PREFACE

The research termed as “A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CUSTOMER

PREFERENCES FOR GSM AND CDMA MOBILE SERVICES IN BAREILLY”

The preparation of this project report provides us great pleasure in realizing our work

and market experience in few pages which shows over all result and experienced

knowledge and the practical approach about the life style of the professional and things

which we found affecting to our marketing and product image.

1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am neither a research expert nor a trend spotter. I am a management student with

foundations of management principles and theories, who is curious about various sectors

and its latest happenings.

I am highly obliged to Miss. Sheetal Gangwar Management Department for her

invaluable support; guidance and knowledge that she shared with me there by aiding me

in making this project a successful research.

Definitely, I can’t ignore the technology, with Internet as the backbone and those

search engines which helped me in building up this research project.

Lastly, I would like to thank the ALMIGHTY and my parents for their moral and

financial support and my colleagues with whom I shared my day-to-day experience and

received lots off suggestions that improved my work quality.

ANUBHA SINGH

2

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction & objective (4-5)

INTRODUCTION (6-49)

Telecom India (7-9)

What are CDMA and GSM ? (10-20)

GSM & CDMA comparison (21-22)

India’s telecom growth (23-37)

Value Added Services of cellular mobiles (38-49)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (50-53)

DATA PRESENTATION (54-71)

CONCLUSIONS (72-73)

SUGGESTIONS (74-75)

LIMITATIONS (76-77)

BIBLIOGRAPHY (78-79)

ANNEXURE (80-83)

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INTRODUCTION

The two technologies namely GSM and CDMA have immense scope in

Indian Mobile Handset market as telecom operators in India come up with

innovative plans to attract the Customers.

India is the most competitive market in the world and boom in telecom has

completely changed the Tele industry scenario in India.

Both technologies have been quite successful in increasing the mobile usage

in the country and will likely to continue so in the near future.

The mobile industry of India believes the market still offers lot of

Opportunity for both GSM and CDMA techniques while the service providers have been

launching various plans to customers.

Cellular operators are also providing many exciting features to

increase there customers base like hello tunes, ring tones ,mms, GPRS, call

forwarding , call waiting ,voice mail missed call in formations, call conferencing

contents free offers recharge voucher discounts, life time validity double voucher

validity, favorites numbers, right talk.

It is still a big question as to which of to the technologies will lead eventually.

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OBJECTIVE

The study has been conducted to fulfill following objectives:

To determine the market share of various GSM and CDMA users in Bareilly.

To compare customer preference for GSM and CDMA mobile services in Bareilly.

To compare customer preference of various value added Services produced by

GSM and CDMA operators in Bareilly.

5

INTRODUCTION

6

INTRODUCTION

Telecom India

This was less than five years after the invention of the

commissioning of a 50-line manual telephone exchange in

1882 in Kolkata. This was less than five years after the invention of the

telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. India had approx. 82,000 telephone

connections at the time of independence (1947) and by 1984 the number of

connections had slowly risen to 3.05 million. India's telecom network was

notoriously unreliable and only available to a small section of households

along with the corporate sector. The telecom sector was a government

monopoly until 1994 when liberalization gradually took place. Cellular

service was launched in November 1995 in Kolkata.

7

History of Cellular Telephony in India

1992 Telecommunication sector in India liberalized to bridge

the gap through government spending & to provide

additional resources for the nation’s telecom target.

Private sector allowed participating

1993  The telecom industry gets an annual foreign investment Rs

20.6 million

1994 License for providing cellular mobile services granted by

the government of India for the Metropolitan cites of

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Chennai. Cellular mobile

service to be duopoly (i.e. not more than two cellular

mobile operators could be licensed in each telecom circle),

under a fixed license fee regime for 10 years.

1995 19 more telecom circles get mobile licenses

1995(August) Kolkata became the first metro to have a cellular network

1997  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is set up

1998 Annual foreign investment in telecom stands at Rs

17,756.4 million.

1999 FDI inflow into telecom sector falls by almost 90% to Rs.

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2126.7 million

1999  Tariff rebalancing exercise gets initiated

1999(March) National Telecom Policy is announced.

2000(June) FDI inflow drops further down to Rs 918 million coming

2000

(January)

Amendment of TRAI Act.

9

CDMA

  Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a digital cellular spread-

spectrum modulation technique that implements distributed voice and data

networks.

CDMA works by converting speech into digital information, which is then transmitted

as a radio signal over a wireless network. CDMA does not assign a specific frequency

to each user, but the full available spectrum. Each signal is encoded differently using a

unique code. This way CDMA enables a large number of users to share the same

frequency band at the same time, without interference.

