Professional Documents
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INDIA
The Indian telecommunications Network with 250m telephone connections is the fifth
largest in the world and is the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia.
Today it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities
for UK companies in the stagnant global scenario. Tele-density, which was languishing at
2% in 1999, has shown an impressive jump to 9.5% in 2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set
to increase to 20% in the next five years beating the Govt. target by three years.
Accordingly, India requires incremental investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five
years.
Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest growing (over 164% p.a.) in
India. With more than 33 million users (both CDMA and GSM), wireless is the principal
growth engine of the Indian telecom industry. Given the current growth trends, cellular
connections in India will surpass fixed line by late 2004/early 2005. Intense competition
between the four main private groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and Reliance and with the
State sector incumbents-BSNL and MTNL has brought about a significant drop in tariffs.
There has been almost 74% in cell phone charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in
NLD charges, resulting in a boom time for the consumers.
The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and liberalising the
industry, ushering in competition and paving the way for growth. While there were
regulatory irregularities earlier, resulting in litigation, these have all been addressed now.
Customs duties on hardware and mobile handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to 5
percent.
The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries to speed up reforms
and decision on the Communication Convergence Bill to enable the common regulation
of the Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be taken after the new Government
assumes responsibilities in may this year. An independent regulatory body (TRAI) and
dispute settlement body (TDSAT) is fully functional.
INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET
The Bharti Group, which operates in 23 circles, continues to be the country's largest
cellular operator, with 50 lakh subscribers. BSNL, which operates in 22 circles, has a
subscriber base of 37 lakh subscribers. Thus BSNL stands second largest cellular operator
in terms of subscriber base at the end of the fiscal ending March 31, 2007, displacing
Vodafone from the second position.
Vodafone, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest operator with a
subscriber base of 32 lakh. Unlike fellow public sector undertaking, MTNL, which
operates in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL has been a very aggressive player in the market.
"Cellular operators who expected BSNL to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise
and did not take effective steps to counter it, till it was too late in the day," said a telecom
analyst.Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell club has
reported a 7.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so far, during March 2005.
Year-on-year, the cellular subscriber base in the country has almost doubled in March
2005, and is expanding at the rate of 25% per year thereafter.
The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. This is much higher than
5.9 lakh subscribers added in February 2005 and 2.13 lakh in January 2005. Idea, which
operates in Seven circles, is the fourth largest operator with a subscriber base of 17.80
lakh, higher than BPL's 11.31 lakh subscribers across four circles.
The subscriber numbers per operator drop sharply with the sixth largest operator, Spice
Communications, having a subscriber base of 9.40 lakh, followed by Reliance Telecom's
8.9 lakh subscribers. MTNL is the ninth largest operator, with a base of 8.32 lakh
subscribers.
While the subscriber base-jumped by 3.38% to 44.39 lakh in the metros, subscriber base
of category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil
Nadu jumped by 10.18 % to reach 43.64 lakh. Category B circles of Kerala, Punjab,
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
West Bengal recorded a jump of 10.69%, with a total base of 33.74 lakh subscribers.
Circle C has reported 12.74 % growth with subscriber numbers jumping to 5.08 lakh.
Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher than the 1,58,646
added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base of over 80 lakh is still higher than
Mumbai's 66.89 lakh. While the cellular industry has been on roll for the first three
quarters of the previous financial year with an average of 16.75 lakh monthly additions in
the third quarter, the first two months of 2007 had seen the growth slowing down.
GSM MARKET IN INDIA
With a population of around 1.1 billion growing at roughly 1.7 per cent a year, India is
potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world. After two rather difficult
years, the past 12 months have seen the region's promise beginning to come to fruition.
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Much of this success can be attributed to the stabilization of the licensing and regulatory
environment.
India's telecommunications have undergone a steady liberalization since 1994 when the
Indian government first sought private investment in the sector. More significant
liberalization followed in 1996 with the licensing of new local fixed line and mobile
service providers.
