A Study On

Switching Service Providers: Why Will the Consumer switch to Airtel?

Dissertation submitted to the Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University In Partial Fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the degree of

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Submitted by: Aviral Chitkara (Roll No. MBA-IB-01126)

Research Guide:

Prof. A.Vivek
Department of Business Management Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai

MBA IB 2011- 2013

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the dissertation Switching service providers : why will the consumer switch to airtel? submitted for the MBA Degree at Padmashree Dr.D.Y.Patil Universitys Department of Business Management is my original work and the dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, associate ship, fellowship or any other similar titles.

Place: Mumbai Date:

Signature of the Student Aviral Chitkara

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation entitled Switching service providers : why will the consumer switch to Airtel? is the bonafide research work carried out by Mr.Aviral Chitkara student of MBA, at Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil Universitys Department of Business Management during the year 2007 -2009, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master in Business Management and that the dissertation has not formed the basis for the award previously of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or any other similar title.

Dr. R. Gopal, Director

Prof.A.Vivek Internal Guide

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the first place, I thank Prof. A.Vivek, Lecturer, Department of Business Management, Padmashree Dr.D.Y.PatilUniversity, Navi Mumbai for having given me his valuable guidance for the project. Without his help it would have been impossible for me to complete the project. I would also like to thank the various people who have provided me with a lot of informationand in fact even sparing their valuable time to co-operate with my research survey thatconsist an integral part of the research work data many of which I have used in this reportand without which this project could not have been completed. I would be failing in my duty if I do not acknowledge with a deep sense of gratitude the sacrifices made by my parents and thus have helped me in completing the project worksuccessfully.

Place : Navi Mumbai Date :

Signature of the Student Aviral Chitkara

TABLE OF CONTENTS SR. NO. CHAPTER AND SUB-CHAPTER DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.
A B C D E 1

Abstract Objectives of the Study Statement of purpose Research Methodology Literature Review Telecommunication 1.1 Introduction
1.2 Basic elements 1.3 analog versus digital communication 1.4 Communication channels 1.5 Modulation 1.6 Telecommunication networks 1.7 Types of network

10 13 14 15 16 66 -70 67 67 68 68 69 70 70 146 152 154 155 157 159 160

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Data interpretation Findings Recommendation Conclusion Annexure Abbreviation Bibliography

Executive summary
The Indian telecom sector had undergone major changes in the past few years in many terms such as growth, technological content, market structure and many more. All these changes have put a great impact on the consumer. The consumers are now more aware about the technological issues and also about the various schemes and price ranges of various service providers.The report is the compilation of the work done for the project named Switching Service Providers: Why Will the Consumer switch toAirtel?The study aims to analysis that what are the factors that lead customers to switch their service providers, and if the customer is switching service provider then which service provider is he likely to switch. The quality of service has been improved a lot during last few years due to liberalization of telecom sector and also due to participation of private sector. Through increased competition, the service providers became more sensitive and responsive to customers which lead to increased customer satisfaction. Also with the danger of losing customers by number portability or switching service provider, the telecom companies have improved their services. But the process of switching should be made more effortlessly so that customer can switch more easily if he is not satisfied with his current service provider.The study based project was completed using primary and secondary data for research work. The survey was completed by using the questionnaire technique. Various finding from the survey with a sample size of 80 are presented in this section and complete analysis of finding is compiled and classified into appropriate sub-modules with the help of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software.The data that has been analyzed gives a brief description about what motivates the customers to switch their service providers. The questionnaire consisted both technological and general questions related to the telecom industry. From the research it was found that there maximum percentage of customers were using the services of their service provider for more than 3 years and majority of customers were satisfied with their service provider and rated them good.Also if given the chance of number portability most customers response was to switch to either Airtel or Vodafone.Also the pre paid customers seemed to be much satisfied than the post paid customers when it comes to billing charges.The most satisfied customers were the one who spend more than Rs 1500 per month, while the least satisfied customers were the one who spend less than Rs 500 per month. The research paper also gives insight regarding to the problems faced by the

customers and the main reasons for switching service providers. These findings can be used by the telecom companies to serve their customers better.

Problem of Research
Review of research design
Topic: Switching Service Providers: Who Will the Consumer Switch To? INTRODUCTION Cellular market penetration is projected to increase, not only due to the increasing focus on the rural market, but also thanks to such factors as local consumer durable and electronic companies entering the domestic mobile handset segment, and lower handset prices. The Indian mobile market continues to be dominated by prepaid subscribers. The mobile phones are progressively becoming cheaper and affordable for people in the country with the increase in disposable income that improves the quality of life in India. People are showing interest in new technologies like the option to access internet using a mobile phone. Besides, mobile service providers are also adding new schemes, offers and technology advancement in their services. This has resulted in more and more consumers are buying mobile phones and switching between different service providers. Switching behavior is a consumer behavior where the behavior of the consumers differs based on the satisfactory level of the consumers with the providers or companies. Switching behavior can be enunciated as the process of being loyal to one service and switching to another service, due to dissatisfaction or any other problems. Even if a consumer is loyal to a particular brand, if the brand does not satisfy his/her needs, the consumers switch to a competitor brand. There are different factors and determinants which affect the consumers in switching their service from one service to another. The cost which is incurred during the switching process is called switching cost. Consumer loyalty is defined as the degree to which a Consumer exhibits repeat purchasing behavior from a service provider, possesses a positive attitudinal disposition toward the provider, and considers using only this provider when a need for this service arises. Losing a consumer is a serious setback for the firm in terms of its present and future earnings. In addition to losing the benefits discussed above, the firm needs to invest resources in attracting new consumers to replace the ones it has lost (advertising, promotion, initial discounts). It can cost five times more to acquire a new consumer than to retain an old one. Consequently, retaining the current consumer base is much more attractive and viable than searching for new consumers.

About Industry The first reforms in Indian telecommunications sector began in 1980s when the private sector was allowed in telecommunications equipment manufacturing. In 1985, Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established. After 1991s liberalization in Governments policies, the telecom sector has allowed various private players to enter into the Indian market. Earlier, sector was operating under public sector giants like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) but after the National Telecom Policy (NTP) by Government in 1994 many private players entered in Indian telecommunication market. But this market is regulated by Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). It acts as an independent regulator of the business of telecommunications in the country which was set up in 1997 by the government of India.

Today, there are many private players like Vodafone, Airtel, Tata, Reliance, Idea etc. There are basically two areas in which these players operate: Fixed and Cellular Services. In Fixed line, MTNL and BSNL have captured major part of the market. Whereas, Cellular Services, can be further divided into two parts: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

Segmentation of the Indian Telecom Consumer Market:The Indian Mobile consumer market has been segmented as follows:

Youth:- It has emerged as one of the biggest users of mobile phones. This segment particularly values prepaid schemes with free SMS services. Young Professionals:- People entering the workforce and thus moving out of the dependent bracket constitute this market segment. They generally prefer using post paid schemes with value added services like information about stock markets, news updates and so on.

Small and Medium Enterprise:- This segment mainly consists of people who are switching over from landlines to mobile phones, seeking a cost advantage. The focus here is on economy-packages rather than value added services.

Family:- Family as a segment consists of more number of dependents. These dependants are serviced by prepaid schemes. Geographically dispersed families tied by the same cellular service providers may get cost advantages in terms of lower pulse rates.

Value added services Value Added Service is used as a tool for differentiation and allows the mobile operators to develop another stream of revenue.

Various Value added services:Here is a list of some Value Added Services provided by the telecom operators to the end users. News, Finance, Entertainment, Travel, Download, Astrology, Contest, MMS, E-mail, Music, Cricket, GPRS, Call Alert, Health, M-Commerce etc.

Customer-Service provider relationship According to theories there are different factors which affect the Customers to switch from loyalty to switching intentions such as price, technical service quality, Functional service quality, switching costs, etc. But, the rating was given that price is the most important factor which affects the Customers to switch loyalties to another provider. By using the consumption system perspective on mobile services and mobile phone, It is concluded that the mobile services usage effect on switching intentions is curvilinear (positive linear and negative quadratic) and that only the budgetary constraint regarding the service matters and not the one related to the mobile phone. Past mobile service providers switching experience also contributes to the intention to switch. Mobile phone ego involvement has positive impact on Customer retention; however purchase involvement (both mobile phone and mobile services) increases Customer risk. According to the theories it is examined that a higher level of Customer satisfaction does not lead to Customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction does not necessarily lead to Customers loyalty. It is assumed that when the Customer is satisfied, then loyalty towards the telecom company is strengthened. The results, further show that the respondents in the study have a positive impression towards their telecom companys ability to meet their changing needs.

Customers who maintain a long-lasting relationship with the firm (Length), use the service more (depth), and invest in complementary services (breadth) will be less predisposed to switch. They conclude that Service usage reduces the probability of switching and strengthens the relationship between the parties, encouraging them to seek a long-term orientation. Problem identification Consumers have every chance of switching the mobile service provider due to industry expansion. Mobile industry is growing technically and becoming economical due to competitors innovative and attractive services. Number of players in this sector is increasing, so each one of them wants to overplay others to attract the consumers. Mobile industry has become economic with the end result that consumers have less switching cost.

Objectives
To identify the factors that affects the consumers into switching the service provider. To find the most preferred service provider in Mumbai To find the major influences that goes into the decision of purchasing a SIM card. To find the likeliness of switching the service provider.

Scope The present study can be extended to other geographical areas. It can be extended to study the usage of mobile services of different age groups and accordingly new plans can be formulated. This study can be extended to understand the switching behavior of a particular cellular service provider.

LITERATURE REVIEW
1.Switching Tendencies Of Consumers Of Mobile Phone Services In Madurai District A Shabinullah Khan; A Abbas Manthiri. The Journal of Commerce 3. 4 (Oct 2011): India as Asia's third largest economy, is adding at least one million new mobile phone users every month. The cellular Mobile Industry is dominated by the corporate, namely BSNL, Bharti, MTNL, Hutch, Idea, BPL, Spice, Aircel and Reliance. The market Leader in the industry is Airtel whereas the challengers are Hutch/BSNL. The market followers are others. The expanding Indian economy, the population with more younger people, the urbanization with increased income of the household and the like provide vast scope in the cellular service market. At the same time, as competition in the telecom is intensified, service providers take new initiatives toattract customers as the requirements and expectations of the customer are increasing very fast. There is also an increase in the expectations of the product and service in terms of confirming to certain standards, reliability, dependability, durability, performance,

features, appearance, safety and user-friendliness. Though the Cellular operators have been rendering services to the customers throughout India, there is dissatisfaction expressed by the customers over excess billing, disconnection while talking, cross talk, high cost of handsets and high operating cost. Due to these factors the cellular operators have come under a lot of strong criticism. In this Article, the aspects relating to switching tendencies of consumers of mobile phone services are studied. 2.CUSTOMERS' PERCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF CELLULAR OPERATORS IN NORTHERN INDIA Sharma, Alka; Singh, Mandeep. Journal of Services Research 12. 1 (Apr-Sep 2012): In Indian context, telecommunication has emerged as one of the fastest growing services, as it has witnessed phenomenal growth from 22.8 million subscribers in 1999 to 746.77 million by the end of November 2010 (Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India, 2011). However, despite this unparalleled growth, few critical issues have emerged which affect the growth in a negative manner. These are decreasing ARPU, undifferentiatedservices, increased competition, rapid evolution of technology and highly dynamic customers. The present study has been undertaken to analyse the customers' perception about the following aspects of key telecom providers the value added services (VAS), service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. The results suggest that value added services are perceived to be a strategic tool to differentiate service of one provider from the other. Further, a comparative analysis of the leading service providers has been undertaken from customers' perspective to understand the variations in satisfaction and loyalty levels of their customers. 3.Consumers' Preferences for Mobile Service Provider: An Empirical Study in Agra Narayan, Govind; Jain, Priyanka. IUP Journal of Marketing Management 10. 3 (Aug 2011) Brutal competitions, advancement in technology and reduced tariff have propelled the growth of mobile services in India. In the last five years, the industry has made tremendous growth in terms of subscriber base. Today, cell phones have become indispensable for people and moved beyond their fundamental role of communication. They have become a major source for gaming, getting information, shopping, banking, entertainment and much more. Since the Indian Mobile Service Provider (MSP) market is overcrowded, customers have many choices of MSPs. Nowadays, customers have become smarter and consider various factors before choosing an MSP. Therefore, it is really important and beneficial for the marketers of MSPs to understand and analyze the preferences of customers. By using factor analysis, this paper highlights the factors considered by the customers to shape their preference for MSP. Further, the study evaluates the impact of motivators on subscription

decision for a particular service operator, and also gives a guideline to the marketers of MSPs to increase their subscriber base. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT] 4. AirTel makes a call in J&K Businessline (Oct 21, 2004): This takes AirTel's presence in 19 circles across the country. The company plans to launch its services in Bihar, Assam and North- East in the next few months. Announcing the launch Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Tele-Ventures, said, " The launch of AirTel mobile service is bound to have a profound impact on the economic growth of the entire region, as it would bridge distances, provide employment and also encourage tourism." 5.Cellmania Signs Agreement with India's Wireless Carrier AirTel to Provide Customers Access to Customized WAP Directory Business Editors/High-Tech Writers. Business Wire [New York] 12 Sep 2000:

Cellmania Inc., the first information technology ecosystem to touch all aspects of the wireless supply chain, Tuesday announced that it signed an agreement with India's AirTel to license Mfinder(TM), the world's most comprehensive wireless application protocol (WAP) directory, to AirTel's wireless services customers. "AirTel is committed to providing carrier class WAP-enabled services to our customers. Mfinder is yet another step in that direction," said Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive officer of AirTel. "With the Mfinder platform, AirTelwill provide the largest and the broadest range of WAP-based personalized services as compared to any cellular operator in India to date." AirTel has put at the disposal of its subscribers a wide array of convenience enhancing Value Added Services like Web Message, Smart Mail, Short Message Service, Fax Mail, Call Conferencing, Fax Facility, call hold, call forwarding, call waiting and now Single AirTel Number. AirTel also recently announced its WAP mobile Internet communication plans in alliance with Phone.com. 6.Bharti Airtel Turns to Corporate Clients for Stable Revenue Krishna, R Jai. Wall Street Journal (Online) [New York, N.Y] 11 June 2012: n/a. NEW DELHI - Indian mobile carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd. is relying more on large corporate clients for its revenue, as it seeks a more sustainable business model to cope with a fierce discount battle plaguing the country's consumer mobile market.

India's largest telecom service firm by user numbers expects that its businesses targeting the government and large corporate clients will contribute 20% of its overall revenue in the current fiscal year through March 2013, compared with 9% last year. "I'm trying to get more predictability in the business," said Drew Kelton, who heads the company's enterprise business division, in an interview. Bharti is shifting its focus when many Indian mobile carriers are locked in a relentless price competition in the consumer market. As they race to offer discount rates to attract or hold on to subscribers, their average per-user revenue remains low. Bharti's services for corporations and governments are less volatile and more profitable than its consumer business, where the company has to constantly offer competitive prices to prevent subscribers from switching to rival carriers. Mr. Kelton said Bharti aims to sell additional technology services to its existing corporate clients, while it will also chase "relatively untapped" opportunities in Africa, a market where Bharti entered in 2010 through its $10.7 billion acquisition of the African mobile unit of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. To expand its business in Africa, Mr. Kelton said Bharti may partner with two undersea cable network consortia in the continent -- the France Telecom-backed African Coast To Europe consortium and the West African Cable System network. Bharti may look at taking an "equity in-kind" stake in the African Coast to Europe network, if given landing rights in Nigeria. In an equity in-kind deal, a company swaps its services for equity in a joint venture or a consortium project at a pre-determined price. Bharti also plans to set up 16 connecting points in Africa as part of its focus on the continent. Still, Bharti's increased dependence on its enterprise business division comes at a time when many of its large corporate clients are either cutting expenses or delaying spending decisions amid growing uncertainties in the global economy. The tough climate also raises questions about whether the division can maintain its current levels of profitability. While revenue from the division rose 7% to 44.54 billion rupees ($806.5 million) last fiscal year, its operating margin declined to 18.7% from 24.4% a year earlier. Mr. Kelton said he expects the division's operating margin to improve to 20% this fiscal year helped by new orders for technology services. Bharti last year restructured its business into consumer and enterprise divisions. The enterprise division sells telecommunications and technology services to large corporations, including other mobile service firms. The division's clients include about 450 telecommunications carriers and 2,000 non-telecoms companies.

7.Leadership through Innovation and Creativity in Marketing Strategies of Indian Telecom Sector: A Case Study of Airtel Using Factor Analysis Approach Dwivedi, Harsh; Sharma, Leena. International Journal of Business Administration 2. 4 (Nov 2011): The telecom sector have been touched and influenced by the process of liberalization and globalization in India. The customer is the king in the market. Telecom companies deal in intangible product that is the call service. With the entry of private players, the competition is becoming intense. In order to satisfy the customer, every company is trying to implement a program of marketing strategy. Keeping this in mind, the present study is designed to analyze the marketing strategy in Indian Telecommunication sector .This study aims to identify the factors responsible for success in terms of getting a market leader position .Brand Airtel is chosen as a case study as it has emerged as a market leader within a short span of time in spite of so many mobile companies prevailing in the market. The study describes the result of survey done with respondents which are the present subscribers of Airtel. The result and analysis is done by using the Factor Analysis tool. The study concludes that out of thirty two marketing strategies, eleven factors are extracted which are found to be more prominent in implementing the marketing strategy. The Company's marketing strategies are studied and out of which prominent strategies like branding strategy, business operation strategy, target marketing strategy, Service strategy, Network, promotion and pricing strategy are identified. In the end, with the help of results, how successful is the company in implementing the blue ocean strategy is also analyzed. 8.Mobile number portability: Airtel, Vodafone, Idea & RCom focusing on loyalty programmes to retain users [Telecom] Singh, Rajiv. The Economic Times (Online) [New Delhi] 30 Jan 2013. NEW DELHI: A mobile bill doesn't always burn a whole in the pocket. Sometimes, like in the case of Saurabh Patel, it proved to be a passport to freebies. By brandishing his post-paid bill a few days back, Patel was ableto pick up some cool Satya Paul accessories worth Rs 5,000 for free. Courtesy of Airtel. Earlier this month, the largest telecom service provider of the country tied up with the premium designer label brand to surprise post-paid subscribers with a Rs 5,000 gift voucher. Marketing experts see this as a carrot to retain post-paid subscribers against the backdrop of high churn dueto mobile number portability (MNP) . "It's a smart and timely move as customer retention gets tougher in the highly competitive Indian market," says Abhishek Chauhan, senior consultant, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

This may also result in a shift of subscribers from the prepaid to post-paid segment as the telcos are increasingly focusing more on high net worth post-paid consumers, avers Chauhan. Airtel, which has had a run of 12 consecutive quarter losses, has been bearing the brunt of MNP churn, with subscribers leaving in droves. While over 95% of the pre-paid market is low margin, the post-paid segment has high ARPUs (average revenue per user) and is the way forward for telecom players, say experts. "Any marketer's worst nightmare would be to deal with a leaking bucket effect wherein you lose customers at nearly the same rate of gaining new ones," says Smitha Sarma Ranganathan, a brand communication specialist who teaches marketing management at IBS Bangalore. This is all the more relevant for telecom brands where the cost of switching is low with the advent of MNP, she adds. Airtel, apart from the Satya Paul tie-up, also offered select post-paid consumers passes for the recently-concluded India-England cricket series. "As a brand we value the patronage of our customers and this is just one of our many ways to acknowledge the same," says Abhilasha Hans, chief service officer, consumer business, Bharti Airtel. Airtel is not the only one heading in that direction. Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications (RCom) have also been focusing on loyalty programmes to retain high networth users. Vodafone, for its post-paid users, has an 'Earn and Burn' programme that is open to premium cardholders of Stanchart and HSBC; the scheme helped the operator add over 1.3 lakh new users last year. It has also been running the 'My Delights' scheme that offers best deals and discounts on restaurants, health & beauty and travel. RCom, which plans to hike tariff for post-paid users as well, is betting big on loyalty schemes to retain users. It has a specialised call center offering personalised services to high net-worth post-paid users. It also has dedicated relationship managers for retail and corporate customers with high ARPUs. RCom will soon roll out discounts on leading brands across over 330 categories exclusively in collaboration with Martjack Exchange, a digital commerce channel that connects consumers with suppliers and retailers. While other telecom service providers may have recently started focusing on post-paid users, Idea Cellular seems to have understood the game ahead of its rivals-reflected in the MNP charts, which Idea topped last year. "Idea was the first player to promote MNP through its 'No Idea, Get Idea' campaign that highlighted the company's strength in network coverage, customer service delivery,

customised products and services and accurate billing," says Navanit Narayan, chief service delivery officer, Idea Cellular. Sending customised New Year calendars, celebrating festivals together with subscribers, organising musical evenings and offering a chance to meet brand ambassadors as well as to attend Filmfare awards are some of the initiatives that have helped Idea reap rich dividends. In today's context of brand building, the moolah spent and the time taken to capture the customers' mindshare is enormous, says Ranganathan of IBS Bangalore. "Once firmly anchored in the customers' sensibilities, manoeuvring the brand to gain favourable returns is but a logical step. And this is what Idea has done," she concludes. 9.Lifetime worries of indefinite validity Businessline (Jan 18, 2006): 1. "In the month of December 2005 several operators announced and implemented tariff schemes with lifetime validity (with free incoming calls)," narrates the 29-page document. According to these schemes, customers could receive incoming calls for lifetime in lieu of an upfront payment of about Rs 1,000. For instance, Airtel brought in the Rs 999 tag on its scheme, assuring users 'free for a lifetime' incoming calls, though recharge will be required every 6 months. MTNL, Idea, Reliance and Hutch joined in with their own versions of lifetime validity offerings. COAI (Cellular Operator Association of India) is, however, afraid that the new schemes will bring down the ARPU (average revenue per user). It has not gone past TRAI's attention that call charges in these schemes are on the higher side. "In general, local calls are charged at Rs 1.99 per minute and STD calls are charged at Rs 2.99 per minute." Some cellular operators have introduced the lifetime concept in the post- paid plans, implying that the subscriber availing these plans need not pay compulsory fixed charges like monthly rental. "Talk time content in the range of Rs 25 to Rs 100 is also available for the subscribers," notes the Authority while discussing the general features of the schemes Do lifetime offers amount to 'lock-in' of the customers, and if so, does it amount to an anticompetitive conduct? "Subscribers acquisition through agreements that make it difficult or uneconomical for a consumer tomove to another operator/service provider or move from one package of tariff to another is one form of lock-in," explains TRAI. 'Switching cost' arises when the consumer has to pay a penalty for breaking an existing contract with a service provider, or for moving from one supplier to another. In lifetime offers, this cost is the upfront payment made by the consumer, "because the scheme does not offer any refund - full or partial -on the exit of the subscriber from the scheme," analyses the Authority. "Switching costs combined with economies of scale or network effects can have the effect of preventing or reducing the prospects of competitive entry, because it can be harder for

competitors to detach existing customers from the firm experiencing economies of scale," notes the paper, citing InfoDev (www.infodev.org). "Whether the consumers perceive that the penalties (i.e. foregoing the upfront payment) to be incurred to move to any other tariff package on offer (i.e., break the contract) are less than the present value of 'competitive prices' they are to pay otherwise over the duration of the 'lifetime'?" reads a question of TRAI that may take a lifetime for many to understand. If theconsumer perceives more benefits in migrating, despite foregoing the upfront payment made for the lifetime tariff plan, "then the entry cost in this lifetime offer could be considered as not 'high' to deter consumers from exiting," suggests the paper 10.Most Trusted Brands 2011: How aggressive moves by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea & BSNL have enhanced consumer engagement [Brand Equity] Banerjee, Rajiv. The Economic Times (Online) [New Delhi] 28 Sep 2011. There is no doubt in my mind that the advent of mobile telephony has improved the lives of millions in a very short span of time. "In rural markets, distribution is the key and advent of mobile telephony will act as an enabler for private enterprise particularly for youth, whose traditional occupation is farming or fishing," Kapoor states. If friends don't get you, then Zoozoos will and incase you miss both of them because you are 'bizee, bizee', there's Big B's son telling you how not to add to India's burgeoning human population by using a mobile. There's simply 'no getting away' from the mobile services operators. As mobile services become as ubiquitous as a soap or a biscuit, little wonder that they have clawed out banks, food services and even insurance heavyweights to go on and occupy pole positions in Brand Equity's Most Trusted Brands survey 2011. In the overall list of products and services, mobile services brands like Airtel and Idea who were positioned below 100 last year have broken into the Top 50 ranking in 2011. Airtel is ranked No. 3 in the overall list, with Vodafone placed at No. 8 in the same list. In the services category, Airtel is the No. 1 brand, followed by Vodafone, BSNL and Idea at No. 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Interestingly, at the top of the services list, as many as seven mobile service brands occupy slots in the Top 10 ranks. "There is no doubt in my mind that the advent of mobile telephony has improved the lives of millions in a very short span of time. It's not only about connectivity but a means to earn their livelihood," says Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel. Kumar Ramanathan, head - marketing, Vodafone says the degree of involvement is high in this segment given that every transaction involves money. "The ability to make a difference in the consumer's life is more pronounced," says Ramanathan. Indeed the reflection of how pronounced the mobile operators have become is evident in the rapid communication campaigns unleashed by the leading players. The arena has become

