Comparative Study of Mobile

Service Providers in Mumbai

Prashant V Deshinge Deepak Salian

MMS Second Year MMS Second Year

Roll NO: 05 Roll No: 35

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We express our deep gratitude to Prof. Meera Vijaykumar for her constant support,
guidance and motivation which helped me immensely in completing this project. The project
provided us with an opportunity to understand the fundamentals of research methods in a
better manner and apply them.

I also would like to thank our respondents for giving us their valuable time and providing us
with the information needed to carry out the research successfully.

Prashant Deshinge Deepak Salian

SIES College of Management Studies SIES College of Management Studies
MMS (Second Year) 2009-11 MMS (Second Year) 2009-11
Roll No 05 Roll No 35
 Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Objectives..............................................................................................................................5
1.3 Problem.................................................................................................................................5
1.4 Scope & Limitations...............................................................................................................5
1.5 Defining the Variables............................................................................................................5
2. Literature Review..............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Theoretical Literature Review................................................................................................6
2.2 Research Literature Review...................................................................................................6
2.2.3 Consumer Satisfaction with Quality of Mobile Services.................................................6
2.2.4 Industry Overview: Cellular Telephone..........................................................................7
2.2.5 Customer Loyalty and Approach of Service Providers: An Empirical Study of Mobile
Airtime Service Industry in India....................................................................................................8
2.2.6 Entry and Innovation in Maturing Markets: Virtual Operators in Mobile
Telecommunications.....................................................................................................................8
2.2.7 Mobile Value Added Services in India............................................................................9
2.2.8 “Innovations in Pricing of Prepaid services adopted by CMSPs (Cellular.....................10
Mobile Service Providers) and it’s impact on the Revenue Per Minute in...................................10
Raising their bottom line : A case study of TRUMP1 MTNL, Mumbai during...............................10
2.2.9 Strategies for succeeding at the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) market in Telecom Services
Sector 11
2.2.10 Factors affecting consumer attitude towards mobile advertising in India...................11
2.2.11 Mobile Number Portability More Attractive To India's Postpaid Users and High
Spenders: Nielsen Study..............................................................................................................12
2.2.12 Comparative study of telecom service providers in India............................................13
2.2.13 India’s Buzziest brands.................................................................................................14
2.2.14 Comparative study of telecom service providers in India............................................14
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................15
3.1 Research design...................................................................................................................15
3.2 Sources of data....................................................................................................................16
3.3 Sample design......................................................................................................................16
3.4 Sample size.........................................................................................................................17
4. Results and Findings........................................................................................................................18
4.1 Gender.................................................................................................................................18
 4.2 How many different mobile service providers you use..............................................................18
4.4 Will you change your provider if your mobile number remains same?.....................................20
4.5 Do you feel your service providers have fulfilled all promises?...........................................20
4.6 What are the technologies which you are aware?.....................................................................21
4.7 Are you willing to change the mobile service provider if your service provider doesn’t have 3G
option?............................................................................................................................................21
4.8 Please select the services you use on your mobile..............................................................22
4.9 Will you change the service provider if only one of the factors like calling rates or SMS rate or
VAS charges or better network coverage or more accessible service centres or better technology?
.........................................................................................................................................................22
4.10 Are you satisfied with your service provider?..........................................................................23
5. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................24
6. Recommendations...........................................................................................................................25
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................................26
7.1 Books.........................................................................................................................................26
7.2 WEBSITES...................................................................................................................................26
7.3 OTHER REFERENCES...................................................................................................................26
8. ANNEXURES.....................................................................................................................................27
8.1 Online Questionnaire.................................................................................................................27
 1. Introduction
1.1 Background

The Indian telecommunication industry, with about 525 million mobile phone
connections (Dec 2009), 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
one of the fastest growing in the world and is projected that India will have 'billion plus'
mobile users by 2015. Projection by several leading global consultancies is that India’s
telecom network will overtake China’s in the next 10 years. 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 India’s culturally
diverse society, and to transform it into a country of technologically aware people.

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 has crossed fixed-line connections. 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.
1.2 Objectives

The main objectives that the research is focusing is to find out

i. To understand user preferences with respect to the features and the service quality
ii. To study the factors contributing to the new subscription
iii. To study the competitiveness of the mobile service providers as per new
advancements in the technology
iv. To study the factors affecting the service quality and the overall satisfaction level
among the user

1.3 Problem

The telecom sector is one of the fastest growing service industries in India. Mobile
services forms important share of the telecom services along with internet facility providers.
India, the country having the second largest population in the world has huge business
opportunity for the mobile operators. This paper deals with the study of competitiveness of
various mobile operators (domestic and multinational players) and their strategies for
achieving the major share in the sector.