However, it has been the government's New Telecom Policy (1999) that has had the most
radical impact on the development of GSM services. 'The policy's mission statement is
'affordable communications for all There is a genuine commitment to creating a modern
and efficient communications infrastructure that takes account of the convergence of
telecom, IT and media. In addition, the policy places significant emphasis on greater
competition for both fixed and mobile services.'
Competition in the mobile sector has already had a visible impact on prices with calls
currently costing less than 9 cents per minute. This means that service costs have fallen
by 60 per cent since the first GSM networks became live in 1995. It also helps explain
why a recent Telecom Asia survey revealed that more than 70 per cent of Indian mobile
subscribers felt that prices were now at a reasonable level. One of the challenges facing
GSM operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions -from remote rural
regions to some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. India has
more than 40 networks, which cover the seven largest cities, over 7000 towns and several
Lacs villages. Such depth of coverage has required enormous investment from India's
operators. It is estimated that more than Rs200 billion had been invested in India's GSM
industry by mid-2000, a figure that is set to be supplemented by a further Rs. 300 billion
over the next five years. The good news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look
healthy. With India's low PC penetration and high average Internet usage -at 14-20 hours
a month per user it is comparable to the US -the market for mobile data and m-commerce
looks extremely promising. WAP services have already been launched in the subcontinent
and the first GPRS networks are in the process of being rolled out. In the year ahead,
GSM India will work with its members to realise the potential of early packet services in
anticipation of the award of 3GSM licences.
India fastest growing GSM mart
India is expected to have 145 million GSM (global system for mobile communications)
customers by 2007-08 compared to 26 million subscribers as on March 2005, according
to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. "For GSM, India is a success story. It is one
of the fastest growing markets with its subscriber base doubling in 2005. At this pace, the
target of 150 million subscribers by 2007-2008 is definitely achievable," Alan Hadden,
president of GSA, said at a news conference in New Delhi. Globally, the GSM market
reached 1 billion users in February 2005, he said, adding GSM accounted for 80 per cent
of the new subscriber growth in 2005."Almost every Latin American operator has chosen
GSM. In North America GSM growth is bigger than CDMA (code division multiple
access)," he said. Commenting on the raging debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile
services arena, Hadden said: "GSM is the world's most successful mobile standard with
over 1 billion users, and is an open mobile standard. It also supports automatic
international roaming, which is a major contributor to business plans."
maintained unless there is a concerted effort by the government to cut excessive levies
and allow sharing of infrastructure
But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge demand in the sector.
Ramachandran said the sector was still losing money but declined to elaborate. Sales
jumped because of a doubling of the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications)
user base as more people entered the flourishing market thanks to one of the lowest call
rates in the world. But the monthly average revenue per user, a key measure of
profitability, declined 17.4 percent to 432 rupees in the fourth quarter compared with 523
rupees in the first quarter due to a cut in tariffs and excessive competition among
companies. Growth slowing, demand untapped: The association has not included the
financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Ramachandran
said. There are 150 million GSM customers and more than 96 million users of the rival
CDMA-based mobile services in the country.
The pace of growth in monthly additions is slowing after just 1.25 million users took up
the service in April compared with 1.9 million in the previous month and 1.63 million in
February. Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a majority of small GSM operators
being unable to expand networks into rural swathes where demand remained largely
untapped.Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and
financing charges on loans. We are making money only to cover operating expenses, he
said. Carriers are now subsidising handset costs to woo users into the underpenetrated
industry forecast to have more than 250 million customers by 2007.
Roughly three percent of Indians own a mobile phone compared with about 20 percent in
China. About a dozen firms such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, 28 percent owned by Singapore
Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian GSM-unit of Vodafone
group battle in the hotly competitive sector.
GSM operators are not the only ones who are worried about the rapid strides made by
CDMA mobile players Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom in the Indian cellular
market. The GSM suppliers both handset and equipment - who incidentally also have
their other foot firmly placed in the CDMA pie, are beginning to lose some sleep over
what was earlier termed as `niche and `minuscule data carriage market by the operators
Apart from the strong success of the two CDMA operators whose networks are based on
code division multiple access (CDMA), the miserable showing of the four global
standard for mobile (GSM) based networks that launched general packet radio service
(GPRS) service for data connectivity in last three years, has the vendors worried.
