Filed Study Report

On

Customer Perception towards Vodafone

Services after merger with Idea

Towards partial fulfilment of

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
School of Management, Babu Banarasi Das University, Lucknow

Guided by Submitted By
Ms. Ekta Shivam Pal
(Assistant Professor) Roll No.: 1180671355
BBA- 3rd Sem.

Session 2019-2020
School of Management

Babu Banarasi Das University

Sector I, Dr. Akhilesh Das Nagar, Faizabad Road, Lucknow (U.P.) India
 DECLARATION

I do hereby declare that the research report “Customer Perception towards Vodafone Services

after merger with Idea” submitted by me in partial fulfilment of the requirement of Bachelor

of Business Administration, is exclusively prepared and conceptualized by me and is not

submitted to any other Institution or University or published anywhere before for the reward of

any Degree/Diploma/Certificate. It is the Original work of mine and has not been obtained from

any other part.

Shivam Pal
Roll No.: 1180671355
BBA- 3rd Sem.

2
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Every work constitutes great deal of assistance and guidance from the people concerned and this

particular project is of no exception.

A project of the nature is surely a result of tremendous support, guidance, encouragement and

help.

Wish to place on record my sincere gratitude to my project guide Ms. Ekta, Assistant Professor,

Babu Banarasi Das University, Lucknow. I thank her for constructive help and encouragement

throughout the project. Without her support and guidance, the assignment would not have been

possible.

Also, wish to acknowledge enthusiastic encouragement and support extended to me by my

family members.

I’m also thankful to my friends who provided me their constant support and assistance.

Shivam Pal
Roll No.: 1180671355
BBA- 3rd Sem.

3
 TABLE OF CONTENT
 DECLARATION

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

 PFREFACE

S.R. TOPICS Page. No.

1. INTRODUCTION 5
2. COMPANY PROFILE 10
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 15
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16
5. DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 18
6. FINDINGS 29
7. SUGGESTIONS 30
8. LIMITATIONS 31

9. CONCLUSION 32

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 ANNEXURE

4
INTRODUCTION

5
 INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY

India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market with a subscriber base

of 1.20 billion and has registered strong growth in the past decade and half. The Indian mobile

economy is growing rapidly and will contribute substantially to Indians Gross Domestic Product

(GDP), according to report prepared by GSM Association (GSMA) in collaboration with the

Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As of January 2019, India has witnessed a 165 per cent growth

in app downloads in the past two years.

The liberal and reformist policies of the Government of India have been instrumental along with

strong consumer demand in the rapid growth in the Indian telecom sector. The government has

enabled easy market access to telecom equipment and a fair and proactive regulatory framework

that has ensured availability of telecom services to consumer at affordable prices. The

deregulation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms has made the sector one of the fastest

growing and a top five employment opportunity generator in the country.

Market Size

With 604.21 million internet subscribers, as of December 2018, India ranks as the worldssecond

largest market in terms of total internet users.

Further, India is also the worlds second largest telecommunications market, with total subscriber

base of 1,183.51 million at the end of March 2019

Moreover, in 2017, India surpassed USA to become the second largest market in terms of

number of app downloads. The country remained as the worlds fastest growing market for

Google Play downloads in the second and third quarter of 2018.

Over the next five years, rise in mobile-phone penetration and decline in data costs will add 500

million new internet users in India, creating opportunities for new businesses.

6
Investment/Major development

With daily increasing subscriber base, there have been a lot of investments and developments in

the sector. FDI inflows into the telecom sector during April 2000 – March 2019 totalled to US$

32.82 billion, according to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and

Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Some of the developments in the recent past are:

 During the first quarter of 2018, India became the worldsfastest-growing market for

mobile applications. The country remained as the worldsfastest growing market for

Google Play downloads in the second and third quarter of 2018.

 Bharti Airtel is planning to launch 6,000 new sites and 2,000 km of optical fiber in

Gujarat in 2018-19.

 The number of mobile wallet transaction increased 5 per cent month-on-month to 325.28

million in July 2018.

 As of June 2018, BSNL is expected to launch its 5G services by 2020.

 Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have merged into ‘Vodafone Idea’ to become India’s

largest telecom company, as of September 2018.