The receiving device is instructed to use the code to extract the data out of the received

signal.

  Applications

  Digital cellular applications based on CDMA were developed with the

collaboration of several carrier and equipment manufacturers, such as

Motorola, P.C.S., NOKIA.

Among the services available to CDMA users are:

web browsing, m-commerce (paying bills, purchasing), MMS (multimedia messaging

services), entertainment (streaming video, games) and enterprise solutions (email, file

download, video conferencing).

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CDMA was first used in the military, during World War 2.

Since the transmission is over a wide bandwidth of frequencies, the enemy can’t

identify the signal easily.

BACKGROUND

The first generation of cellular systems, which include the AMPS (Advanced Mobile

Phone Systems), was introduced in the early 1980s. These systems used analog

frequency modulation (FM) and have a frequency division multiple access (FDMA)

based media access control (MAC) architecture.

Within a few years, market demands and capacity requirements began to grow hitting

the practical limitations. These limitations motivated the development of the second

generation cellular systems, which improved compatibility and accommodated higher

capacity than the first generation systems. These systems use digital modulation and

processing techniques.

 

TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global System for Mobile

Communication) and (narrowband) CDMA belong to the second generation systems.

CDMA was introduced in 1994, by Qualcomm, Inc. Using direct sequence code

division multiple access, it claimed to provide 10 times more capacity than analog

systems – far more than TDMA or GSM.

Today, CDMA is the basis to the third generation market in the United States and other

places in the world.

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GSM

In 1982, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations

(CEPT) created the Group Special Mobile (GSM) to develop a standard for a mobile

telephone system that could be used across Europe. In 1987, a memorandum of

understanding was signed by 13 countries to develop a common cellular telephone

system across Europe.

In 1989, GSM responsibility was transferred to the European Telecommunications

Standards Institute (ETSI) and phase I of the GSM specifications were published in 1990.

The first GSM network was launched in 1991 by Radio linja in Finland with joint

technical infrastructure maintenance from Ericsson. By the end of 1993, over a million

subscribers were using GSM phone networks being operated by 70 carriers across 48

countries.

Technical details

GSM is a cellular network, which means that mobile phones connect to it by searching

for cells in the immediate vicinity. GSM networks operate in four different frequency

ranges. Most GSM networks operate in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Some

countries in the Americas (including Canada and the United States) use the 850 MHz and

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1900 MHz bands because the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency bands were already

allocated.

The rarer 400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries, notably

Scandinavia, where these frequencies were previously used for first-generation systems.

In the 900 MHz band the uplink frequency band is 890–915 MHz, and the downlink

frequency band is 935–960 MHz. This 25 MHz bandwidth is subdivided into 124 carrier

frequency channels, each spaced 200 kHz apart. Time division multiplexing is used to

allow eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency channel.

There are eight radio timeslots (giving eight burst periods) grouped into what is called a

TDMA frame. Half rate channels use alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel

data rate is 270.833 kbit/s, and the frame duration is 4.615 ms.

The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in

GSM850/900 and 1 watt in GSM1800/1900.

GSM has used a variety of voice codecs to squeeze 3.1 kHz audio into between 5.6 and

13 kbit/s. Originally, two codecs, named after the types of data channel they were

allocated, were used, called Half Rate (5.6 kbit/s) and Full Rate (13 kbit/s). These used a

system based upon linear predictive coding (LPC). In addition to being efficient with

bitrates, these codecs also made it easier to identify more important parts of the audio,

allowing the air interface layer to prioritize and better protect these parts of the signal.

GSM was further enhanced in 1997[10] with the Enhanced Full Rate (EFR) codec, a 12.2

kbit/s codec that uses a full rate channel. Finally, with the development of UMTS, EFR

was refactored into a variable-rate codec called AMR-Narrowband, which is high quality

and robust against interference when used on full rate channels, and less robust but still

relatively high quality when used in good radio conditions on half-rate channels.

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There are four different cell sizes in a GSM network—macro, micro, pico and umbrella

cells. The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation environment.

Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base station antenna is installed on a mast

or a building above average roof top level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is

under average roof top level; they are typically used in urban areas. Picocells are small

cells whose coverage diameter is a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors.

Umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in

coverage between those cells.

Cell horizontal radius varies depending on antenna height, antenna gain and propagation

conditions from a couple of hundred meters to several tens of kilometers. The longest

distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi). There

are also several implementations of the concept of an extended cell, where the cell radius

could be double or even more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain and

the timing advance.