even more competitive with the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) as well as services like 3G. The mobile operators may enjoy a huge subscriber base, but they sure are bleeding when it comes to revenues. "At the core, the experience remains the same. But the expectations from customers and stakeholders have risen and will rise exponentially in the next decade," says Kapoor. Maintaining the trust factor consistently is a challenge, admits Sashi Shankar, CMO, Idea Cellular, who adds that the situation has got further accentuated with increased competition. "Switching is happening more for economic reasons, not because there's a trust deficit with the incumbent players," he says. In major metros that already have high voice penetration, Shankar of Idea says the big fight will move from voice to data. And apart from ensuring consistent consumer experience in metros (which often falters on the ground), the next big mobile telephony battles will be in tier 2 & 3 cities and towns. Mobile penetration, players believe, will create market place opportunities. "As more and more Indian customers are discovering internet through mobiles, development of content in local languages by mobile operators will be crucial," adds Ramanathan. Moving deeper, Kapoor of Airtel says the company has created 50,000 Airtel service centres in the rural areas. These centres are shops in rural areas that are been trained to become a call centre and service the local rural markets. "In rural markets, distribution is the key and advent of mobile telephony will act as an enabler for private enterprise particularly for youth, whose traditional occupation is farming or fishing," Kapoor states. In contrast to FMCG, the learning curve for mobile services brands have been sharper and faster. This year's survey captures the rise of mobile telephony. If the segment maintains the same aggressive go-to-market, next year could well see these brands becoming the new FMCGs; even in the survey.

11.Bharti Airtel buys 49% in Qualcomm's broadband venture for $165 million Thomas, Thomas K. Businessline [Chennai] 24 May 2012. Inches closer to Reliance's 4G might Bharti Airtel has inched closer to matching Reliance Industries' fourth generation (4G) technology-based broadband network. The Sunil Mittal-promoted telecom company has acquired 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm's broadband venture for $165 million.

Airtel will take complete control of the venture by 2014. This will give Airtel access to lucrative markets including Delhi and Mumbai where RIL is the only player with 4G-based broadband spectrum. With the Qualcomm acquisition, Airtel will have broadband presence, through a combination of 4G and 3G, in18 circles - just four short of Reliance Industries' 22 circles. Qualcomm holds broadband licences in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. Services have not been launchedin these circles as the US chipmaker received the licences only recently from the DoT. Airtel will move into the Qualcomm venture partly by way of acquisition of 26 per cent equity interest equally held by Global Holding Corporation Private Ltd and Tulip Telecom Ltd, and the balance by way of subscription of fresh equity. Qualcomm had won broadband spectrum in the four circles during the auctions held in 2010 for Rs 4,912.54 crore. In July 2010, it sold 26 per cent stake in the venture for a combined value of $57.72 million to Tulip Telecom and Global Holding Corporation Pvt. Ltd. Airtel already has broadband licences in four circles - Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra - and 3G licences in 13 circles in India. The operator has already launched 4G services in Kolkata and Karnataka Circles. RIL is yet to start services but plans are afoot for a mega-launch later this year. It has already snapped up a few content companies and is looking for a combination of wireless and wireline technologies. Commenting on the partnership Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said, "This partnership will combine the strength of Bharti's national telecom footprint and Qualcomm's technological leadership in the LTE TDD space." LTE TDD is one flavour of 4G technology which is being deployed in a few countries including India and China. Qualcomm is expected to provide technical assistance to Bharti in connection with network architecture and optimisation, infrastructure and device testing, as well as continuing to develop and support the underlying technology and the LTE TDD ecosystem. Analysts said that the partnership between Airtel and Qualcomm could give RIL tough competition. "While Airtel knows how to run a telecom business, Qualcomm has the technological knowledge. Since LTE TDD is a new technology this could prove to be crucial in a two-way fight," said a telecom analysts. 19.THE TOP 10: Bharti Airtel extends its reach Anonymous. Asiamoney (Sep 2008): n/a.

In Hong Kong, it's not unusual to see people chatting on their mobile phones in the subway. Cut to India's commercial hub Mumbai, and you're more likely to see users cursing their network providers as a call cuts out for the umpteenth time. But to be a wireless business in a market that added 100 million subscribers in the year to July is to be in a sweet spot. And sitting pretty is Bharti Airtel, with a leading market share of 24.2%. In Hong Kong, it's not unusual to see people chatting on their mobile phones in the subway. Cut to India's commercial hub Mumbai, and you're more likely to see users cursing their network providers as a call cuts out for the umpteenth time. But to be a wireless business in a market that added 100 million subscribers in the year to July is to be in a sweet spot. And sitting pretty is Bharti Airtel, with a leading market share of 24.2%. As it wooed new users and encouraged existing ones to talk more, New Delhi-based Bharti cut rates in April, prompting other firms to follow suit in a market that has among the lowest tariffs in the world. Average revenues per user have suffered, falling 10% in the last quarter. But the management isn't worried. "Average revenues per user aren't a valid parameter in India," says Manoj Kohli, Bharti Airtel's joint managing director and chief executive. "This is a parameter of penetrated western markets. In India, we are moving down new strata of society every quarter, so we expect these revenues to decline. "We are a minutes' factory. We produce minutes and sell them and our objective is to earn healthy margins per minutes we sell. We're comfortable with present margins." For the quarter to June 30 this year, Bharti's margins for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were 41.5%, about the same as they were in the same period last year. Analysts are comfortable with Bharti's numbers, too. "Bharti's average revenues per user have fallen the leastin the industry in the last five quarters," notes G.V. Giri, a telecom analyst at financial services firm India Infoline. In terms of subscriber market share measured by revenues, Bharti increased its presence by about 1% in the same period. "It is strengthening its lead over the competition and is unlikely to concede the market leader spot in a hurry," says Giri. In terms of competition, Reliance Communications is closest to Bharti in the multiple services it offers. But Reliance saw some operational weakness on the wireless front in the last quarters, and it has its task cut out as it expands into the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications arena. Naming names In the wireless business, Vodafone is Bharti's closest rival but it doesn't have the array of products that Bharti does on non-wireless businesses, Giri points out. And while Idea Cellular is a strong, fast-growing brand too, it doesn't yet have a nationwide presence.

This is maybe why Kohli can't be bothered to name names when asked where he expects the stiffest competition to come from. "We look at customers, we don't look at the competition. We believe that as it intensifies we will get stronger," he says. Mobile number portability is expected to come into play in India by the end of the year, and Kohli says that while Bharti is likely to lose customers to other operators, it will also gain some, especially high-net-worth individuals with greater minutes usage. Another source of competition is likely to be non-telecom companies, which are expected to enter as mobile virtual network operators. But Kohli doesn't see much of a business case for such players in an intensely competitive mobile market with its low tariff rates. As with other cellular operators in India, Bharti's focus now is on the rural population. "Our rural strategy is vital," says Kohli. "As a single market, the Indian rural market is the largest in the world, with over 700 million customers." Bharti is busy expanding its network in villages and has tied up with organisations that have a strong presence there, like the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative. More than 50% of Bharti's new users come from rural India. But expanding also poses the most problems, mainly because of a lack of infrastructure. The availability of power in rural India is "quite poor", says Kohli, and with the company needing electricity around the clock, operating isn't easy. Another road bump that Bharti and the industry faces is the shortage of spectrum, or radio frequencies that can be used by mobile operators, the allocation of which is government controlled. India now plans to introduce 3G services and there will be an auction for spectrum for 3G before December. Analysts expect 3G services to be launched by March 2009 in at least the top five Indian cities. "They're initially likely to use 3G spectrum for voice services and that will alleviate the spectrum shortage. Since companies can bid for spectrum in 3G, unlike now where spectrum is granted based on subscriber numbers, it will be a more transparent process," says Giri. Spectrum is unlikely to come cheap, but cash isn't one of Bharti's worries. The management has announced a US$3.5 billion capital expenditure programme for the year ending in March 2009, and Kohli says that money will all come from internal accruals. "We don't need to tap the markets or borrow money to fund growth," he says. Bharti's debt levels are under US$1 billion. Its net worth is more than US$5 billion and analysts point out that should the company want to do any big-ticket spending, it would be easy to leverage on that. Bharti's merger talks with South Africa's MTN fell through this year over ownership issues. Kohli says they're still interested in growth through acquisitions in emerging markets, and are on the lookout for possible deals. But for now he's not naming names.

20.Now, Bharti Airtel rings in for rural subscribers McClatchy - Tribune Business News [Washington] 18 May 2007: 1. May 18--MUMBAI/NEW DELHI -- Bharti Airtel has lowered the bar on lifetime prepaid to Rs 495. The move is inline with a slew of steps taken by other service providers as well. A similar move enabled RCOM to set what it claimed was a global record by selling over a million handsets in under a week. A day after RCOM's move, the world's leading handset maker Nokia chose India for its global launch of seven entry-level handsets. At the same time, the newly- merged Nokia-Siemens Networks lauched its 'village soultion' which lowers the capex for service providers by 50 percent in order to tap rural markets. May 18--MUMBAI/NEW DELHI -- Bharti Airtel has lowered the bar on lifetime prepaid to Rs 495. The move is inline with a slew of steps taken by other service providers as well. A similar move enabled RCOM to set what it claimed was a global record by selling over a million handsets in under a week. A day after RCOM's move, the world's leading handset maker Nokia chose India for its global launch of seven entry-level handsets. At the same time, the newly- merged Nokia-Siemens Networks lauched its 'village soultion' which lowers the capex for service providers by 50 percent in order to tap rural markets. This concept will see village entrepreneurs sign up as franchisees, while Nokia-Siemens will provide them with the requisite equipment to provide GSM services within a 4-5 km (2.5-3 mile) range to rural residents for as little as $3 a month. Cellular operators will link their own network to the 'village solution' networks on a revenue-sharing basis. Recently, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal, while announcing its annual results, said the company would invest up to $3.5 billion in fiscal '07-08, the bulk of which would be spent on rural India. Similarily, RCOM's chairman Anil Ambani announced a week later the company would invest $2.5 billion this year to connect every town and village with a population of over 5,000. Vodafone's CEO, Arun Sarin, had recently said the company would launch ultra low-cost handsets in India soon. An analysis by telecom regulator Trai on the success of lifetime validity schemes over six months revealed that 16 percent of the country's mobile base had opted for such schemes. Off these, only 51 percent were new users, while the rest had migrated from their exisiting schemes. Besides, 28 percent of the total additions during this period was on account of lifetime validity schemes. These users also had an averge revenue of Rs 218 per month. "The revenue composition of lifetime tariff schemes shows that a large proportion of revenue is contributed by outgoing calls and other services. This implies that from the revenue proportion, lifetime schemes are no different from the general tariff plans offered by mobile operators," Trai said.

"The big picture emerging from the analysis based on empirical data is that the scheme has been very popular. The scheme has been one of the driving forces for the explosive growth of mobile subscribers, which is witnessed in the current year, ie, 2006. At he same time, service providers seem to be getting a reasonable ARPU from the scheme despite the fact that the scheme was primarily targeted towards low-usage and marginal customers," Trai had added. The catch with Bharti's offer launched on Thursday is that a subscriber will have to use "a minimum of Rs 200 every 180 days to continue enjoying lifetime validity benefits." The plan will be effective Friday, and existing as well as new users can subscribe to it. The existing Airtel Easy Lifetime prepaid subscribers (Rs 999 offer) can also avail of this scheme with a Rs 495 recharge. The tariff rate will be Rs 1.99 for a local call and Rs 2.99 for other calls in India. Tariff rates for local calls under the non-lifetime schemes are as low as up to 40 paise for local call. "Our 495 Lifetime product is at an attractive price point and marks our strategic intent to further drive affordability and consumption in the prepaid category. Going forward, we will continue to explore innovative products such as these that will enhance our customers' value and significantly contribute towards increasingAirtel's market and revenue share in the future," Bharti Airtel president (mobile services) Sanjay Kapoor said. Tata Teleservices, which pioneered lifetime pre-paid services in October 2005, saw a rapid increase insubscriber base at a time when it was struggling for stability in the fast-growing sector. Soon, other operators including Bharti and RCOM too launched such services.

