Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India publishes a quarterly report on ‘The Indian

Telecom Services Performance Indicators’. The information contained in the report is
collected from various telecom operators and service providers. Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India collects performance oriented data from various service providers on a
quarterly basis to monitor the growth trend in the sector and to decide upon pro – active
and suo motto measures to fuel the growth of the telecom services in the country. Also, in
exercise of the powers vested in TRAI under the TRAI Act, 1997, the Authority has been
conducting periodical survey of the quality of basic and cellular telephone services
provided by different telecommunication service providers all over the country. The
survey also covers the assessment of the level of satisfaction with the services received
by subscribers of these telecommunication service providers.
Few other agencies also do some scanty research in this area.

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OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The aim of the study is to objectively understand the behavior of mobile phone users in
Delhi and further capture their satisfaction level that is influenced by various technical
and non – technical factors.

Specific aspects to be studied were:

 To understand the usage pattern in terms of purpose of mobile phone for various
categories of consumers
 To study the level of satisfaction of the users
 To analyze the level of satisfaction with the gadgets and the added services
provided
 To understand the usage pattern of functionalities and the services provided by
various mobile companies
 To understand the effect of the unsolicited promotional calls/SMSs on the
consumer

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Despite the surveys conducted by TRAI, the present study was deemed necessary
because of the following reasons:

• Performance indicators captured by TRAI, particularly the surveys conducted to assess

the consumer satisfaction misses out on the multifaceted nature of consumer
satisfaction and thus do not capture the status of consumer satisfaction holistically.
The study gives a comprehensive assessment of the satisfaction of consumers
encompassing quality of technical service, quality and operational aspects of gadgets;
social/psychological costs due to unsolicited promotional calls/SMSs etc.

• Sometimes, the strategies of the service providers/producers to ensure customer

satisfaction by serving them in a better way or providing quality gadgets use to be
based on erroneous theoretical and partially tested empirical postulates. The study
aims to provide inputs to testify few of such postulates in order to provide the service
providers/producers afresh insights on the consumer behavior.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. Time Constraint – As the population data required to study is very huge so the
complete process required the time as well as dedicated efforts to complete.

2. Difficulty regarding the exact judgment of the satisfaction of the customer.

3. Personal bias – Since the study required the comprehensive analysis, so there
would be chances of personal bias.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

INDUSTRY PROFILE

OVERVIEW OF THE INDUSTRY

As reported by TRAI, the mobile telephony sector has almost touched a subscriber base
are 43 million mark (GSM 33.6 million and CDMA 9.4 million). Riding on a wave of
increasing growth, mobile telephony in India is expected to rise to a consumer base of
over 120 million by 2009, making the telecommunication sector one of the most lucrative
market for global mobile phone manufacturers and cell phone providers.

Considering the major service providers in four metros, there were more than 10 million
users in Jan 2007. In Delhi, there were more than 3.9 million subscribers.

Mobile telephony service providers in Delhi include Bharti Cellular Ltd., Tata
Teleservices Ltd/Idea, MTNL, Hutchison Essar and Reliance InfoComm.

Bharti Cellular Ltd

Bharti Cellular Ltd is the mobile operating arm of Bharti Televentures. Bharti
Televentures is 28.5% owned by SingTel. The operator is listed on the national, Mumbai
and New Delhi stock exchanges. Bharti Cellular offers mobile services under its Airtel
brand.

Bharti is the largest GSM player in the Indian mobile market. The company has
operational networks in 16 out of 23 circles across India. The operator also holds unified
licenses for the remaining 7 circles. The operator is following Reliance’s aggressive tariff
stance in the pre – paid sector. It has also introduced cuts in the post – paid sector as a
mean of retaining its contract subscriber base. The operator is investing in expanding its
network nation wide. It is working with Ericsson, Siemens, and Nokia in a network –
management outsourcing arrangement to help speed deployment and increase the
efficiency of its network expansion until 2007.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

Bharti operates a GSM network, over which it is currently rolling out EDGE technology.
It offers pre – and post – paid voice, MMS, and Internet access services.

Idea Cellular

Idea Cellular is owned by AT & T Wireless (33%) the Indian groups Tata and Birlas
holding (65% between them) and AIG (2%).

