2. Review of Literature 1.

Consumer preferences towards Mobile Number Portability- A Study Conducted in Amritsar and Jalandhar By Kuldeep Kaur and Haritika Arora Junior Research Fellow, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. Kuldeep Kaur and Haritika Arora (December, 2011) conducted a study on consumer preferences towards mobile number portability. The study was that, after years of waiting, Mobile Number Portability has arrived in India. This move by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has expected to further intensify competition in the already crowded mobile services market. The main idea behind MNP is to increase the level of competition between service providers, rewarding service providers with the best customer service, network coverage, and service quality and which leads to customer service improvement. The present paper attempts to study the consumer preferences towards Mobile Number Portability in two districts of Punjab: Amritsar and Jalandhar. The sample of 133 respondents of different demographic profile categorized on the bases of age and occupation were taken. The finding of the study revealed that 30% of the respondents have availed MNP since its implementation in India. Structure matrix obtained from discriminate analysis shows that poor services, network congestions and automatic activation of services were found to be the main reason for subscriber switching behaviour. Subscribers who have not availed portability is mainly due to free mobile usage services such as SMS and free calling to their friends and families followed by better services and feasible tariff plans.

Abstract After years of waiting, Mobile Number Portability has arrived in India. This move by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has expected to further intensify competition in the already crowded mobile services market. The main idea behind MNP is to increase the level of competition between service providers, rewarding service providers with the best customer service, network coverage, and service quality and which leads to customer service improvement. The present paper attempts to study the consumer preferences towards Mobile Number Portability in two districts of Punjab: Amritsar and Jalandhar. The sample of 133 respondents of different demographic profile categorized on the bases of age and occupation were taken. The finding of the study revealed that 30% of the respondents have availed MNP since its implementation in India. Structure matrix obtained from discriminate analysis shows that poor services, network congestions and automatic activation of services were found to be the main reason for subscriber switching behaviour. Subscribers who have not availed portability is mainly due to free mobile usage services such as SMS and free calling to their friends and families followed by better services and feasible tariff plans.

2. CRM Implementation in Indian Telecom Industry Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mobile Service Providers Using Data Envelopment Analysis By Vani Haridasan vanih@ssn.edu.in Assistant Professor, MBA Dept SSN School of Management & Computer Applications Chennai, 603110, India Dr. Shanthi Venkatesh shan_venky@yahoo.com Assistant Professor - Marketing SRM B-School, SRM University Chennai, 600026, India (2011) Abstract With the liberalization and internationalization in telecommunication, service quality has become an important means of differentiation and path to achieve business success. Faced with a growing market and increasing competition, companies in the telecom business are adopting to new technological imperatives in order to outperform their competitors. These companies adapt continuously to the dynamic environment so as to survive competition. The emphasis here lies in identifying critical value adding processes and redesigning them to become customer centric. One such approach in the adoption of an IT to move towards customers is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The Indian Mobile Service Providers are using CRM extensively to identify the needs of the customers and stretching out ways and means to satisfy them. In this context, it is absolutely essential to study the effectiveness of the CRM being practiced by the mobile service providers. This study specifically analyses the extent to which CRM is being practiced by the mobile service providers, and identifies the effect of the service quality of the mobile service providers on the Customer Loyalty. As CRM focuses on being customer centric, it becomes essential to measure the effectiveness of CRM in terms of the degree to which the customers are advocates of the mobile service provider as well as to measure the degree to which they participate in the cross selling and up selling of the various products and services of the provider. To evaluate the effectiveness, there are lots of quantitative techniques available and some work in this area has already been done. But there is a dearth of literature focusing on the relative efficiency. One advanced operations research technique which evaluates the relative efficiency is the Frontier Analysis or Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). 3. Study on Consumer Switching Behaviour in Cellular Service Provider: A Study with reference to Chennai By M.Sathish PSG Institute of Management (PSG College of Technology), Coimbatore E-mail: mahendran.sathish@gmail.com K.Santhosh Kumar Priyadarshini Engineering College, Vaniyambadi-Vellore E-mail: santhoshkumark2002@gmail.com K.J.Naveen, V.Jeevanantham PSG Institute of Management (PSG College of Technology), Coimbatore (2011)