Research methodology
Research Design The research design used in this study is Descriptive research design.The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. To accomplish the objective of knowing the reason behind customers desire to switch the service provider, we will conduct a survey based on questionnaire to collect and interpret data. We will include all the necessary attributes to reach the final decision. We will also generate some hypothesis based on our research and interpretation of data.

Primary Research

Secondary Research

CHAPTER 1 Telecommunication
1.1 About telecommunication Telecommunication in the modern era is the science and practice of transmitting information by electromagnetic means. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. In modern times, telecommunications involves the use of electrical devices such as the telegraph, telephone, and teleprinter, as well as the use of radio, microwave transmission towers, fiber optics, orbiting satellites and the Internet, which is a vast world-wide computer network. A revolution in wireless telecommunications began in the first decade of the 1900s with pioneering developments in radio communications by Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi.

1.2 Basic elements A basic telecommunication system consists of three primary units that are always present in some form:

A transmitter that takes information and converts it to a signal. A transmission medium, also called the "physical channel" that carries the signal. An example of this is the "free space channel". A receiver that takes the signal from the channel and converts it back into usable information.

For example, in aradio broadcasting station the station's large power amplifier is the transmitter; and the broadcasting antenna is the interface between the power amplifier and the "free space channel". The free space channel is the transmission medium; and the receiver's antenna is the interface between the free space channel and the receiver. Next, the radio receiver is the destination of the radio signal, and this is where it is converted from electricity to sound for people to listen to. Sometimes, telecommunication systems are "duplex" (two-way systems) with a single box of electronics working as both a transmitter and a receiver, or a transceiver. For example, a cellular telephone is a transceiver. The transmission electronics and the receiver electronics in a transceiver are actually quite independent of each other. This can be readily explained by the fact that radio transmitters contain power amplifiers that operate with electrical powers measured in the watts or kilowatts, but radio receivers deal with radio powers that are measured in the microwatts or nanowatts. Hence, transceivers have to be carefully designed and built to isolate their high-power circuitry and their low-power circuitry from each other. Telecommunication over telephone lines is called point-to-point communication because it is between one transmitter and one receiver. Telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called broadcast communication because it is between one powerful transmitter and numerous low-power but sensitive radio receivers. Telecommunications in which multiple transmitters and multiple receivers have been designed to cooperate and to share the same physical channel are called multiplex systems. 1.3 Analog versus digital communications Communications signals can be either by analog signals or digital signals. There are analog communication systems and digital communication systems. For an analog signal, the signal is varied continuously with respect to the information. In a digital signal, the information is encoded as a set of discrete values (for example, a set of ones and zeros). During the

propagation and reception, the information contained in analog signals will inevitably be degraded by undesirable physical noise. (The output of a transmitter is noise-free for all practical purposes.) Commonly, the noise in a communication system can be expressed as adding or subtracting from the desirable signal in a completely random way. This form of noise is called additive noise, with the understanding that the noise can be negative or positive at different instants of time. Noise that is not additive noise is a much more difficult situation to describe or analyze, and these other kinds of noise will be omitted here. On the other hand, unless the additive noise disturbance exceeds a certain threshold, the information contained in digital signals will remain intact. Their resistance to noise represents a key advantage of digital signals over analog signals. 1.4 Communication channels The term "channel" has two different meanings. In one meaning, a channel is the physical medium that carries a signal between the transmitter and the receiver. Examples of this include the atmosphere for sound communications, glass optical fibers for some kinds of optical communications, coaxial cables for communications by way of the voltages and electric currents in them, and free space for communications using visible light, infrared waves, ultraviolet ligrht, and radio waves. This last channel is called the "free space channel". The sending of radio waves from one place to another has nothing to do with the presence or absence of an atmosphere between the two. Radio waves travel through a perfect vacuum just as easily as they travel through air, fog, clouds, or any other kind of gas besides air. The other meaning of the term "channel" in telecommunications is seen in the phrase communications channel, which is a subdivision of a transmission medium so that it can be used to send multiple streams of information simultaneously. For example, one radio station can broadcast radio waves into free space at frequencies in the neighborhood of 94.5 MHz (megahertz) while another radio station can simultaneously broadcast radio waves at frequencies in the neighborhood of 96.1 MHz. Each radio station would transmit radio waves over a frequency bandwidth of about 180 kHz (kilohertz), centered at frequencies such as the above, which are called the "carrier frequencies". Each station in this example is separated from its adjacent stations by 200 kHz, and the difference between 200 kHz and 180 kHz (20 kHz) is an engineering allowance for the imperfections in the communication system. In the example above, the "free space channel" has been divided into communications channels according to frequencies, and each channel is assigned a separate frequency bandwidth in which to broadcast radio waves. This system of dividing the medium into channels according to frequency is called "frequency-division multiplexing" (FDM).

Another way of dividing a communications medium into channels is to allocate each sender a recurring segment of time (a "time slot", for example, 20 milliseconds out of each second), and to allow each sender to send messages only within its own time slot. This method of dividing the medium into communication channels is called "tirme-division multiplexing" (TDM), and is used in optical fiber communication. Some radio communication systems use TDM within an allocated FDM channel. Hence, these systems use a hybrid of TDM and FDM. 1.5 Modulation The shaping of a signal to convey information is known as modulation. Modulation can be used to represent a digital message as an analog waveform. This is commonly called "keying" a term derived from the older use of Morse Code in telecommunications and several keying techniques exist (these include phase-shift keying, frequency-shift keying, and amplitude-shift keying). The "Bluetooth" system, for example, uses phase-shift keying to exchange information between various devices. In addition, there are combinations of phaseshift keying and amplitude-shift keying which is called (in the jargon of the field) "quadrature amplitude modulation" (QAM) that are used in high-capacity digital radio communication systems. Modulation can also be used to transmit the information of low-frequency analog signals at higher frequencies. This is helpful because low-frequency analog signals cannot be effectively transmitted over free space. Hence the information from a low-frequency analog signal must be impressed into a higher-frequency signal (known as the "carrier wave") before transmission. There are several different modulation schemes available to achieve this {two of the most basic being amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM)}. An example of this process is a disc jockey's voice being impressed into a 96 MHz carrier wave using frequency modulation (the voice would then be received on a radio as the channel "96 FM"). In addition, modulation has the advantage of being about to use frequency division multiplexing (FDM) 1.6 Telecommunication networks A communications network is a collection of transmitters, receivers, and communications channels that send messages to one another. Some digital communications networks contain one or more routers that work together to transmit information to the correct user. An analog communications network consists of one or more switches that establish a connection between two or more users. For both types of network, repeaters may be necessary to amplify or recreate the signal when it is being transmitted over long distances. This is to combat attenuation that can render the signal indistinguishable from the noise. Another

advantage of digital systems over analog is that their output is easier to store in memory i.e. two voltage states (high and low) are easier to store than a continuous range of states. 1.7 Types of Networks Early services 0G MTS In 1947 AT&T commercialized Mobile Telephone Service. From its start in St. Louis in 1946, AT&T then introduced Mobile Telephone Service to one hundred towns and highway corridors by 1948. Mobile Telephone Service was a rarity with only 5,000 customers placing about 30,000 calls each week. Calls were set up manually by an operator and the user had to depress a button on the handset to talk and release the button to listen. The call subscriber equipment weighed about 80 pounds. Subscriber growth and revenue generation were hampered by the constraints of the technology. Because only three radio channels were available, only three customers in any given city could make mobile telephone calls at one time.Mobile Telephone Service was expensive, costing US$15 per month, plus $.30 to $.40 per local call, equivalent to about $176 per month and $3.50 to $4.75 per call in 2012 dollars. IMTS AT&T introduced the first major improvement to mobile telephony in 1965, giving the improved service the obvious name of Improved Mobile Telephone Service. IMTS used additional radio channels, allowing more simultaneous calls in a given geographic area, introduced customer dialing, eliminating manual call set by an operator, and reduced the size and weight of the subscriber equipment. Despite the capacity improvement offered by IMTS, demand outstripped capacity. In agreement with state regulatory agencies, AT&T limited the service to just 40,000 customers system wide. In New York, NY, for example, 2,000 customers shared just 12 radio channels and typically had to wait 30 minutes to place a call. Analog cellular networks 1G The first analog cellular system widely deployed in North America was the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). It was commercially introduced in the Americas in 1978, Israel in 1986, and Australia in 1987.

AMPS was a pioneering technology that helped drive mass market usage of cellular technology, but it had several serious issues by modern standards. It was unencrypted and easily vulnerable to eavesdropping via a scanner; it was susceptible to cell phone "cloning;" and it used a Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) scheme and required significant amounts of wireless spectrum to support. Many of the iconic early commercial cell phones such as the Motorola DynaTACAnalog AMPS were eventually superseded by Digital AMPS (D-AMPS) in 1990, and AMPS service was shut down by most North American carriers by 2008. Digital cellular networks 2G, 2.5G and 2.75G In the 1990s, the 'second generation' mobile phone systems emerged. Two systems competed for supremacy in the global market: the European developed GSM standard and the U.S. developed CDMA standard. These differed from the previous generation by using digital instead of analog transmission, and also fast out-of-band phone-to-network signaling. The rise in mobile phone usage as a result of 2G was explosive and this era also saw theadvent of prepaid mobile phones. In 1991 the first GSM network (Radiolinja) launched in Finland. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems in Europe were higher than those in America, though with some overlap. For example, the 900 MHz frequency range was used for both 1G and 2G systems in Europe, so the 1G systems were rapidly closed down to make space for the 2G systems. In America the IS-54 standard was deployed in the same band as AMPS and displaced some of the existing analog channels. In 1993, IBM Simon was introduced. This was possibly the world's first smartphone. It was a mobile phone, pager, fax machine, and PDA all rolled into one. It included a calendar, address book, clock, calculator, notepad, email, and a touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard. The IBM Simon had a stylus you used to tap the touch screen with. It featured predictive typing that would guess the next characters as you tapped. It had apps, or at least a way to deliver more features by plugging a PCMCIA 1.8 MB memory card into the phone. Coinciding with the introduction of 2G systems was a trend away from the larger "brick" phones toward tiny 100200g hand-held devices. This change was possible not only through technological improvements such as more advanced batteries and more energy-efficient electronics, but also because of the higher density of cell sites to accommodate increasing

usage. The latter meant that the average distance transmission from phone to the base station shortened, leading to increased battery life whilst on the move. The second generation introduced a new variant of communication called SMS or text messaging. It was initially available only on GSM networks but spread eventually on all digital networks. The first machine-generated SMS message was sent in the UK on 3 December 1992 followed in 1993 by the first person-to-person SMS sent in Finland. The advent of prepaid services in the late 1990s soon made SMS the communication method of choice amongst the young, a trend which spread across all ages. 2G also introduced the ability to access media content on mobile phones. In 1998 the first downloadable content sold to mobile phones was the ring tone, launched by Finland's Radiolinja (now Elisa). Advertising on the mobile phone first appeared in Finland when a free daily SMS news headline service was launched in 2000, sponsored by advertising. Mobile payments were trialed in 1998 in Finland and Sweden where a mobile phone was used to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine and car parking. Commercial launches followed in 1999 in Norway. The first commercial payment system to mimic banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first full internet service on mobile phones was introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999. Mobile broadband data 3G As the use of 2G phones became more widespread and people began to utilize mobile phones in their daily lives, it became clear that demand for data services (such as access to the internet) was growing. Furthermore, experience from fixed broadband services showed there would also be an ever increasing demand for greater data speeds. The 2G technology was nowhere near up to the job, so the industry began to work on the next generation of technology known as 3G. The main technological difference that distinguishes 3G technology from 2G technology is the use of packet switching rather than circuit switching for data transmission. In addition, the standardization process focused on requirements more than technology (2 Mbit/s maximum data rate indoors, 384 Kbit/s outdoors, for example).