The operator is currently placed in the fifth position in the mobile market. Telecom
Malaysia and Singapore’s STT Telemedia are poised to become the largest shareholders
in the operator, once they acquire AT&T’s 33% stake in it. The operator is expanding
primarily through acquisitions in June 2006; it fully incorporated the Kerala, Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh West operations of Escotel. The operator is also interested in the market
(Punjab operator spice telecom and BPL are the sole remaining targets for the operator),
but such moves must wait until the shareholder structure of the operator has been
finalized. The operator was the first to launch EDGE services in India, in July 2006.

Reliance InfoComm

Reliance InfoComm is the local telecom service provider unit of diversified conglomerate
Reliance Group. The company offers mobile services under the brand Reliance Mobile.

Reliance is the largest player in the mobile market. The company targets the prepaid
mobile market in India, primarily with its CDMA service, which offers both full and
(cheaper) limited mobility services to end users. The operator is aggressively pricing its
prepaid services and in particular ‘on net’ tariffs, as a means of increasing its market
share. In addition to its CDMA operations, the operator also has a small GSM network.
Reliance is investing in expanding its CDMA network nationwide.

The operator has a CDMA 2000 IX network, covering 17 operating circles across India.
Reliance offers pre – paid and post – paid voice services, international calling cards, as

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

well as MMS and Internet access. It also offers limited mobility services over its WLL
network.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)

MTNL has been licensed to operate cellular services in the National Capital Region
(NCR) of Delhi (including its four satellite towns of Ghaziabad, NOIDA, Faridabad, and
Gurgaon) and Mumbai (including Navi Mumbai and Kalyan)

MTNL has introduced GSM Cellular Mobile Service with a capacity of 100000
subscribers in each of the two metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai under the brand name
dolphin. The service has launched on Feb 7’ 2001 in Delhi and on Feb 27 ’2001 in
Mumbai. The cellular network supports Intelligent Network Services such as pre – paid,
auto roaming (National as well as International), free phone, premium rate service etc.

MTNL has a strong financial base and has shown consistent improvement in performance
over the years. It has market share of about 13% of the National Telecom Network.

Vision of the company is to become a total solution provider company and to provide
world – class telecom service at affordable price by expanding new services viz. long
distances, cellular mobile, internet, and ‘IN’- services and development of telecom
software. It also aims to become the largest provider of private network and leased lines.

Hutchison Essar

Hutchison Essar is a Hutchison Whompoa company. It is a joint venture between the

Hong Kong based mobile group and the Indian conglomerate Essar Group.

Hutchison Essar entered the mobile market in 1995 in the first wave of operator
licensing. The operator has the presence in all four metro circles in India. The operator is
expanding its business and increasing market share through a combination of growth by

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

acquisition (it has acquired the operations of Fascel and Aircel in the year to Sept 2006)
as well as network investment. Nokia is currently increasing capacity on its network in
Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, while also rolling out new networks in West
Bengal and Western Uttar Pradesh. The operator has followed the 60% tariff cuts
introduced by Reliance Infocomm to the pre – paid mobile market in August 2006, in a
bid to maintain market share. The operator launched EDGE services in July 2006.

Hutchison Essar currently offers GSM services across 12 circles in India. It offers pre –
paid and post – paid voice, MMS and Internet access services.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methods may be understood as all those methods/techniques that are used for
the conduction of research. Research methods or techniques thus refer to the methods the
researcher use in performing the research operations. In other words, all those methods
which are used by the researcher during the course of studying his research problems are
termed as research methods since the object of research, particularly the applied research,
is to arrive at a solution for a given problem, the available data and the unknown aspects
of the problem have to be related to each other to make a solution possible. Keeping, this
view, research methods can be put into the following three groups:

 In the first group, we include those methods which are concerned with the
collection of data. These methods will be used where the data already
available are not sufficient to arrive at the required solution.
 The second group consists of those statistical techniques which are used
for establishing relationships between the data and the unknown.
 The third group consists of those methods, which are used to evaluate the
accuracy of the results obtained.

Research methods falling in the above stated last two groups are generally taken as
analytical tools of research.