1.4 Scope & Limitations

The scope of the study is limited to finding out the competitiveness of the mobile
service providers operating in Mumbai area. The respondents residing in the areas of
Mumbai, Thane & Navi Mumbai are taken into consideration. The sample size is restricted to
44. As the no of respondents are less, the findings may vary with larger sample and the
finding are dynamic in nature and may change with respect to time.

1.5 Defining the Variables

 Independent Variables: Network coverage, Technology, VAS, Pricing policy

 Dependent Variables: Customer satisfaction, Subscription rate

 2. Literature Review

2.1 Theoretical Literature Review

Mobile Service providers form distinctive part of the service industry in India. In service
providers there are different types of gaps in the services and it is challenge to match the
customer perception of service, at the same time the cost of research should match the value
of the information. The different roles are to be played by the service delivery by employees
and the customers and managing the demand and supply capacity.

Reference: Services marketing- by V A Zeithaml, M J Bitner, Ajay Pandit.

2.2 Research Literature Review

2.2.3 Consumer Satisfaction with Quality of Mobile Services.

441, (Basement), Jangpura, Mathura Road, New Delhi – 110014, India

The study on the ‘Consumer Satisfaction with Quality of Mobile Services’ is an

endeavour to understand empirically the ground level situation in quality of service and
customer care being delivered by Service Providers (SPs) in the background of TRAI
regulations for Mobile Service Providers from the eyes of the consumer. In this study we
have covered 4745 respondents from the 4 metro cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and
Kolkata and ten service providers operating in these cities. These ten SPs are: BSNL,
Vodafone, Tata, Reliance, Idea, Airtel, Aircel, BPL and MTNL. The primary data has been
collected by means of face-to-face interviews and Computer Aided Telephonic Interview. It
is the customer’s perception of satisfaction with the services delivered by their service
providers, which are central to our study. Descriptive ‘comparisons’ between Service
Providers have been carried out as ‘trend comparisons’ and not as a tool to make (quality)
rankings. The report is designed in a way that it flows in a sequence beginning with
Introduction, Methodology followed by Sample Treatment. Then the report moves to focus
on the major findings of the study in Chapter 4 - Executive Tables and chapter 5 - the
Summary of Individual Service Providers. The latter section of the report deals with the detail
of General Aspects, Quality of Service, Quality of Customer Care Service and Overall
Satisfaction. In the last section of Annexure, the descriptive analysis of each service provider
is explained on two major fortes: Quality of Service and Quality of Customer Care Service.

2.2.4 Industry Overview: Cellular Telephone

Services in India by PIPALANSWERS 2002

Cellular industry in India is attractive to foreign investors because:

• Current penetration is about 0.6% which is very low compared to other countries such as
China (penetration of 6%). This suggests immense potential for investment in cellular sector
in India
• Demand is growing with the reduction in tariffs and handset prices. If Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) successfully introduces calling party pays (CPP), demand would
further increase due to the potential cost savings
• Cellular operators are acquiring existing small players, competing on pricing and value
added service offerings to gain market share
• Key players in this market have been reporting revenue growth. Operations are
experiencing losses but are expecting to have significant profitability growth in the future
Investing in India’s cellular industry is subject to a number of constraints:
• Government policies on the industry are still strict despite the changes occurred in the
recent past
• Competition is fierce with 70% of the market controlled by 3 major players. It is further
intensified by the incumbent fixed line operators like MTNL and BSNL entering the cellular
foray. Introduction of wireless in local loop (WLL) also created additional competition
• Investment cap of 49% restricts foreign investors to make an aggressive entry into the
market
• The average revenue per unit subscriber has been decreasing with introduction of pre-paid
cards and tariff cuts Potential option for foreign investors to enter India’s cellular market
would be to buy out stakes in the existing licensees/
cellular operators in most cellular circles.
2.2.5 Customer Loyalty and Approach of Service Providers: An Empirical Study of
Mobile Airtime Service Industry in India.
Authors:
Gupta, Devashish Das devashish@iiml.ac.in
Sharma, Atul