Indoor coverage is also supported by GSM and may be achieved by using an indoor

picocell base station, or an indoor repeater with distributed indoor antennas fed through

power splitters, to deliver the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate

indoor distributed antenna system. These are typically deployed when a lot of call

capacity is needed indoors, for example in shopping centers or airports. However, this is

not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage is also provided by in-building penetration of

the radio signals from nearby cells.

The modulation used in GSM is Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK), a kind of

continuous-phase frequency shift keying. In GMSK, the signal to be modulated onto the

carrier is first smoothed with a Gaussian low-pass filter prior to being fed to a frequency

modulator, which greatly reduces the interference to neighboring channels (adjacent

channel interference).

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Interference with audio devices

This is a form of RFI, and could be mitigated or eliminated by use of

additional shielding and/or bypass capacitors in these audio devices.[citation needed]

However, the increased cost of doing so is difficult for a designer to justify.

It is a common occurrence for a nearby GSM handset to induce a "dit, dit di-dit, dit di-dit,

dit di-dit" output on PA's, wireless microphones, home stereo systems, televisions,

computers, cordless phones, and personal music devices. When these audio devices are in

the near field of the GSM handset, the radio signal is strong enough that the solid state

amplifiers in the audio chain act as a detector. The clicking noise itself represents the

power bursts that carry the TDMA signal. These signals have been known to interfere

with other electronic devices, such as car stereos and portable audio players.

Network structure

The network behind the GSM system seen by the customer is large and complicated in

order to provide all of the services which are required. It is divided into a number of

sections and these are each covered in separate articles.

The Base Station Subsystem (the base stations and their controllers).

The Network and Switching Subsystem (the part of the network most similar to a fixed

network). This is sometimes also just called the core network.

The GPRS Core Network (the optional part which allows packet based Internet

connections).

All of the elements in the system combine to produce many GSM services such as voice

calls and SMS.

15

The structure of a GSM network

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Subscriber identity module

A SIM for Bell Mobility (Canada) one of the key features of GSM is the Subscriber

Identity Module (SIM), commonly known as a SIM card. The SIM is a detachable smart

card containing the user's subscription information and phonebook. This allows the user

to retain his or her information after switching handsets. Alternatively, the user can also

change operators while retaining the handset simply by changing the SIM. Some

operators will block this by allowing the phone to use only a single SIM, or only a SIM

issued by them; this practice is known as SIM locking, and is illegal in some countries.

In Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States many operators lock the mobiles they

sell. This is done because the price of the mobile phone is typically subsidized with

revenue from subscriptions, and operators want to try to avoid subsidizing competitor's

mobiles. A subscriber can usually contact the provider to remove the lock for a fee,

utilize private services to remove the lock, or make use of ample software and websites

available on the Internet to unlock the handset themselves. While most web sites offer the

unlocking for a fee, some do it for free. The locking applies to the handset, identified by

its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, not to the account (which is

identified by the SIM card). It is always possible to switch to another (non-locked)

handset if such a handset is available.

Some providers will unlock the phone for free if the customer has held an account for a

certain time period. Third party unlocking services exist that are often quicker and lower

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cost than that of the operator. In most countries, removing the lock is legal. United States-

based T-Mobile provides free unlocking services to their customers after 3 months of

subscription.

In countries like Belgium, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore etc., all phones are sold

unlocked. However, in Belgium, it is unlawful for operators there to offer any form of

subsidy on the phone's price. This was also the case in Finland until April 1, 2006, when

selling subsidized combinations of handsets and accounts became legal, though operators

have to unlock phones free of charge after a certain period (at most 24 months).

GSM SECURITY

GSM was designed with a moderate level of security. The system was designed to

authenticate the subscriber using a pre-shared key and challenge-response.

Communications between the subscriber and the base station can be encrypted. The

development of UMTS introduces an optional USIM, that uses a longer authentication

key to give greater security, as well as mutually authenticating the network and the user -

whereas GSM only authenticated the user to the network (and not vice versa). The

security model therefore offers confidentiality and authentication, but limited

authorization capabilities, and no non-repudiation.

GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security. The A5/1 and A5/2 stream

ciphers are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy. A5/1 was developed first and is

a stronger algorithm used within Europe and the United States; A5/2 is weaker and used

in other countries. A large security advantage of GSM over earlier systems is that the

cryptographic key stored on the SIM card is never sent over the wireless interface.

Serious weaknesses have been found in both algorithms, however, and it is possible to

break A5/2 in real-time in a cipher text-only attack. The system supports multiple

algorithms so operators may replace that cipher with a stronger one.

