CB Final Report

Critical analysis of consumer preference and customer satisfaction in Indian telecom industry
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: Indian Telecom Industry
The Indian telecommunication industry, with about 584 million mobile phone connections as of March 2010, is the third largest telecommunication network in the world and the second largest in terms of number of wireless connections. The Indian telecom industry is the fastest growing in the world and is projected that India will have a 'billion plus' mobile users by 2015. Projection by several leading global consultancies is that Indias wireless telecom network will overtake Chinas in the next 2 years. The industry is expected to reach a size of Rs 344,921 crore (US$ 76.92 billion) by 2012 at a growth rate of over 26 per cent, and generate employment opportunities for about 10 million people during the same period. According to analysts, the sector would create direct employment for 2.8 million people and for 7 million indirectly. For the past decade or so, telecommunication activities have gained momentum in India. Efforts have been made from both governmental and non-governmental platforms to enhance the infrastructure. The idea is to help modern telecommunication technologies to serve all segments of Indias culturally diverse society, and to transform it into a country of technologically aware people. It is noteworthy that the Indian Mobile subscriber base grew 10 fold in just 4 years (from 7.56 million subscribers in Dec 2001 to 75.94 million subscribers in Dec 2005) and then over the next 4 years it grew 7 fold (from 75.94 million subscribers in Dec 2005 to 525.94 million subscribers in Dec 2009). In the first two months of 2010 there have been a record breaking 38.59 million mobile subscriber additions - More than twice as many added in China during the same period (18.6 million), which is currently leading with 766 million mobile subscribers as of Feb 2010. The unprecedented rise in the number of new connections has lent credence to the popular belief that India will soon overtake China as the country with the world's largest mobile subscriber population. Modern growth A large population, low telephony penetration levels, and a rise in consumers' income and spending owing to strong economic growth have helped make India the fastest-growing telecom market in the world. The first operator is the state-owned incumbent BSNL. BSNL was created by
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corporatization of the erstwhile DTS (Department of Telecommunication Services), a government unit responsible for provision of telephony services. Subsequently, after the telecommunication policies were revised to allow private operators, companies such as Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Tata Indicom, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Loop Mobile have entered the space. see major operators in India. In 2008-09, rural India outpaced urban India in mobile growth rate. Bharti Airtel now is the largest telecom company in India. India's mobile phone market is the fastest growing in the world, with companies adding some 19.1 million new customers in December 2009. The total number of telephones in the country crossed the 543 million mark on Oct 2009.The overall tele-density has increased to 44.85% in Oct 2009.Telecom Regulatory Authority of India,Information note to the Press (Press Release No. 61 / 2007), 20 Jun 2007 In the wireless segment, 19 million subscribers have been added in Dec 2009. The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL (F)) base is more than 543.20 million now. The wireline segment subscriber base stood at 37.06 million with a decline of 0.12 million in Dec 2009. History Telecom in the real sense means transfer of information between two distant points in space. The popular meaning of telecom always involves electrical signals and nowadays people exclude postal or any other raw telecommunication methods from its meaning. Therefore, the history of Indian telecom can be started with the introduction of telegraph. Introduction of telegraph The postal and telecom sectors had a slow and uneasy start in India. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph Line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbor. In 1851, it was opened for the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department, at that time. Construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines connecting Kolkata (Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north along with Agra, Mumbai (Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai in the south, as well as Ootacamund and Bangalore was started in November 1853. Dr. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered telegraph and telephone in
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India, belonged to the Public Works Department. He tried his level best for the development of telecom through out this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public. Introduction of the telephone In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The AngloIndian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to establish telephone exchanges in India. The permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself would undertake the work. By 1881, the Government changed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai (Madras) and Ahmedabad. 28 January 1882, is a Red Letter Day in the history of telephone in India. On this day Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchange in Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. The exchange at Kolkata named "Central Exchange" was opened at third floor of the building at 7, Council House Street. The Central Telephone Exchange had 93 number of subscribers. Bombay also witnessed the opening of Telephone Exchange in 1882. Further developments

1902 - First wireless telegraph station established between Sagar Islands and Sandheads. 1907 - First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur. 1913-1914 - First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla. 23 July 1927 - Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with beam stations at Khadki and Daund, inaugurated by Lord Irwin by exchanging greetings with the King of England.
1933 - Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India. 1953 - 12 channel carrier system introduced. 1960 - First subscriber trunk dialing route commissioned between Kanpur and Lucknow. 1975 - First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri telephone exchanges.
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1976 - First digital microwave junction introduced. 1979 - First optical fibre system for local junction commissioned at Pune. 1980 - First satellite earth station for domestic communications established at Secunderabad, A.P.. 1983 - First analog Stored Program Control exchange for trunk lines commissioned at Mumbai. 1984 - C-DOT established for indigenous development and production of digital exchanges. 1985 - First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis in Delhi.
While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 was only around 80,000. Even after independence, growth was extremely slow. The telephone was a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country. While certain innovative steps were taken from time to time, as for example introduction of the telex service in Mumbai in 1953 and commissioning of the first [subscriber trunk dialing] route between Delhi and Kanpur in 1960, the first waves of change were set going by Sam Pitroda in the eighties.[7] He brought in a whiff of fresh air. The real transformation in scenario came with the announcement of the National Telecom Policy in 1994. Indian telecom sector: recent policies

All the villages shall be covered by telecom facility by the end of 2002. The Communication Convergence Bill 2001introduced in the Parliament on August 31, 2001 is presently before the Standing Committee of Parliament on Telecom and IT. National Long Distance Service (NLD) is opened for unrestricted entry. The International Long Distance Services (ILDS) have been opened to competition. The basic services are open to competition. In addition to the existing three, fourth cellular operator, one each in four metros and thirteen circles, has been permitted. The cellular operators have been permitted to provide
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all types of mobile services including voice and non-voice messages, data services and PCOs utilizing any type of network equipment, including circuit and/or package switches that meet certain required standards.
Policies allowing private participation have been announced as per the New Telecom Policy (NTP), 1999 in several new services, which include Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) Service, digital Public Mobile Radio Trunked Service (PMRTS), Voice Mail/ Audiotex/ Unified Messaging Service.
Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) has been introduced for providing telephone connections in urban, semi-urban and rural areas promptly. Two telecom PSUs, VSNL and HTL have been disinvested. Steps are being taken to fulfill Universal Service Obligation (USO), its funding and administration. A decision to permit Mobile Community Phone Service has been announced. Multiple Fixed Service Providers (FSPs) licensing guidelines were announced. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been allowed to set up International Internet Gateways, both Satellite and Landing stations for submarine optical fiber cables. Two categories of infrastructure providers have been allowed to provide end-to-end bandwidth and dark fiber, right of way, towers, duct space etc. Guidelines have been issued by the Government to open up Internet telephony (IP).
Emergence as a major player In 1975, the Department of Telecom (DoT) was separated from P&T. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire country until 1985 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) was carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of Delhi and Mumbai. In 1990s the telecom sector was opened up by the Government for private investment as a part of LiberalisationPrivatization-Globalization policy. Therefore, it became necessary to separate the Government's policy wing from its operations wing. The Government of India corporatised the operations wing of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Many private operators, such as Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, Loop Mobile, Airtel, Idea etc., successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom market.
Liberalisation of telecommunications in India The Indian government was composed of many factions (parties) which had different ideologies. Some of them were willing to throw open the market to foreign players (the centrists) and others wanted the government to regulate infrastructure and restrict the involvement of foreign players. Due to this political background it was very difficult to bring about liberalization in telecommunications. When a bill was in parliament a majority vote had to be passed, and such a majority was difficult to obtain, given to the number of parties having different ideologies. Liberalization started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year. But soon the policy was let down because of political opposition. She invited Sam Pitroda a US based NRI to set up a Center for Development of Telematics(C-DOT), however the plan failed due to political reasons. During this period, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi, many public sector organizations were set up like the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) , VSNL and MTNL. Many technological developments took place in this regime but still foreign players were not allowed to participate in the telecommunications business. The demand for telephones was ever increasing. It was during this period that the P.N Rao led government introduced the national telecommunications policy [NTP] in 1994 which brought changes in the following areas: ownership, service and regulation of telecommunications infrastructure. They were also successful in establishing joint ventures between state owned telecom companies and international players. But still complete ownership of facilities was restricted only to the government owned organizations. Foreign firms were eligible to 49% of the total stake. The multi-nationals were just involved in technology transfer, and not policy making. During this period, the World Bank and ITU had advised the Indian Government to liberalize long distance services in order to release the monopoly of the state owned DoT and VSNL; and to enable competition in the long distance carrier business which would help reduce tariff's and better the economy of the country. The Rao run government instead liberalized the local services, taking the opposite political parties into confidence and assuring foreign involvement in the long distance
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business after 5 years. The country was divided into 20 telecommunication circles for basic telephony and 18 circles for mobile services. These circles were divided into category A, B and C depending on the value of the revenue in each circle. The government threw open the bids to one private company per circle along with government owned DoT per circle. For cellular service two service providers were allowed per circle and a 15 years license was given to each provider. During all these improvements, the government did face oppositions from ITI, DoT, MTNL, VSNL and other labor unions, but they managed to keep away from all the hurdles. After 1995 the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The DoT opposed this. The political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalization policies. They split DoT in two- one policy maker and the other service provider (DTS) which was later renamed as BSNL. The proposal of raising the stake of foreign investors from 49% to 74% was rejected by the opposite political party and leftist thinkers. Domestic business groups wanted the government to privatize VSNL. Finally in April 2002, the government decided to cut its stake of 53% to 26% in VSNL and to throw it open for sale to private enterprises. TATA finally took 25% stake in VSNL. This was a gateway to many foreign investors to get entry into the Indian Telecom Markets. After March 2000, the government became more liberal in making policies and issuing licenses to private operators. The government further reduced license fees for cellular service providers and increased the allowable stake to 74% for foreign companies. Because of all these factors, the service fees finally reduced and the call costs were cut greatly enabling every common middle class family in India to afford a cell phone. Nearly 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile market. In March 2008 the total GSM and CDMA mobile subscriber base in the country was 375 million, which represented a nearly 50% growth when compared with previous year. As the unbranded Chinese cell phones which do not have International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers pose a serious security risk to the country, Mobile network operators therefore planned to suspend the usage of around 30 million mobile phones (about 8 % of all mobiles in the country) by 30 April. 56 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only
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and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions. .In April 2008 the Indian Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed all mobile phone service users to disconnect the usage of unbranded Chinese mobile phones Growth of mobile technology. India has become one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world. The mobile services were commercially launched in August 1995 in India. In the initialwas 16 million, followed by 22 million in 2004, 32 million in 2005 and 65 million in 2006. As of January 2009, total mobile phone subscribers numbered 362 million, having added 15 million that month alone. India ranks second in mobile phone usage to China, with 506 million users as of November 2009. India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in the mobile sector. In addition to landline and mobile phones, some of the companies also provide the WLL service. The mobile tariffs in India have also become lowest in the world. A new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only. In 2005 alone additions increased to around 2 million per month in the year 2003-04 and 2004-05. Although mobile telephones followed the New Telecom Policy 1994, growth was tardy in the early years because of the high price of hand sets as well as the high tariff structure of mobile telephones. The New Telecom Policy in 1999, the industry heralded several pro consumer initiatives. Mobile subscriber additions started picking up. The number of mobile phones added throughout the country in 2003. Revenue and growth The total revenue in the telecom service sector was Rs. 86,720 crore in 2005-06 as against Rs. 71, 674 crore in 2004-2005, registering a growth of 21%. The total investment in the telecom services sector reached Rs. 200,660 crore in 2005-06, up from Rs. 178,831 crore in the previous fiscal. Telecommunication is the lifeline of the rapidly growing Information Technology industry. Internet subscriber base has risen to 6.94 million in 2005- 2006. Out of this 1.35 million were broadband connections. More than a billion people use the internet globally.
Under the Bharat Nirman Programme, the Government of India will ensure that 66,822 revenue villages in the country, which have not yet been provided with a Village Public Telephone (VPT), will be connected. However doubts have been raised about what it would mean for the poor in the country. It is difficult to ascertain fully the employment potential of the telecom sector but the enormity of the opportunities can be gauged from the fact that there were 3.7 million Public Call Offices in December 2005[19] up from 2.3 million in December 2004. The value added services (VAS) market within the mobile industry in India has the potential to grow from $500 million in 2006 to a whopping $10 billion by 2009. Telephone On landlines, intra circle calls are considered local calls while inter circle are considered long distance calls. Currently Government is working to integrate the whole country in one telecom circle. For long distance calls, you dial the area code prefixed with a zero (e.g. For calling Delhi, you would dial 011-XXXX XXXX). For international calls, you would dial "00" and the country code + area code + number. The country code for India is 91. Until recently, only the PSU's BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide Basic Phone Service through copper wires in India. MTNL is operating in Delhi and Mumbai only and all other parts are covered by BSNL. However private operators have now entered the fray, although their focus is largely on the cellular business which is growing rapidly. Telephony Subscribers (Wireless and Landline): 562.21 million (Dec 2009) Cellphones: 525.15 million (Dec 2009)[21] Land Lines: 37.06 million (Dec 2009) Broad Band Subscription: 7.83 million (Dec 2009) Monthly Cellphone Addition: 19.20 million (Dec 2009)[22]
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Teledensity: 47.89% (Dec 2009) Projected teledensity: 893 million, 64.69% of population by 2012.[23] Wireless telephones The Mobile telecommunications system in India is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s. The country is divided into multiple zones, called circles (roughly along state boundaries). Government and several private players run local and long distance telephone services. Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest in the world. The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by the Information Ministry. The mobile service has seen phenomenal growth since 2000. In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connections have crossed fixed-line connections. India primarily follows the GSM mobile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent operators also operate in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players are Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller players, with operations in only a few states. International roaming agreements exist between most operators and many foreign carriers. Main article: List of mobile network operators of India The breakup of wireless subscriber base in India as of December 2009 is given below:
Operator Bharti Airtel Reliance Communications Vodafone Essar BSNL
Subscriber base 118,864,031 93,795,613 91,401,959 62,861,214