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Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) now believes that even though India will
primarily remain a voice traffic-led market in next two-three years, the data traffic
component will grow by 25-30 per cent, an optimism that its trying to make GSM
operators feel as well.
THE CDMA CHALLENGE
CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1X-based networks, which
can give hi-speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet, and other data services. GSM
operators, on the other hand, have had to migrate from the frustrating experience of WAP
(wireless application protocol) to GPRS, which has not significantly improved the
subscribers experience of surfing the Net on/from mobile.
The top brass of GSA, an organisation comprising Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel and
Lucent Technologies - met on Tuesday in the capital to persuade the operators to
adopt EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and leave GPRS behind as a
dream gone sour.
Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched GPRS, but the data
transfer speeds of GPRS have been abysmal. The field trials gave a speed of around 54
kbps, but the actual speeds have not exceeded 14-18 kbps, a major reason why GPRS
growth has been so slow. As against the total GSM cellular base of 5.61 crore, the
country has between 2,80,000 lakh GPRS users only. In comparison, the two CDMA
operators have about 120 lakh connections. All these sets are data compliant. Though no
figures are available as to how many use these for data services, the figure is believed to
be respectable as a percentage ratio for CDMA.
Given the Cell phone category, it is the network efficiency and the quality of service that
becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at is to get the optimum priceperformance package. This also serves as an effective differentiator
Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference through brand
stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across
the city,' bearing just the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was. In the
next phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti
Cellular connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out
brochures about the company and its services to all consumers. About 50,000 direct
callers were sent out. When the name was well entrenched in the Delhiitess mind, the
Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cellphone. In the first four months alone
Airtei's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores.
As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential or
knowledgeable consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service provider that is on
the top of his/her mind 60% of them would name Airtel. As for aided it -is 100% (by
giving clues and hints etc.).
Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the percentage score
of the brand on the above aided and the unaided tests. The figures show that Airtel is a
healthy and a thriving brand. Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales
target and a game plan with due regard to Its competitor. Airtel 's campaign strategy is
designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy.
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The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of a
market leader in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a "first
mover every time" and that of a "market leader".
The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity stage in
India. It is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage.
The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users classified into heavy,
medium and low categories. The right hand side shows the revenue share earned from
the three types of users.
Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its heavy users
the most and constantly indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise
only 15 - 20% of the population the other segment cannot be neglected.
The population which has just realised the importance of cellular phones has to be roped
in. It is for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora of incentives and
discounts. Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order to
promote sales. The media channel is chosen with economy in mind. The target segment
is not very concrete but, there is an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print
advertisements and hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch
the attention of those who need a cellular phone. The product promise (which might cost
different 1 higher) is an important variable in determining the target audience.
Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are .
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(i)
People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive premiers of
blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus
miles on the German airlines frequent flier's programs.
(ii)
launch
advertisements,
advertise-ments,
attacking
congratulatory
advertisements
advertisements,
and
advertisements.
DISTRIBUTION
Company
Franchisee
Distributor
Dealers
Dealer
Customer
Customer
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tactical
The company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27 Franchisees
and 15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters- Each franchises
or distributor can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved
by the Airtel authority. Each franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. to obtain a
franchise and should employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as an liaison
between the company and the franchises. The franchises can it any number of dealers as
long as their territories do not overlap. But unfortunately Airtel has not been very
successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers. The franchises can carry out his 1
her own promotional strategy. For this the. company contributes 75% of the money and
the franchises contributes 25% of the money. The dealers under the franchisee receive
the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain the feedback from the
customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis to Airtel.
The dealer has to invest Rupees. One Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer of Airtel
are not allowed to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per month. Hence the
dealers can also go for their own promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc.
The dealer provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase
for the handset and proof of residence has only to wait an hour before getting connected.
The staff of the dealers and the franchisees are provided training by the Airtel personnel.