Services are always unique from a marketing perspective due to their intangible
nature. Especially in the case of a service like mobile airtime service where there is no
service encounter, attributes required for brand loyalty become more complex. This article
tests the relationship of customer loyalty and the approach of service providers in India. It
looks into the airtime service market in India and delves into customer psyche

2.2.6 Entry and Innovation in Maturing Markets: Virtual Operators in Mobile

Telecommunications

In the last few years the mobile telecommunications industry has witnessed the entry
of a large number of new service providers. Traditionally, mobile users get their mobile
services from the service providers owned by vertically integrated mobile network operators
(MNOs). The new entrants do not own a network of their own however, because they use the
existing mobile infrastructure, i.e. they are ‘mobile virtual network operators’ (MVNOs). By
granting these virtual operators access to their networks, MNOs actually facilitate the entry of
potential competitors for their own downstream service providers. These new entrants might
attract additional users by offering competitive services and create extra value with their
well-known brand names and other complementary assets. This study focuses on the mobile
market of the Netherlands, where competition is intense and MVNOs proliferate. The aim of
this research is to improve our understanding of the entry of virtual operators in general, and
specifically by explaining why and how virtual operators enter the mobile market and the
impact they have on competition in the mobile market.
2.2.7 Mobile Value Added Services in India
A Report by IAMAI & eTechnology Group@IMRB

The mobile subscriber base is growing at a scorching pace in India; India is now the 5th
country in the world to have crossed the 100 million mark in subscriber base and has in the
last two months become the fastest growing mobile market in the world. As average revenue
per user decrease from voice drops, and voice becomes commoditized, Telcos are
increasingly looking at data as an additional revenue stream. The end users have also
embraced VAS and it contributes between 5-10% of the revenues of different Telcos. Thus
Mobile VAS has become an important element in the growth of mobile telephony in India.
Yet it is also equally true that there is little clarity on business issues and growth seems to be
driven by more by inherent market momentum than a concentrated effort on the part of the
stakeholders differences exist even on basic issues like definition for Mobile VAS. Thus an
understanding into the VAS space is needed to help stakeholders give a direction to this wave
of growth. This report explores the key issues around the value chain of Mobile VAS in India
and provides a much needed holistic perspective to macro and micro issues in this space. It
clearly defines the constituents of Mobile VAS, examines the environmental factors driving
it, and maps business models, market size and revenue sharing arrangements. The report also
goes on to identify the roadblocks that need to be addressed for the current growth to be
sustained.
2.2.8 “Innovations in Pricing of Prepaid services adopted by CMSPs (Cellular

Mobile Service Providers) and it’s impact on the Revenue Per Minute in

Raising their bottom line : A case study of TRUMP1 MTNL, Mumbai during
the 12 month period of 2006.”

B B Chaudhary, Dr. Vijay Wagh, Dr. Pradip Manjrekar, Vani Kamath.

In March 2008 the number of mobile connections in India crossed 261 million marks.
It is now having the second largest number of mobile connections in the world after China.
The teledensity2 in India is governed by three factors viz. growing household income,
innovative price models adopted by CMSPs and telecom regulations. The mobile services
market in India is the fastest growing market in the world. There are more than five CMSPs
in each circle; it is becoming difficult for them to retain their market share. The mobile
services provided by all of them are having almost same features. The CMSPs are making all
possible efforts to increase their market share. Most of them have outsourced their non-core
business activities. Some of them have tied up with software firms to provide content and
niche services. They are adopting competitive strategy to differentiate their services from
others. In order to penetrate the market they are offering the lowest call tariffs in the world.
The only way to earn profit is by the economy of scales. MTNL has positioned Trump its
prepaid brand as the most affordable mobile service in the market by providing Price
Leadership in voice and data services. The competitive strategy of CMSPs is to get the
maximum number of customers by reducing prices.