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Present   scenario   of   GSM   tec h nology

The year 2006 was unique for the Indian GSM Industry as it witnessed what has not been

witnessed in the last seven or eight years. The subscriber additions for the entire calendar

year ending December 2006 were far higher at 47 million as compared to just 21 million

additions for year ending December 2005 – which is a jump of 124% in subscriber

additions. The population coverage of GSM service in India in the last twelve to eighteen

months doubled from 30% to 60% and the geographical coverage increased three fold –

from 13% to 39%. This has been a remarkable achievement in light of the fact that over

the earlier five years, from 2000 to year 2005, there was very limited growth in

population and geographic coverage. India has now also joined the super-elite club of

countries having more than 100 million GSM subscribers. In terms of the GSM

subscriber base, India is now placed third after China and Russia. The overall Indian

Cellular industry crossed the 100 million cellular subscriber mark in the middle of the

year. Delhi too, in October 2006, entered the exclusive group of cities having

more than 10 million mobile subscribers.

Coverage of GSM service in India in the last twelve to eighteen months doubled from

30% to 60% and the geographical coverage increased three fold –from 13% to 39%. This

has been a remarkable achievement in light of the fact that over the earlier five years,

from 2000 to year 2005, there was very limited growth in population and geographic

coverage. India has now also joined the super-elite club of countries having more than

100 million GSM subscribers. In terms of the GSM subscriber base, India is now placed

third after China and Russia.

The overall Indian Cellular industry crossed the 100 million cellular subscriber mark in

the middle of the year. Delhi too, in October 2006, entered the exclusive group of cities

having more than 10 million mobile subscribers.

As is evident from the above milestones, subscriber additions displayed a strong

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accelerating trend in 2006. In August, the industry added more than 6 million subscribers,

for the first time exceeded the growth in China and topped the global table in subscriber

additions. This trend is continuing since then as each month we are exceeding previous

month’s performance. A report by Wireless Intelligence shows that India powered ahead

with quarterly net additions having quadrupled from 4.2 million to 16.4 million over the

last 18 months. India was the second highest in net adds over the four quarters to the end

of September 2006 (starting Oct 05 to end of Sept 06) and it is expected that it will take

over the top spot, adding 80 million connections by the end of 2007.

The Indian Cellular Industry has made an indelible mark in the global telecom arena, as it

delivered far beyond all expectations on its promise and potential. A large factor in

achieving this growth has been the industry confidence arising from the forward looking

policies of the Government, enabling regulation and fair play for all the players.

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GSM & CDMA COMPARISON

GSM and CDMA are two different modulation standards. GSM is used

primarily in Europe and CDMA in the US. GSM uses a system called

TDMA to differentiate between different mobile calls, TDMA means Time

Division Multiple Access. CDMA is a much more complex system which

uses digital codes to differentiate between the different mobile calls. CDMA

stands for Code Divison Multiple Access. Mobiles designed for CDMA and

mobiles designed for GSM look very similar, even the construction looks the

same, infact most modern mobiles can operate using either system so that

they can be used around the world.

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The world of wireless communication has opened up new vistas of technology and a

number of dedicated attempts to enhance the existent systems. Each system is unique in

its approach and the competition simply lies in the accessibility and facilities enabled.

The sphere of mobile communication is synonymous with the GSM and CDMA

communication systems, worldwide. The services are not contained or restricted and are

accessible any where.

To understand the main difference between GSM and CDMA communication systems, it

is essential to understand that while the former is a universal concept, the latter has

emerged out of a proprietary effort. GSM or the Global System for Mobile

communication is an international organization established in 1987, to develop and

enhance wireless communication, worldwide. CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access

is relatively new in the industry and a design of Qualcomm, a company based

in the United States of America.

The CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access was initiated as an alternative to GSM or

the Global System for Mobile communication. The difference lies in the speed made

available for data transfer, which is traditionally considered faster with CDMA.

Nevertheless, just as diverse as the scope of wireless mobile communication is, so is the

scope for both these industry giants to outdo one another in the global market.

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INDIA’S TELECOM GROWTH

The stage seems set for another big battle in the country's mobile telephony market. In

the fray are the GSM-based (Global System for Mobile) cellular services and the CDMA

(Code Division Multiple Access) service providers. It all began with the Telecom

Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) talking of bringing out its recommendations on

spectrum-related issues in December 2004. Six months later, its 142-page

recommendations are finally out. And the GSM and CDMA lobbies have started to raise

the pitch.

Last time, the two-year court battle between the two sides ended with the introduction of

CDMA-based mobile services. This time round, the stakes are much bigger. That is

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because, in the interregnum, the mobile subscriber base has shot up from a mere 15.5

million in May 2003 to 53 million now. That is where having adequate spectrum is

critical. It can make or break the launch of 3G (third generation) services in the country.

With 3G, operators can offer a bouquet of services like video streaming, mobile

television, video calling and visual radio to subscribers.