E-mail: kjnaveenmba@gmail.com, jeeva1187@gmail.com Abstract Indian mobile market is one of the fastest growing markets and is forecasted to reach 868.47 million users by 2013. India has seen rapid increase in the number of players which caused the tariff rates to hit an all time low. This allowed the players to target the low income population thereby increasing the market share. The availability of a number of subscriber options for consumers and varied tariff rates of each player, lead the consumers to switch between service providers. The objectives of the study are to find the factors that influence the consumers in switching the service provider and to delve into finding out the likeliness of switching the service provider. The type of research used for this study is descriptive research design. The area covered under this study was Chennai due to availability of well mixed population base in Tamil Nadu. A well structured questionnaire was designed and administered to collect samples across Chennai. Due to high population and need for variety of respondents, Cluster Sampling method was chosen. The sample size was 112. The variables considered for the study are Consumer demographics, Consumer satisfaction with existing service provider, Factors influencing the switching behaviour and factors that affect the switching behaviour of consumers and these were grouped into 4 categories namely customer service, service problems, usage cost and others. The results from the study reveal that call rates plays the most important role in switching the service provider followed by network coverage, value added service and customer care while advertisement plays the least important role. It is found that there is a relation between switching the service provider and the factors (customer service, service problem, usage cost, etc.). After analyzing the findings of the study, we propose that the mobile providers concentrate on increasing network stability and setting tariff rates competitively. 4. A Comparative Study of Cellular Service Provider Operating in Bathinda By Vipan Bansal, Harwinder Singh, Rakesh Bhatia Student of Industrial Engineering, GNE, Ludhiana, India Department of Production & Industrial Engineering, GNE, Ludhiana, India Department of Mechanical Engg, Punjabi Uni. Campus, Talwandi Saboo, India (2010) Abstract Mobile phone was hyped as a revolutionary tool of the twentieth century, like the television and telephone in the 19th century; the field of telephonic communication has now expanded to make use of advanced technologies like GSM, CDMA, and WLL to the great 3G Technology in mobile phones. Day by day, both the Public Players and the Private Players are putting in their resources and efforts to improve their services so as to give the maximum to their customers. This study focuses on the customer satisfaction level of different cellular service provider operating in Bathinda. The main purpose of this study is to find out the satisfaction level of the customer regarding current service provider, mobile phone instruments, analyze the level of awareness about Number Portability and 3G and make suggestions in the light of the findings of the study. The study was carried out in Bathinda city. In this study opinion of customers were

taken for analysis. The tools used for collecting data were structured questionnaire and unstructured interview. For analysis purpose pie chart and bar chart has been used. The results revealed that as there is a healthy competition given by the existing players in the telecommunication industry, lack or degradation in any of the services may affect the company badly. Moreover there is a huge market for 3G which can be captured by giving proper awareness to customers and by providing services according to their needs.

5. Investigating the Impact of Mobile Marketing in the Current Indian Scenario and Proposing Customerization as a Solution By Dr. Shalini Nath Tripathi Faculty- Marketing area Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow E mail: shalinit@jiml.ac.in AND Er. Monika Mittal Faculty- IT area Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow E mail: monikamittal@jiml.ac.in (2004) Abstract Innovation creates marketing opportunities and challenges. Mobile advertising, an area of mobile commerce, is a form of advertising that targets users of handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. It can reach the target customers anywhere anytime. In order to promote the selling of products or services, all the activities required to communicate with the customers are transferred through mobile devices. Combining with the customers user profile and context situation, advertising companies can provide the target customers exactly the advertisement information they desire, not just spam them with irrelevant advertisements. Previous studies have investigated dimensions of consumer acceptance of mobile marketing advertising. In contrast the current study attempts to study consumer responsiveness to mobile marketing, in terms of its impact on purchase decision making. The primary objective being to gain an insight into the perception of mobile users, towards mobile marketing advertising and their utility value in terms of impact on the purchase decision. Hence we are attempting to explore consumers responsiveness to mobile marketing, taking into cognizance the impact of demographic factors. The study also aims to concretize some features enhancing the acceptability utility of mobile marketing advertising and suggests an appropriate strategic initiative for the same. The major findings reveal that the perception of consumers towards mobile marketing can be broadly categorized into three factors: 1) Lack of contextualization and personalization of mobile ads 2) Disruptive nature of mobile ads 3) Perceived usefulness of mobile ads. Further results indicate that mobile marketing advertising (in its current format) does not have a significant impact on the purchase/brand decision of consumers. Mobile marketing is relatively at a nascent stage in India. Distinct preferences were expressed by customers regarding the desirable content