The objective of this research is to find out the innovative price models adopted by CMSPs
and its impact on their bottom line. The ‘incoming free for life time’ 3pricing model for
prepaid mobile services, which was one of the driving forces behind the explosive growth of
mobile connections in 2006, is selected for detailed analysis. A case study of TRUMP
MTNL, Mumbai during the last 12 month period of (January to December 2006) is discussed
in detail to further support this hypothesis.
2.2.9 Strategies for succeeding at the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) market in Telecom
Services Sector

Prof U S Rao
Sai Sangeet C

Indian Telecom Scenario

The overall mobile subscriber base in the country has crossed 200 million as of end of
February, 2007. India is adding over six million mobile subscribers per month. Just over 10%
of India’s population owns a Conference on Global Competition & Competitiveness of Indian
Corporate 3 mobile phone. Indian mobile phone market is expected to touch 348 million by
2010, according to a research by The Diffusion Group. Though mobile phones have become
indispensable in the rich world, they are even more useful in the developing world, where the
availability of other forms of communication--roads, postal systems or fixed-line phones--is
often limited. Phones let fishermen and farmers check prices in different markets before
selling produce, make it easier for people to find work, allow quick and easy transfers of
funds and boost entrepreneurship. Phones can be shared by a village. Pre-paid calling plans
reduce the need for a bank account or credit check. Economic Times, on 23rd December
2006, reported that the poor pay up to 300% more for a mobile than their rich counterparts.
Traditionally, marketing to the BOP was considered uneconomical and not profitable by
larger organizations, with the result that this market was being serviced by unorganized sector
with low quality goods and services, and many a times at unreasonable prices. In the area of
financial services, due to perceived high risk, they are charged usurious rates of interest and
provided highly deficient services. C.K Prahalad terms this as the ‘Poverty Penalty’. The poor
pay a premium on everything from rice to credit--often five to 25 times what the rich pay for
the same services. Driving down these premiums can make serving the BOP more profitable
than serving the top.

2.2.10 Factors affecting consumer attitude towards mobile advertising in India

Mary Mathew and Anirudha Dambal

There has been a tremendous growth in the mobile telecommunication industry in India. India
has already crossed the 250 million users mark in February 2008. At the same time, there has
also been a growth in the mobile advertising space in India. Although several papers have
been written in the recent times about consumer attitudes towards mobile advertising, a
systematic study of these for India is lacking. This paper has tried to address this need. The
study is aimed at understanding the attitudes towards mobile based advertisement and
variables influencing it. After surveying the increasing body of recent literature on mobile
advertising, the paper proposed a conceptual model. This model was empirically tested to
find the factors contributing to a positive consumer attitude towards mobile advertising. The
paper revealed that the overall attitudes towards mobile advertisement are not too high in the
Indian sample. It concluded that the two factors affecting consumers' attitude towards mobile
advertising are non-consumer centric factors and consumer centric factors. The study also
showed that non-consumer centric variables namely technology and content of
advertisements must be managed to create a positive attitude towards mobile based
advertising in India.

2.2.11 Mobile Number Portability More Attractive To India's Postpaid Users and High
Spenders: Nielsen Study
Reliance, Tata, and BSNL Subscribers More Likely To Switch
Mumbai, Maharashtra, July 29, 2009 /India PRwire

The introduction of Mobile Number Portability is considered good news for consumers, but
presents a looming threat for mobile operators since it presents consumers with the choice of
retaining their current mobile phone numbers even if they change their operator. And
according to a recently conducted Mobile Consumer Insights study conducted by The Nielsen
Company to gauge consumer attitudes and behaviour towards mobile operators in India, it
seems that close to one in five (18%) Indian mobile phone subscribers would change their
mobile operator if Mobile Number Portability is introduced into the market. Among the
respondents, one in four Reliance and Tata Indicom subscribers would be keen to change
their operator if Mobile Number Portability is introduced, followed by close to one in five
(19%) of BSNL subscribers. In the third consecutive round of the Mobile Consumer Insights
study by Nielsen in India, 12,500 mobile subscribers were surveyed across 50 centres in
India. Nielsen augments the study with objective measurement of network performance, with
the Consumer Insights part of the study measuring metrics such as satisfaction, willingness to
recommend, reasons for churn and reasons for operator selection.
According to the Nielsen Mobile Consumer Insights study, high spenders, postpaid
subscribers and business subscribers show a greater tendency to switch if Mobile Number
Portability is introduced. Prepaid, low and medium spend users are not motivated to switch.
Post-paid subscribers have almost double the minutes of usage compared to pre-paid
subscribers and the incidence of data application usage is also higher among postpaid and
high spenders. Vodafone has the highest postpaid subscriber base in India.

2.2.12 Comparative study of telecom service providers in India

Aggarwal, M.   Gupta, V.