Government Initiatives

The government has fast-tracked reforms in the telecom sector and continues to be proactive in

providing room for growth for telecom companies. Some of the other major initiatives taken by

the government are as follows:

 The Government of India is soon going to come out with a new National Telecom Policy

2018 in lieu of rapid technological advancement in the sector over the past few years. The

policy has envisaged attracting investments worth US$ 100 billion in the sector by 2022.

7
  The Department of Information Technology intends to set up over 1 million internet-

enabled common service centres across India as per the National e-Governance Plan.

 FDI cap in the telecom sector has been increased to 100 per cent from 74 per cent; out of

100 per cent, 49 per cent will be done through automatic route and the rest will be done

through the FIPB approval route.

 FDI of up to 100 per cent is permitted for infrastructure providers offering dark fibre,

electronic mail and voice mail.

 The Government of India has introduced Digital India programme under which all the

sectors such as healthcare, retail, etc. will be connected through internet

Achievements

Following are the achievements of the government in the past four years:

 Department of Telecommunication launched ‘Tarang Sanchar’ - a web portal sharing

information on mobile towers and EMF Emission Compliances.

 Six-fold increase in Government spending on telecommunications infrastructure and

services in the country – from Rs 9,900 crores (US$ 1.41 billion) during 2009-14 to Rs

60,000 crores (US$ 8.55 billion) (actual + planned) during 2014-19.

 Over 75 per cent increase in internet coverage – from 251 million users to 446 million

 Country-wide Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) coverage doubled – from 700,000 km to 1.4

million km

 Five-fold jump in FDI inflows in the Telecom Sector – from US$ 1.3 Billion in 2015-16

to US$ 6.1 billion in 2017-18 (up to December 2017)

8
Road Ahead

Revenues from the telecom equipment sector are expected to grow to US$ 26.38 billion by 2020.

The number of internet subscribers in the country is expected to double by 2021 to 829 million

and overall IP traffic is expected to grow 4-fold at a CAGR of 30 per cent by 2021. The Indian

Government is planning to develop 100 smart city projects, where IoT would play a vital role in

development of those cities. The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 has envisaged

attracting investments worth US$ 100 billion in the telecommunications sector by 2022. The

Indian Mobile Value-Added Services (MVAS) industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.3

per cent during the forecast period 2015–2020 and reach US$ 23.8 billion by 2020. App

downloads in India are expected to increase to 18.11 billion in 2018F and 37.21 billion in 2022F.

Exchange Rate Used: INR 1 = US$ 0.0139 as of Q3 FY19.

9
COMPANY PROFILE

10
 VODAFONE IDEA LIMITED

Vodafone Idea Limited is an Indian

telecom operator with its

headquarter based in Mumbai,

Maharashtra. Vodafone Idea is a pan-India integrated GSM operator offering 2G, 3G and 4G

VoLTE mobile services under two brands named Vodafone and Idea. Vodafone Idea also provides

services including Mobile payments, IoT, enterprise offerings and entertainment, accessible via

both digital channels as well as on-ground touch points, centres across the country. As of 31

August 2019, Vodafone Idea has a subscriber base of 375.07 million, making it the largest mobile

telecommunications network in India. Vodafone Idea has a broadband network of 340,000 sites,

distribution reach of 1.7 million retail outlets.

On 31 August 2018, Vodafone India merged with Idea Cellular, and was renamed as Vodafone

Idea Limited. However, the merged entity continues using both the Idea and Vodafone brand.

Currently, the Vodafone Group holds a 45.1% stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla

Group holds 26% and the remaining shares will be held by the public. Kumar Mangalam Birla

heads the merged company as the Chairman and Balesh Sharma used to be the CEO. After a

plunge in share price of Vodafone Idea by 80% on NSE, Balesh Sharma resigned citing personal

reasons. Ravinder Takkar, Ex-CEO of Vodafone Romania and the key deal negotiator from

Vodafone has taken over the reigns as CEO.

