store that
is in an office that the business owns or rents.
55
[55] When a marketer decides to appoint the channel members in the distribution channel then they
have to take care of the needs of the channel members along with the need of his customers giving
equal importance to both. .
[56]56 The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was created after study of data collected from organizations
that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. This model became the
foundation from which CMU created the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Like any model, it is an
abstraction of an existing system.
[57]57 A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those
achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. In addition, a "best" practice can evolve to
become better as improvements are discovered. Best practice is considered by some as a business
buzzword, used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that
multiple organizations can use.
58
[58] Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to
industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality,
time and cost.
59
[59] The core product in the case of the mobile services consists of the network.
60
[60] The internet and computers are used for offering the self service option to the mobile customers.
61
[61} The services like SMS, Ring tones, news astrology etc.
62
[62] The services offered from the customer service centers.
63
[63] The call centre is a central place where all the calls are received from the customers. The call
centre personnel are equipped to offer information and provisioning of the mobile services.
64
[64] The sales outlet consists of the distributors, retailers and company owned shops.
283
65
[65] The CMSP in Mumbai are offering tariff schemes in which the cost of the mobile handset is
subsidized.
66
[66] The intangible part consists of the services offered from the call centers and the sales outlets.
67
[67] Adopted from “service sector Indian perspective” by Chattaranjan Bhattacharjee.
68
[68] The interaction between the customer and the service provider.
69
[69] The provider is the one who interacts with the customers. The provider is the face of the company
and represents the company.
70
[70] The computer software and hardware used by the CMSP to provision the service needs of the
customers.
71
[71] The deterioration in quality of service acceptable by the customer during busy hour.
72
[72] The personal needs of the mobile services vary from customer to customer.
73
[73] http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html
74
[74] A part of the water body along the shore deep enough for anchoring a ship situated such that it
prevents the ships from winds.
75
[75] An island group or is a chain or cluster of islands.
76
[76] Koli, as the fisher folk are known in Mumbai, they are known to be easily provoked. The kolis
speak a local variation of Konkani which is a dialect of Marathi.
77
[77] The states in India are divided into small geographical areas called districts. The district is headed
by a Deputy Commissioner and has three subdivisions. These districts are meant only for revenue
collection & Administration.
[78]78 The name Mumbai is an eponym, derived from Mumba or Maha-Amba the name of the Koli
goddess Mumbadevi and Aai, mother in Marathi.
79
[79] GDP refers to the market value of all the final goods and services produced within a country in a
given period of time. The source of data is Wikipedia.
80 th
[80] Indian National congress was founded on 28 December 1885. It is the largest political party of
India which influenced the Indian National movement.
81
[81] The system carries more than 6.9 million commuters on a daily basis. It has one of the highest
passenger densities of any urban railway system in the world. The trains plying on its routes are
commonly referred to as local trains or simply as locals by the general populace.
82
[82] As per the survey done by the researcher in 2009-2010
83
[83] Data source http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/mumbai-population.html
84
[84] The population density is estimated to be about 20482 persons per square kilometer.
85
[85] Marathi is an indo Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is
the official language of Maharashtra. It has the fourth largest number of speakers in India.
86
[86] Recycling is the processing of the used materials into new products to prevent the wastage of
potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of the fresh raw materials, and reduce energy
consumption and pollution. The plastic, cardboard, glass, batteries, computer parts are mostly recycled
here.
87
[87] Established in 1994 in Indian market, Hutchison Essar, an Essar group and Hutchison Whampoa
undertaking, is one of the leading cellular service providers. Having its services in five continents, Hutch
was among the companies that started cellular services in India. Hutch provides both postpaid and
284
prepaid cellular services with lots of value added services to its customer base. With a total market
share of 22%, Hutch's customer base amounts to 2.44 crores subscribers. Essar Group has a turnover
of over US$ 2.2 billion and the enterprise value of US$ 15 billion.
[88]88 Since 1983, Hutchison Whampoa Limited is into mobile business in Hong Kong and now has
more than 40 million customers. Vodafone limited is acquiring Hutchison Telecomm International
Limited, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited, with 33% stake in the company, changing
Hutchison Essar to Vodafone limited Essar.
89 th
[89] In 1982 Max India limited was incorporated on 5 Feb 1982 with a vision of multi dollar business
enterprise. It is driven by the spirit of the enterprise and focused on people and service oriented
business. The company’s vision is to be one of the most admired companies for service excellence.
90
[90] A CMSP with the brand name Orange was a leading GSM service provider in India. Unlike the
other operators it focused on the postpaid segment as its main growth catalyst.
[91]91 A small short digit code of five digits is used by the CMSP in INDIA for providing the VAS.
Example 58888, this is used the times group to provide news and entrainment services to the mobile
customers.