The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are either handset being nonfunctional or the SIM Card not getting activated. Anything more complicated is referred
to the main Airtel office in Delhi.
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To understand the various Marketing Strategies which Airtel has adopted to survive in
highly competitive cell phone industry.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology is is based on the survey filled from the various types of
customers from the Airtel in the delhi region. The method adopted for these findings is
the survey method. The mail aim is to get the feedback from the various customers about
the services of Airtel. The customer feedback form is thought to be most sutaible becouse
it allows structured, meaningful, interaction with customers. The research include :Data Source Primary data as well as Secondary data has been gathered to conduct the
research.
Research Instrument Customer feedback form has been taken as the research
instrument.
Title Justification:
The above title is self explanatory. The study deals mainly with the marketing strategy of
Airtel. The various segments of the markets divided in terms of , Age groups, Satisfaction
levels, taste of the products, quality of products etc will also be studied.
Significance to the Industry:
This is a limited study which takes into consideration the responses of 100 people. This
data can be explorated to take in the trends across the industry. The significance for the
industry lies in studying these trends that emerge from the study. It is a rapiddly changing
and evolving sector. People are only beginning to wake up to its vast possibilities. A
study like this can attempt to guide the future of the industry based on current trends.
Significane for the Researcher:
To facilitate and provide all the useful informtaion of the study, the company, the food
industry and also provide marketing ways, methods of Airtel.
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Research Design
Descriptive Research
The research is primarily descriptive in nature. The sources of information are both
primary & secondary.
A well-structured questionnaire was prepared to collect the customers perception and
buying behavior, through the questionnaire.
Sampling Methodology
Sampling Unit:
The respondents who were asked to fill out questionnaires are the sampling units. These
comprise of employees of MNCs, Govt. Employees, Self Employed etc.
Sample size:
The sample size was restricted to only 100, which comprised of mainly peoples from
different regions of Delhi due to time constraints.
Sampling Area :
The area of the research was Delhi, India.
Sample Frame:
The customers were selected on a random basis from which the respondents were
selected based on convenience.
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Sampling Method:
Convenience sampling was used, based on the willingness and availability of the
respondents. The study was conducted on consumers with different type of business.
Research period:
The time for the project is approximately 2 months in which the collection of data,
interpretation.
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Telecommunications 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. According to the Internet
And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at
190 million at the end of June, 2013.Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication
industry are telephony, internet and television broadcast Industry in the country which is
in an ongoing process of transforming into next generation network, employs an
extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges,
mobile switching centres, media gateways and signalling gateways at the core,
interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using fibre-optics or
Microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to
the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optic-fibre 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 liberalisation and growth since
the 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 second-largest Internet user-base with
over 300 million as of June 2015.
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The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 2832 billion (US$43
billion) for 201011 financial year, while revenues from telecom equipment segment
stood at 1170 billion (US$18 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 egovernance in India. The government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication
facilities to deliver mass education programmes for the rural folk of India.
History
The beginning
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.
The construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines was started in November
1853. These connected Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north; Agra, Mumbai
(then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south;
Ootacamund and Bangalore. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph 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 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and
The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to
establish telephone exchange 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.
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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.
Liberalisation and privatisation
Liberalisation of Indian telecommunication in industry started in 1981 when Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the
state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year. But
soon the policy was let down because of political opposition. Attempts to liberalise the
telecommunication industry were continued by the following government under the
prime-minister-ship of Rajiv Gandhi. He invited Sam Pitroda, a US-based Non-resident
Indian NRI and a former Rockwell International executive to set up a Centre 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 the 1990s Indian government was
under increasing pressure to open up the telecom sector for private investment as a part of
Liberalization- Privatization- Globalization policies that the government had to accept to
overcome the severe fiscal crisis and resultant balance of payments issue in 1991.
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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. Liberalisation 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 licence 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
hurdle..
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 Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalisation policies.