History

On 20 March 2017, Idea and Vodafone India announced that their respective boards had

approved a merger of the two companies. The merger got approval from Department of

Telecommunications in July 2018. On August 30, 2018, National Company Law Tribunal gave

11
the final nod to the Vodafone Idea merger The merger was completed on 31 August 2018, and the

newly merged entity is named Vodafone Idea Ltd. The merger created the largest telecom

company in India by subscribers and by revenue. Under the terms of the deal, the Vodafone

Group holds a 45.2% stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla Group holds 26% and the

remaining shares will be held by the public.

Idea previously bought Spice Communications Ltd, operating as Spice Telecom, for over Rs

2,700 crore.

NETWORK CONSOLIDATION

By March 2019, Vodafone Idea Limited announced its network consolidation across major

circles, easing network issues faced by consumers and also enhancing its 4G coverage.

Announcements of Network Consolidation were made as below

No of Towns No of Villages Coverage

State
Covered Covered area %/kms
Haryana 145 6520 99.5%
ROWB 878 37585 97%
Madhya Pradesh &
664 53130 60%
Chhattisgarh
Jammu and Kashmir 110 3301
AP & Telangana 391 19700 92.5%
Bihar & Jharkhand 431 43503 79%
HP 59 11929

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Enhanced 4G coverage details

State No of Towns Covered No of districts Covered Population %

Haryana 22 76.08%
ROWB 838 27 78%
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh 633 77 52%
Jammu and Kashmir 48 9 23.6%
AP & Telangana 381 23 67%
Bihar & Jharkhand 343 56 45.3%
HP 45 8 43%

Punjab network consolidation

Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s leading telecom service provider announced the successful

consolidation of its radio network integration in Punjab service area. With this, Punjab is

amongst the first ten circles to complete integration in the worldslargest network integration

exercise which is currently underway in India.

Rajasthan network consolidation Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s leading telecom service provider

announced the successful consolidation of its radio network integration in Rajasthan service area.

With this, Rajasthan is amongst the first eleven circles to complete integration in the

worldslargest network integration exercise which is currently underway in India.

According to telecom regulator's data, the pan India wireless subscriber base of Vodafone Idea at

the end of March 2019 stood at 394.8 million. The statement on network consolidation in Punjab,

said 4G services have been enhanced for both Vodafone and Idea customers in cities including

Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Moga and Hoshiarpur.And in

Rajasthan Jaipur,Jodhpur,Bikaner,Kota,Ajmer,Udaipur among others.

Massive MIMO

13
Vodafone Idea deployed technologies such as massive MIMO, small cells, TDD sites to enhance

coverage and network capacity in Mumbai and Delhi during March. As part of the modernization

exercise, the company deployed more than 5000 massive MIMO, small cells and TDD sites

across Church gate, Prabhadevi, Pali hill, Lokhandwala, Versova, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Bandra

and Dadar among other regions The company also deployed more than 4,000 Massive Mimo,

small cells and TDD sites across the New Delhi and NCR region.

Turbo-net

Vodafone Idea has launched "TurboNet" 4G services in select cities of Uttar Pradesh,

Rajasthan,Karnataka and Rest of Bengal (excluding Kolkata) circles. The launch of TurboNet 4G

follows the consolidation of its radio network integration and the deployment of technologies

such as Dynamic Spectrum Re-farming (DSR), Spectrum Re-farming, M-MIMO, L900, TDD

and Small Cells to further boost network capacity and coverage across large parts of the country.

14
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Other objectives of the study are as follows: -

 To study about the Indian Telecom Industry.

 To study about the Vodafone Idea Limited.
 To know about the services provided by Vodafone Idea Limited.
 To understand the customer perception about Vodafone services after merger with Idea.
 To study about consumers expectation from the Vodafone-Idea limited.

15
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is simply the framework or plan for a study that is used as guide in collecting

and analyzing the data. It is blue print that is followed in completing a study. According to

Kerlinger, “Research design is the plan structure, and strategy of investigation conceived so

as to obtain answers to research question and to control variance.”

The marketing research designs are classified on the basis of fundamental objective of the

research. They may be exploratory or conclusive.

Here in project customer perception towards Vodafone-Idea Limited, the nature of research is,

Descriptive. This research is to cover the nature of users of VODAFONE. And the thinking and

perception of consumers about Vodafone and the way of getting profit & convenience by using

Vodafone is their vehicles basically those who are living in Lucknow.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD

PRIMARY DATA

As the research is exploratory describe and Analytical in nature concerning users related to the

Vodafone. Primary data collected by the Questionnaire and descriptive with different people.