At first sight, the recommendations look quite equitable. There is no one-time spectrum

charge for existing operators. Trai has reduced the ceiling on annual spectrum charges

from the current 6 per cent to 4 per cent of annual gross revenues. It has also suggested a

dramatic hike in spectrum allocations - 20 MHz for GSM and 14 MHz for CDMA

operators. That will put spectrum availability in India in line with global norms. It is far

higher than what the GSM operators (6.2 MHz-10 Mhz) and the CDMA operators (2.5

Mhz-5 Mhz) currently have. Trai chairman Pradeep Baijal points out that in 1995, no one

thought that the sector would grow so fast. Today, with adequate spectrum, one can

envisage a 200-million mobile subscriber base.

PRESENTATION OF CDMA TECHNOLOGY—

Why is spectrum so critical today?

Spectrum is all the more important now because telecpanies are looking to launch 3G

services. But as communications minister Dayanidhi Maran points out, what we need is

to ensure that people in rural areas get access to basic mobile communications.

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“Today we can envisage a 200-million mobile subscription base,” says Pradip Baijal,

chairman, Trai

The problems start with some of the Trai recommendations. It has suggested providing

additional spectrum to CDMA operators in the 800 MHz band within a month of the

recommendations being approved. However, the spectrum in the 1800 MHz band will be

available to GSM operators in a time-bound manner, not later than December 2006.

Currently, CDMA networks are in no way congested. The Trai paper itself mentions that

out of the 20 networks that need additional spectrum immediately, 18 belong to GSM

operators. CDMA operator Reliance Infocomm needs extra spectrum only in Uttar

Pradesh (west) and Madhya Pradesh. However, the 900 MHz band (used by GSM

operators) is already packed, while the 1800 MHz band is also crowded.

Says T.V. Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India

(COAI): " The additional spectrum will allow CDMA operators to roll out 3G services.

They will have a first- mover advantage." However, S.C. Khanna, secretary general,

Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi), argues that the advantage does

not exist since there is no equipment in CDMA that is compatible with both the 800 MHz

and the IMT 2000 bands.

But congestion of networks is limited to just 30-odd cities. The other issue is that the area

under mobile networks cover only 20 per cent of the population, as opposed to the 77 per

cent global average.

Mobile Network Statistics

India's Largest Cellular Operators as at Jan 31 2008

OperatorSubscriber Base

(millions)

25

Bharti Airtel 57.4

Reliance

Infocomm Ltd.42.6

Vodafone Essar 41.1

Bharat Sanchar

Nigam Ltd.33.7

Tata

Teleservices

Ltd.

22.5

Idea Cellular

Ltd.22.0

INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN MOBILE

SERVICES SECTOR

Indian Telecommunications Industry has entered the age of deregulated market

competition from one of regulated monopoly enjoyed by the Department of

Telecommunications (DoT). The attractiveness of the Indian market due to its low tele-

density, high latent demand and burgeoning middle class, brought in some of the largest

global telecom players, foreign institutional investors and major Indian industrial houses

to invest in telecom, especially in the Indian cellular industry.

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Growth of the Mobile Industry in India

Until about a few years ago, India had one of the most backward and stagnant telecom

infrastructure facilities ridden with ineffective government regulations, inadequate

financial resources and unaffordability for the common man. But this sector has seen

trailblazing growth from the year 2001. In fact, the increase in wireless subscribers

between 1998 and 2003 was approximately 100%. In the beginning of 2005, there were

50.7 million mobile users in India - including both GSM and CDMA users - and this

number is expected to grow by 20 million in the year 2005-06

Developments in Mobile Technology in India

At present there are two mobile technologies in use in India; Global System for Mobile

Communication (GSM) technology, a type of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

cellular network, and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1X technology.

However, GSM technology has limitations in offering a range of broadband services,

which CDMA 2000 1X technology that powers WLL can provide. The head start, which

cellular companies had got in wireless, got dissipated once WLL limited mobility from

the service providers like Reliance and Tata Indicom became fully operational.

There has been an evolutionary change in mobile communication systems

every decade. The first-generation (1G) in the 1980s and second-generation (2G) cellular

systems in the 1990s have been used mainly for voice transmission and to support circuit-

switched services. 1G systems were based on analog technologies; however, 2G systems

are digital systems such as the GSM, CDMA One and PDC.