92
[92] IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting firm head quartered in Armonk New
York. It manufactures and sells computer hardware and software and it offers infrastructure hosting and
consulting services in the areas ranging from the main frame to the nano technologies.
93
[93] Reverse innovation is a term referring to an innovation seen first, likely to be used first in the
developing countries before spreading to the industrialized world. The term was introduced by Jeffery
Immelt Chief Executive Officer General Electric, Vijay Govindrajan and Chris Trimble Professors at Dart
Mouth Tucks School of Business.
94
[94] Is the service provided by the CMSP, which can be used to conduct commerce using the mobile
handset. It is any transaction, involving the transfer of the ownership or rights to use goods or services,
which can be initiated or completed with the help of the mobile handset.
95
[95] The passing of the product down the chain from the distributor to the customer is known as the
distribution channel or the channel. Each channel has its own specific needs. The direct sales channel is
controlled by the CMSP themselves.
[96]96 The FoS SIM is used by the field officer sales.
[97]97 The SIM used by retailers for transferring recharge coupons in electronic form via the SMS.
98
[98] The Tata group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company head quartered in the Bombay
house in Mumbai in India. It is one of the largest companies in India by marketing capitalization and
th
revenue .The group has operations in 80 countries in six continents. It is 11 most reputed country in
the world.
99
[99] CDMA 1x refers to the number of the times the of 1.25 Mhz channel, while RTT stands for radio
transmission technology it is also called 3G1X, or IS 2000.
100
[100] The MTNL has divided the area of Mumbai in nine zones South, Central, North, West-I, II and
III, East-I,II and Navi Mumbai. The telephone in a particular zone starts with common first digit.
101
[101] The SMS Services are widely used by the Banking and the marketing sector industry to keep in
touch with their customers.
102
[102] SERVQUAL or RATER is a service quality framework. It was developed in the mid eighties by
Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry. It was originally measured on 10 aspects of service quality: reliability,
285
responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding the
customer and tangibles. It measures the gap between customer expectations and experience.
103
[103] The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a structured technique for organizing and
analyzing complex decisions. Based on mathematics and psychology, it was developed by Thomas L.
Saaty in the 1970s and has been extensively studied and refined since then.
104
[104] the marketing mix was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American management association
presidential address. The original concept of the marketing mix belong to James Culliton who in 1948
described the role of the marketing manager as a mixer of ingredients
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Appendix-I
“
“Survey on Customer Perception and Expectations of Mobile services in Mumbai”
SECTION – A
1)Name 2) Male / Female
Gender
7) Monthly Less than More than More than More than More than
Income 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000
11) You are resident of which Zone of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan and
Dombivilli ?
a) South Zone (Cuffe Parade, Cooperage, Fountain, City, Kalbadevi, Mandvi)
b) Central Zone ( Malbar Hill, Gamdevi, Mazgaon).
c) North zone (Wadala, Curry Road, Byculla, Prabhadevi, Worli, Shivaji Park, Sion).
d) West-I zone (Bandra, BKC, Khar, Vileparle, Andheri, Versova, Jogeshwari).
e) West –II Zone ( Goregaon, Gokuldham, Marol, Sakinaka, Sakivihar).
f) West –III Zone (Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Mira Road, Bhayander).
g) East-I (Ghatkopar, Powai, Chembur, Mankhurd).
h) East-II (Thane-Charai, Wagle Estate, Mulund).
i) Navi Mumbai (CBD Belapur, Vashi).
j) Kalyan and Dombivili.
293
SECTION – B
Directions: This section of survey deals with expectations and perception of mobile
services provider by your operator. Please show the extent to which you think your
service provider is offering services and what you expect from him. The quality of
service and expectations can be rated on a seven point scale. If you strongly
disagree/low then circle 1, if you strongly agree/High than circle 7. Mark the number
which shows your opinion about mobile services.
Expectations from Please answer the following Perception of services
Service Provider. questions listed Offered by Service Provider.
___________________________ Below related to ___________________________
Low High Expectations and Perceptions Strongly
of services provided by your Strongly
mobile service Disagree
Provider. Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1) When your service 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
provider promises to do
Something by a certain time,
it does so.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2) When you have a problem, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
your service
Provider shows a sincere
effort in solving it..
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3) Your service provider 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
performs the service right
the first time.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4) Your service provider 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
provides its services
At the time it promises to do
so.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5) Your service provider 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
keeps customers
Informed about when
services will be performed.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 6) The employees of your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service provider give
Prompt services.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7) The employees of your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service provider are
always willing to help.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8) The employees of your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service provider are
never too busy to respond.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9) The behavior of the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
employees in your service
provider instills confidence in
you.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10) You feel safe in your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
transactions with your
Service provider.