Electron. & Commun. Eng., Jaypee Inst. of Inf. Technol. Univ., Noida, India;

Growth is the prime aim for any company. With the changing times and growing
competition, it has become essential for the technology-driven companies to identify their
core competencies and have a competitive edge over others. Business matrices like net sales,
profit after tax, market capitalization and level of satisfaction of the customers are important
indicators depicting the stand of the companies in the market. A comparative analysis of the
leading telecom service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular,
Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom in India has been presented in this paper on the
basis of secondary data which includes last five year figures of nets sales, market
capitalization and profit after tax. Primary data has been collected to measure the level of
satisfaction (LOS) of the Indian telecommunications' customers. The LOS was determined
for various factors like network coverage; tariff rates, plan, accountability of bill, customer
service, etc. To achieve this objective, an empirical study has been done and conclusions
have been brought out on the basis of the data collected though an online field survey. For
this purpose, an online questionnaire was prepared and was distributed to mobile phone users
via email and social networking sites. The collected data was analyzed with the help of SPSS
(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 12.0 for Windows. A sensitivity analysis
was done to verify the significance of the factors considered for determining the LOS. It was
concluded that Bharti Airtel is the overall leader in all three business matrices mentioned
above.
2.2.13 India’s Buzziest brands
Afaq! Reporter has conducted the survey of the brands which have created the buzz
around the country in the past year. According to the survey, there are 6 telecom brands out
of top 50 successful brands. Among the telecom brands, Vodaphone Essar is top among the
peers it has secured the second position overall and followed by Idea (4 th), Airtel (16th),
Aircel(21st), Virgin Mobile(24th) and Tata Indicom(27th).

2.2.14 Comparative study of telecom service providers in India

Aggarwal, M.  Gupta, V.

Electron. & Commun. Eng., Jaypee Inst. of Inf. Technol. Univ., Noida, India 

Growth is the prime aim for any company. With the changing times and growing
competition, it has become essential for the technology-driven companies to identify their
core competencies and have a competitive edge over others. Business matrices like net sales,
profit after tax, market capitalization and level of satisfaction of the customers are important
indicators depicting the stand of the companies in the market. A comparative analysis of the
leading telecom service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular,
Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom in India has been presented in this paper on the
basis of secondary data which includes last five year figures of nets sales, market
capitalization and profit after tax. Primary data has been collected to measure the level of
satisfaction (LOS) of the Indian telecommunications' customers. The LOS was determined
for various factors like network coverage; tariff rates, plan, accountability of bill, customer
service, etc. To achieve this objective, an empirical study has been done and conclusions
have been brought out on the basis of the data collected though an online field survey. For
this purpose, an online questionnaire was prepared and was distributed to mobile phone users
via email and social networking sites. The collected data was analyzed with the help of SPSS
(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 12.0 for Windows. A sensitivity analysis
was done to verify the significance of the factors considered for determining the LOS. It was
concluded that Bharti Airtel is the overall leader in all three business matrices mentioned
above.
 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research is an art of scientific investigation. It is defined as “A careful investigation
or enquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge”. Research is
a movement from the known to the unknown. It is actually a voyage of discovery. Research
refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the problem, collecting the facts or
data, analyzing the facts and reaching certain conclusions in the form of solutions towards the
concerned problem.

This chapter presents the methodology that will be use in the conduct of this study and will
include the discussion of research design, samplings, respondents, data gathering and
statistical instrument used.

3.1 Research design

A research design specifies the methods and procedures for conducting a particular study.
Broadly speaking, there are 3 categories of research design – exploratory, descriptive and
casual research.

An exploratory research focuses on the discovery of ideas and is generally based on

secondary data. A descriptive study is undertaken when the researcher wants to know the
characteristics of certain groups such as age, educational level, income, occupation, etc. A
casual research is undertaken when the researcher is interested in knowing the cause and
effect relationship between two or more variables.

The type of research used in this study is descriptive research.

Following method was adopted during study-

 Review of literature to understand recent development in the field.

 Defining objective of the study.

 Formation of questionnaire to capture primary data.

 Analysis and interpretation of primary data.

 Conclusion out of primary and secondary data.

3.2 Sources of data

The sources of data used in this project report are both primary and secondary data.

Primary data

Primary data consists of response of the survey questionnaire made for specific purpose of
this research project using Google Documents. The questionnaire was mailed to the
respondents and responses collected online. The sample questionnaire is included in the
Annexure.