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Idea Cellular Tata Teleservices Aircel MTNL MTS India Loop Mobile India Uninor HFCL Infotel Stel All India
57,611,872 57,329,449 31,023,997 4,875,913 3,042,741 2,649,730 1,208,130 341,862 141,411 525,147,922
The list of ten states (including the metros Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in their respective states) with largest subscriber base as of September 2009 is given below: State Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh West Bengal Karnataka State Rajasthan Gujarat Bihar Madhya Pradesh All India Subscriber base 58,789,949 57,033,513 45,449,460 37,126,048 32,540,049 28,867,734 Subscriber base 27,742,395 27,475,585 27,434,896 24,923,739 471,726,205 Wireless density'" 51.96 26.32 63.66 42.58 34.28 46.76 Wireless density'" 39.09 45.49 25.04 33.09 37.71
Wireless density was calculated using projected population of states from the natural growth rates of 1991-2001 and population of 2001 census. Landlines Landline service in India is primarily run by BSNL/MTNL and Reliance Infocomm though there are several other private players too, such as Touchtel and Tata Teleservices. Landlines are facing
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stiff competition from mobile telephones. The competition has forced the landline services to become more efficient. The landline network quality has improved and landline connections are now usually available on demand, even in high density urban areas. The breakup of wireline subscriber base in India as of September 2009 is given below: Operator BSNL MTNL Bharti Airtel Reliance Communications Tata Teleservices HFCL Infotel Teleservices Ltd All India Subscriber base 28,446,969 3,514,454 2,928,254 1,152,237 1,003,261 165,978 95,181 37,306,334
The list of eight states (including the metros Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in their respective states) with largest subscriber base as of September 2009 is given below[26] State Maharashtra Tamil Nadu Kerala Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Delhi West Bengal Andhra Pradesh Internet The total subscriber base for internet users in India is 81 million as of 2009.[27] Internet penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world which is about 7.0% of the population, compared to other nations like United States, Japan or South Korea where internet penetration is significantly higher than in India. Subscriber base 5,996,912 3,620,729 3,534,211 2,803,049 2,751,296 2,632,225 2,490,253 2,477,755
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The number of broadband connections in India have seen a continuous growth since the beginning of 2006. At the end of January 2010, total broadband connections in the country have reached 8.03 million. Broadband in India is more expensive as compared to Western Europe/United Kingdom and United States. After economic liberalization in 1992, many private ISPs have entered the market, many with their own local loop and gateway infrastructures. The telecom services market is regulated by the TRAI and the DoT, which has been known to impose censorship on some websites. Low Speed Broadband (256 kbit/s - 2 mbit/s) The current definition of Broadband in India is speeds of 256 kbit/s. TRAI on July 2009 has recommended raising this limit to 2 Mbit/s. As of January 2010, India has 8.03 million broadband users comprising of 6.0% of the population.
[30]
India ranks one of the lowest provider of broadband speed as compared countries such as Japan,
South Korea and France. Because of the increase in Broadband penetration and the quality of service steadily improving, many non-resident Indians are now enjoying the ability to communicate with family in India from around the world. However, many consumers complain that ISPs still fail to provide the advertised speeds - some even failing to meet the 256 kbit/s standards. High Speed Broadband (over 2 Mbit/s)
Airtel has launched plans up to 16 Mbit/s on ADSL2+ enabled lines and is piloting new 30 Mbit/s and 50 Mbit/s plans in limited areas.
zBeam Telecom offers plans up to 6 Mbit/s for home users and has 20 Mbit/s plans
available for power users.

BSNL offers ADSL up to 8 Mbit/s in many cities.[33] Hayai Broadband will offer FTTH services up to 100 Mbit/s, with an Internal network speed of 1 Gbit/s.
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Honesty Net Solutions offers Broadband over Cable at up to 4 Mbit/s. MTNL offers VDSL at speeds up to 20 Mbit/s in selected areas. Reliance Communications offers 10 Mbit/s and 20 Mbit/s broadband internet services in selected areas. Tata Indicom offers 10 Mbit/s, 20 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s options under the "Lightning Plus" tariffs structure.
The main problem consumers face with High Speed Broadband in India is that they are frequently expensive and/or they have limited amounts of data transfer included in the plan. Broadcasting Radio broadcast stations: AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998) Radios: 116 million (1997) Television terrestrial broadcast stations: 562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480 stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997) Televisions: 110 million (2006) In India, only the government owned Doordarshan (Door = Distant = Tele, Darshan = Vision) is allowed to broadcast terrestrial television signals. It initially had one major National channel (DD National) and a Metro channel in some of the larger cities (also known as DD Metro). Satellite/Cable television took off during the first Gulf War with CNN. There are no regulations against ownership of satellite dish antennas, or operation of cable television systems, which led to an explosion of viewership and channels, led by the Star TV group and Zee TV. Initially restricted to music and entertainment channels, viewership grew, giving rise to several channels in regional languages and many in the national language, Hindi. The main news channels available were CNN and BBC World. In the late 1990s, many current affairs and news channels sprouted, becoming immensely popular because of the alternative viewpoint they offered compared to Doordarshan. Some of the notable ones are Aaj Tak (means Till Today, run by the India Today group) and STAR News, CNN-IBN, Times Now, initially run by the NDTV group and their lead anchor, Prannoy
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Roy (NDTV now has its own channels, NDTV 24x7, NDTV Profit, NDTV India and NDTV Imagine).New Delhi TeleVision. Here is a reasonably comprehensive List of Indian television stations. Next generation networks In the Next Generation Networks, multiple access networks can connect customers to a core network based on IP technology. These access networks include fibre optics or coaxial cable networks connected to fixed locations or customers connected through wi-fi as well as to 3G networks connected to mobile users. As a result, in the future, it would be impossible to identify whether the next generation network is a fixed or mobile network and the wireless access broadband would be used both for fixed and mobile services. It would then be futile to differentiate between fixed and mobile networks both fixed and mobile users will access services through a single core network. Indian telecom networks are not so intensive as developed countrys telecom networks and India's teledensity is low only in rural areas. 670,000 route kilometers (419,000 miles) of optical fibres has been laid in India by the major operators, even in remote areas and the process continues. BSNL alone, has laid optical fibre to 30,000 Telephone Exchanges out of their 36 Exchanges. Keeping in mind the viability of providing services in rural areas, an attractive solution appears to be one which offers multiple service facility at low costs. A rural network based on the extensive optical fibre network, using Internet Protocol and offering a variety of services and the availability of open platforms for service development, viz. the Next Generation Network, appears to be an attractive proposition. Fibre network can be easily converted to Next Generation network and then used for delivering multiple services at cheap cost. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Number portability: TRAI announced the rules and regulations to be followed for the Mobile Number Portability in their draft release on 23 September 2009. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) allows users to retain their numbers, while shifting to a different service provider provided they
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follow the guidelines set by TRAI. Users are expected to holding the mobile number with a given provider for at least 90 days, before they decide to move to the other provider. As per news reports, Government of India decided to implement MNP from December 31, 2009 in Metros & category A service areas and by March 20, 2010 in rest of the country. It has been postponed to March 31, 2010 in Metros & category 'A' service areas.
International
Nine satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region). Nine gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad and Ernakulam.
Submarine cables