These systems operate nationwide or internationally, and are today’s mainstream

systems. Initiatives such as SMS, WAP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, i-Mode, etc., based on 2G

27

have exploited the data capability of wireless networks to deliver value-added services to

customers. Now third generation (3G) systems have emerged on the scene and the central

theme of these technologies is the convergence of communication and computing. Other

than voice, 3G supports video telephony, video games, multimedia, net-browsing,

network games, email and downloading, all at a very high data-transfer rate. The

migration from 3G to fourth generation (4G) technology will be a revolution both from

technological and user perspectives. 4G today is only an evolving concept and there is no

real definition of what it will be. The concept of convergence has already begun with 3G,

and 4G will bring about convergence of communication, computing, broadcasting etc.,

(Pallab Dutta, “Zen of Mobile Communication”,

Government Rules and Regulations

With the advent of GSM in the 90’s two mobile licenses were issued per circle. The

licenses were however dogged by ineffective government regulations, resulting in high

consumer pricing (Rabo Com, 2004(1)). In 2001 the deregulation of mobile, fixed-line

and long distance sectors spurred growth and allowed many new players to enter the

market. The regulatory norms introduced by TRAI had a significant impact on the prices

of long distance call charges, reducing them by as much as 80% in just one

year. It reduced the disparity between tariffs of wire line and wireless services from a

factor of 15 to 3. However, the single most important catalyst that transformed the Indian

telecom industry was the WLL controversy which began in November, 2000 when TRAI

proposed that Basic Service Operators (BSOs) should be allowed to use cellular

technology. Mobile calling on the WLL licenses was restricted to relevant short distance

calling areas (SDCAs). However, the BSOs exploited a loophole in the license and

offered full mobility services by using call forwarding and multiple number registrations.

As a result, the GSM

based operators who had paid a significant license fee (2.5 billion dollars)

28

contested this decision. This legal battle continued for 3 years and was finally resolved

when the government introduced Unified Licensing making cellular services technology

neutral and allowing WLL players to provide full mobility after payment of an entry fee

equal to what the GSM operators had paid (RaboCom. 2004(2)). Unified Licensing

reduced the regulatory uncertainty prevailing in the Indian Telecom industry and

provided a level playing field for all the major mobile service providers

Emergence of Strategic Alliances

The telecom industry in India started out with many small and big players.

However, with falling tariffs and greater demands by consumers, it became

difficult for smaller players to survive. This led to a consolidation in the industry and as

of now, there are only a few major players left in the field. A series of strategic alliances,

both formal and informal, have already been entered into in the Indian Telecom Sector by

companies who are either constrained by a shortage of resources, do not have an adequate

presence in all geographical markets or driven by such needs as acquiring know-how,

minimizing risks, gaining critical mass or having access to brand names. For example,

Reliance Infocomm has entered into a technology agreement with Samsung of South

Korea to manufacture CDMA handsets in-house. entered into an equity arrangement and

have further plans to join hands with

Bharti. Under this arrangement, the three-company combine will operate in

Contiguous and complementary circles with full internal co-ordination, thus

creating in the process, a third front in wire line business, capable of taking on the

incumbent public sector BSNL and MTNL (the first front) and Reliance Infocomm (the

second front). In the cellular segment, a three-company alliance called "Idea Cellular" has

come up. It has a large footprint (especially in the South) and consists of the cellular

businesses of the Tatas, Birla’s and AT&T

29

Key Players in the Indian Telecom Industry

Bharati GroupIt is the largest integrated private sector telecommunications service provider in India

today and has a presence over the entire country. It was the first private sector company

to offer basic services, national and international long distance telephony in India. It

started offering its services in the mid 90’s.

Hutchison GroupIt is India’s third largest GSM operator and is part of the $55 billion Hong Kong based

Hutchison Whampoa Group. It initially began operations in one circle, Mumbai, and has

gradually expanded across the country to cover telecom circles throughout India.

Reliance Infocomm LtdIt is promoted by Reliance Industries Limited and offers mobile telephony

Services on the CDMA platform on a nation wide optical fibre cable network capable of

supporting broadband services. Its strategy has been to acquire a large subscriber base on

the back of low tariffs and then promote calls within its network to enable yet lower

tariffs for its subscribers.

Tata Teleservices Ltd . Owned by the Tata Group, it provides basic and wireless services on the CDMA

platform. As compared to its peers, the company has not been aggressive in expanding in

the wireless space.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.BSNL is a public sector organization, wholly owned by Department of

Tele-communication (DOT). It is India’s principal provider of local and domestic long

distance telephony. It offers basic services nation wide, except for Mumbai and Delhi,

where MTNL is the state-run telephony service provider. On the back of its established

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and well spread infrastructure of telephone exchanges, it has been able to roll out its

network at a rapid pace. Factors were decided on the basis of in-depth interviews. The

constituent attributes of the three factors are as follows:

Call Charges

SMS Rates

Talk Time

Economy

Roaming Charges

Network Coverage

Voice (Transmission) Clarity

Timely SMS Delivery

Performance

Customer Care

Free Number / SMS Offers

Ring-tones & Downloads

News / Sports Updates

Value Added Services

As an outcome of this initial study, three main factors were obtained that

are used by students for forming an opinion about a mobile service provider.