Secondary data

Secondary data consists of information that already exist in form of magazines and online
journals and data that were being collected in the past for some other purposes. Secondary
data used in this study were collected from external sources like books, wiki, etc. Some
websites which were really helpful are www.slideshare.com, www.scribd.com. There were
many research journals which were referred to.

3.3 Sample design

Sampling technique adopted

The sampling technique used for online survey was a non-probabilistic convenience
sampling. The respondents in the sample were included having the age group of 22-30, which
are using the mobile phones more than 4 years.

Population

All students & working professionals in the age group 22-30 comprise population for offline
survey. There is a good mix of both the genders in the survey.

Tools and techniques adopted

Data was collected with the help of questionnaire. The questionnaire is of structured no
disguised type. The questions are of mixed type. It is given in Annexure. For online survey,
questionnaire was prepared using third party tool (www.docs.google.com), email for filling
questionnaire was send to potential respondent and response was collected on the third party
site on which questionnaire was prepared.

The third party tool made data reliable owing to the self-reported demographic attributes of
the respondents. The email invitations provided a direct link to the survey and well directed
for giving the appropriate answers to the questions.

3.4 Sample size

For online survey sample size is 44. Total invitations send for this was about 100. There were
about 56 uncompleted or abandoned surveys which were rejected. This makes the ratio of
44%.
 4. Results and Findings
4.1 Gender

Male 52%

Female; 21
Male; 23 Female 48%

The sample is a good mix of both genders hence is giving the unbiased view on the
question.

4.2 How many different mobile service providers you use

AirTel 9 20%
Vodaphone 26 59%
Idea 1 2%
MTNL 7 16%
MTS 0 0%%
Aircel 1 2%
Reliance 6 14%
Tata Docomo 3 7%
BSNL 2 5%
Other 2 5%
 According to the survey conducted the maximum no of respondents have favoured the
Vodaphone Essar as favourite mobile operator in the Mumbai region. The next preference is
for the Airtel followed by MTNL & Reliance, the new telecom operators have small market
share in the market. This finding is not according to the overall survey conducted in India,
which profess Airtel leads in the subscription. The average time duration of the use for each
Vodaphone Essar customer is 4 years the minimum time is being 2 years and the maximum
time being 7 years.

4.3 Average monthly spends on the phone?

Above Rs 1200;
3 Below Rs 300; 6 Below 300 20.45%

301-800 54.54%
Rs 801- 1200; 5

801-1200 15.90%

Rs 301- 800; 17 Above 1200 9.11%

The average monthly spending on the mobile is in between 301 to 800 Rs for around
55% of the respondents around 20% of respondents have their monthly charges below 300
Rs. Thus around 75% of the respondents agree that they spend less than 800 Rs per month on
the mobile phones.
4.4 Will you change your provider if your mobile number remains same?

Yes 57.82%

No 43.18%

The above information shows that change in mobile number is the major concern for
majority users thus it was a discouraging factor for the majority users. Thus now after
announcement of new directions by TRAI, telecom operators may observe change in the
service providers.

4.5 Do you feel your service providers have fulfilled all promises?

Yes 50.0%

No 50.0%

According to the survey half the respondents believe that the mobile operators have
not fulfilled all the promises they have done to the customer. Thus it is seen that there are
some service gaps between the services offered and the external communications done to the
customer. These include the problems as “unclear billing policies”,
 4.6 What are the technologies which you are aware?

CDMA 43 100%
GSM 40 93
%
Satellite 18 42
Phones %
3G 40 93
%
4G 12 28
%
Other 0 0%

The above data represents that the all respondents are aware of the CDMA
technology, 93% of respondents are aware of the GSM technology and 3G mobiles. This
statistics represents that awareness level of majority respondents about new age technology is
good. Less no of respondents are aware about the 4G technology.

4.7 Are you willing to change the mobile service provider if your service
provider doesn’t have 3G option?

Yes 25.0%

No 75.0%

This response shows that the majority of the respondents are not ready to change their
mobile services even if their service providers are not having the 3G licence. This is very
interesting finding as if we see the awareness level of the users is high but the willingness to
change the service provider is not there, even if the provider is not equipped with 3G
facilities.
4.8 Please select the services you use on your mobile.

GPRS GPRS 34.1%

Call divert Call Divert 6.8%

Caller ring tone Call Ring

34.1%
Tone
MMS
MMS 11.3%
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

The above chart shows that out of different kind of services available, customers use
GPRS and Caller Ring Tone most widely. 34.1% of respondents prefer GPRS and Caller
ring tone and MMS service is used by 11.3% and call divert services is used by 6.8% of the
respondents.