LOCOM linking Chennai to Penang, Malaysia India-UAEcable linking Mumbai to Al Fujayrah, UAE. SEA-ME-WE 2, SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE 4 - (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe) with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai. Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) with a landing site at Mumbai (2000). i2i from Chennai to Singapore. SEACOM From Mumbai to the Mediterranean, via South Africa. Currently, SEACOM joins with SEA-ME-WE 4 off the west coast of Spain to carry traffic onward to London (2009).
I-ME-WE with two landing sites at Mumbai (2009).
Telecom Training in India The incumbent telecom operators (BSNL & MTNL) hsave maintained several telecom training centres at regional, circle and district level. BSNL has three national level intitutions, namely
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Advanced Level Telecom Training Centre(ALTTC) at Ghaziabad, UP; Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute Of Telecom Training at Jabalpur, MP; and National Academy of Telecom Finance and Management. MTNL incorporated Centre for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management (CETTM) in 2003-04. It is the largest telecom training centre in India and one of the biggest in Asia with a capex plan of over Rs. 100 crore . CETTM is situated at Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai with built area of 4, 86,921 sq ft. It provides training in telecom switching, transmission, wireless communication, telecom operations and management to corporates and students besides its own internal employees. Other than the government operators some private players like Bharti and Reliance have started their own training centers.
3G & Broadband Wireless Services (BWA) The government has in a pioneering decision, decided to auction 3G & BWA spectrum. The broad policy guidelines for 3G & BWA have already been issued on 1stAugust 2008 and allotment of spectrum has been planned through simultaneously ascending e-auction process by a specialized agency. New players would also be able to bid thus leading to technology innovation, more competition, faster roll out and ultimately greater choice for customers at competitive tariffs. The 3G will allow telecom companies to offer additional value added services such as high resolution video and multi media services in addition to voice, fax and conventional data services with high data rate transmission capabilities. BWA will become a predominant platform for broadband roll out services. It is also an effective tool for undertaking social initiatives of the Government such as e-education, telemedicine, e-health and e-Governance. Providing affordable broadband, especially to the suburban and rural communities is the next focus area of the Department. BSNL & MTNL have already been allotted 3G & BWA spectrum with a view to ensuring early roll out of 3G & WiMax services in the country. They will pay the same price for the spectrum as
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discovered through the auction. While, Honble Prime Minister launched the MTNLs 3G mobile services on the inaugural function of India Telecom 2008 held on 11th December 2008, BSNL launched its countrywide 3G services from Chennai, in the southern Tamil Nadu state on 22nd February 2009. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Mobile Number Portability (MNP) allows subscribers to retain their existing telephone number when they switch from one access service provider to another irrespective of mobile technology or from one technology to another of the same or any other access service provider. The Government has announced the guidelines for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Service Licence in the country on 1st August 2008 and has issued a separate Licence for MNP service w.e.f. 20.03.2009. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has already issued licences to two global companies (M/s Syniverse Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and M/s MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.) for implementing the service. MNP is to be implemented in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra & Gujarat service areas of Zone 1 and Kolkata, Tamil Nadu including Chennai, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka service areas of Zone 2 within six months of the award of the license i.e. by 20.09.2009 and in rest of the service areas within one year of the award of the licence i.e. by 20.03.2010. Targets Set By the Government 1. Network expansion 500 million connections by the year 2010. Provision of mobile coverage of 90% geographical area by 2010.
2. Rural telephony
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2 One phone per two rural households by 2010 (about 80 million rural connections). 200 million rural subscribers by 2012 Reduce urban-rural digital divide from present 25:1 to 5:1 by 2010.
3. Broadband
20 million Broadband connections by 2010 Broadband with minimum speed of 1 mbps. Broadband coverage for all secondary & higher secondary schools and public health care centres by the end of year 2010. Broadband coverage for all Grampanchayats by the year 2010 Broadband on demand is every village by 2012
4. Infrastructure Sharing
USO subsidy support scheme for shared wireless infrastructure in rural areas with about 19,000 towers by 2010.
Increase sharing in urban areas to 70% by 2010.
5. Introduction of Spread of IPTV and Mobile TV IPTV in 600 towns by 2010.
6. Manufacturing Making India a hub for telecom manufacturing by facilitating more and more telecom specific SEZs.
Quadrupling production in 2010. Achieving exports of 10 billion during 11th Five year plan.
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7. Research & Development Pre-eminence of India as a technology solution provider. Comprehensive security infrastructure for telecom network. Tested infrastructure for enabling interoperability in Next Generation Network. Doubling the telecom equipment R&D by 2010 from present level of 15%.
8. International Bandwidth Facilitating availability of adequate international bandwidth at competitive prices to drive ITES sector at faster growth. Indian Telecommunications at a glance (As on 31st March 2009) Rank in world in network size Teledensity (per hundred populations) Telephone connection (In million) Fixed Mobile Total Village Public Telephones Covered (Out of 66,822 uncovered villages) Foreign Direct Investment (in million) (from January 2000 till January 2009) Licenses issued Basic CMTS UAS Infrastructure Provider I ISP (Internet) 2 39 240 177 349
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3rd 36.98 37.96 391.76 429.72 57,167 275,441
ISP with Telephony (Broadband) National Long distance International Long Distance
125 26 24
CHAPTER 2 Telecom Service Provider in India
The Indian telecom directory shows two major divisions: Fixed Service Providers (FSP's): These include the basic service providers that are the state operators like MTNL India and BSNL India who collectively account to over 90% of the total basic telecom services and private sector telecom service providers in india who mainly focus on leased lines, ISDN, videoconferencing and other high-end services. Cellular Service Providers (CSP's) The cellular services in India are also categorized as GSM (Global Mobile Communications System) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple access) system. The leading GSM services providers in the Indian telecom industry 2007 are Hutchison or hutch (Now Vodafone and known as Orange in Maharashtra), Airtel, Idea Telecom, Tata, and Reliance. These include both pre-paid and post paid mobile phone cards and services providers. The leading CDMA providers are still Reliance communications and Tata Indicom with Airtel and Touchtel just entering the market. The stupendous growth of the telecommunication companies in India over the last fifteen years can be attributed to the liberal zgovernment of India, economic policy. The economic renaissance effected in the early 1990s brought around a paradigm shift on the overall business scenario of India. The telecommunication companies in India went through a huge make-over during the implementation of the open-market policy of India.
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The erstwhile closed market policy was replaced by a more liberal form of economic policy. A whole new form of Indian Telecommunication Policy was drafted to compliment the change effected in the economic policy of India. The amendment effected the new telecommunication policy of India made huge changes with respect to investments and entry of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and Foreign Institution Investors (FII) respectively, into the virgin Indian telecommunication market. This resulted entry of private, domestic and foreign telecommunication companies in India. The economic contribution made by these newly formed telecommunication companies of India is really mentioned worthy and this industry witnessed highest growth after the Indian Information Technology industry. The robust growth of Indian economy after the economic liberalization in the 1990s induced massive change in the telecom policy and new draft was framed and implemented by the 'Telecom Regulatory Authority of India' (TRAI) and 'Department of Telecommunication' (DOT), under the Ministry of Telecommunication government of India. The main aim of these telecommunication companies in India is to provide basic telephony services to each and every Indian. With the advent of private telecommunication companies in India, the industry witnessed introduction of mobile telephones into the Indian market and it became popular amongst the Indian masses in no time. Today two types of mobile phone service providers operates in the Indian market, like the following
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
The main binding objective for all the telecommunication companies operating in India are as follows
To facilitate telecommunication for all Ensuring quick availability of telephone connectivity Achieve universal service access at affordable price covering all Indian villages, as Providing world class telecommunication services
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early as possible
Solving consumer complaints, resolve disputes, and special attention to be given to To provide widest possible range of services at reasonable prices To emerges as a major manufacturing base and major exporter of telecommunication To protect the defense and security interests of the country
public interface

equipment
Three types of service providers exist in the Indian telecommunication sector, like the following
State owned companies like - Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd Private Indian owned companies like - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices. Foreign invested companies like - Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel,
and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd

Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications etc. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited popularly also known as BSNL is an India-based telecommunication service providing company. BSNL operates under the guardianship of the Ministry of Communication, Government of India and Department of Telecommunication, Government of India. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited operates according to the telecommunication policy laid as per the Indian Telecommunication Acts and Rules. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was established on 1.10.2000, as a result of the revamping of the erstwhile Department of Telecommunication, Government of India. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is world's seventh largest telecommunications company, with a huge bouquet of telecommunications services. The services offered by BSNL includes wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, broadband, carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. It is one of the fast growing and most profitable organization of Government of India. BSNL enjoys market leadership amongst all telecommunication operators in India and has grown in leaps and bounds. This gigantic Indian telecommunication company offers seamless service to its customers and it and enjoys market dominance in the area of basic telephony, rural telephony
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and Internet connection. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is dedicatedly working towards bridging the gap between the rural and urban India digital divide in the ICT sector. This Indian telecommunication company is one of the market leaders in the Indian telecommunication industry. Further, it has gain tremendous popularity due to its competitive pricing of tariffs. Further, to retain its market dominance as a market leader it has formulated aggressive plans for expansion of its cellular network as per the policy laid in the Tenth Telecommunication Plan of India. BSNL has one of the widest and deepest telecommunication networks in India. The governing body has ratified a huge budgetary allocation of Rs.733 crore in the next three years for the development of telecommunication infrastructure in India. BSNL is market leader and is vastly experienced in planning, installation, network integration and maintenance of switching and transmission networks. Further the company is equipped with a state-of-the-art Telecommunication Training Institute, which holds ISO 9000 certification.
The present turnover of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is of Rs.351, 820 million and the company has posted a net profit of Rs.99, 390 million in the financial year ended 31 March 2006-2007. Further, the infrastructure assets of telephone equipments, assessed during the last financial year are around Rs.630, 000 million. Mr Kuldeep Goyal, as the Chairman of the company, heads Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.
Some of the key notable points about BSNL are as follows
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has around 47.3 million line basic telephone capacity BSNL has around 4 million WLL capacity and 20.1 million Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) capacity It is equipped with more than 37382 fixed telephone exchanges, 18000 BTS, 287 satellite stations, 480196 Rkm of OFC cable and 63730 Rkm of microwave network Its network serves 7330 cities and towns, 602 districts and 5.5 lakh villages across India Cell One cellular service has more than 17.8 million subscribers representing around 25% of all mobile users of India BSNL has 35.1 million of basic telephony subscribers representing 85% of the landline subscriber base of India
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It has more than 2.5 million WLL customers It has 2.5 million Internet subscribers, using access modes like Dial-up, leased line, DIAS, account less Internet Aiming to increase its present customer base from 47 millions to 125 million lines by the end of December 2007
The products and services offered by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited are as follows
BSNL Landline BSNL Mobile BSNL WLL BSNL Internet BSNL Broadband BSNL MPLS VPN ISDN Leased line Intelligent Network Video conferencing Audio conferencing Enterprise solutions I-Net Telegraph EPABX Data communication
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited popularly known as VSNL is an India-based telecommunication service providing company. VSNL operates under the guardianship of the Ministry of Communication, Government of India and Department of Telecommunication, Government of India. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited operates according to the telecommunication policy laid as per the Indian Telecommunication Acts and Rules. The Government of India holds 75 % of equity shares of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited and the remaining 25 % equity shares are with Tata
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Teleservices Ltd - the legendary industry conglomerate the 'Tata Group '. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited was incorporated in 1986 under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. Soon after its inception, VSNL took over the control of the 'Overseas Communication Services' (OCS) the main Government of India telecommunication company. This gigantic telecommunication company of India has grown in leaps and bounds and it offers seamless service to its customers spread around the globe. This Indian telecommunication company is one of the market leaders in the Indian telecommunication industry and enjoys market dominance in the area of basic telephony, rural telephony and Internet connection. Further, it has gain tremendous popularity due to its competitive pricing of tariffs. The company is also into the business of cellular phone connection business and offers code directory multiple access (CDMA) connections for its mobile subscribers. Further, the company is planning to launch GSM mobile connections for its mobile subscribers. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited registered Total Income of Rs.4254.01 crore for the financial year ended 31st March 2006 - 2007and the company's Net Profit stands at Rs.468.56 crore over the same period. Mr Subodh Bhargava, Chairman of the company, heads this leading telecommunication company.
The products and services offered by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited are as follows
International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) Service National Private Leased Circuit (NPLC) Internet Leased Line Service Bandwidth on Demand Managed Data Network Service Virtual Private Network Service Inmarsat (International Maritime Satellite Organization) Broadcast Data Center Services (IDC) Video Conferencing Corporate Net Telephony ISDN
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Corporate Dial-up Solution Submarine Telecommunication Cables Access Facilitation Tata Indicom Business Messaging and Collaboration Services Tata Indicom Ethernet WAN Services International Long Distance National Long Distance Calling Cards
The international subsidiaries of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited are as follows
VSNL International Australia Pty. Ltd VSNL International GBRM Ltd VSNL International Puerto Rico Inc Teleglobe Asia Pte. Ltd Teleglobe Asia Data Transport Pte. Ltd Teleglobe Global Japan Teleglobe Bermuda Ltd ITXC IP Holdings Teleglobe International Ltd Teleglobe International Belgium Teleglobe America Inc VSNL International (Global) Corp. Enhanced Services Inc VSNL International IPCO LLC Teleglobe Netherlands VSNL International (Italy) Teleglobe France International TLGB International Germany GmbH VSNL International HongKong Ltd Teleglobe International Luxembourg ITXC Global UK Ltd. ITXC (UK) Ltd.
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ITXC Global Hong Kong Ltd. TLGB Netherlands Holdings VSNL International (ITXC) Corp. Teleglobe Spain Communications Teleglobe Canada VSNL International (Poland) VSNL International (Nordics) VSNL International (Portugal) VSNL International (ITXC) Corp
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited popularly known as MTNL is an India-based telecommunication service providing company. MTNL operates under the guardianship of the Ministry of Communication, Government of India and Department of Telecommunication, Government of India. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited operates according to the telecommunication policy laid as per the Indian Telecommunication Acts and Rules. MTNL enjoyed virtual market monopoly till the end of the year 2000.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited operates in two major metro cities of India, Mumbai and Delhi and this giant telecommunication company enjoyed complete market leadership till the aforesaid time. With the entry of private players in the cities of Mumbai and Delhi, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited lost its market monopoly. Competitive tariff schemes and lightening fast services are the main strengths of these private players and they took away with a major chunk of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited market share of subscribers. This led to lowering of tariff by the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited. This gigantic telecommunication company of India has grown in leaps and bounds and it offers seamless service to its customers. This Indian telecommunication company is one of the market leaders in the Indian telecommunication industry and enjoys market dominance in the area of basic telephony, rural telephony and Internet connection. Further, it has gain tremendous popularity due to its competitive pricing of tariffs. Further, to retain its market dominance as a market leader in Mumbai and Delhi, MTNL has aggressive plans of expansions of its cellular
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network as per the policy laid in the Tenth Telecommunication Plan of India. Furthermore, the company is also planning to expand its Internet services and IT related services to help it grow along the lines of other major telecommunication players operating in India. As per the latest company policy in accordance with the tenth telecommunication plan of India, the company is expected to add 27.56 lakh basic telephone connections along with 11.57 lakh cellular phone connections. Moreover, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited is making in roads in the field of M-commerce, which will eventually facilitate its customers to transact business via mobile phone or equivalent hand held devices. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited Net Current Assets stands at Rs.44186.71 million for the financial year ended 31st March 2006 - 2007and the company's Net Profit stands at Rs.6817.36 million over the same period. Mr R S P Sinha, Manging Director and Chairman, of the company, head this leading telecommunication company. The products and services offered by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited are as follows
Triband Broadband Internet Services Internet Express Bol Anmol Internet Telephony Leased Line Dolphin Mobile Garuda WLL Basic Telephony ISDN INET International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) Service National Private Leased Circuit (NPLC) Internet Leased Line Service Managed Data Network Service Virtual Private Network Service
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Broadcast Data Center Services Video Conferencing Corporate Net Telephony Messaging and Collaboration Services Ethernet WAN Services International Long Distance National Long Distance Calling Cards
The latest mission statement of the MTNL is as follows
To be a total telecommunication solution providing company To provide world class telecommunication services at affordable prices across its operating circles To be a global telecommunication company To be in the list of 'Fortune 500' companies To be the largest provider of private networks and leased lines across Delhi and Mumbai To explore other areas of business which compliments their strengths, both in the domestic market and international markets
Bharti Airtel is one of the topmost companies in the telecom sector in India and is under the Bharti Enterprises Group. Airtel Bharti has been ranked as the best performance company in the whole world by the Business Week magazine in 2007. The Company Bharti Airtel is in India the biggest integrated and also the 1st telephone service provider in the private sector, which has footprint in around 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel Limited has been since its very beginning using the latest technology and thus the company has paved the way for the telecom sector in India with its world-class services and products. This has helped Bharti Airtel Company to grow for the number of its customers has increased very rapidly over the years. The company has around 50 million customers in 2007 and its market share of mobile subscribers in India is at 23.4%.
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The company Bharti Airtel Limited's total revenue amounted to Rs.12,242 crore in 2006- 2007 and the net profit stood at Rs.3,126 crore. The Company Bharti Airtel is divided into 3 business units that are:

Broadband & Telephone (B&T) services Enterprise services Mobile services
Among the various services that the Bharti Airtel Limited Company provides to its customers, the services of broadband and telephone (B&T) are 1 of them. The company provides broadband Internet services of high speed for it has the best network in India. The company Bharti Airtel also provides telephone services in around 94 cities of the country and this helps the people to stay connected with one another. The company plans to expand its broadband and telephone services by providing IPTV services and DTH operations.
Further Bharti Airtel provides enterprise services to its customers. The services of enterprise provide telecom end-to-end solutions to customers who belong to the corporate sector and also long distance services to international and national carriers. The company Bharti Airtel has more than 35,016 kilometers of optic fiber, a submarine landing station, and is also a member of South East Asia- Middle East- Western Europe- 4. All this has helped the company to provide the best enterprise services to its customers. The company Bharti Airtel Limited plans to expand its enterprise services so that it can achieve the status of a global carrier within a period of 2- 3 years. The company Bharti Airtel Limited provides mobile services to its customers. The company provides fixed and mobile wireless services in around 23 telecom circles by using the GSM technology. Bharti Airtel Company has become the biggest mobile service provider in India on the basis of the number of customers. The company in the future plans to expand its network in order to establish its presence in more than 500,000 villages all across the country by 2010. Bharti Airtel has become a leading company in the telecom sector in India due to the fact that it has provided the best quality of services to its customers. And this has been possible for the company
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has a wide telecom network that is of the latest technology. The Company Bharti Airtel Limited in the future also should continue to upgrade its facilities for this will ensure that high grade of services are provided to its customers. Vodafone Essar: Vodafone Essar started its operations in India in 1994 and is under the Vodafone Group. The company Vodafone Essar Limited has become one of the leading companies in the telecom sector in India due to its high standard of services that it provides to its customers. The company Vodafone Essar has its operations in 16 telecom circles of the country, which covers around 86% of the customer mobile base in India. The company offers both postpaid and prepaid GSM cellular mobile coverage all across India and its hold is especially strong in the metropolitan cities. The company Vodafone Essar Limited provides services like 2G, which are based on 1800Mhz and 900Mhz GSM digital technology. The company Vodafone Essar also offers voice and data services. Vodafone Essar Limited has received many awards over the years such as the Best Mobile Service in India, Most Effective and Most Creative Advertiser of the Year, and Most Respected Telecom Company. The company Vodafone Essar Limited's chairman is Asim Ghosh, vice chairman is Arun Sarin, and non- executive chairman is Ravi Ruia. The Vodafone Essar subscriber bases in the cities of India are:

Kolkata - 1,632,875 Mumbai - 2,989,970 Delhi - 3,002,442 Chennai - 981,996
The company Vodafone Essar Limited plans to spend more than Rs.250 crore in launching low price cell phones in India. The company's objective in doing this is to bring in millions of cheap mobile handsets from around the world into the country and then sell them under the Vodafone brand name in order to maximize sales. It is expected that the company Vodafone Essar Limited will price the handsets in the range of Rs.666, Rs.999, and Rs.888. In this way the company
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expects to attract new customers and thus expand its customer base that stands at 35 million in 2007. Vodafone Essar plans to sell the low price handsets from its 4 lakhs distribution outlets. The company will buy the low cost cell phones from the firm ZTE that is located in China. The Company ZTE will ship more than 10 million low cost cell phones to India that will then be sold by the company Vodafone Essar. Vodafone Essar Company also has plans to expand in the near future and for this it is planning to take a loan overseas of around US$ 500 million. The company Vodafone Essar Limited will use the money to expand the company's network, better its technology, and open more distribution centers. All these measures will help to increase the customer base of the company Vodafone Essar. Vodafone Essar is one of the topmost companies in the telecom sector in India and is well known for the best quality of products and services offered to its customers. And this is the reason that the customer base of the company Vodafone Essar Limited has been increasing at a very rapid pace. The company is planning to launch low price cell phones in the country and also expand its operations. This is sure to help the company Vodafone Essar to grow and prosper even more in the future. Reliance Communications : Reliance Communications started its operations in 1999 and is under the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) of companies. The company Reliance Communications Limited has been set up with the aim of providing communication and information to people at affordable price. The company Reliance Communications business includes the whole range of services related to the telecom sector such as fixed line telephones and mobiles. The business of the company also includes services like broadband, data services, international and national long distance services. Reliance Communications also provides to its customers a wide range of value added applications and services. The company is able to provide such a vast range of services to its customers for it has a high- capacity, reliable, convergent, and integrated digital network.
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The Company Reliance Communications Limited in order to provide the best quality of services to its customers laid down 60,000 kilometers of optic fiber all across India. The company launched the Reliance Mobile services in December 2002 and this has helped to increase the subscriber base of the company. The company Reliance Communications Limited's subscriber base has increased a lot over the years and at present stands at 38 million. The company provides telecommunication services to individuals and enterprises. Reliance Communications Company has become the leading telecommunication integrated company in India and the chairman of the company is Anil Ambani. Reliance Communications Company's total revenue amounted to Rs.35, 260 million in 2005- 2006 and the next year, this figure stood at Rs.45, 785 million. The net profit of the company amounted to Rs.7, 023 million and the next year, this figure increased to Rs.13, 046 million. This shows that the company Reliance Communications Limited's total revenue and net profit has registered a significant growth in one year. The company is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. The company Reliance Communications Limited added a record number of subscribers in December 2006 that is 1.4 million.
The company Reliance Communications Limited's market capitalization reached the top with Rs.1 lakh crore on the Bombay Stock Exchange in February 2007. The company has bagged the EGovernance project of the West Bengal government in May 2007. The company Reliance Communications has won the Frost and Sullivan Market Leadership Award in October 2005 and also the CDMA Industry Achievement Award for International Leadership in October 2004. This shows that Reliance Communications has been doing very good work that has been recognized by the industry. And this is the reason that the company has received so many awards. Reliance Communications Limited further plans to expand its operations and also plans to upgrade its technology. This is sure to help the company serve its customers better and will also increase its subscriber base. The Company Reliance Communications Limited should always try to provide the best quality of services to its customers for this would lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty. And this will in turn help the company to grow and prosper even more.
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Tata Teleservices : Tata Teleservices was set up in 1996 and is under the Tata Group, which is a group worth around US$ 22 billion and has more than 96 companies. The company Tata Teleservices Limited has been formed with an investment of around US$ 7.5 billion.
The company Tata Teleservices has helped the Tata Group to have a strong presence in the telecom sector in India and the chairman of the company is Mr. Ratan N. Tata. The company was the 1st company in the country to launch the CDMA mobile services within the state of Andhra Pradesh. Tata Teleservices Limited offers various kinds of telephone services to its customers such as wireless desktop phones, wire line services, mobile services, and public booth telephony. Further the company also offers other services like value added services such as roaming, group calling, voice portal, data cards, Internet post paid services, 3- way conferencing, enterprise services, USB modem, Wi- Fi Internet, and calling card services. Tata Teleservices Company provides certain other products to its customers like new data and voice services which include picture messaging, ring tones, polyphonic, and interactive applications. The company pioneered the CDMA technology in the country and has reliable infrastructure that ensures the quality services received by the customers. The Company Tata Teleservices Limited has provided only high quality services to its customers and this has helped the company to become a market leader in the telephony fixed wireless market. The total subscriber base of Tata Teleservices is more than 3.8 million.
The company Tata Teleservices Limited in order to expand its domain, has acquired the Company Hughes Telecoms (India) Limited in December 2002. Further the company has made a total investment of around Rs.19, 924 crore in making an all India presence in around 20 telecom circle. The major telecom circles where the Company Tata Teleservices has its presence are Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The company provides employment to more than 6000 people and as the company is expanding it is going to create over 20,000 jobs in the near future.
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Tata Teleservices Limited launched the scheme of non-stop mobile that allows a subscriber to receive incoming calls free of cost. The company has become the biggest telecom branded retail chain and is also the 1st telecom service provider in India that offers postpaid mobile connections on line. The company Tata Teleservices Limited in order to expand its operations has partnered with Ericsson, ECI Telecom, Lucent, and Motorola so that it can deploy reliable network that is technologically very advanced. The company has become a leading company in the telecom sector in India for the quality of its services that it provides to its customers. And as the company Tata Teleservices Limited is expanding and upgrading its technology it sure will help the company to provide even better services to its customers. Tata Teleservices must continue to provide the best quality of services to its customers for this will lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty and this in turn will help the company to grow and prosper. Spice Telecom: Spice Telecom operates services in the cellular phone sector in the Indian states of Karnataka and Punjab. Mr. Dilip Modi and Modi Wellvest Private Limited have promoted the Company Spice Telecom Limited. The Company Spice Telecom is considered as 1 of the leading service providers in the mobile telephony sector in India. The company was the 1st one in the country to introduce the unique services of VAS. Spice Telecom Company ranks among the top 6 GSM private operators in the country. The Company Spice Telecom offers pre paid and post paid mobile services. The company has launched many offers in the prepaid mobile service such as super saver plan, value plan, student plan, lifetime plan, 999 plans, and standard plan. Spice Telecom Limited has also launched many schemes in the post-paid sector like Spice Postpaid 450, Spice Postpaid 650, Spice Postpaid 999, Spice Postpaid 300, and Spice Postpaid 225. The Company Spice Telecom Limited provides various kinds of services to its customers such as voice mail, mobile radio, MMS, video tones, my tunes, Spice mute, 32K power packed SIM, and BGM. The company also provides roaming facilities to its customers as a result of which the
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customer is accessible wherever he travels across the 58 circles around the country, which covers over 1000 destinations. The Company Spice Telecom has a highly technologically advanced network that is GPRS enabled. This has helped the company to provide the best quality of services to its customers and this in turn has helped to increase the subscriber base of the company. Spice Telecom Limited has a customer base that is over 3.0 million in 2007.
In the Company Spice Telecom Limited equity of around 40.80% belongs to Modi Wellvest and 39.20% equity belongs to Telekom Malaysia Berhad. The company has tie- ups with more than 448 international operators that are spread across 208 countries of the world. And this has helped Spice Telecom Company to serve its customers more efficiently. The total income of the company amounted to Rs.53, 974.3 lakhs in 2005- 2006 and the next year, this figure stood at Rs.70, 227.8 lakhs. The net profit of the Company Spice Telecom Limited stood at Rs.1, 063.4 lakhs and the next year, this figure increased to Rs.1, 978.6 lakhs. This shows that the company has registered sharp increase in its total income and net profit in 1 year.
Spice Telecom has plans to further expand its operations and also upgrade its technology. This is sure to improve the company's service that it provides to its customers. This will help the company to grow and prosper even more. It will also help the Company Spice Telecom Limited to become the top company in the telecom sector in India.
Spice Telecom must continue to provide top class services to its customers for this will ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. And this will help the company to increase its total income and net profit levels.
Idea Cellular : Idea Cellular started its operations in 1995 and is under the Aditya Birla Group, which holds 98.3% stake in the company. The Company Idea Cellular Limited is one of the telephony wireless companies that functions in many states in India.
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The Company Idea Cellular is the leading mobile services GSM operator in the country. The Company Idea Cellular Limited is the only cellular operator in India to launch EDGE and GPRS. The chairman of the company is Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla and the managing director is Mr. Sanjeev Aga. Idea Cellular Limited has the license to provide services in 11 telecom circles in the country. The telecom circles where the Company Idea Cellular has operations are Goa, Maharashtra, Andhra- Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Gujarat, Delhi, UPWest, and Madhya Pradesh. The company's footprint at present covers around 45% of the population of India and more than 50% of the telecom market.
Idea Cellular Limited was the 1st cellular company in the country to launch the scheme of music messaging with background tones, cellular jockey, and group talk. The company was also the 1st to launch mobile email services and voice portal. Idea Cellular Company offers various services to its customers that includes prepaid and post paid mobile services. The company also offers roaming, value added services, and call management services to its customers. The Company Idea Cellular Limited has offered revolutionary tariff plans to its customers such as Lifetime Idea, Super Power, Women's Card, Lifelong offer, and Outdoing 2 Minutes Free.
Idea Cellular in call management services offers various services to its customers such as call conference, CLIP, CLIR, call divert, itemized bill, and call wait facilities. The company provides roaming facility to its customers who is very efficient for the company has a very wide network, which covers more than 530 cities in the country and also in around 80 countries across the world. The Company Idea Cellular also provides it customers with the facility that they can pay their mobile bills on line through the company's website. As the company provides the best services to its customers, the subscriber base of the company has increased at a very rapid pace. The subscriber bases of Idea Cellular in various states of India are:

Andhra Pradesh - 1,737,116 Haryana - 834,786 Rajasthan - 235,330 Maharashtra - 2,807,982 Madhya Pradesh - 1,328,780
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Gujarat - 1,715,774 Kerala - 1,482,799
The Company Idea Cellular Limited has won the GSM Association Award in the category of Bill Flash. The company is the 1st cellular operator in the country who has won an award on such a big platform. Idea Cellular Limited in order to expand even more has acquired the Company Escotel in 2004. The number of telecom circles where the company operates has increased with this acquisition and thus it has helped the company to have a pan India presence. The Company Idea Cellular is also planning to upgrade its network that will ensure that the best quality of service is provided to its customers. Idea Cellular has become the topmost company in the telecom sector in India on the basis of the quality of its services. And so in the future also, the company must continue to provide its customers with better facilities for this will help the company to grow and prosper. Sasken Network Engineering Limited : Sasken Network Engineering Limited (SNEL) was set up in 2004 with the name Blue Broadband Technologies. The company was taken over by Sasken Communication Technologies Limited and was renamed the Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited in 2005. The Company Sasken Network Engineering is a telecom solutions provider company that is based in Bangalore, India. The chief executive of the company is Rajiv C. Mody and the BU head is Kush Shah. Sasken Network Engineering Company offers total life cycle product solutions to Service Providers (SP) and management to Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEM) of different networks. The company offers its services mainly to the networks of mobile communication. Sasken Network Engineering offers engineering services for deployment, operating, and planning wireless networks. The Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited is able to provide services in so many fields for it has expertise in engineering network services. The company also has expertise across
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technologies like UMTS, HSDPA, GSM, CDMA, and TD-SCDMA. The various services that Sasken Network Engineering Limited offers under the section of Network Planning are system engineering, radio network planning, microwave planning, and site engineering. Further the services that the Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited offers under the section of Network Operations Support are training services, network surveillance, remote technical support, and network optimization. Also the services offered by Sasken Network Engineering Company under the section of Network Support Service are network capacity management, subscriber provisioning, and network translations.
The services that the Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited offers under the section of Network Deployment are re- deployment, commissioning and installation, in building solutions, and network integration. Thus it can be seen that the company is a solution for all services related to the engineering sector that are required during the deployment, pre deployment, and post deployment steps of the roll out of a wireless network. Sasken Network Engineering Limited has always given the best quality of services to its customers in a cost effective manner. This is the reason that the company has become a leading company in the network-engineering sector. The Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited is also in the network-engineering sector the 1st Indian company to receive the TL 9000 certification in February 2006. This shows that the company provides high quality services to its customers.
The Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited plans to expand its operations and it also plans to upgrade its facilities. All these measures will ensure that the services that the company provides to its customers are of world-class standards.
Sasken Network Engineering Limited has become 1 of the topmost company in the networkengineering sector in India. The company should try to provide its customers with even better services for this would ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. And this in turn will help the Company Sasken Network Engineering Limited to grow and prosper even more.
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BPL Mobile Communications: BPL Mobile Communications Limited offers GSM wireless facilities in three states of India besides offering broadband facilities via wireless bplnet with an ADSL internet competence. Company Background Based in Bangalore, the firm is the subordinate of Vodafone Essar Ltd. BPL Mobile has had the opportunity of providing the communications requirements of the fiscal center of India for the past 13 years. Later, in the year 2009, BPL Mobile rebranded itself as Loop Mobile and has been operating since then in Mumbai. Its latest identity, Loop Mobile symbolizes development with stability. The firm incessantly functions towards providing their subscribers an excellent set of connections, inventive products and a better-quality cellular telephony understanding. It pledges to sustain the same focus and dedication in offering the excellent network connectivity, billing precision, and a matchless custom-made client service. In an attempt to offer best of customer service practices, BPL Mobile Communications Limited have endowed more than Rs 300 crore to improvise to Next Generation IP (NGIP) set-up. This extremely competent network improvisation allows the provider to provide supreme voice clearness and wide-ranging coverage along with prompt data facilities. The firm is the only one in India to have fulfilled the TRAI yardsticks on a set-up and service excellence constraints. BPL Mobile Communications has also been ranked as the best set-up by Voice & Data, a primary Telecom periodical, in their 2008 SAARC Mobile Users' Agreement Review.
BPL Mobile Communications Limited has achieved a considerable Mumbai market share of additional subscribers. The importance on expansion is evidently replicated in the firm's increasing subscriber base. The firm traversed the user's mark of 2-Million in 2009.
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About Loop Mobile India Limited Loop Telecom Limited recently declared the commencement of its cellular functioning across 21 Indian states. With positivity, fervor and determination, the service provider promises to offer an unrivaled quality of services across India and abroad.
With an unwavering tenacity, the firm consigns to improve their client's tender points and raise their anticipations through performance yardsticks and endeavor to geberate new service standards. The firm looks forward to create a world of never-ending, straightforward and omnipresent communication where clients can rely on undemanding competitive schemes and better network coverage. Products & Services by Loop Mobile India Limited
The firm offers exciting offers through its Prepaid, Post-paid and roaming schemes. Postpaid offers
STD @ 50p
By enabling the plan clients can make all local and STD calls at 50p by buying a STD Special plan worth Rs 299.
Add On Card
The Add on card is available for providing minimal fees & intercalling charges.
Group Plans
Through this plan the user can talk limitless with their Family, Friends and acquaintances at zero prices.
My Loop Mobile Bill

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Through this the user can understand his Loop Mobile phone bill and select to forfeit it in any part of India as per his expediency. Prepaid offers
Mumbai ka Gang
The customer can now enjoy call rates at 10p/min for 60 sec pulse subs with this scheme for life.
Duskagang
Nxt Gen: By accessing this plan, the users can now make calls calls and send SMS within his Gang of friends constituting any10 at only 10p. The calling charges from Loop Mobile to Loop Mobile is at 30p/min
Pay per Second Plan
The customer can now enjoy Local & mobile STD calls @ just 1p/sec, through this attractive plan.
SIMPLE FIFTY
Lifetime Plan @ just 50p: Benefit from this plan by making limitless calls to any Mobile @ only 50p/min, in any part of India. To access this plan no charges or schemes are needed.
US Calling Card
The users can now make calls to US @ only Rs 1.99/min provided they are made between 11pm to 7am of the day.
New One2One
An attractive plan for prepaid users who can call from any Loop Mobile to another Loop Mobile at only 30p/min. another advantage of this plan is Local SMS @ 30p/msg and National SMS @ 50p/msg.
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Jaadu Recharge
Through this scheme Loop Mobile provides the access to the clients to select their individual tariff plan and minimize their Local and STD call charges.
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CHAPTER 3 INTRODUCTION: Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy products. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized in to social choice and welfare functions. Each method for vote counting is assumed as a social function but if Arrows possibility theorem is used for a social function, social welfare function is achieved. Some specifications of the social functions are decisiveness, neutrality, anonymity, monotonocity, unanimity, homogeneity and weak and strong Pareto optimality. No social choice function meets these requirements in an ordinal scale simultaneously. The most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer (Kioumarsi et al., 2009). Belch and Belch define consumer behaviour as 'the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires'.'
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Black box model ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Marketing Stimuli Product Price Place Promotion Environmental Stimuli Economic Technological Political Cultural Demographic Natural BUYER'S BLACK BOX Buyer Characteristics Attitudes Motivation Perceptions Personality Lifestyle Knowledge Decision Process
BUYER'S RESPONSE
Problem Product choice recognition Brand choice Information search Dealer choice Alternative Purchase timing evaluation Purchase amount Purchase decision Post-purchase behavior
The black box model shows the interaction of stimuli, consumer characteristics, decision process and consumer responses. It can be distinguished between interpersonal stimuli (between people) or intrapersonal stimuli (within people). The black box model is related to theblack box theory of behaviourism, where the focus is not set on the processes inside a consumer, but the relation between the stimuli and the response of the consumer. The marketing stimuli are planned and processed by the companies, whereas the environmental stimulus are given by social factors, based on the economical, political and cultural circumstances of a society. The buyers black box contains the buyer characteristics and the decision process, which determines the buyers response. The black box model considers the buyers response as a result of a conscious, rational decision process, in which it is assumed that the buyer has recognized the problem. However, in reality many decisions are not made in awareness of a determined problem by the consumer. Information search Once the consumer has recognized a problem, they search for information on products and services that can solve that problem. Belch and Belch (2007) explain that consumers undertake both an internal (memory) and an external search. Sources of information include:
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Personal sources Commercial sources Public sources Personal experience
The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with information search is perception. Perception is defined as 'the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world' The selective perception process Stage Description - Selective exposure consumers select which promotional messages they will expose themselves to. - Selective attention consumers select which promotional messages they will pay attention to - Selective comprehension consumer interpret messages in line with their beliefs, attitudes, motives and experiences - Selective retention consumers remember messages that are more meaningful or important to them The implications of this process help develop an effective promotional strategy, and select which sources of information are more effective for the brand.CV Information evaluation At this time the consumer compares the brands and products that are in their evoked set. How can the marketing organization increase the likelihood that their brand is part of the consumer's evoked (consideration) set? Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional and psychological benefits that they offer. The marketing organization needs to understand what benefits consumers are seeking and therefore which attributes are most important in terms of making a decision.
Purchase decision Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. The marketing organization
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must facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase intention. The provision of credit or payment terms may encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase decision is integration. Post purchase evaluation It is common for customers to experience concerns after making a purchase decision. This arises from a concept that is known as cognitive dissonance. The customer, having bought a product, may feel that an alternative would have been preferable. In these circumstances that customer will not repurchase immediately, but is likely to switch brands next time. To manage the post-purchase stage, it is the job of the marketing team to persuade the potential customer that the product will satisfy his or her needs. Then after having made a purchase, the customer should be encouraged that he or she has made the right decision. it is not effected by advertisement. Internal influences Consumer behaviour is influenced by: demographics, psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. consumer behaviour concern with consumer need consumer actions in the direction of satisfing needs leads to his behaviour of every individuals depend on thinking process External influences Consumer behaviour is influenced by: culture,sub-culture, locality, royalty, ethnicity, family, social class, reference groups, lifestyle, and market mix factors.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MARKETING Introduction