SECONDARY DATA- To obtain Secondary data I have used following resources-

NEWSPAPERS

WEB SITES

16
SAMPLING

Sampling Unit-

The user of VODAFONE IDEA LIMITED.

Sampling Size-

When survey is undertaken it is not possible to cover the entire population. The sample size

decision is related directly to research cost.

The Sampling size was undertaken for investors through questionnaires for our research purpose

is 50.

Sampling Method-

Since the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is unknown so we have

used Non-Probability sampling. We have further used purposive sampling.

Universe- Universe of this study is Lucknow.

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 DATA ANALYSIS

AGE GROUP
Ques: 1. Number of Vodafone users according to age group.

1) BELOW 18 5%
2)18-27 62%
3)27-40 23%
4)40 AND ABOVE 10%

18
Interpretation: Most of the respondents are young and belong to 18-27 Years age group.

19
INCOME (MONTHLY)
Ques: 2 Number of Vodafone users according to monthly income.
1) 4,000 OR LESS 38%
2) 4,000-10,000 30%
3) 10,000-20,000 19%
4) 20,000 & ABOVE 13%

Interpretation: Most of the respondents are didn’t disclose their income group.

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Ques: 3 Since when you are using Vodafone connection?

1) LESS THAN 6 MONTHS 1%

2) 6-12 MONTHS 22%
3) MORE THAN A YEAR 77%

Interpretation: Most of the respondents using Vodafone connection since more than a year.

Ques. 4: What is your monthly Expenditure on Mobile phone (in Rupees)?

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 1) BELOW 50 4%
2) 50-150 38%
3)151-350 34%
4)351-500 15%
5) 500 AND ABOVE 9%

Interpretation: Most of the respondents expense around 151-350 on mobile per month.

22
Ques:5 WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING VAS DO YOU USE?
1) SMS 45%
2) CALLER TUNES 40%
3) GPRS 6%
4) OTHERS 9%

Interpretation: SMS is most preferred Value Added Service amongst the respondents.

Ques:6 HOW MANY AVERAGE MESSAGES DO YOU SEND ON WEEKLY BASIS

23
 1) LESS THAN 10 7%
2)10 TO 25 15%
3)25 TO 100 14%
4) MORE THAN 100 9%
5) NO SMS 55%

Interpretation: Maximum subscribers don’t use SMS service. Yet, some followers use good
number of SMS per month.

Que. 7: Are you satisfied with the customer services of Vodafone?

Yes 82%
No, Please specify 18%

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Interpretation: Maximum Customers are satisfied with Vodafone Service.

25
Que 8: How do you ability the Vodafone Network?
Excellent 15%
Good 52%
Average 27%
Poor 6%

Interpretation: Most of the respondents grade Vodafone network as good whether only few has
some complaint about the network.

26
Que9: Do you think that Vodafone is best amongst all its competitors?

Yes 85%
No 15%

Interpretation: According to survey Vodafone is best amongst all its competitors.

27
Que 10: Will you ever change your current Vodafone service provider to switch into other
service provider using Mobile Number Portability facility?
Yes 23%
No 77%

Interpretation: Most of the respondents will not change Vodafone as service provider.

28
 FINDINGS
 Maximum Customers are satisfied with Vodafone Service.

 Most of the respondents using Vodafone connection since more than a year.

 Most of the respondents expense around 151-350 on mobile per month.

 According to survey Vodafone is best amongst all its competitors.

 Most of the respondents think that Airtel is toughest competitor for the Vodafone in

future.

 Most of the respondents will not change Vodafone as service provider.

 Most of the respondents’ grade Vodafone network as good whether only few has some

complaint about the network.

 SMS is most preferred Value Added Service amongst the respondents.

 Maximum subscribers don’t use SMS service. Yet, some followers use good number of

SMS per month.

29
 RECOMMENDATIONS

Suggestions on the basis of study and observation made during the project. They might be

helpful for Vodafone-Idea to serve its customers in an improved way and also increase its

customer base in Lucknow city:

 Vodafone should decrease call rates for local users. It can be done on the basis of type of

usage.