4.9 Will you change the service provider if only one of the factors like
calling rates or SMS rate or VAS charges or better network coverage or
more accessible service centres or better technology?

Yes; 15
Yes 34.1%

No; 29
No 65.9%

The majority of the users which are around 66% say that they are ready to change
their service providers provided even only one of the parameters like the Price, Network
coverage or the better technology comes into the picture. The others are happy with the kind
of service they are receiving.
4.10 Are you satisfied with your service provider?

Very Satisfied 16%

Satisfied 66%

Neutral 13%

Dis-satisfied 5%

As per the survey, the Dissatisfied portion is only 5% and Neutral opinion is given by
13% and 66% of the respondents say that they are Satisfied with the services given by the
service providers. 16% of the respondents are Very Satisfied with the service they get. Thus it
proves to be a challenge to the telecom industry to target the neutral and the dissatisfied
customer and the thereby capture the competitors market share.
The respondents have major problem of the “network coverage in some area of
Mumbai”, “unclear billing”, “cheating in bills”, ‘High call rates”. The users which are
satisfied are satisfied by the good network coverage, good VAS services, cheaper call rates
etc. Thus it is clear that the users are mostly satisfied by the good network coverage, low
calling rates and good VAS. Hence it can be seen that still users are being satisfied by the
primary requirements and the as seen in the Q.7 that users are not still looking for the high
end services on the phone.
 5. Conclusion

In Mumbai, we came to know the mobile service providers are, Vodaphone Essar,
Airtel, MTNL, Reliance, Tata Indicom, Virgin Mobiles, Idea and Aircel. As per the
responses, the major subscriber in the Mumbai is Vodaphone Essar and followed by AirTel.
The majority of users say that the network coverage is the very important factor for the
consumer loyalty and satisfaction. The mobile number portability will bring change in the
service providers.

It was found that the leading subscriber (Vodaphone) is scoring good on customer
loyalty, better serve delivery (in terms of VAS), better network, leading brand awareness
through the latest advertisement campaign of ZOO-ZOO.

The majority usage on mobile phone is restricted to talking and SMS till date and
other services like GPRS, MMS are not popular yet.
Majority of the users are still not looking for the revolution in the mobile technology
and they are satisfied with the current technologies and services they are getting.
 6. Recommendations

The study has given lot of important insights about the customer expectations of
mobile services. Based on the survey findings, there are few recommendations for the service
providers about the technology requirements, changing norms and the current level of
satisfaction level.

1. The very important factor which is deciding the satisfaction level among the customer
is network coverage which is considered more important than the cost effectiveness.
This is the important factor for increasing the satisfaction level, followed by the price
competitiveness and then the VAS services. The other factor increasing the
dissatisfaction level is less clarity of the mobile bills thus mobile operators need to
bring more transparent services for paying the bills.
2. The Customers right now less worried about latest technology like 3G operators, thus
in short term to have more no of subscribers operators should concentrate on better
quality of basic services on mobiles.
3. The new mobile operators norms like ‘mobile no portability, are going to create good
amount of turbulence in the industry thus it is very important for the service providers
to minimise their service gaps and increase the service delivery to the customers as
change in the mobile number is seen as major barriers for those who want to change
the service providers.
 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
7.1 Books
 Kothari, C.R, Research Methodology, Second Edition, New Delhi, Wishwa Prakashan, 1990
 Zeithaml V A, Bitner M J, Pandit Ajay, Services marketing, third edition,New Delhi,
TMH publishing house, 2003
 C Bhattacharjee, Services Marketing, First Edition, New Delhi, Excel Books, 2006

7.2 WEBSITES
 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/biz /sep 23 2009/Mobile-No-Portability-in-metros-
A- Circle-by-Dec-31
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Telecommunication_Service
 http://www.indiaprwire.com
 http://web.ebscohost.com
 http://www.trai.gov.in
 http://www.trai.gov.in/StudyPapers_content.asp

7.3 OTHER REFERENCES

 Afaqs! Reporter, Feb 15-28, 2010,Pg 28
 8. ANNEXURES

8.1 Online Questionnaire

The online quistainnaire is attached in the photo copy the link to this questionnaire is given below

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDNvUVFNY003aWlkNDR6cy0xT0hMZ2c6MA