Inevitably this led to many competing standards with different contenders pushing their own technologies, and the vision of a single unified worldwide standard looked far from reality. The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption of Revision A to EV-DO, which made several additions to the protocol whilst retaining backwards compatibility:

The introduction of several new forward link data rates that increase the maximum burst rate from 2.45 Mbit/s to 3.1 Mbit/s. Protocols that would decrease connection establishment time. The ability for more than one mobile to share the same time slot. The introduction of QoS flags.

All these were put in place to allow for low latency, low bit rate communications such as VoIP. The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption of Revision A to EV-DO,The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption of Revision A to EV-DO, which made several additions to the protocol whilst retaining backwards compatibility: The first pre-commercial trial network with 3G was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in the Tokyo region in May 2001. NTT DoCoMo launched the first commercial 3G network on 1 October 2001, using the WCDMA technology. In 2002 the first 3G networks on the rival CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology were launched by SK Telecom and KTF in South Korea, and Monet in the USA. Monet has since gone bankrupt. By the end of 2002, the second WCDMA network was launched in Japan by Vodafone KK (now Softbank). European launches of 3G were in Italy and the UK by the Three/Hutchison group, on WCDMA. 2003 saw a further 8 commercial launches of 3G, six more on WCDMA and two more on the EVDO standard. During the development of 3G systems, 2.5G systems such as CDMA2000

1x and GPRS were developed as extensions to existing 2G networks. These provide some of the features of 3G without fulfilling the promised high data rates or full range of multimedia services. CDMA2000-1X delivers theoretical maximum data speeds of up to 307 Kbit/s. Just

beyond these is the EDGE system which in theory covers the requirements for 3G system, but is so narrowly above these that any practical system would be sure to fall short. The high connection speeds of 3G technology enabled a transformation in the industry: for the first time, media streaming of radio (and even television) content to 3G handsets became possible, with companies such as RealNetworks and Disney among the early pioneers in this type of offering. In the mid 2000s (decade), an evolution of 3G technology begun to be implemented, namely High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet

Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.0 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are available with HSPA+, which provides speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s downlink and 84 Mbit/s with Release 9 of the 3GPP standards. By the end of 2007, there were 295 million subscribers on 3G networks worldwide, which reflected 9% of the total worldwide subscriber base. About two thirds of these were on the WCDMA standard and one third on the EV-DO standard. The 3G telecoms services generated over 120 Billion dollars of revenues during 2007 and at many markets the majority of new phones activated were 3G phones. In Japan and South Korea the market no longer supplies phones of the second generation. Although mobile phones had long had the ability to access data networks such as the Internet, it was not until the widespread availability of good quality 3G coverage in the mid-2000s that specialized devices appeared to access the mobile internet. The first such devices, known as "dongles", plugged directly into a computer through the USB port. Another new class of device appeared subsequently, the so-called "compact wireless router" such as the Novatel WiFi, which makes 3G internet connectivity available to multiple computers simultaneously over Wi-Fi, rather than just to a single computer via a USB plug-in. Such devices became especially popular for use with laptop computers due to the added portability they bestow. Consequently, some computer manufacturers started to embed the mobile data function directly into the laptop so a dongle or MiFi wasn't needed. Instead, the SIM card could be inserted directly into the device itself to access the mobile data

services. Such 3G-capable laptops became commonly known as "netbooks". Other types of data-aware devices followed in the netbook's footsteps. By the beginning of 2010, E-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and the Nook from Barnes & Noble, had already become available with embedded wireless internet, and Apple Computer had announced plans for embedded wireless internet on its iPad tablet devices beginning that Fall. Native IP networks 4G By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U.S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. One of the main ways in which 4G differed technologically from 3G was in its elimination of circuit switching, instead employing an all-IP network. Thus, 4G ushered in a treatment of voice calls just like any other type of streaming audio media, utilizing packet switching over internet, LAN or WAN networks via VoIP.

Future evolution 5G
5G is a technology used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase of mobile telecommunication standards beyond the 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. 5G is not officially used for any specification or official document yet made public by telecommunication companies or standardization bodies such as 3GPP, WiMAX Forum, or ITU-R. New standard releases beyond 4G are in progress by standardization bodies, but are at this time not considered as new mobile generations but under the 4G umbrella. Deloitte is predicting a collapse in wireless performance to come as soon as 2016, as more devices using more and more services compete for limited bandwidth

Telecom sector in India

India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone). It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-competition among them. It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base with over 137 million as of June 2012. Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephony, internet and television broadcasting.

Telephone Industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of transforming intonext generation network, employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges, mobile switching centers, media gateways andsignalling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using optical fiber or Microwave radio relaynetworks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optic-fiber and wireless technologies. DTH, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The introduction of private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in India . Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the INSAT system of the country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio, television and satellite. Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalization and growth since 1990s and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets.The Industry has grown over twenty times in just ten years, from under 37 million subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011.India has the world's second-largest mobile phone user base with over 929.37 million users as of May 2012. It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base with over 137 million as of June 2012. The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 283207 crore(US$52 billion) for 201011 financial year, while revenues from telecom equipment segment stood at 117039 crore (US$22 billion). Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. It also has helped to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in India. The government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver mass education programmes for the rural folk of India The history of Indian telecom can be started with the introduction of telegraph. The Indian postal and telecom sectors are one of the worlds oldest. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department,at that time. Subsequently, the construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines connecting Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north along with Agra, Mumbai (then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south, as well

as Ootacamund andBangalore was started in November 1853. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered thetelegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public. In 1890, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to establishtelephone 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. In 1881, the Government later reversed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country. On 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange" had a total of 93 subscribers in its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.

Further developments and milestones

Pre-1902 Cable telegraph 1902 First wireless telegraph station established between Sagar Island and Sandhead. 1907 First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur. 19131914 First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla. 1927 Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with Imperial Wireless Chain beam stations at Khadki and Daund. Inaugurated by Lord Irwin on 23 July by exchanging greetings with King George V. 1933 Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India. 1953 12 channel carrier system introduced. 1960 First subscriber trunk dialling route commissioned between Lucknow and Kanpur 1975 First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri telephone exchanges. 1976 First digital microwave junction. 1979 First optical fibre system for local junction commissioned at Pune. 1980 First satellite at Sikandarabad, U.P.. earth station for domestic communications established

1983 First analogue Stored Program Control exchange for trunk lines commissioned at Mumbai.

1984 C-DOT established of digital exchanges.

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1995 First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis on 15 August 1995 in Delhi. 1995 Internet Introduced in India starting with Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Pune on 15 August 1995

Pre-liberalization statistics: 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 numbered only around 80,000. Post independence, growth remained slow because the telephone was seen more as 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. Liberalization and privatization Liberalization of Indian telecommunication industry started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CITof 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.Attempts to liberalize the telecommunication industry were continued by the following government under the primeminister-ship of Rajiv Gandhi. He invited Sam Pitroda, a US based Non-resident Indian NRI and a formerRockwell International executive to set up a Center for Development of Telematics(C-DOT) which manufactured electronic telephone exchanges in India for the first time. Sam Pitroda had a significant role as a consultant and adviser in the development of telecommunication in India. In 1985, the Department of Telecom(DoT) was separated from Indian Post & Telecommunication Department. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire country until 1986 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited(VSNL) were carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of metro cities(Delhi and Mumbai) and international long distance operations respectively. The demand for telephones was ever increasing and in 1990s Indian government was under increasing pressure to open up the telecom sector for private investment as a part of Liberalisation-Privatization-Globalization policies that the government had to accept to overcome the severe fiscal crisis and resultant balance of payments issue in 1991. Consequently, private investment in the sector of Value Added Services (VAS) was allowed and cellular telecom sector were opened up for competition from private investments. It was

during this period that the Narsimha 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. The policy introduced the concept of telecommunication for all and its vision was to expand the telecommunication facilities to all the villages in India. Liberalization in the basic telecom sector was also envisaged in this policy. They were also successful in establishing joint ventures between state owned telecom companies and international players. 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 liberalise long distance services 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 liberalised the local services, taking the opposite political parties into confidence and assuring foreign involvement in the long distance 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 labour unions, but they managed to keep away from all the hurdles. In 1997, the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayeewas more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalisation policies. The government corporatised the operations wing of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it as Department of Telecommunication Services (DTS) which was later named as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The proposal of raising the stake of foreign investors from 49% to 74% was rejected by the opposite political parties 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 serviceproviders 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. Many private operators, such as Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, Loop Mobile, Airtel, Idea etc., successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom 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 suspended the usage of around 30 million mobile phones (about 8% of all mobiles in the country) by 30 April. Phones without valid IMEI cannot be connected to cellular operators.] 56 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions. However, after a number of proactive initiatives taken by regulators and licensors, the total number of mobile subscribers has increased rapidly to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012. 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 200304 and 200405. Sectors Major sectors of telecommunication industry in India are telephony, internet and broadcasting. Telephony

Market share of major operators in India as on 29 February 2012 The telephony segment is dominated by private-sector and two state-run businesses. Most companies were formed by a recent revolution and restructuring launched within a decade, directed by Ministry of Communications and IT, Department of Telecommunications andMinister of Finance. Since then, most companies gained 2G, 3G and 4G licenses and engaged fixed-line, mobile and internet business in India.

On landlines, intra-circle calls are considered local calls while inter-circle are considered long distance calls. Foreign Direct Investment policy which increased the foreign ownership cap from 49% to 74%. Currently Government is working to integrate the whole country in one telecom circle. For long distance calls, the area code prefixed with a zero is dialled first which is then followed by the number (i.e. To call Delhi, 011 would be dialled first followed by the phone number). For international calls, "00" must be dialled first followed by the country code, area code and local phone number. The country code for India is 91. Several international fibre-optic links include those to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany. Some major telecom operators in India include Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications, TATA Teleservices, Infotel, MTS, Uninor, TATA DoCoMo, Videocon, Augere, Tikona Digital. Fixed Telephony Until the New Telecom Policy was announced in 1999, only the Governmentowned BSNLand MTNL were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper wire in India withMTNL operating in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL servicing all other areas of the country. Due to the rapid growth of the cellular phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition from cellular operators. This has forced land-line service providers to become more efficient and improve their quality of service. Land-line connections are now also available on demand, even in high density urban areas. India has over 31 million main line customers. Mobile Telephony See also: List of mobile network operators of India, List of countries by number of mobile phones in use, and List of mobile network operators. Cellular phone tower atop the roof of a building typical signboards of STD booths (kiosks from where STD calls can be made) and internet kiosks in India

AIR Radio Tower In August 1995, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Jyoti Basu ushered in the cellphone revolution in India by making the first call to Union Telecom Minister Sukhram..Sixteen years later 4th generation services were launched in Kolkata.