 Vodafone should introduce more schemes and offers for all categories.

 Vodafone should introduced new schemes in their youth plans to meet the challenges of

its rivals.

 Vodafone should provide more schemes and offers to its old customers in order to retain

them for the loyalty shown by them.

 Vodafone should decrease call rates of STD and ISD to increase its subscriber base.

 Vodafone needs to improve awareness of the customer in relation to Vodafone services.

Some customers have no information about all services of Vodafone.

 Some customers are not aware of Vodafone Tariff plans and new schemes which is very

useful for him.

 Another problem for the customer is some people are think Vodafone plans are very

expensive, it is because of his unawareness. Thus it is very necessary to concentrate on

advertising of product.

 Customers are dissatisfied with retailers due to non information about the recharge plans

and quality of information provided by the retailers is not satisfied for the customer.

30
 LIMITATIONS

1. There is time constraint for me.

2. Not exact & true information given by people.

3. Inadequate data.

4. It is tough to take appointment.

5. The members of the bank are losing trust towards the bank due to less concern attitude

of its head office.

6. Vodafone-Idea is not properly communicating about the products and schemes to the

customers.

7. Frequent changes in schemes make customers confused.

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 CONCLUSION

1. It was a learning experience studying the consumer behaviour towards Vodafone Idea

Limited services in Lucknow city.

2. It was not easy task collecting information from the customers but it was also a

challenging and interesting one where I had real experience of customer inputs regarding

a product.

3. From the above analysis, I would like to conclude that major respondents are satisfied

with Vodafone Idea services like new schemes & offer many of the respondents are

satisfied with the services of Vodafone after merger with Idea and thus they would like to

recommend Vodafone Idea to others.

4. Most of the respondents are also satisfied with the network provided by Vodafone Idea.

Vodafone-Idea can improve its customer base by innovating variety of services to its

customer.

5. Vodafone-Idea Super Weeks is one such example where they are targeting youth for the

online services through mobile phones. Its a strategy which can get them to the market

leader position in the market.

6. To conclude, Vodafone is growing because of satisfied customers with its services and

new and innovative plans for all categories of customers

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books were considered

 Research Methodology by C. R. Kotharis

 Marketing management by Mr. Philip Kotler.

 Marketing Strategy and Management by Mr. Michael J. Baker.

Business magazine& news paper

 The Times of India

 The Economic Times

 4Ps, Pitch, Business & Economy

Websites

 http://www.ibef.org/industry/telecommunications.aspx

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_Idea

 www.vodafone.in

 http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/subscribers-for-3g-set-to-double-

113072900666_1.html

 http://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/vodafone-india-reveals-14747-million-subscribers-

25-million-use-3g-services-327810

 https://coai.com/reports-and-papers/coai-annual-report

33
 ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME - …………....

AGE - ………….

OCCUPATION - ……….

CONTACT - ………..

Ques: 1. Number of Vodafone users according to age group.

BELOW 18

18-27

27-40

40 AND ABOVE

Ques: 2 Number of Vodafone users according to monthly income.

Rs. 4,000 OR LESS

Rs. 4,000-10,000

Rs. 10,000-20,000

Rs. 20,000 & ABOVE

Ques: 3 Since when are you using Vodafone connection?

LESS THAN 6 MONTHS

6-12 MONTHS

MORE THAN A YEAR

34
Ques. 4: What is your monthly Expenditure on Mobile phone (in Rupees)?

BELOW 50

50-150

151-350

351-50

500 AND ABOVE

Ques:5 Which of the following vas do you use?

SMS

CALLER TUNES

GPRS

OTHERS

Ques:6 How many average messages do you send on weekly basis?

LESS THAN 10

10 TO 25

25 TO 100

MORE THAN 100

NO SMS

Que. 7: Are you satisfied with the customer services of Vodafone?

Yes

No, Please specify

35
Que 8: How do you ability the Vodafone Network?

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor

Que9: Do you think that Vodafone is best amongst all its competitors?

Yes
No

Que 10: Will you ever change your current Vodafone service provider to switch into other

service provider using Mobile Number Portability facility?

Yes
No

THANK YOU

36