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In 2000, the Vajpayee government constituted the Telecom Disputes Settlement and
Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) through an amendment of the TRAI Act, 1997. The primary
objective of TDSAT's establishment was to release TRAI from adjudicatory and dispute
settlement functions in order to strengthen the regulatory framework. Any dispute
involving parties like licensor, licensee, service provider and consumers are resolved by
TDSAT.
Moreover, any direction, order or decision of TRAI can be challenged by appealing in
TDSAT. 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 privatise 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 licences to private operators. The government further reduced licence fees for
cellular service providers and increased the allowable stake to 74% for foreign
companies. Because of all these factors, the service fees finally reduced and the call costs
were cut greatly enabling every common middle-class family in India to afford a cell
phone. Nearly 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential
for growth of the Indian mobile market. 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.[30]
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
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COMPANY PROFILE
Airtel (Bharti Airtel Ltd.)
Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in
telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India.
Bharti Airtel is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services
based on a strong customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which
constitute, 44.6 million mobile and 5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31,
2007. Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel Limited - a part of the biggest private
integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti provides a range of telecom
services, which include Cellular, Basic, Internet and recently introduced National Long
Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports telephone terminals and cordless phones.
Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone instruments in India, it is also the
first company to export its products to the USA. Bharti has also put its footsteps into
Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the
leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23 states covering all four metros and
more than 50 million satisfied customers.
History
In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India, which he earlier
used to import from a Taiwan company, Kingtel, replacing the old fashioned, bulky rotary
phones that were in use in the country then. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was
incorporated and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for
manufacture of electronic push button phones.
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By the early 1990s, Bharti was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom
gear. He named his first push-button phones as 'Mitbrau'.
In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licences auctioned
in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular license was that the bidder have
some experience as a telecom operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French
telecom group Vivendi. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the
mobile telecom business as a major growth area. His plans were finally approved by the
Government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti Cellular
Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Within
a few years Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2-million mobile
subscriber mark. Bharti also brought down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India under
brand name 'Indiaone'.
In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular
operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell
Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in
Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay
Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone
operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control
of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and
Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India.
Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a Caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in July 2004
becoming to the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel theme song, composed by A.R.
Rahman, was the most popular tune on that year.
In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN
Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries
in Africa and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering
offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas
acquisition ever by an Indian firm.
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However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist
magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more
subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the talks fell
apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a
subsidiary of the new company. In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it was in
talks with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively
by 31 July 2009.
Talks eventually ended without agreement, some sources stating that this was due to
opposition from the South African government.
In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network
infrastructure for the fixed line business. Later, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year
contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network across the
country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality
internet browsing on mobile handsets.
In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In June 2010,
Bhartil acquired the African business of Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion making it the
largest ever acquisition by an Indian telecom firm. In 2012, Bharti tied up with Wal-Mart,
the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India. In 2014, Bharti planned
to acquire Loop Mobile for INR 7 billion, but the deal was called off later. Bharti Airtel
Limited (Airtel), the worlds third largest mobile operator with operations in 20
countries across Asia and Africa, today said that its Treasury division has been adjudged
as a highly commended winner of the Top Treasury Team (Asia) Awards at the Adam
Smith Asia Awards 2015.
Corporate Structure
Airtel has two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with focus on B2C (Business to
Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) segments. Airtel's B2C business unit deals
with servicing the retail consumers, homes and small offices providing mobile, fixed line,
DTH and m-commerce services while the B2B unit deals with large corporate accounts.
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Tele media
Under the Tele media segment, Airtel provides broadband internet access through DSL,
internet leased lines as well as MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) solutions, as well as
IPTV and fixed line telephone services. Until 18 September 2004, Bharti provided fixed
line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all
telecom services including fixed line services under a common brand airtel. As of
September 2012, Airtel provides Telemedia services to 3.3 million customers in 87 cities.
As on 30 November 2012, Airtel had 1.39 million broadband subscribers.
Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as
well as unlimited download plans. However, Airtel's unlimited plans are subject to free
usage policy (FUP), which reduces speed after the customer crosses a certain data usage
limit. In most of the plans, Airtel provides only 512kbit/s beyond FUP, which is lower
than the TRAI specified limit of half the subscriber's original speed. The maximum speed
available for home users is 16Mbit/s.