With a subscriber base of more than 929 million, the Mobile telecommunications system in India is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s. GSM was comfortably maintaining its position as the dominant mobile technology with 80% of the mobile subscriber market, but CDMA seemed to have stabilised its market share at 20% for the time being. By May 2012 the country had 929 million mobile subscribers, up from 350 million just 40 months earlier. The mobile market was continuing to expand at an annual rate in excess of 40% coming into 2010. According to data provided by Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora, as of 30 November 2012, India has 7,36,654 base transceiver stations (2G GSM & CDMA, and3G). Of those, 96,212 base transceiver stations provide 3G mobile and data services. Out ofIndia's 640 districts, 610 districts are covered by 3G services as of 30 November 2012. 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.In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connections crossed the number of fixed-line connections and presently dwarfs the wireline segment by a ratio of around 20:1. The mobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundred and thirty, from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012. 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. The government allowed Mobile number portability (MNP) which enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to anotherIndia is divided into 22 telecom circles:

Internet Main articles: List of Internet users by country and List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions The history of internet in India started with launch of internet services by VSNL on 15 August 1995, the 48th anniversary of Indian independence. They were able to add about 10,000 internet users with in 6 months. However for the next 10 years internet experience in the country remained less attractive with narrow-band connections having speed less than 56

kbit/s (Dial-Up). In 2004, Government formulated its Broadband policy which defined the broadband as an always-on internet connection with download speed of 256 kbit/s or above . From 2005 onward the growth of broadband sector in the country attained acceleration, but remained below the growth estimates of government and related agencies due to the resource issues in last-mile access which depended on wired-line technologies predominantly. This bottleneck was removed in 2010 when government auctioned the 3G spectrum followed by an equally high profile auction of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market. Now internet access in India is provided by both public and private companies using a variety of technologies and media including DialUp(PSTN), xDSL, Coaxial Cables, Ethernet, FTTH, ISDN, HSDPA (3G), WiFi, WiMAX etc. at a wide range of speeds and costs. The country has the world's third largest Internet users with over 121 million users (of whom 59% who only access the internet via mobile devices) as of December 2011. As of December 2011, total Internet connections stood at 22.39 millionwith estimated users exceeding 121 million. The number of broadband users as of July 2012 is 14.68 million.Cumulative Annual Growth rate(CAGR) of the broadband during the five-year period between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per centAmong the technologies, DSL, whilst holding slightly more than 75% of the local broadband market, was steadily losing market share to other non-DSL broadband platforms, especially to wireless broadband platforms. There are 155 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as of February 2012, which offer broadband services in India. Public sector companies BSNL and MTNL dominates the market with a share of 64.8 and 7.6 percent respectively while from the private sector Bharti leads with a share of 10 per cent. Cyber Cafe remains as the major source of internet access. In 2009, about 37 per cent of the users access from Cyber cafe, 30 per cent from office and 23 per cent from home. However, the number of mobile internet users found acceleration from 2009 onward and there were about 274 million such users at the end of September 2010, though majority belonged to 2G mobile networks. Mobile internet subscriptions as reported by India's TRAI in Mar 2011 increased to 381 million. One of the major issue, the internet segment facing is the lower average bandwidth of broadband connections compared to that of developed countries. According to 2007 statistics, the average download speed in India hovered at about 256 kbit/s, the minimum speed set by TRAI, whereas the international average was 5.6 Mbit/s during the same period. In order to attend this infrastructure issue the government declared 2007 as "the year of broadband".To compete with international standards of defining broadband speed the Indian Government has taken aggressive step of proposing the $13 billion national broadband network to connect all cities, towns and villages with a population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013. The network is estimated to handle speed

up to 10 Mbit/s in 63 metropolitan areas and 4 Mbit/s in additional 352 cities. Also, the Internet penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world and only accounts for 8.4% of the population compared to OECD counties, where average penetration rate is over 50%. Another issue reported from this sector is the digital divide of the growth story biased in favour of urban areas; according to 2010 statistics, more than 75 per cent of the broadband connections in the country are in top 30 cities. Regulators have tried to boost the growth of broadband in rural areas by promoting higher investment in rural infrastructure and subsidized tariff for rural subscribers under Universal service obligation scheme of the Indian government. Next-generation networks (NGN) Historically, the role of telecommunication has evolved from that of plain information exchange to a multi-service field, with Value Added Services (VAS) integrated with various discrete networks like PSTN, PLMN, Internet Backbone etc. However, with decreasing ARPUand increasing demand for VAS has become a compelling reason for the service providers to think of the convergence of these parallel networks into a single core network with service layers separated from network layer. Next-generation networking is such a convergence concept which according to ITU-T is: A next-generation network (NGN) is a packet-based network which can provide services including Telecommunication Services and able to make use of multiple broadband, quality of Service-enabled transport technologies and in which service-related functions are independent from underlying transport-related technologies. It offers unrestricted access by users to different service providers. It supports generalized mobility which will allow consistent and ubiquitous provision of services to users. Access network: The user can connect to the IP-core of NGN in various ways, most of which use the standard Internet Protocol (IP). User terminals such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and computers can register directly on NGN-core, even when they are roaming in another network or country. The only requirement is that they can use IP and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Fixed access (e.g., Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable modems, Ethernet), mobile access (e.g. W-CDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, GPRS) and wireless access (e.g.WLAN, WiMAX) are all supported. Other phone systems like plain old telephone service and non-compatibleVoIP systems, are supported through gateways. With the deployment of the NGN, users may subscribe to many simultaneous access-providers providing telephony, internet or entertainment services. This may provide end-users with

virtually unlimited options to choose between service providers for these services in NGN environment.The hyper-competition in telecom market, which was effectively caused by the introduction of Universal Access Service (UAS) license in 2003 became much tougher after 3G and 4G competitive auction. About 670,000 route-kilometer (419,000 mile) of optical fibres has been laid in India by the major operators, including in the financially nonviable rural areas and the process continues. Keeping in mind the viability of providing services in rural areas, the government of India also took a proactive role to promote the NGN implementation in the country; an expert committee called NGN eCO was constituted in order to deliberate on the licensing, interconnection and Quality of Service (QoS) issues related to NGN and it submitted its report on 24 August 2007. Telecom operators found the NGN model advantageous, but huge investment requirements have prompted them to adopt a multi-phase migration and they have already started the migration process to NGN with the implementation of IP-based core-network.

Recent government policies and growth targets

All villages shall receive telecom facilities by the end of 2002. A Communication Convergence Bill introduced in the Parliament on 31 August 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, a fourth cellular operator, one each in four metros and thirteen circles, has been permitted. Cellular operators have been permitted to provide all types of mobile services including voice and non-voice messages, data services andPCOs utilising 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) and Voice Mail/ Audiotex/ Unified Messaging Services. Wireless Local Loop (WLL) has been introduced to provide 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), funding, and administration. A decision to permit 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 fibre cables. Two categories of infrastructure providers have been allowed to provide end-to-end bandwidth and dark fibre, right of way, towers, duct space etc. Guidelines have been issued by the Government to open up Internet telephony (IP).

Regulatory environment LIRNEasia's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index, which summarises stakeholders' perception on certain TRE dimensions, provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tool measured seven dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anticompetitive practices; and vi) universal services; vii) quality of service, for the fixed, mobile and broadband sectors. The results for India, point out to the fact that the stakeholders perceive the TRE to be most conducive for the mobile sector followed by fixed and then broadband. Other than for Access to Scarce Resources the fixed sector lags behind the mobile sector. The fixed and mobile sectors have the highest scores for Tariff Regulation. Market entry also scores well for the mobile sector as competition is well entrenched with most of the circles with 45 mobile service providers. The broadband sector has the lowest score in the aggregate. The low penetration of broadband of mere 3.87 against the policy objective of 9 million at then end of 2007 clearly indicates that the regulatory environment is not very conducive. Revenue and growth The total revenue in the telecom service sector was 86720 crore (US$16.0 billion) in 200506 as against 71674 crore (US$13.2 billion) in 20042005, registering a growth of 21% with estimated revenue of FY'2011 of Rs.835 crore (US$ 19 Bn Approx). The total investment in the telecom services sector reached 200660 crore (US$36.9 billion) in 200506, up from 178831 crore (US$32.9 billion) in the previous fiscal. Telecommunication is the lifeline of the rapidly growing Information Technology industry. Internet subscriber base has risen to more than a 121 million in 2011. Out of this 11.47 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 2005up from 2.3 million in December 2004. The Total Revenue of Indian Telecom Services company is likely to exceed Rs 200000 Cr ( US$ 44 Bn approx) for FY 1112 based on FY 1011 nos and latest quarterly results. These are consolidated nos including foreign operation of Bharti Airtel. The major contributions to this revenue are as follows: Bharti Airtel 65,060 Reliance Comm 31,468 Idea Cellular 16,936 Tata Comm 11,931 MTNL 4,380 TTML 2,248 BSNL 32,045 Voda 18,376 TataTeleservice 9,200 Airtel 7,968 SSTL 600 Uninor 660 Loop 560 Stel 60 HFCL 204 Videocon Telecom 254 DB Etisalat/ Allianz 47 Grand Total Rs 201,997 Crs contributed by Sanjay Banka, FCA International

Nine satellite earth stations 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region).Microwave Nine gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad andErnakulam.

Submarine cables

LOCOM linking Chennai to Penang, Malaysia India-UAEcable linking Mumbai to Al Fujayrah, UAE. SEA-ME-WE 2 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 2) SEA-ME-WE 3 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3) Landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai. Capacity of 960 Gbit/s. SEA-ME-WE 4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4) Landing sites at Mumbai and Chennai. Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s. Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG-FEA) with a landing site at Mumbai (2000). Initial design capacity 10 Gbit/s, upgraded in 2002 to 80 Gbit/s, upgraded to over 1 Tbit/s (2005). TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System), also known as TIC (Tata Indicom Cable), Chennai to Singapore. Capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s. i2i Chennai to Singapore. Capacity of 8.4 Tbit/s. SEACOM From Mumbai to the Mediterranean, via South Africa. It currently joins with SEA-ME-WE 4 off the west coast of Spain to carry traffic onward to London (2009). Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s. I-ME-WE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) with two landing sites at Mumbai (2009). Capacity of 3.84 Tbit/s.

EIG (Europe-India Gateway), landing at Mumbai (due Q2 2010). MENA (Middle East North Africa). TGN-Eurasia (Announced) Landing at Mumbai (due 2010?), Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s TGN-Gulf (Announced) Landing at Mumbai (due 2011?), Capacity Unknown.

The telecom services have been recognized the world-over as an important tool for socioeconomic development for a nation. While undergoing significant policy reforms, Indian telecommunication sector has undergone a major process of transformation. Indian telecom sector have evolved as a big way in the last decade. It has achieved a phenomenal growth during the last few years. Status of Telecom Sector Indian Telecommunications network with 621 million connections (as on March 2010) is the third largest in the world. The sector is growing at a speed of 45% during the recent years. This rapid growth is possible due to various proactive and positive decisions of the Government and contribution of both by the public and the private sectors. With the announcement of the New Economic Policy in July 1991, the process of liberalization began in the country. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) With the entry of private service providers, the government established the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with the mission to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in the country in manner and at a pace, which will enable India to play a leading role in emerging global information society. And also to regulate

telecom services, including fixation/revision of tariffs for telecom services which were earlier vested in the Central Government.
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 project is based on the factor of number portability only. The report included both primary and secondary data collection methodologies.

Mobile Service Providers in India

Vodafone

If you have a Vodafone Postpaid Plan in your mobile SIM card then you may also buy a mobile handset with special postpaid mobile handset offers. Together these two will help you talk endlessly without having to worry about your bill. This facility is available with three plans: 'Group talk174' plan having a monthly rental of Rs. 174; the 'New talk 150' plan which has a monthly rental of Rs. 150 and 'New Talk 199' plan having a monthly rental of Rs.199. Finance, Travel, mail, messaging and lots more can be enjoyed by being a Vodafone mobile subscriber. Vodafone is available with a wide variety of postpaid mobiles plans. One may choose the best according to their needs and budget. You can get the right postpaid talk plan by just sending an SMS:->BEST FIT to 111 (Toll Free). All information relating to your Vodafone Postpaid bill payment can be obtained through your nearest Vodafone store or simply by calling 111 (Toll free). A Vodafone Postpaid bill payment can even be made online by logging onto 'My Vodafone' anytime. A payment can also be made at the nearest multiplex, mall or a Vodafone store by cash, cheque or a credit card. Postpaid payment can also be made by payment vouchers which are available in denominations of Rs100, Rs200, Rs500 and Rs1000. With E-payment facility one can also pay postpaid bills through cash at various post offices. Bill can often be paid by credit card by calling 111. By filling Direct Debit Form at nearest Vodafone store one can pay bill directly through pay bill account.

Airtel With easy payment facility, good features and a variety of plans, Airtel Postpaid will let you enjoy the world endlessly. An Airtel subscriber enjoys features such as call management services, call waiting, call hold, call divert and call line identification. A call can be kept on conference simultaneously with the people, even when the other sides are using landline. GPRS services, even while on roaming, can be used to check internet and office mails from anywhere around the world. Other features include SMS alerts for missed calls with CLI and time details. This facility can be activated by calling *135*2#. Voice mail will help you receive a message even when the mobile is switched off. This facility is available with no extra charge but standard call rates apply. Features like easy billing, easy payment options, long distance calling credit limits, and

strong network coverage are available through an Airtel postpaid plan connection. A number of fabulous facilities can be enjoyed through Airtel e-bill. One can register free on 'My Airtel' section and can view monthly bills with call details. You can differentiate between your personal and official calls for the last three months. If you are not satisfied with your present mobile plan you may change it by calling the IVR at 121 and then leaving your request. The request can also be sent through email to 121@airtelindia.com by logging onto 'My Airtel' section of the website or by sending an SMS to 121. Airtel payment can be done at any relationship center by either cash or credit card. Cheques can be submitted in the drop boxes for making payments. Payments can also be made through credit card by logging on to the 'My Airtel' section of the website. By giving standing instructions to debit your credit card account or bank account you can make easy payment for your Airtel bills. For this facility, you have to fill up a form (standing instruction form / ECS form) and mail or fax it to Airtel or drop it at the nearest relationship counter. With Airtel's "Pay While Roaming", you can make your payment from anywhere in the country. Just reach the nearest Airtel Relationship Center, and make the payment by cash or credit card. If your mobile usage exceeds your credit limit, Airtel will inform you - either with a voice or non-voice message - to make an interim payment or to reduce account balance to below your credit limit. An additional refundable deposit can be paid to enhance credit limit. Long distance STD/ISD calling facilities are also available on Airtel Phones. For more information you can dial '121' or send SMS to 121 or mail to 121@airtelindia.com.