These are:

1._ Economy

2._ Performance

3._ Value Added Services

In all, a total of four focus group discussions, with six students each, and

thirty in-depth interviews were conducted in this phase. Subsequent to this phase, a

survey of students was carried out during the Conclusive Study Phase, wherein the

importance of the different parameters and their constituents was ascertained.

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Conclusive Study PhaseIn this phase, a questionnaire was designed using the preliminary data collected from the

Exploratory Phase (APPENDIX A). The questionnaire was administered to respondents,

who were graduate and post-graduate students from different

Major PlayersThere are three types of players in telecom services:

• -State owned companies (BSNL and MTNL)

• -Private Indian owned companies (Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices,)

• -Foreign invested companies (Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures,)

BSNLOn October 1, 2000 the Department of Telecom Operations, Government of India

became a corporation and was renamed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). BSNL

is now India’s leading tele-communications company and the largest public sector

undertaking. It has a network of over 45 million lines covering 5000 towns with over 35

million telephone connections. The state-controlled BSNL operates basic, cellular (GSM

and CDMA) mobile, Internet and long distance services throughout India (except Delhi

and Mumbai). BSNL will be expanding the network in line with the Tenth Five-Year

Plan (1992-97). The aim is to provide a telephone density of 9.9 per hundred by March

2007. BSNL, which became the third operator of GSM mobile services in most circles, is

now planning to overtake Bharti to become the largest GSM operator in the country.

BSNL is also the largest operator in the Internet market, with a share of 21 per cent of the

entire subscriber base.

Salient feature of bsnl service

India's fastest growing cellular service , along with postpaid and prepaid services brings

cellular telephony to the masses, through innovative technology and strategic pricing. 

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This ambitious service uses state-of-the-art GSM technology to attain global excellence

and leadership in business. Our entry into this sector has brought GSM cellular service at

an affordable cost to the common man. All serving a single objective, to provide better

communication to millions across India.

Customers have reposed tremendous faith in BSNL and it has enrolled over 30 Lakh

Cellular customers within ten months of launch of Cellular service, an unprecedented

mark in Indian Cellular Market.

Why should you choose BSNL Mobile?

For the first time in the country, all major towns and cities are covered through

our network

All major national and state highways are covered

National and International SMS facility

International roaming available for more than 300 networks across the world

The facility of one number roaming across the country

Appropriate and reasonable tariff packages to suit every pocket

Absolute transparency in billing.

All regular features of cellular telephony, such as SMS as well as advanced

features like MMS are available.

24 Hour helpline all across the country.

The only Mobile service available through out the country including Jammu and

Kashmir and North Eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram

etc.

MTNL

MTNL was set up on 1st April 1986 by the Government of India to upgrade the quality of

telecom services, expand the telecom network, introduce new services and to raise

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revenue for telecom development needs of India’s key metros – Delhi, the political

capital, and Mumbai, the business capital. In the past 17 years, the company has taken

rapid strides to emerge as India’s leading and one of Asia’s largest telecom operating

companies. The company has also been in the forefront of technology induction by

converting 100% of its telephone exchange network into the state-of-the-art digital mode.

The Govt. of India currently holds 56.25% stake in the

company. In the year 2003-04, the company's focus would be not only consolidating the

gains but also to focus on new areas of enterprise such as joint ventures for projects

outside India, entering into national long distance operation, widening the cellular and

CDMA-based WLL customer base, setting up internet and allied services on an all India

basis.

MTNL has over 5 million subscribers and 329,374 mobile subscribers. While the market

for fixed wireline phones is stagnating, MTNL faces intense competition from the private

players—Bharti, Hutchison and Idea Cellular, Reliance Infocomm—in mobile services.

MTNL recorded sales of Rs. 60.2 billion ($1.38 billion) in the year 2002-03, a decline of

5.8 per cent over the previous year’s annual turnover of Rs.63.92 billion.

BHARTI

Established in 1985, Bharti has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with many

firsts and innovations to its credit, ranging from being the first mobile service in Delhi,

first private basic telephone service provider in the country, first Indian company to

provide comprehensive telecom services outside India in Seychelles and first private

sector service provider to launch National Long Distance Services in India. Bharti Tele-

Ventures Limited was incorporated on July 7,1995 for promoting investments in

telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India.

