Porter’s Five Forces [ CITATION CGM13 \l 1033 ]

The Threat of New Entrants

If your rivals can start a business with a small amount of money and strive
successfully as you are, there is a high rival threat and replace your position
quickly (Anon., n.d.). According to Adamkasi (2017), potential barriers are
there to enter the telecommunication industries such as huge license fees,
government regulations which needs to follow and also extreme competition
and new trends in the industry are the cost acquiring activities which
competitors might think as barriers. Since the new entrant's barriers are high,
Airtel has a low threat from the new entrants. And also Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission Sri Lanka has announced that they will not issue
network operator licenses anymore for foreign operators. With that
regulation, Sri Lanka’s telecommunication industry is safe with foreign new
entrants.
The Threat of Substitute Products or Services

A crucial factor that can directly disturb the constancy in the market and
since the price fluctuations of substitutes can be led to a decrease in the
customer base in the company (Liyanage, 2013). More opportunities in the
market will enhance the contentment of customers to switch for a substitute
for a lower price. Social Media applications such as WhatsApp, Imo, Viber can
be identified as the substitutes of Airtel and it has a higher threat from the
substitutes.

WhatsApp Reaches 2 Billion Active Users [ CITATION Fel20 \l 1033 ]

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

According to Adamkasi (2017) suppliers have more bargaining power when it

comes to the telecommunication industry as there are so many options that
are available in the industry with negotiation power. Suppliers can easily
switch to new customers if Airtel doesn’t come up with their agreements.
According to Liyanage (2013), organisations should able to control their
suppliers to exert more power in contradiction to the market rivalry. Major
suppliers of Airtel are Huawei, KBSL, Avaya, N-able, and Watchdata. Most of
them are infrastructure and solutions providers.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Customers are the most powerful character as they are the reason for the
product pricing down and boosting the quality of the product (Liyanage,
2013). When the bargaining pressure is coming, Airtel has to increase the
quality of the service without enhancing its price. With these variations,
profit will decrease for a certain amount. And also since the TRCSL has taken
steps to move for a different service provider without shifting the existing
number (Anon., 2020), customers/ buyers have more comfortability when
they lifting to another service provider. Hence Airtel has a high bargaining
power of buyers and customers.

Rivalry Among Existing Firms

Since Airtel is a foreign operator there is a risk as people in Sri Lanka are
more into consuming Sri Lankan products and services. And the cost of shifting
to another service provider is low for the consumer. Hence Airtel has a high
threat from competitors such as Dialog, Mobitel, Hutch, and Etisalat.
According to a report done by Khatri (2020), found out that Airtel has some
improvements to ensure when it was the only 3G operator in Sri Lanka which
had not operated 4G. However, now Airtel has started to launch 4G coverage
facility across Sri Lanka to be in the game with competitors and they are in
the process of gaining the brand identity among Sri Lankan customer base.

Bharti Airtel, Sri Lanka Awards [ CITATION Air09 \l 1033 ]

Video Experience 4G/3G of telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka [ CITATION
Har20 \l 1033 ]

Mobile Experience Awards [ CITATION Har20 \l 1033 ]

Competitor Analysis

Government Network provider – Sri Lanka Telecom

Customer Confidence/ National network service provider – Mobitel

Island Wide Network Coverage – Dialog

Flexible Packages – Hutch

International Recognition – Etisalat

SWOT Analysis of Airtel

Analysing Positioning of Airtel

Airtel had a market share of 9.8% in 2018 (Anon., 2018), and it has a high
capacity to grow in the market, and Mr. Jinesh Hegde late CEO, has
mentioned that they have concentrated on simplicity while capitalising for
the digitalisation journey of customers. Hence, Airtel falls under the question
mark category where Airtel has a high growth market but does not have a high
share market.
To overcome that situation, Airtel should invest in 4G implementation which
will be exactly successful in the future and to obtain the youth segment that
Airtel is mostly focusing on.
BCG Matrix [ CITATION Ric19 \l 1033 ]

Sri Lanka – Mobile Operators share market [ CITATION The18 \l 1033 ]

References
Adamkasi, 2017. Porter Analysis. [Online]
Available at: https://www.porteranalysis.com/porters-five-forces-analysis-porter-model-of-
bharti-airtel/
[Accessed 12 September 2020].

Anon., 2009. Airtel. [Online]

Available at: https://www.airtel.lk/about/awards.html
[Accessed 12 September 2020].

Anon., 2013. CGMA. [Online]

Available at: https://www.cgma.org/resources/tools/essential-tools/porters-five-forces.html
[Accessed 11 September 2020].

Anon., 2018. The Sunday Morning. [Online]

Available at: http://www.themorning.lk/hutch-completes-etisalat-deal-and-grows-market-
share-to-17-6-in-sri-lanka/
[Accessed 12 September 2020].

Anon., 2020. DailyFT. [Online]

Available at: http://www.ft.lk/top-story/Mobile-number-portability-finally-coming/26-705066
[Accessed 12 September 2020].
Anon., n.d. Mind Tools. [Online]
Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm
[Accessed 11 September 2020].

Khatri, H., 2020. Open Signal. [Online]

Available at: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2020/02/srilanka/mobile-network-
experience
[Accessed 15 September 2020].

Liyanage, L., 2013. Prezi. [Online]

Available at: https://prezi.com/jvlvy2nlh0oc/porters-five-forces-analysis-for-sri-lanka-telecom-
mobitel/
[Accessed 12 September 2020].

Richter, F., 2020. Statista. [Online]

Available at: https://www.statista.com/chart/4245/whatsapp-user-growth/
[Accessed 12 September 2020].

Vlieger, R. D., 2019. The One. [Online]

Available at: https://www.calltheone.com/en/consultants/bcg-matrix
[Accessed 13 September 2020].