BSNL Postpaid Plans Coverage, Cost and Clarity help judge best the extent of quality of any mobile service. BSNL - the best with all these 3C's - is available with BSNL postpaid mobile plans - Cellone. Activation charges of Rs.216/- and a compulsory security deposits are required to get a Cellone connection. An initial registration fee of Rs.500/- is also charged which is adjusted along with the first bill. For ISD Rs.3000/-, for STD Rs.2000/- and for local connection Rs.1000/- are charged initially as security deposits. This may be increased depending on call pattern or default in payment. Currently, Cellone is available with 3 plans: Plan-225, Plan-325 and Plan-525. All these plans have a monthly rental of Rs.225. Rs. 100 and Rs. 300 are plan charges for Plan-325 and Plan525. Plan-525 has lower call charges than Plan-325. If you are already a BSNL subscriber, you will not have to deposit any security fee. If equipped with Plan-325 and 525 along with roaming facility, one will not have to deposit any security deposit or monthly rental. Some other free facilities like Voice Mail Recording and receiving, CLIP, call waiting and call holding are available along with the plan. Latest SMS alerts for the missed calls are also available.

Billing Billing is done monthly at selected departmental counters and banks or even through crossed cheques which can card in deep boxes with mobile no.,a/c no.,invoice no. and name of the subscriber on the back of the cheque. Reliance

Reliance Postpaid Plans Designed For Your Calling Needs Reliance Mobile postpaid plans are 'designed to fit' your calling needs. If you are looking for some great tariffs, we are sure to have one appropriate for you. You can choose your plan from a variety of affordable tariff plans. Gone are the days when you were bound to a particular handset and phone number. Now set yourself free with the new Get Started Kit from Reliance Mobile Guidelines for a Postpaid Get Started Kit A Postpaid Get Started Kit can be used with: Any Reliance-ready handset, without a pre-allotted number. Any second-hand, non-active Reliance handset. A Postpaid Get Started Kit cannot be used with: Reliance prepaid or postpaid handsets with a pre-allotted number. Any active Reliance postpaid handset. Reliance handsets that are damaged or reported as lost. Submit the application form to a Reliance representative, and remember that you will be able to use the phone only after your application is registered in the Reliance system. Our network travels with you Travelling is an integral part of life in today's world. When you are on the move, keep in touch with business associates, friends and your loved ones through Reliance Mobile's roaming service, which offers excellent coverage in and outside India. You can be sure to enjoy the best coverage, wherever you go. National Roaming: Stop costly roaming. Start National roaming all over the country, at zero rental with Reliance Mobile. Reliance World Roaming: Now roam across 200 countries and 350 GSM and CDMA networks with your Reliance number.

Tata Indicom

Tata Indicom Postpaid Plans The most apt and suitable postpaid mobile phone is now ready to offer both prepaid and postpaid mobile phone connections. It should be noted that Tata Indicom postpaid mobile plan STD charges are one of the lowest in India for distances falling within a circumference of around 500 kilometers with no additional airtime charges. Offering superior voice clarity, congestion free networks, high speed data access are the primary priorities of the company in around 1000 cities. Tata Indicom is the nation's first company to introduce International roaming with a One World One Number T-SIM card. This T-SIM card will help switch between CDMA and GSM networks without using a different SIM card. Tata Teleservices had a merger with CDMA and GSM network in about 178 countries. With Tata Indicom's Telecommunication services the whole world had turned one single home. Thanks to Tata Indicom's "One World One Number" which empowers with many unique features: 1.One World One Number T-Sim Card: which helps to enjoy both CDMA and GSM services by selecting any one from both type networks. 2. One Number: will help reach anywhere in the world with the same Tata Indicom mobile number. 3. One Address Book: helps have a single address book throughout the world. 4. One Phone: The new Dual WORLDPHONE (GLOBALMOTO) has been introduced for the first time in India; which has the capability of working with both CDMA and GSM networks. It helps enjoy services which the company offers, no matter where-ever one goes. 5. One Caller Line Identity: Even being on roaming when one makes an outgoing call, the CLI will be displayed on the phone of the called party. 6. One Zone One Tariff: This facility helps provide easy to afford and safe tariffs for any call that one makes while roaming internationally in GSM countries. 7. One Bill: One can now find local and international roaming calls in the same monthly bill. 8. One Helpline: Single customer help number-9225510000 is capable of solving every kind of customer problem. Customer care is ready to help anywhere anytime 24*7 not just at the nearest customer care but also On-Line. Aircel

Aircel Postpaid Plans The Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India, with Maxis Communications holding a majority

stake of 74%. Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and became the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu within 18 months. In December 2003, it launched commercially in Chennai and quickly established itself as a market leader - a position it has held since. Aircel began its outward expansion in 2005 and met with unprecedented success in the Eastern frontier circles. It emerged a market leader in Assam and in the North Eastern provinces within 18 months of operations. Till today, the company gained a foothold in 18 circles including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, UP(West), UP(East), Maharashtra & Goa and Mumbai. The Company has currently gained a momentum in the space of telecom in India post the allocation of additional spectrum by the Department of Telecom, Govt. of India for 13 new circles across India. These include Delhi (Metro), Mumbai (Metro), Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP (West) and UP (East). Aircel has won many awards and recognitions. Voice and Data gave Aircel the highest rating for overall customer satisfaction and network quality in 2006. Aircel emerged as the top midsize utility company in Businessworld's 'List of Best Mid-Size Companies' in 2007. Additionally, Tele.net recognised Aircel as the best regional operator in 2008. With over 20 million happy customers in the country, Aircel the fast growing telecom company in India has revved up plans to become a full-fledged national operator by end of 2009. Aircel provides its customers with a variety of postpaid plans meant to suit different calling needs. With Aircel postpaid plan one can explore a world of unlimited possibilities. The features available for Aircel postpaid subscribers are as follows: 1. Colour SMS: helps get rid of black and white SMS. 2. Caller Ring Back Tunes (CRBT): helps provide latest ring tones making you get rid of old "Tring-Tring" type of tunes. 3. Aircel 55555 Services: Just dialling 55555 will allow you to access the latest ring tones, latest news, daily horoscopes and many other services. 4. Aircel Subscription Service: gives latest News, Cricket updates, Jokes and many more. 5. Aircel Health Services: Provides information about drug-free, side effect free cures for many different types of ailments. 6. Aircel Railway Services: gives complete information regarding the time of arrival of train, availability of seats, etc. At any time, whenever needed. 7. Aircel Play Scrabble: A fun game that will help improve one's vocabulary. 8. Aircel SMS CHAT/CRUSH: Find like-minded people and have fun chatting with them

9. Aircel Search Your Favourite Ringtones: will help you find your favourite ringtones. 10. Aircel Voice Mail Box: Allows you to receive voice messages even when you are busy 11. Cricket Updates: Aircel provides its customers with latest cricket updates from all around the world. 12. Aircel Top Ringtones/Item Ringtones: will help an individual to store the best ringtones on one's mobile phone. 13. Aircel contact saving feature helps you to safely store your contacts 14. Aircel healthy living tips: Receive health, food and fitness related tips on your mobile 15. Aircel SIM Browser Service provides value added services and features on the mobile phone. 16. Aircel Dictionary: Use it to know the meaning any word at any time or place 17. Aircel also provides ringtones in regional languages 18. Other services include jokes and Hollywood/English ringtones Enjoy all these services and more on Aircel.

Idea

Idea IDEA is synonymous with SIMPLICITY & AFFORDABILITY. With Idea one can enjoy "Roam like Home" type of experience. Idea is the first telecom operator in INDIA with such a facility. Idea has cut call rates on all modes of communication from SMS based to voice based ones, to provide best value for money. Features like the latest ringtones download, freshest joke, train arrival and departure timings and also airline flight times are available to IDEA subscribers. Other features like movie ticket booking, latest cricket score, stock information, downloading games or chatting online can also be enjoyed through IDEA. Other features include Caller Line Identification (CLIP). Call hold/Wait is another free feature that helps you make another call, without having to disconnect from the first call. Idea is also equipped with the facility of conference calls with up to five people. Conference calls can be made to either cellular or Landline phones, including STD and ISD calls. With Idea cellular, a call can be diverted to any other phone whether Idea, Airtel, BSNL, etc. Calls can be diverted unconditionally i.e. without ringing or a call can be diverted conditionally when the cell is busy, when the call is not answerable or when the cell is either switched off or is in no coverage area.

Postpaid payment can be made at any Grocery shop which is selling Idea Mobile phone along with their connection.

AIRTEL Best Option for Customer to Switch to

The telecom sector have been touched and influenced by the process of liberalization and globalization in India. The customer is the king in the market. Telecom companies deal in intangible product that is the call service. With the entry of private players, the competition is becoming intense. In order to satisfy the customer, every company is trying to implement a program of marketing strategy. The Companys marketing strategies are studied and out of which prominent strategies like branding strategy, business operation strategy, target marketing strategy, Service strategy, Network, promotion and pricing strategy are identified. Nowadays telecommunication is a fascinating fast-growing industry that affects each and every aspect of our lives including simple voice telephone calls, access to the Internet, high speed data communications, satellite communications, surfing the World Wide Web, fax transmissions, video conferencing and cable television. The industry is witnessing exceptional growth rates and amidst growing competition it would be tough for mobile operators to survive, unless they strengthen their marketing strategies. Mobile phone market in India has been healthy in the recent years. The Indian Telecom market is likely to see changes in the sphere of marketing strategies. The customer-driven market would result in many flexibilities and innovations in products, pricing, distribution channels and communication mechanisms.

Only experimenting on 4 Ps of marketing wont go for the mobile company as there is needs to focus on managing the marketing strategies covering services efficiency, network connectivity, after sales services, more value added services, while managing the operation side of business by outsourcing. From principle component analysis the factor loading of the variable of the strategy of the Airtel has been identified, eight prominent factors: Branding strategy, outsourcing strategy, targeting market strategy, Vas Strategy, distribution strategy, promotion , pricing After sales service strategy.

The growth in subscribers and companys success are influenced by these factors.

Branding Strategy Brand increase the value of products and services by differentiating them from the

competition, creating positive mental associations and forming emotional relationships with the customer (Agarwal, 2010) .This is really catered well by AIRTEL as a brand. The core values of the brand were leadership, performance, enthusiasm and dynamism forms the integral part of its branding strategy. Further, Airtel is a product of Bharti Enterprises which is visualized by the customers as Reliable Indian Brand. Dominant in the telecommunications services market, Bharti Enterprises, the telecom giant has unveiled its vision for 2020. Its brand status symbol attempts to reflect its intent to grow its other businesses such as financial services, retail and agri-business.

Business Outsourcing Strategy Airtel as part of its outsourcing strategy is enjoying unparalleled competitive advantages by way of lower costs, improved quality and responsiveness. This is done by outsourcing the IT to IBM and network to Nokia/Ericsson. Apart from it the social initiatives made time to time by the company is really recognized and praised by the customer.

Market Segmentation Strategy Because of its leadership position in Rajasthan Circle, the company is always ready to take the first mover advantage before the competition. All the new plan, schemes and services are first initiated by Airtel.As part of its market segmentation strategy Airtel focuses on concentrating on elite, professional and small entrepreneurs which make its brand identity as lifestyle and aspirational brand. But because of more disposable income of the youth segment the target market is also the technology driven and demanding youth market.

Value Added Services Strategy Although the Airtel Vas market in Rajasthan is only 15 % of the revenue, but still it is the highest in the circle. The maximum contribution goes to the Sms pack schemes, then Airtel Live portal and mobile office.

Distribution /Network Strategy The efficiency of a telecom service provider is judged by its network. The roaming facilities, network coverage, ease of

availability of recharge outlets, voice clearance contributes to the success of Airtel as a Leader.

Promotion Strategy-Creative Advertising Campaign Made by the company by taking the famous celebrities as brand ambassadors and taking Ringtone composed by A.R Rahman as a promotion tool made it easy to get the word of mouth publicity.