294
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11) Employees in your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service provider are
Consistently courteous with
you.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12) Employees in your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service provider
have the knowledge to
answer your questions.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13) Your service provider 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
gives you individual
attention.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 14) Your service provider 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
has employees who
Give you individual attention.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 15) Your service provider 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
have your best interest
At heart.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 16) Employees in your 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service provider
Understand your specific
needs.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 17) Your service provider has 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
modern
looking equipment.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 18) Your service provider’s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
physical activities are
appealing.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 19) Your service provider’s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
employees appear neat.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 20) Materials associated with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
the services (such as
pamphlets or statements )
are visually appealing
at your service provider.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 21) Your service provider has 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
convenient
Business hours.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 22) Your service provider is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
able to activate
Requested services in
reasonable time ?
295
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 25) The network coverage provided by 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
your
service provider is proper?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 26) Your service provider’s network 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
support
voice calls with acceptable clarity?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 27) Are you easily reachable by others with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
out difficulty?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 28)Your service provider meets all the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
service level
Agreement?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 29) What is over all service quality that you 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
have experienced from your service
provider ?
296
SECTION –C
Directions: This section of survey deals with ranking of the Importance one service
quality parameter as compared to the other. The rating scale is shown below in
detail.
1) Please rank the Importance of Network quality as compared to Promotion on a
nine point scale.
Network
Promotion
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
297
6) Please rank the Importance of Promotion as compared to service provider’s
People on a nine point scale.
Promotion
People
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor Favor favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
298
SECTION –D:(Network Quality)
Directions: This section of survey deals with ranking of the Importance one service
quality parameter as compared to the other. The rating scale is shown below in
detail.
1) Please compare Net work quality of Airtel as compared to Vodafone limited.
Airtel
Vodafone limited
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
299
6) Please compare the Network Quality of Vodafone limited as compared to
Reliance Infocom.
Vodafone limited
Reliance Infocom
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor Favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
10) ) Please rank the Network Quality of Reliance Infocom compared to Loop
Mobile.
Reliance Infocom
Loop Mobile
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor Favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
300
11) ) Please rank the Network Quality of Reliance Infocom compared to Dolphin.
Reliance Infocom
Dolphin
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor Favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
12) ) Please rank the Network Quality of Reliance Infocom compared to Tata.
Reliance Infocom
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor Favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Dolphin
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor Favor favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
301
SECTION –E (Price)
Directions: This section of survey deals with ranking of the Importance one service
quality parameter as compared to the other. The rating scale is shown below in
detail.
1) Please compare the Price of Airtel as compared to Vodafone limited .
Airtel
Vodafone limited
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
2) Please compare the Price of Airtel as compared to Reliance Infocom.
Airtel
Reliance Infocom
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
302
7) Please compare the Price of Vodafone limited compared to Loop Mobile.
Vodafone limited
Loop Mobile
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Vodaphone
Dolphin
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Vodaphone
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
10) ) Please compare the price of Reliance Infocom compared to Loop Mobile.
Reliance Infocom
Loop Mobile
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
303
13 ) Please compare the price of Loop Mobile compared to Dolphin.
Loop Mobile
Dolphin
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
14 ) Please compare the price of Loop Mobile compared to Tata on a nine point
scale.
Loop Mobile
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
304
SECTION –F(Promotion)
Directions: This section of survey deals with ranking of the Importance one service
quality parameter as compared to the other. The rating scale is shown below in
detail.
1) Please compare Promotion of Airtel as compared to Vodafone limited.
Airtel
Vodafone limited
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor Favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
305
6) Please compare the Promotion of Vodafone limited as compared to Reliance
Infocom.
Vodafone limited
Reliance Infocom
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
7) Please compare the Promotion as Vodafone limited compared to Loop Mobile.
Vodafone limited
Loop Mobile
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
Favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
306
12) ) Please compare the Promotion of Reliance Infocom compared to Tata.
Reliance Infocom
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong Favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
307
SECTION –G (Physical Evidence )
Directions: This section of survey deals with ranking of the Importance one service
quality parameter as compared to the other. The rating scale is shown below in
detail.
1) Please compare the physical evidence of Airtel as compared to Vodafone
limited.
Airtel
Vodafone limited
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong Favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
308
6) Please compare the physical evidence of Vodafone limited as compared to
Reliance Infocom.
Vodafone limited
Reliance Infocom
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Vodaphone
Dolphin
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Vodaphone
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
10) ) Please rank the physical evidence of Reliance Infocom compared to Loop
Mobile.
Reliance Infocom
Loop Mobile
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong Favor favor favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
309
11) ) Please rank the physical evidence of Reliance Infocom compared to
Dolphin.
Reliance Infocom
Dolphin
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong Favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Dolphin
Tata
Extreme Very Strongly Slight Equal Slight Strongly Very Extreme
favor strong Favor favor Favor favor Strong favor
favor favor
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
310