In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily blocked file
sharing websites such as vimeo.com megavideo.com, thepiratebay.se, etc. with out giving
any legal information to the customers
Digital television
The Digital television business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India
under the brand name Airtel digital TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and had
about 7.9 million customers at the end of December 2012.
Enterprise
The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers
and national and international long-distance services to telcos through its nationwide
fibre optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP
and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing stations. It has two
sections under it.
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30
31
In May 2009, Airtel confirmed that it was again in talks with MTN and both companies
agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009. Airtel said in a
statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a
significant partnership with MTN Group". The exclusivity period was extended twice up
to 30 September 2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement.
A solution was proposed where the new company would be listed on 2 stock exchanges,
one in South Africa and one in India. However, dual-listing of companies is not permitted
by Indian law.
Zain
In Jun 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy Zain's mobile operations in 15 African countries,
in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus
in 2007. Bharti Airtel completed its $10.7 billion acquisition of African operations from
Kuwaiti firm on June 8th 2010, making the Airtel the world's fifth largest wireless carrier
by subscriber base. Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010
grew by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year, newly acquired Zain
Africa division contributed US$911 million to the total. However, net profits dropped by
41% from US$470 million in 2009 to US$291 million 2010 due to a US$188 million
increase in radio spectrum charges in India and an increase of US$106 million in debt
interest.
Warid Bangladesh
In 2010, Warid Telecom sold a majority 70.90% stake in the company to India's Bharti
Airtel Limited for US$300 million. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission approved the deal on Jan 4, 2010. Bharti Airtel Limited took management
control of the company and its board, and rebranded the company's services under its
own airtel brand from December 20, 2010. In March, 2013, Warid Telecom sold its rest
30% share to Bharti Airtels Singapore-based concern Bharti Airtel Holdings Pte Limited.
Telecom Seychelles
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On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire 100% stake in Telecom
Seychelles for US$62 million taking its global presence to 19 countries. Telecom
Seychelles began operations in 1998 and operates 3G, Fixed Line, ship to shore services
satellite telephony, among value added services like VSAT and Gateways for
International Traffic across the Seychelles under the Airtel brand. The company has over
57% share of the mobile market of Seychelles. Airtel announced plans to invest US$10
million in its fixed and mobile telecoms network in the Seychelles over three years,
whilst also participating in the Seychelles East Africa submarine cable (SEAS) project.
The US$34 million SEAS project is aimed at improving the Seychelles' global
connectivity by building a 2,000 km undersea high-speed link to Dar es Salaam in
Tanzania.
Wireless Business Services Private Limited
On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Wireless
Business Services Private Limited (WBSPL) at an investment of 9.07 billion (US$165
million). WBSPL was a joint venture founded by Qualcomm, and held BWA spectrum in
the telecom circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai. Qualcomm had spent US$1
billion to acquire BWA spectrum in those 4 circles. The deal gave Airtel a 4G presence in
18 circles. On 4 July 2013, Airtel announced that it had acquired an additional 2% equity
share capital (making its stake 51%) in all the four BWA entities of Qualcomm, thereby
making them its subsidiaries. On 18 October 2013, Airtel announced that it had acquired
100 percent equity shares of WBSPL for an undisclosed sum, making it a wholly owned
subsidiary.
DATA INTERPRETATION
34
1. Do you believe that India is potentially one of the most exciting mobile service
Company
Airtel
Yes
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
No
MT NL
Ye s
Idea
Vodafone
10
AirT el
12
14
16
18
Interpretation - As according to the above table 16 (80%) out of the total 20 interviewed
people in all the above four specified Indian mobile service providers are of belief that
India is potentially one of the most exciting mobile service providers in the world,
whereas some 4 (20%) of them do not agree to this view.