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be

understood as the science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it, we study
the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research
problem along with the logic behind them. It is necessary for the researcher to know not
only the research methods/techniques but also the methodology.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

SAMPLING PLAN

The methodology to conduct the study was composed of different tasks as follows:

Empirical Research – Stratified Random Sampling

A survey of 30 sampled respondents was conducted in the geographical area of Delhi.

The population of mobile end users in Karol Bagh area is huge. Since the population is
very large a sample of 30 respondents was selected by means of random sampling
procedure. To make the study an in depth one, the sampling procedure was performed by
means of stratified way to understand the level and perception of end users in different
category in age group.

Methodology Adopted

A questionnaire for the survey was drawn from various categories of consumers and
thus appropriate representation of all market segments was ensured. The length of
survey questionnaire was kept optimum to avoid the psychological burden of
responding for the sampled consumers.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The analysis throws light on the consumption behavior of the mobile phone users in
Karol Bagh, Delhi and covers the aspects like usage pattern of the mobile phone services,
assessment of the level of satisfaction, preference for various attributes and
functionalities of gadgets etc.

1. Usage Pattern of Mobile Phones

Various categories of consumers were asked about the purpose for which they use
the mobile phone. Maximum usage is for personal purpose, followed by official and
business purposes. Self – employed professionals and businessmen use the mobile
phone almost equally for business official and personal purposes, while maximum
usage by students and retired persons is for personal purposes.

2. Level of Satisfaction

The satisfaction level of users was analyzed on a five – point scale ranging from
‘not satisfied’ to ‘fully satisfied’. Only 14% of the consumers say that they are fully
satisfied with the services, while 6% responded as ‘not satisfied.’ A major group of
consumers either say that they are ‘almost satisfied’ (40%) or ‘average satisfied’
(20%). Very less satisfied plus ‘not satisfied’ combines together comes to 20% of
the total consumers.

3. Reasons for Dissatisfaction

The major reasons cited for dissatisfaction are poor quality of signals (42%) and
higher costs (38%). Poor quality of signals means unavailability of signals, call
failure, call drop down etc. Only 4% are not satisfied with the value added services
provided while 16% are not happy with the quality of customer care services being
provided.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

4. Mobile Instrument Brands Used

Out of total 30 sampled consumers, 19 consumers own a Nokia mobile handset,

which comes to 64% share of the market. This is followed by Samsung (11%),
Sony Erickson (7%), LG and Motorola (3% each), Siemens (2%) and others 10%.

5. Level of satisfaction with the Gadgets

Consumers were asked to reveal their satisfaction level for various functionalities of
their mobile phone instrument.(53%) of the consumers are ‘fully satisfied’ and
‘almost satisfied’ (22%) are ‘average satisfied’ while remaining (25%) are ‘partially
satisfied’ and ‘not at all satisfied’.

6. Unsolicited Calls

77% of the sampled customer said they receive unsolicited calls while only 17%
of the sample accepts that, they hear the calls fully. 20% say that they are
receptive to such calls/SMSs but not always. 23% do not feel irritated by such
calls while 74% accepts that they get disturbed and feel irritated while 3% did not
respond to this query in the questionnaire at all.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

FINDINGS

The need was felt to comprehensively assess the satisfaction level of the mobile phone
users encompassing quality of technical services, quality and operational aspects of
gadgets; and socio – psychological costs due to unsolicited promotional calls/SMSs etc.

Following are the major findings:

1. Maximum usage of the mobile phone is for personal purpose, followed by official
and business purposes. Self – employed professionals and businessmen use the
mobile phone almost equally for business official and personal purposes, while
maximum usage by students and retired persons is for personal purposes.

2. The satisfaction level of users was analyzed on a five – point scale ranging from
‘not satisfied’ to ‘fully satisfied’. Only 14% of the consumers say that they are
fully satisfied with the services, while 6% responded as ‘not satisfied.’ A major
group of consumers either say that they are ‘almost satisfied’ (40%) or ‘average
satisfied’ (20%). Very less satisfied plus ‘not satisfied’ combines together comes
to 20% of the total consumers.