of such messages. Customers are looking for customization of mobile marketing messages as per their individual requirements, tastes and preferences. Hence the need of the hour appears to be Customerization. Customerization combines operationally driven mass customization with customized marketing in a way that the company is able to respond to individual customers by customizing its products, services, and messages on a one-to-one basis. Marketers could harness the complete potential of mobile advertising by deploying Intelligent Mobile Software Agents, which enable firms to completely customize mobile marketing messages to individual customer preferences. Artificial intelligence is harnessed, which enables software agents to learn, optimize, and individualize information dissemination to mobile users. 6. Innovations in Pricing of Prepaid services adopted by CMSPs (Cellular Mobile Service Providers) and its impact on the Revenue per Minute in raising their bottom line: A case study of TRUMP MTNL, Mumbai during the 12 month period of 2006. By B B Chaudhary, Dr. Vijay Wagh, Dr. Pradip Manjrekar, Vani Kamath (2006) ABSTRACT In March 2008 the number of mobile connections in India crossed 261 million mark. It is now having the second largest number of mobile connections in the world after China. The teledensity2 in India is governed by three factors viz. growing household income, innovative price models adopted by CMSPs and telecom regulations. The mobile services market in India is the fastest growing market in the world. There are more than five CMSPs in each circle; it is becoming difficult for them to retain their market share. The mobile services provided by all of them are having almost same features. The CMSPs are making all possible efforts to increase their market share. Most of them have outsourced their non-core business activities. Some of them have tied up with software firms to provide content and niche services. They are adopting competitive strategy to differentiate their services from others. In order to penetrate the market they are offering the lowest call tariffs in the world. The only way to earn profit is by the economy of scales. MTNL has positioned Trump its prepaid brand as the most affordable mobile service in the market by providing Price Leadership in voice and data services. The competitive strategy of CMSPs is to get the maximum number of customers by reducing prices. The objectives of this research are to find out the innovative price models adopted by CMSPs and its impact on their bottom line. The incoming free for life time 3pricing model for prepaid mobile services, which was one of the driving forces behind the explosive growth of mobile connections in 2006, is selected for detailed analysis. A case study of TRUMP, MTNL, and Mumbai during the last 12 month period of (January to December 2006) is discussed in detail to further support this hypothesis. 7. Service Quality and Customers Preference of Cellular Mobile Service Providers

By Rajkumar Paulrajan and Harish Rajkumar (2011) Abstract A research study was conducted with an objective to understand the Indian consumers perception choice in selecting cellular mobile telecommunication service providers. Consumers perception is widely varied in accordance with the Communication quality, call service, facilities, price, customer care and service providers attributes. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect the required primary data from the consumers. Collected data were analyzed; reliability and factor analysis were carried out. The outcome of this research shows a comprehensively integrated framework to understand the relationships among several dimensions. The study shows communication and price were most influential and most preferential factors in selecting telecommunication service provider. However, product quality and availability has a significant impact on consumer perception choice in selecting cellular mobile service provider. 8. Impact of Mobile Number Portability on Mobile Users Switchover Behavior-Indian Mobile Market By Dr.V. Kumaravel Head and Professor, Department of MBA, Vivekanandha Institute of Information and Management Studies for Women, Tiruchengode, Namakkal (India) Dr.V. Kumaravel Head and Professor, Department of MBA, Vivekanandha Institute of Information and Management Studies for Women, Tiruchengode, Namakkal (India) (2011)

Abstract Mobile number portability permits to a mobile subscriber to switch operators without changing his/her telephone number. This research paper describes that Impact of Mobile Number Portability on Mobile Users Switch over Behavior-Indian Mobile Market. Mobile number portability is now a crucial issue for mobile service providers. The most challenging job for the present day is that retain existing mobile customers. The mobile operators ability to retain its customer has a direct impact on its profitability and effectiveness. Losing a customer will affect the mobile operators in terms of cost. 9. Fast growth of Mobile Communications in India: Lessons for emerging markets By Narinder K. Chhibber, India

Abstract In most of the developing countries, mobile penetration is strongly correlated with economic growth and social benefits. India, a developing country in South Asia with a population of over one billion people, has low telephony penetration of just 18 percent of the population, but has now become one of the high volume, high growth telecommunication services market in the world. The annual growth of mobile cellular services recorded in India during the last few years has been nearly 100 percent, but all this expansion of services and networks has so far been mainly in urban areas whereas the vast rural areas, where 70 percent of the population lives, have very low coverage. Similarly the penetration of Internet and broadband services even in urban areas is below the targets set by the Government and the industry. Convergence is on the horizon and modern trend is towards greater mobility with increasing data rates. The launch of new services and to extend the networks in the uncovered rural areas is now being given high priority and this will sustain the present fast growth in the coming years. Telecommunications sector needs voracious capital investment and developing countries have no means to raise large capital needed in closing the digital divide between urban and rural areas. Government policy and Regulator clarity conducive to open competition and increase in foreign equity to 74 percent from the earlier 49 percent are the measures that have resulted in Indian telecom market attracting unprecedented investor interest. Indias success story of fast growth of mobile communications is being watched by a number of developing countries, as these steps could be useful lessons for the emerging markets. 10. Modeling Growth of Cellular Services in India: A Systems Dynamics Approach By Amitava Dutta George Mason University, Fairfax VA, U.S.A. adutta@som.gmu.edu Varadharajan Sridhar Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow India sridhar@iiml.ac.in (2003) Abstract The cellular industry all over the world has been witnessing very high growth rates in subscriber base in recent years. For developing countries in particular, cellular services are becoming a very significant proportion of the overall telecom infrastructure. The mechanics of competition within this market involve complex feedback effects between individual service providers and with their operating environment, and these forces play an important role in governing the growth of this industry. In this paper, we use the systems dynamics methodology to develop an initial model of cellular service provision within the duopoly market structure. We report preliminary tests with the model using subscriber growth data for the Indian cellular industry over a period of twentyone quarters. Sensitivity analysis test demonstrate the models potential as a decision support tool for service providers and policy makers.