35
2. Do you find that the governments telecom policy has had the most radical impact on
Company
Airtel
Yes
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
--
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
AirTel
Vodafone
Idea
MT NL
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Yes
No
36
Interpretation - As according to the above table 15 (75%) out of the total 20 interviewed
people in all the above four specified Indian mobile service providers find that the
governments telecom policy has had the most radical impact on the development of
mobile service providers, whereas some 5 (25%) of them deny this 3. Do you believe that
one of the challenges facing mobile operators in India is the diversity of the coverage
regions?
No
Company
Airtel
Yes
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
2.5
1.5
AirT el
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
0.5
0
Yes
No
Interpreation - As according to the above table 10 (50%) out of the total 20 interviewed
people in the mobile service providers are of belief that one of the challenges facing
mobile operations in India is the diversify of the coverage regions, whereas interestingly
another 10 (50%) of them deny this.
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4. To what extent, does you find that mobile service providers is a very complex
standard?
To great extent
To some extent
Company
(1-5)
(6-10)
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
3
2.5
2
1.5
AirT el
Vodafone
Idea
MT NL
1
0.5
0
To some extent
To great extent
Interpretation - As according to the above table 10 (50%) out of the total 20 interviewed
people in all the above four major the mobile service providers in Indian Cellular industry
find only to some extent that GSM is a very complex standard, whereas the another 10
(50%) respondents find to great extent that mobile service providers is a very complex
standard.
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CONSUMER LEVEL
1. Do you believe that mobile service providers comes close to fulfilling the
requirements for a personal communication system?
No
Company
Airtel
Yes
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
3
2
No
2
2
AirTel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
2
3
Ye s
3
3
Interpretation - As the above shows 30 (75%) out of total 40 respondents are of the
belief that mobile service providers comes close to fulfilling the requirements for a
personal communication system, whereas 10 (25%) of them are in no way to this belief.
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2. Do you find that mobile service providers as the most exciting and satisfying
mobile standard?
No 1
Ye s
No
Company
Airtel
Yes
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
MTNL
Idea
10
Vodafone
AirT el
15
20
25
30
35
Interpretation - As the above shows 32 (80%) out of total 40 respondents find that
mobile service providers as the most exciting and satisfying mobile standard, whereas the
remaining 8 (10%) respondents deny this.
40
3. Do you believe that your service provider has a genuine commitment to creating a
modern and efficient communications?
No
Company
Airtel
Yes
10
--
Vodafone
Idea
10
--
MTNL
2
0
No
2
0
AirTel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL
8
10
Yes
8
10
Interpretation - As the above shows 36 (90%) out of total 40 respondents are of the
belief that their service providers have a genuine commitment to creating a modern and
efficient communications whereas the remaining 4 (10%) respondents deny this.
SWOT ANALYSIS
41
STRENGTHS
Cost advantage
Entrepreneurial zeal
WEAKNESSES
To prove credibility
Price pressures
Awareness
OPPORTUNITIES
Airtels market share increasing at other service provider expense. Thus opportunity
to wipe it out.
THREATS
Foreign investment
Other competition
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CONCLUSION
The Indian telecommunications Network with 250m telephone connections is the fifth
largest in the world and is the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia.
Today it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities
for UK companies in the stagnant global scenario. Tele-density, which was languishing at
2% in 1999, has shown an impressive jump to 9.5% in 2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set
to increase to 20% in the next five years beating the Govt. target by three years.
Accordingly, India requires incremental investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five
years.
From above the details I conclude that 70% Airtel users preferred to remain with Airtel.
Also good no. of users who were willing to switch from their respective subscribers
showed interest in Airtel. Hence, these statistics imply a bright future for the company.
Also the company is now providing more services like the door to door services which is
you dial the Airtel customer care and would like to send someone flowers the Airtel
company delivers those flowers to the person concerned. Also Airtel is providing free text
messaging service and free voice mail service. Call conferencing is also another feature
Airtel provides.
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The research is confined to a Delhi only and does not necessarily shows a pattern
applicable to all of the country.
Some respondents were reluctant to give personal information which can affect
the validity of all responses.
in the study.
Secondary data takes from websites and documents which may not be correct or
manipulate/distort by someone.
This study is very time consuming.
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