INTRODUCTION

India has 525.87 million mobile subscribers in rural areas in 2018, according to statistics released
by TRAI on July 5, 2018. India had 431.22 million mobile users in rural areas in 2015. number
of mobile subscribers in urban areas in 2018 was 685.93 million In comparison, they were
579.67 million in 2015.
The rural density for mobile service providers is only 56.72 (out of 100) , against 169 for the
urban density, against 0.44 for the wired operators, against 5.12 for the urban density. Out of a
total of 115.44 million urban Internet users in 2018, the number of rural Internet subscribers per
capita was 13.08, with 68.86 subscribers in urban areas, Airtel is the main provider of
telecommunication services, with 54.77% of rural subscribers. 53.68% of the total number of
Vodafone subscribers last year.
Airtel is the leading telecommunications operator in terms of subscribers in rural areas. In India,
Reliance Jio holds 34% of the rural telecommunications market, while Bharti Airtel has 130.57
million rural mobile users nationwide, while Jio has 4.12 million subscribers in rural areas
Indian. The number of wireless subscribers increased from 431.22 million to 464.78 million, a
growth rate of 7.78%, while the number of urban wireless subscribers increased from 579, 67
million to 662.60 million, with an annual growth rate of 14.31%. Density increased from 49.43
to 52.44 and the telephone density of wireless urban teleconferencing increased from 147.12 to
165.04%, while the share of rural and urban wireless subscribers increased at 41.23% and
58.77%. Wireline subscriptions also fell 2.11% from 20.99 million to 20.55 million. Overall's
telephone density rose from 2.01 to 1.9, from 5.33 to 5.12 for urban communications and from
0.52 to 0.44 for wireline telecommunications.
The liberal and reformist policies of the Government of India have been instrumental along with
strong demand from consumers in the rapidly growing 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.

As of June 2018, India had 51.26 million Internet users, and India is the second largest market in
the world in terms of the total number of Internet users.In addition, as of September 2018, India
is also the world's second largest telecommunications market with 1,191.40 million
subscribers.In addition, in 2017, India surpassed the US as the second largest market for
application downloads.In the next five years, rising mobile phone penetration and falling data
costs will create an additional 500 million Internet users in India, creating opportunities for new
businesses.

Rural Visit

As part of the MBA curriculum we visited two rural villages. The main dictum is to do need gap
analysis and develop a product/service which can fill the gap and is beneficial for the villagers.

The two villages that we visited are: Sathal and Ambethi

Sathal Ambethi
Locality Name: RANCHARDA Locality Name: VAYANA
Taluka Name: kalol Taluka Name: kalol
District: Ahmedabad District: Ahmedabad
State: Gujarat State: Gujarat
Population: 6000 appx Population: 1400 appx.

No. of hosues:800-900 No. of houses:200-250

Better Connectivity No public Transport

Major service providers: Vodafone and Major service providers: JIO and Idea
Airtel

Respondents profile: kirana shop owners, Respondents profile: 90% engaged in

agriculturist, students, house wives agriculture

GAPS IN THE CURRENT SCENARIO FOR RURAL MARKET

The current scenario of telecom services in rural India is that there is the presence of a few large
companies. A major part of the problem lied in the very low choicability among the rural areas
due to low accessibility. Another problem identified is that the rural market is unaware or rather
do not use the internet facilities as they use the services for calls and voice call usage.

The suggestions to the telecom service providers would be to increase their market presence in
the rural areas and take more concerned lookout into the servicing of the customers in the rural
areas by reducing the distance they have to travel for regular services like recharges, new
connection buying etc. and focus on providing the differentiated services to the rural markets.

Once we have garnered the needs, buying behaviour and the usage pattern of the rural customers,
through our questionnaire we can identify the gaps that can be taken care of. We can design a
product that will have all the facilities that cater the rural customers and should be of economic
value to them. The features, facilities and buying options that the customers are looking for will
also be answered.

OBJECTIVES OF OUR STUDY

 To better understand the market scenario in rural environment.

 To understand the needs of customers.
 Key factors affecting the purchase of telecom services.
 Understanding the buying patterns of consumers related to telecom services.

This survey is done to help us know what current facilities are being used by the customers and
what they aspire to have in their mobile phones.