3. The major reasons cited for dissatisfaction are poor quality of signals (42%) and
higher costs (38%). Poor quality of signals means unavailability of signals, call
failure, call drop down etc. Only 4% are not satisfied with the value added
services provided while 16% are not happy with the quality of customer care
services being provided.

4. Consumers were asked to reveal their satisfaction level for various functionalities
of their mobile phone instrument.(53%) of the consumers are ‘fully satisfied’ and
‘almost satisfied’ (22%) are ‘average satisfied’ while remaining (25%) are
‘partially satisfied’ and ‘not at all satisfied’.

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

5. 77% of the sampled customer said they receive unsolicited calls while only 17%
of the sample accepts that, they hear the calls fully. 20% say that they are
receptive to such calls/SMSs but not always. 23% do not feel irritated by such
calls while 74% accepts that they get disturbed and feel irritated while 3% did not
respond to this query in the questionnaire at all.

CONCLUSION

Besides this there are two major questions that emerge from this study:

 Is it proper to feed the customers randomly with unsolicited promotional

calls/SMSs? Why not to segment the market on the basis of socio – economic
attributes of the consumer and target the promotional calls to various segments as
per their tastes/usefulness as well as convenient hours of the day? Can such
mechanism to target the promotional calls/SMSs generate more revenue to the
service providers and provide useful information on products to the customers
who welcome it?
 Is the technology trajectory followed by the producers of the mobile phone
gadgets are justified by the needs of the market?

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS
 Kothari C.R. (2005), Research Methodology, Tata Mc Graw Hill

WEBSITE
 www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid = 77040 (mobile user base 13cr)
 www.go-db.com/godb_pim.asp(GODB Development tool for Mobile, Pocket
PC, Palm, Nokia)
 MTNL Commercial
Information(Mumbai.mtnl.net.in/willservices/gmobile.html)

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
Mobile Phone User Satisfaction Survey

(All the information provided by you will be kept confidential and will be used for the research
purpose only. Kindly, spare some time for filling in the questionnaire given below. Put the tick
mark in front of the chosen option.)

Date :
Name of the Respondent :

Who is your service provider?

A. Airtel
B. Vodafone
C. Idea
D. MTNL
E. Tata Indicom
F. Reliance
G. Dolphin
H. Other (Please Specify)

Which Market Segment do you belong to?

A. Student
B. Service Personnel (Govt/Public Sector)
C. Service Personnel (Private Sector)
D. Self Employed Professional
E. Business Person
F. Retired Person
G. Other (Please Specify)

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

From how much time you are using the Mobile Phone?
A. Less than one year
B. 1-2 year
C. 2-3 year
D. 3-5 year
E. More than 5 year

For which purpose you are using your mobile phone the most?
A. Business
B. Official
C. Personal

Which type of connection you are using?

A. Prepaid
B. Post Paid

How much satisfied you are with the services of your service provider?

A. Fully Satisfied
B. Almost Satisfied
C. Average Satisfied
D. Partially Satisfied
E. Not Satisfied

If the response to the above question is not ‘fully satisfied’ then what is the main
reason of your dissatisfaction?

A. Poor quality of signals/network

B. Customer care services
C. Call tariffs
D. Value added services

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

ABOUT GADGETS

Which mobile phone instrument do you use?

A. Samsung
B. Nokia
C. Sony Erickson
D. Motorola
E. Siemens
F. LG
G. Any Other (Please Specify)

How much satisfied you are with the functionalities of your phone?
A. Fully Satisfied
B. Almost Satisfied
C. Average Satisfied
D. Partially Satisfied
E. Not Satisfied

How much satisfied you are with the services provided by the repair centers?
A. Fully Satisfied
B. Almost Satisfied
C. Average Satisfied
D. Partially Satisfied
E. Not Satisfied

ABOUT PROMOTIONAL CALLS/SMSs

Are you regularly receiving promotional scheme calls from various organizations?
A. Yes

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Consumption behavior of Mobile Phone Users

B. No

When you receive a call like that, what you normally do?
A. Disconnect it
B. Dicard it
C. Hear it partially
D. Hear it fully

Do you get convinced by these calls?

A. Yes
B. No

Do you think that these calls are often disturbing?

A. Yes
B. No

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