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The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as how
The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products); The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media); The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.
One "official" definition of consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society." Although it is not necessary to memorize this definition, it brings up some useful points:
Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products the firm should use).
Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest.
Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.
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The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For example, aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy credit, may have serious repercussions for the national health and economy.
There are four main applications of consumer behavior:
The most obvious is for marketing strategyi.e., for making better marketing campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon. By understanding that new products are usually initially adopted by a few consumers and only spread later, and then only gradually, to the rest of the population, we learn that (1) companies that introduce new products must be well financed so that they can stay afloat until their products become a commercial success and (2) it is important to please initial customers, since they will in turn influence many subsequent customers brand choices.
A second application is public policy. In the 1980s, Accutane, a near miracle cure for acne, was introduced. Unfortunately, Accutane resulted in severe birth defects if taken by pregnant women. Although physicians were instructed to warn their female patients of this, a number still became pregnant while taking the drug. To get consumers attention, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took the step of requiring that very graphic pictures of deformed babies be shown on the medicine containers.
Social marketing involves getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling something. Marty Fishbein, a marketing professor, went on sabbatical to work for the Centers for Disease Control trying to reduce the incidence of transmission of diseases through illegal drug use. The best solution, obviously, would be if we could get illegal drug users to stop. This, however, was deemed to be infeasible. It was also determined that the practice of sharing needles was too ingrained in the drug culture to be stopped. As a result, using knowledge of consumer attitudes, Dr. Fishbein created a campaign that encouraged the cleaning of needles in bleach before sharing them, a goal that was believed to be more realistic.
As a final benefit, studying consumer behavior should make us better consumers. Common sense suggests, for example, that if you buy a 64 liquid ounce bottle of laundry detergent, you should pay less per ounce than if you bought two 32 ounce bottles. In practice,
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however, you often pay a size premium by buying the larger quantity. In other words, in this case, knowing this fact will sensitize you to the need to check the unit cost labels to determine if you are really getting a bargain. There are several units in the market that can be analyzed. Our main thrust in this course is the consumer. However, we will also need to analyze our own firms strengths and weaknesses and those of competing firms. Suppose, for example, that we make a product aimed at older consumers, a growing segment. A competing firm that targets babies, a shrinking market, is likely to consider repositioning toward our market. To assess a competing firms potential threat, we need to examine its assets (e.g., technology, patents, market knowledge, awareness of its brands) against pressures it faces from the market. Finally, we need to assess conditions (the marketing environment). For example, although we may have developed a product that offers great appeal for consumers, a recession may cut demand dramatically.
CHAPTER 4 Research Methodology
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Research objectives: To understand the improvement and customer preferences in telecom sector. To study the service providers and their services in telecom sector To study the customer satisfaction and current scenario in telecom sector
Samples: Sample size: 100 Sample Frame : Jaipur City Sample Unit : East Jaipur and west Jaipur Sampling Method: Simple random sampling Constraints: Time & No. of respondents Survey: Questionnaire
Observations and findings: 1. Age Group 10 20: 20 40: Above 40: 15 47 38
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2. Gender Male : 68% Female: 32%
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3. Whose service (s) are you rendering now? Through the above analysis, we can easily find out that in eastern part; majority of the people still prefer BSNL more. Bust in the western part , people prefer Airtel as their preferred connection. BSNL is clear winner with 56% in east region but in west region Airtel is leading with 40%. In the both regions, there is a huge competition among private players, as per the survey. In western part, it clearly shows tough competition between reliance and Vodafone but in eastern part Reliance is very far from Vodafone. It is because of Reliances different schemes like reliance to reliance free talk etc. have helped it to gain more market share as found out through survey.
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4. Which technology do you prefer? As per the data, it can be analyzed that in spite of tough competition between GSM and CDMA Service provider, the GSM has earned huge market share with 71%. There are only 4% people who want to use both the technologies. Only 26% people preferred CDMA which is very less compared to the competition level and GSM s market share.
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5. How long have you been using this connection of your service provider? From the below analysis it can be found that in the east part, 43% of the total people have kept their connection for more than three years. Whereas, only 7% of total people prefer to keep existing connection for 3 -6 months. The graph also reveals that more the duration is, more people preferred to keep existing connection.
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The above graph shows that in the east part, 47% of the total people have kept their connection for more than three years which is also higher the east part. The data also shows the number of persons who keep or wants to keep their existing connection for long period are more than the short period like 1 -2 years. 6. Rate your satisfaction level of service provider.
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Customers satisfaction plays a important role for service provider. In the eastern part, 28.25% people are satisfied with their service provider whereas in the western part 33.58% people are satisfied with their service provider. In western region overall satisfaction level i.e. good, very good is higher than the satisfaction level of eastern region. Though there are people who are not satisfied with their connections. But still in eastern part bad experience level is higher than western part. In east region around 17% people are there who have bad experience or who are not satisfied but in west region it is around 12%. 7. What kind of expectations do you have from your service providers? As per the research, people of the eastern part of the city are more inclined towards the network of their service providers followed by price offered by service providers. Here, the price not only includes amount of the prepaid and postpaid connections but it also includes different schemes, tariff plans etc.As per the data, almost 42% of the total population in the eastern part prefer network as priority on other features. People in eastern part looking for the moneys worth so price is their second highest factor.
In the western part people are more inclined towards the network and good services of their service providers. From the above graph it can easily seen that two factors i.e, network and
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good services are very close to each other having 43.27% and 40.43% respectively. Though, people prefer more of network just like east region but service provided by service provider also matter. Here, the price and voice quality factors are comparatively lower. Voice clarity factor is lower in both the regions.
8. Are you aware of role of telecom services in providing broadband services without using cable TV network? As per the findings and above chart, it can be said eastern area is not aware of role of telecom services in providing broadband services without using cable TV network. 69.54% people unaware of this facility, only 30.46 are aware of it. Whereas, in western area, 57.68% people unaware of this facility, only 44.13% are aware of it. Both the charts shows huge difference between them.
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9. How much do you spend per month on your mobile connection? Spending pattern is also another criterion which is crucial for any service provider. Customers spending habit shows their loyalty towards the product. For example, If a customer frequently spends money on same product that shows he prefer to buy that product than other products which ultimately leads to his loyalty towards to that product.
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In eastern region , maximum spending is between Rs. 500 to Rs.1000, done by 40.11% of the total post paid connection users out of surveyed people. Whereas , the lowest spending is above Rs.1500 , done by 8.9% people. In the case of pre paid connection, highest spending done up to Rs.500 which is done by 72.22 % people out of total surveyed people. Whereas , the lowest spending is above Rs.1500 , done by 3.34 % people.
Above graph shows that usage pattern of western region is very much different from eastern area. In case of post paid connections, it can be seen that there is a lot of
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consumptions 37.21% and 32.75% in the ranges of Rs.500 Rs.1000 and Rs. 1001 Rs.1500 respectively. The usage pattern in these two ranges are almost same. There are 23.45% customers whose usage is up to Rs. 500 and only 7.44% is in above Rs.1500. Whereas in case of prepaid connections, same as eastern region maximum usage is upto Rs.500 by 50.79% people dominatingly followed by range of Rs.501 Rs.1000 which is consumed by 31.03% people.4.30 % customers are spending above Rs.1500.
10. How do you find behavior of customer care executives of your service provider?
Acceptance or rejection of any product is depended on services provided by customer care that service provider which is also known as after sales service or customer relationship management. If a company provides better services to customer by solving their queries, it can be successful to retain them. Similarly in case of telecom service provider after sales service plays important role to retain customers by solving their problems.
As per the survey it was found that, in eastern area, around 61% people out of total surveyed people found customer care executive professional and prompt in their approach. Only 8.53% people found them lazy and slow in their approach and 3.67% people are not
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happy with the customer care service means they customer care executives are not responding them properly. But in case of western area, around 73.38% people out of total surveyed people found customer care executive professional and prompt in their approach. Only 4.29% people found them lazy and slow in their approach and 1.8% people are not happy with the customer care service . 11. What do you think about competition in the market? There is a huge completion in market in todays scenario. Many companies try to gain as many customers as they can by providing them different schemes and try to retain existing customers by the same. So competition is important factor in plays an important role to gain market share.
As per the survey in the eastern region, it was found from his question that there are 2% customers who do not have any choice to chose thee service provider and change them. If they are not satisfied with their services and facilities, but 41.67% customers said that they have some choice and 39.08% said that they have enough choice for the same. But 13.56% customers were in the dilemma and 3.88% were not aware of the competition.
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In the western region as per graph it was found that 81.10% customers feel that they have enough choice in the market in this competitive market. 12.61% customers feel that they have some choice for the service provider and 3.79% people are not sure. Only 1% customers are unaware of the competitive scenario in market and 2.5% customers dont have choice.
12. Given a choice with same number, which service provider will you select? As the below chat suggests and as per the findings, it can be seen that in the east part, in the majority cases customers prefer to have BSNL having 46.59% preference opinion , followed by RELIANCE and AIRTEL having preferred by 28.18% and 14.26% customers respectively. Only 1% people prefer to have TATA and 3.33% in case of IDEA. VODAPHONE is preferred by 6.84% customers as it is little bit expensive though it has very good network coverage.
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In the west part, there is tough competition among AIRTEL, VODAPHONE and BSNL. AIRTEL is preferred by 38.25% customers and VODAPHONE by 30.06% customers. BSNL is preferred by 22.34% customers. RELIANCE is preferred by 6% people, followed by IDEA and TATA with 3.10% 1.57%respectively.
So, in the east part, customers will prefer BSNL more and in the west part, AIRTEL is preferred more by the customers if they are given a choice with the same number.
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13. What is your purchase intent for news alerts on mobile phone?
Customers usage is not only dependent on how much he/she spends on talking on phone but also on various value added services he/she use. As per the survey findings, it can be concluded that there are many similarity in the usage pattern of the east and the west region customers. Maximum usage for news alerts on mobile of both the regions is for business news, 54.35% in the eastern region and 51.88% in the western region which is very close. But second preference in case of news alerts is an entertainment in case of the western region but in case of east region, it only 11.78%. In the east region 22.44% customers prefer general news as their second preference but it third preference in the case of western region 16.15%. Sports and astrological prediction are vey less preferred by the region customers, specifically astrological news are the lowest preference in the both case. 14. Rate of following attributes of your service provider. a) Customer care: As per the survey conducted and its findings, it was concluded that AIRTEL is leader in maintaining a good elation with its customers and it solve customers problem efficiently
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and effectively. It has got the highest preference by the customers with 76.46%, followed by VODAPHONE with 68.83%. The lowest preference is of BSNL. Its customer care is not as good as the other players in the market, as per the findings. It is preferred by only 17.92 customers.
b) Per call charges
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As per findings, it was concluded that in both the regions together, once again AIRTELs ISD charges are very good compared to the other operators. 28.58% people think that it has very low ISD charges, followed by BSNL and VODAPHONE having 27.57%and 23.90% preference respectively. The poorest ISD charges are of RELIANCE which is voted by 20.84% people. Followed by TATA with 18.28% voting among the average category highest is 27.74% of IDEA which means 27.74%customers feel that IDEA has an average ISD call charges.
As the above graph shows, it can be said that STD call charges are very good in case Airtel. 30.39% people prefer that, followed by Vodafone which is preferred by 28.66% people. In case of poor category, Tata is having the poorest STD call rates with 14.02% Customers preference, whereas, in poor category, Vodafone is poor with 9.81% customers preference. In average and good category, Tata and Idea with 35.77% and 27.68% preference respectively.
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As the above graph reveals, in local combined, Reliance is leading with 40.58% customers preference. It is because of its scheme like Reliance to Reliance free talk. It has become more popular than the other schemes provided by other operator. In the poorest call charge, Tata is a leader with 9.72% voting, in case of average charges, Vodafone is leading with 37.69% voting and preference by customers. c) Message service:
From the survey, the information related to massage service was found and it was concluded that Vodafone provides the best services to its customer and it is preferred by
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36.20% customers, followed by Airtel with 30.41% customer preference. In case of poorest massage service, BSNL is rated highest with 13.89% customers, followed by Idea with 11.63%.there is very close rating is very poor section. Reliance is just behind Idea with 10.11% rating. In case of average rating, Idea is at the top place with 31.91% customer preference, followed by Airtel with 31.91% rating. d) Network: as per the findings on the basis of this attribute, it was found that Vodafone has good network coverage with 43.72% rating, followed by BSNL with 40.24% rating. It show very close competition for network.BSNL got this higher rating according to the survey, people also take roaming network into consideration and on the basis of that it was found that BSNL has got the best network facility in roaming. In case of poorest network, it was very close rating. But as per the survey, Idea has the poorest network as it has got the highest rating by the customers from both the regions together. In case of the average preference, Idea has got the average rating having 29.07% customers rating.
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e) Scheme:
As the graph show, preferences in case of service providers different schemes are maximum in case of BSNL as it is the cheapest as per the customers responses and findings. BSNL is rated highest as a provider of very schemes with 36.28% customers preferences, followed by Airtel with 31.08% customers preference. Here, the graph also shows that there is a close competition between Airtel and Reliance in case of very good rating category. Reliance is just behind AIRTEL with 30.77 rating. The graph also reveals about the rating by the customers as their lowest preference. The lowest preference is of TATA with 15.8% customer ratings. It has got the highest rating among all the operators. The average rating is of VODAPHONE in case of providing schemes. It has got average preference of 32.02% customers rating. f) Talk-time and validity: Customers choices differ from area to area. Where, by combining both of reason, it was found from the gathered information has got very good talk-time and validity. In spite of the close competition, BSNL has leaded the market with 38% customers preference, followed by AIRTEL and VODAPHONE with 37.70% and 37.46% ratings respectively. In
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case of the average customers preference, TATA is leader with 36.17%ratings followed by IDEA with 31.06% customer ratings but among all the telecom operators, the poorest talktime and validity provider is IDEA with 7.58%customes ratings.
g) value added services (VAS):
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As the above graph clearly depicts that extra benefits i.e. are VAS are well provided by VODAPHONE with 43.96% followed by AIRTEL with 41.76% customers preference. There is a tough competition between VODAPHONE and AIRTEL in the market. But the poorest and the lowest VAS are provided by BSNL as per customers preference survey. It has the highest ratings i.e. the poorest rating of 12.91%. The average VAS preferred by the customers is of IDEA which has the rating of 25.88%. h) Availability
As per the above graph reveals, the very good availability of the telecom brand is VODAPHONE having 45.21% customer ratings. AIRTEL is at the second place with the minor difference of 42.90%. There is a tough competition going on among VODAPHONE, AIRTEL and BSNL in case of availability is of TATA with 33.39% followed by IDEA with 32.51%. Very poor availability is of RELIANCE. It has got 7.97% customers ratings. i) Billing system: As the below graph shows, the billing system is very good of AIRTEL with 42% customer preference followed by 41.68% of VODAPHONE. As it can be seen from the graph that all the operators are very close to each other in case of billing service. The graph also depicts that average billing system is of IDEA has got 27.70% highest customer ratings followed
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by RELIANCE with 22% rating. But the poorest billing system among all is of BSNL which has got highest 13.98% customers rating.
j) Voice clarity: From the survey conducted and from the above graph, it was concluded that voice clarity is much better of Vodafone which is rated highest having 48.19% customers preferences. At the second place, it is AIRTEL with 44.61% rating. The average quality of voice clarity is of Idea with 23.12% ratings. It is very close to Tata having 23.10% customers preference as average voice clarity. BSNL has the poorest voice clarity and rated as the worst operator by 7.13 people.
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15. How do you find ISD rates of your service provider?
As the above chat shows, the customers in the Eastern area think that the services they are rendering are economical. 38.52% customers think like that. Though, there is a close rating between Economical and Costly affordable but it shows that there are 36.73% people who think that the services they are offered are costly but can be afforded and only 24.82% people think that they are too costly to afford. Whereas, in case of Western area, it was found that 48.37% customers think that their service providers are economical. But 30.61% customers think that it is costly unaffordable. So
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compared to Eastern area customers, Western area customers are less who think that their operators are costly affordable and more in terms of economical.
16. How long do you have to wait in customer care? The customers liking about a particular service provider is also depended on how the customer care executive solves his problem and how much time he takes to reach the customer. So, here the data is collected on the basis of how much a customer has to wait while calling the customer care. The data reveals that in both the regions together, majority of the customers i.e. 38.21% have to wait for an average time of 3 5 minutes. The second highest rating is for 2 minutes which is rated by 23.84% of the customers which is quite fair. There are 6.78% customers who have to wait for 11 minutes or more which is not bad. Surprisingly, there are 20.94% customers who have to wait up to 1 minute time to each to the customer care executive is vey good.
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17. Are you aware of 3G technology? There are new inventions and technologies come up in the market to enhance the competition and make the usage much faster and also useful as well as easy to use. 3G technology is one of those technologies. In the survey, it was asked to customers whether they are aware of new 3G technology or not.
The results are mentioned in the above chart. In the eastern part, 64.28% people are aware of this technology and 35.72% people are not aware of it. But in case of the western part, 82.3% people are aware of that technology and 17.70% people are unaware of it. It can be seen that
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there is a huge difference between the awareness of 3G technology in the Eastern and the Western part of the city. So, this is the primary information which was collected though the survey in both the regions of the city.
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CHAPTER 5 SWOT Analysis of Indian Telecom Sector
Strengths: Huge wireless subscriber potential One of fastest growing sector Consumers are ready to pay for cutting edge services FDI limits are 74% Unified license regime
Weaknesses: Lowest call tariffs Market is regulated by Government bodies Too many authorities are ruling this sector Wide scales of consumer churn in this sector. Now the number portability is coming up so it will increase the consumer churn rate Value added services (VAS) is restricted because of literacy and language problem It is difficult to make into the semi-rural and rural areas because of the lack of infrastructure. Problem of limited spectrum availability and the issue of interconnection charges between the private and state operators.
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Opportunities: To offer more VAS on GSM, CDMA and internet service providers (ISP). Language independent services. E.g. sending the message in local language, information available in local language etc. New innovations in service providers Huge content providing to local culture as well as globally Foreign investments in the form of equity or technology Unified messaging platforms
Threats: Weak Intellectual Property Right (IPR) Threat of low cost service providers Political instability Regulator interference The service providers have to incur a huge initial fixed cost to make a mark in rural markets. Achieving break-even under these circumstances may prove to be difficult.
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CHAPTER 6 Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusion: India has one of the worlds largest telecommunication networks. The telecom story continues to be the best evidence of the efficacy of the of the reforms process. In just six years the number of mobile subscriber has gone up from just about one million hundred million, a subscriber base that only four other countries. China, USA, Japan and Russia can boost of. None can doubt the correlation between this explosive growth in numbers and the steep decline in the cost of the mobile phone and of its usage. Effective traffics have dropped from over Rs 14 a minute to Rs 1, bringing the phone within the reach of people even below the middle class. The government may have, therefore landed itself a winner in the mobile phone service providers, but the task of taking telecom to the other 90% of the population will call for even greater innovation in policy making and technology in marketing. Still three fourth of the landmarks is known illuminated by a cellular signal and the price of the instrument is beyond the reach of a substantial section of a population let alone the charges for its use. These issues, of course, can be resolved by decisive policy action, such as the creative use of the Universal Service Obligation fund that now has over rupees 70 billion, releasing adequate spectrum to operators in the metros, and a protective investment policy that invited many more equipment manufacturers to setup base in this country. The number portability issues will solve many problems and will help the end users, which will change the whole scenario of competition and will make the game tougher for the service providers. Looking at the completion trend, it seems that soon in future, rural schools will be having broadband and internet facilities as their part of studies as routine lives. There is availability of internet facility in many village but soon it will be taught in secondary and higher secondary schools in all village and various technology like 3G and various VAS have made the market more
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competitive and made easy for the users. Implementations of number portability and 3G technology have solved many problems and made easy and comfortably for the customers. Recommendation: As mentioned in the future of Indian telecom and on the basis of primary research and secondary research, the following recommendation can be concluded: Lowering the traffic plans of service providers will increase more complication. In order to allow technological up gradation, segment policies should be technologyneutral, and not specifically perspective. Resolve spectrum allocation and create need-based licensing of spectrum bandwidth to facilitate the policy of unlimited entrants in basic services. Pass rules on number portability (service migration) to allow free market conditions for fixed line consumers, without taxing new entrants or consumers for moving away from a monopoly service provider. Bringing more up gradation in VAS for the betterment of the users. Improvement of the network infrastructure in both the urban and rural areas. Reducing the STD and ISD charges for the users. More FDI inflows can be enhanced. More Direct To Home (DTH) services will give benefits to the customers. CDMA technology providers i.e. Tata and reliance are slowly coping up with the competition with GSM operators which gives a good benefit to the end users to stop these operators should also indulge into providing various services. Mobile banking is a new concept which is recently adopted by Airtel and it provides recharge from mobile phone by tie ups with banks. This new concept will bring a new revolution in case of inventions Broadband services can be more focused more if the spectrum issues are solved. Still there are many rural areas where broadband services are not available. Companies can provide new and different schemes to their customers. Enhance data services on fixed and wire line services.
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Increase in internet speed on mobile can be the criteria for the operators.
The above recommendations for customers satisfaction can be shown from the chart below:
Up gradation of Technology Increase Internet Speed Better Network
Mobile Banking Provide different Schemes Customer Reduce ISD and STD Rates More Value Added Service Lowering Tariff Plans More direct to Home services
Improve Broadband Services Satisfaction
After talking to customer care executives of telecom sector, the following recommendation can be conclude as a part of their strategies for acquiring or retaining new customers. The telecom operators should take less time for solving customers queries. Majority of the operators focus on the special occasions to launch new schemes but they can also launch scheme on weakly or monthly bases to attract new customers. TV media is more effective for the operator as per the findings. But they should be also focus on Radio and Newspapers for more effectiveness.
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Customer care executives should concentrate more on pre-paid collection for the price sensitive customers and post paid connection for business class people or higher class people. They should use their media tools accordingly. They should concentrate more on the attributes like talk time facilities, network, voice clarity etc. Apart from SMS, VAS and schemes. They should focus more of VAS like GPRS facilities, games, astrology and music for young people and business news for business people. They should also focus on new technologies like 3G. They should also focus on pilot projects before launching a product, especially in case of rural areas.
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Critical analysis of consumer preference and customer satisfaction in Indian telecom industry