Pricing Strategy The best 5 plan offered by the company to Rajasthan circle especially to the postpaid customer is the best strategy to increase the number of subscribers. The plan includes: Airtel Freedom 249, Advantage 199, Easy plan 149, Super Combo plan, STD benefit plan. In addition to it the consideration of rebates and discount on calls also add to the effectiveness of pricing strategy.

After Sales Service Strategy Airtel is getting a satisfactory report on the customer care services and the dealer services are also managed well .Airtel is very particular in proving Transparency in Billing to the customer. Thus well focused after sales service helps the company to retain its customer in spite of starting of mobile number portability (MNP).

Data collection and analysis

Sample size was calculated for the survey using the following formula: N= (Z *S.D / E)2 * Where, Z =1.96

S.D = Standard deviation=2.285 E = Error = 0.5 N = (1.96* 2.285/ 0.5)2 = 80 approx.

The sample size came to be 80, and thus research was conducted on 80 respondents.

Data collection
The questionnaire was first applied to a pilot testing on 30 respondents. The data was collected using a questionnaire from people belonging to the various age groups by personally meeting people based on convenience either from the neighborhood or work place. The questionnaire consisted of five parts. In the first part question qualifies an individual to move to next part. The second part contained questions with which we tried to find out to what extent kids are involved in decision making of CDIT. In the third part we analysed the importance given to the information of kids on technology by parents. The fourth chapter of the questionnaire was oriented towards the demographics.

Subsequently, data was collected from 180 respondents.

PROCESSING OF THE DATA FOR ANALYSIS

Data Preparation: The questionnaire was checked for consistency and treatment of missing responses. As the missing responses poses problems in data analysis, the missing value was replaced by a neutral value so that the variable remains unchanged and other statistics such as correlation are not affected by the change. SPSS: Analysis of the responses has been performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) application software which will include performing chi-square test, frequency analysis.

These tests helped us either supporting the alternative hypothesis or the null hypothesis in our study.

The various analyses that were done on the data obtained are as follows: Frequency Distribution: In frequency distribution one variable was considered at a time and a count of the number of responses associated with different values of the variable. The frequency was expressed in terms of percentage. The research helped in analyzing the percentage of people that prefer to shop by using their mobile, the products they usually buy, reasons for not purchasing through e-commerce as well as m-commerce, etc.

Cross Tabulation: Cross tabulation helped in finding the relation between two variables from the questionnaire such as who do prefer to shop through their mobiles among the two genders, or between age groups.

Hypothesis Testing: Hypothesis testing was done by formulating a null hypothesis as well as an alternate hypothesis, setting a level of significance and then checking whether the variable from the data supports or rejects the hypothesis.

ANALYSIS OF DATA CHOICE OF TECHNIQUE

The techniques used for analyzing the data were frequency, cross tabulation, independent sample t-test and anova. Frequency analysis helps in getting the preferred responses for a particular question. Cross tabulation helps in analyzing the relation between two variables and thus helping to know if there is significance between the variables by using the chisquare test.

RESULTS
1. FREQUENCY ANALYSIS

1. Which type of connection do you prefer?

Out of 80 respondents 67 persons preferred prepaid connections while 13 persons preferred post paid connections

2. Whose service(s) are you rendering now?

Currently maximum people were rendering services of either Airtel or Vodafone. The shares of other service providers were small. 3. Which technology do you prefer?

Out of the total respondents 81.3% were using CDMA technology while GSM technology was used by only 3.8% respondents. Both GSM and CDMA was used by 15% respondents.
4. How long have you been using this connection of your service provider?

Most of the respondents were loyal to their service providers and were using their services for more than 3 years. Second largest lot of respondents was using services for 1-2 years.

5. Rate your satisfaction level of your service provider

Out of 80 respondents, 45% rated their service provider good, while 30% respondents were just satisfied with their service providers. No one rated their service provider as very bad.

6. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider?

Out of 80 respondents 38% were demanding only good network from their service provider. 25% respondents expected of good service, while price factor was expected by 14% respondents only.

7. How much do you spend per month on your mobile connection?

Out of 80 respondents, 40 respondents were having a bill of upto Rs 500 monthly, while 29 persons were spending between Rs 501-1000 monthly. There were only 5 respondents who were spending more than Rs 1500 monthly.

8. How do you find the behavior of customer care executives of your service provider?

Out of 80 respondents, most of them were happy by the behavior of customer care executives of the service providers.

9. Which service provider will you select if u will do number portability?

On asking the question of number portability, maximum votes went for Airtel and Vodafone. Third place got tied between Tata Indicom/Docomo and Idea.
10. How long do you have to wait in customer care?

37.5% of the total respondents said that they have to wait for minimum 3-5 minutes in customer care. 11. What problems are you facing with your current service provider?

Out of total 80 respondents, 25% were facing the problem of poor network with their current service provider. 21.3% respondents complained about unavailability of new schemes. Also major of them complained about costly value added services.

12. Are you aware of 3G technology?

Most of the respondents knew about 3G technology.

13. Gender?

Out of total 80 respondents, 62 were males, rest 18 were females.

14. Occupation:

Out of 80 respondents, majority were either students or doing service.

CONCLUSION
RESULTS
Most of the respondents were loyal to their service providers and were using their services for more than 3 years. Second largest lot of respondents was using services for 1-2 years. Out of 80 respondents, 45% rated their service provider good, while 30% respondents were just satisfied with their service providers. No one rated their service provider as very bad. Out of 80 respondents, most of them were happy by the behavior of customer care executives of the service providers.

 On asking the question of number portability, maximum votes went for Airtel and Vodafone. Third place got tied between Tata Indicom/Docomo and Idea. 37.5% of the total respondents said that they have to wait for minimum 3-5 minutes in customer care. From the cross tab, it is observed that maximum customers of both the type of connection find the behavior of customer care executives either professional and prompt or warm and helpful. From the cross tab, it is observed that the customer will switch more likely to Airtel or Vodafone if given this chance. From the cross tab, it is observed that, most of the respondents were suffering from poor network and no new schemes or upgradations from their service providers. It is apparent that the mean of responses of pre paid subscribers is higher, which means that pre paid customers rated their billing system much better than post paid customers. From the above table it can be concluded that the customers whose per month billing is between 1001-1500 are the most satisfied with their service providers. Also the least satisfied customers are the one with per month billing upto Rs 500. From the above table it can be concluded that the customers who are using services of reliance, rated their value added services as their best feature among all the given service providers.

LIMITATIONS
The survey was conducted by collecting the data from the respondents which were convenient. The respondents were mainly targeted to the youth. Hence there are very few responses from the other age groups. The respondents mainly included students and the working class. There were very few people with their own business. There is a possibility of error by the respondents while filling the questionnaire. There is a possibility of customer fatigue while filling the questionnaire. The survey was conducted with time constraints. Changes in the respondents answers or misunderstanding of the question can contribute to inaccuracies in the data.

 In case a particular question was not answered by the respondent, the median value was taken into consideration.

RECOMMENDATIONS
As mentioned in the future of Indian telecom and on the basis of the primary research and secondary research, the following recommendations can be concluded: The telecom companies should not lower the tariff plans as it would attract more competition. More features in value added services should be brought up. Improvement of network infrastructure in both the urban and the rural areas. Mobile banking , which is provided by some companies should be provided by all telecom players as it provides recharge from mobile phone by tie ups with banks and thus also attracts customers mind. Increase in internet speed on mobile can be the criteria for the operators The customer care service should be made quick and hassle free. Majority of the operators focus on the special occasions to launch new schemes but they can also launch schemes on weekly or monthly basis to attract new customers. Customer care executives should concentrate more on pre-paid connections for the price sensitive customers and post-paid connections for business class people or high class people. They should use their media tools accordingly. Should focus on 3G.

References
1. Investigating Structural Relationships Between Service Quality, Switching Costs, and Customer Satisfaction: http://na-businesspress.homestead.com/JABE/ElliottWeb.pdf

2. A Study on Consumer Switching Behaviour in Cellular Service Provider: A Study with reference to Chennai: http://www.fareastjournals.com/files/V2N2P5.pdf

3. http://www.irg.eu/streaming/BoR%20(10)%2034%20Rev1%20Switching%20report_final.pdf
?contentId=546966&field=ATTACHED_FILE

4. Switching cost and customer loyalty in the mobile phone market: The Nigerian experience:http://www.saycocorporativo.com/saycoUK/BIJ/journal/Vol3No1/Article_9.pdf 5. Strategic review of consumer switching:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/consumerswitching/summary

6. Obstacles to Switching Telecommunications Service Providers:

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/ca02301.html

Appendix

Questionnaire: For Changing service provider

* 1. Which type of connection do you prefer? Pre paid Post paid

* 2. Whose service(s) are you rendering now? BSNL Tata Indicom/ Docomo Reliance Vodafone

Airtel Aircel Loop Others(Specify Please)

Idea MTNL Uninor

* 3. Which technology do you prefer? C D M A G SM Bo th

4. How long have you been using this connection of your service provider? Le ss tha n3 mo nth s 612 mo nth s 36 mo nth s 1-

2 yea rs 23 yea rs M ore tha n3 yea rs

* 5. Rate your satisfaction level of your service provider Ve ry Go od Go od Sa tisf ied Ba d Ve ry Ba d

* 6. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider? Go

od ser vic e Ne two rk Vo ice qua lity Sc he me s Pri ce Ot her s(P lea se spe cif y)

* 7. How much do you spend per month on your mobile connection? Up to Rs. 500 Rs . 501 -

Rs. 100 0 Rs . 100 1Rs. 150 0 M ore tha n Rs. 150 0

* 8. How do you find the behavior of customer care executives of your service provider? Pr ofe ssi ona l& pro mp t No t Res pon din g W ar m & hel pfu l

La zy & slo w

* 9. which service provider will you select if u will do number portability? Tata BSNL Airtel Reliance Idea Vodafone Aircel Uninor Loop MTNL Others(Please specify)

* 10. How will you rate the following attributes for your service providers? Please tick (_) the appropriate. Ver Go Ne Ba Ver y od utr d y Go al Ba od d Cu sto me r car e Per call cha rge s(I SD ,ST D, Lo cal)

Me ssa ge ser vic e Net wo rk Sch em es Tal ktim e& vali dit y Val ue add ed ser vic e Av aila bili ty Bil lin g sys tem Voi ce

clar ity

* 11. How long do you have to wait in customer care? Up to 1 minute 2 minutes 3-5 minutes 6-10 minutes 11 minutes or more

* 12. What problems are you facing with your current service provider? Er ror in bill ing Po or net wo rk cov era ge No ne w sch em es or up gra dati on Un suit abl e pla ns for diff

ere nt age gro ups Co stly Val ue Ad ded Ser vic es Hi gh call rate s Be tter Fea tur es off ere d by co mp etit or Inf lue nce fro m fa mil y and frie nds

Hi gh ser vic e cha rge s for rec har ges Ot her s(P lea se spe cif y)

* 13. Are you aware of 3G technology? Yes

No

* 14. Gender? Male

Female

* 15. Age Group: 10 -20 20 -30 30 -40

Ab ove 40

* 16. Occupation: St ude nt Se rvi ce Bu sin ess Ot her s(P lea se spe cif y)

Questionnaire: For Airtel Service feedback

A)How do you find the network connection 1.good 2.bad 3.average B)How do rate the local call charges of Airtel 1.expensive 2.reasonable C)How do you rate the cal charges for std 1.expensive 2.reasonable

D)How do you rate the call quality in local networks 1.good 2.bad 3.average E)How do you rate the cal quality for std 1.good 2.bad 3.average F)How do you rate the call plans of airtel 1.customisable 2.expensive 3.worthy plans(value for money) G)How do you rate the sms plans available in airtel 1,expensive 2.value for money H)How do you rate the quality of internet connection(2G) 1.EXCELLENT 2.average 3.poor I)How do you rate the quality of internet connection(3G) 1.EXCELLENT 2.average 3.poor J)HOW DO YOU RATE THE INTERNET PLAN? 1.EXPENSIVE 2.VALUE FOR MONEY K)Are you satisfied with customer care?

1.yes 2.no L)Are your issues(plans,calls,connections) resolved within given time 1.yes 2.no M)How do you rate AIRTEL including every factors discussed above(cal,cost,plans,customer service) 1.excellent 2.good 3.average 4.poor