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: Indian Telecom Industry

Operator Bharti Airtel Reliance Communications Vodafone Essar BSNL

Subscriber base 118,864,031 93,795,613 91,401,959 62,861,214

available for power users.

I-ME-WE with two landing sites at Mumbai (2009).

Increase sharing in urban areas to 70% by 2010.

5. Introduction of Spread of IPTV and Mobile TV IPTV in 600 towns by 2010.

3rd 36.98 37.96 391.76 429.72 57,167 275,441

CHAPTER 2 Telecom Service Provider in India

and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd

Some of the key notable points about BSNL are as follows

The international subsidiaries of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited are as follows

The latest mission statement of the MTNL is as follows

Broadband & Telephone (B&T) services Enterprise services Mobile services

Kolkata - 1,632,875 Mumbai - 2,989,970 Delhi - 3,002,442 Chennai - 981,996

Gujarat - 1,715,774 Kerala - 1,482,799

My Loop Mobile Bill

Pay per Second Plan

CHAPTER 3 INTRODUCTION: Consumer Behaviour

Personal sources Commercial sources Public sources Personal experience

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MARKETING Introduction

Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.

There are four main applications of consumer behavior:

CHAPTER 4 Research Methodology

Observations and findings: 1. Age Group 10 20: 20 40: Above 40: 15 47 38

2. Gender Male : 68% Female: 32%

b) Per call charges

g) value added services (VAS):

15. How do you find ISD rates of your service provider?

CHAPTER 5 SWOT Analysis of Indian Telecom Sector

CHAPTER 6 Conclusions and Recommendations

Up gradation of Technology Increase Internet Speed Better Network

Improve Broadband Services Satisfaction

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