Bharti’s operations are broadly handled by two companies: the

Mobility group, which handles the mobile services in 16 circles out of a total 23 circles

across the country; and the Infotel group, which handles the NLD, ILD, fixed line,

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broadband, data, and satellite-based services. Together they have so far deployed around

23,000 km of optical fiber cables across the country, coupled with approximately 1,500

nodes, and presence in around 200 locations. The group has a total customer base of 6.45

million, of which 5.86 million are mobile and 588,000 fixed line customers, as of January

31, 2004. In mobile, Bharti’s footprint extends across 15 circles.

Bharti Tele-Ventures' strategic objective is “to capitalize on the growth opportunities the

company believes are available in the Indian telecommunications market and consolidate

its position to be the leading integrated telecommunications services provider in key

markets in India, with a focus on providing mobile services”.

RELIANCE INFOCOMM

Reliance is a $16 billion integrated oil exploration to refinery to power and textiles. It is

also an integrated telecom service provider with licenses for mobile, fixed, domestic long

distance and international services. Reliance Infocomm offers a complete range of

telecom services, covering mobile and fixed line telephony including broadband, national

and international long distance services, data services and a wide range of value added

services and applications. Reliance India Mobile, the first of Info comm's initiatives was

launched on December 28, 2002. This marked the beginning of Reliance's vision of

ushering in a digital revolution in India by becoming a major catalyst in improving

quality of life and changing the face of India. Reliance Infocomm plans to extend its

efforts beyond the traditional value chain to develop and deploy telecom solutions for

India's farmers, businesses, hospitals, government and public sector organizations.

Until recently, Reliance was permitted to provide only “limited mobility” services

through its basic services license. However, it has now acquired a unified access license

for 18 circles that permits it to provide the full range of mobile services. It has rolled out

its CDMA mobile network and enrolled more than 6 million subscribers in one year to

become the country’s largest mobile operator. It now wants to increase its market share

and has recently launched pre-paid services. Having captured the voice market, it intends

to attack the broadband market.

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TATA TELESERVICES

Tata Teleservices is a part of the $12 billion Tata Group, which has 93 companies, over

200,000 employees and more than 2.3 million shareholders. Tata Teleservices provides

basic (fixed line services), using CDMA technology in six circles:

Maharashtra (including Mumbai),

New Delhi,

Andhra Pradesh,

Tamil Nadu,

Gujarat,

Karnataka.

It has over 800,000 subscribers. It has now migrated to unified access licenses, by paying

a Rs. 5.45 billion ($120 million) fee, which enables it to

provide fully mobile services as well. The company is also expanding its footprint, and

has paid Rs. 4.17 billion ($90 million) to DoT for 11 new licenses under the IUC

(interconnect usage charges) regime. The new licenses, coupled with the six circles in

which it already operates,

virtually gives the CDMA mobile operator a national footprint that is almost on par with

BSNL and Reliance Infocomm. The company hopes to start off services in these 11 new

circles by August 2004. These circles include Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala,

Kolkata, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East) & West and West Bengal.

VSNLOn April 1, 1986, the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) - a wholly Government

owned corporation - was born as successor to OCS. The company operates a network of

earth stations, switches, submarine cable systems, and value added service nodes to

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provide a range of basic and value added services and has a dedicated work force of

about 2000 employees. VSNL's main gateway centers are located at Mumbai, New Delhi,

Kolkata and Chennai. The international telecommunication circuits are derived

via Intelsat and Inmarsat satellites and wide band submarine cable systems e.g.

IDEAIndian regional operator IDEA Cellular Ltd. has a new ownership structure and grand

designs to become a national player, but in doing so is likely to become a thorn in the

side of Reliance Communications Ltd. IDEA operates in eight telecom “circles,” or

regions, in Western India, and has received additional GSM licenses to expand its

network into three circles in Eastern India -- the first phase of a major expansion plan that

it intends to fund through an IPO, according to parent company Aditya Birla Group .

CellOne provides a number of Value Added Services. These services helps BSNL serve

you better & enhance the ease & quality of communication thus bringing global

connectivity at your doorstep.

Voice   Mail   Service

Value Added Services  SIM Based service   SMS based Services

Short   Message   Service   (SMS)

Group Messaging

National   &   International   roaming

Call   forwarding

Corporate Virtual Private Network

Call   conferencing

Friend and Family Talk

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Call   waiting   and   Call   holding   facility

Unified Messaging Services: This provides Voice mail, FAX, e-

mail, text to voice

  services on your mobile phone. So stay in touch with your nears

and dears by

  means you like the most.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP): Surf WAP enabled

websites on Internet using

  this service.

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

Value-added services (VAS) are unlike core services. They have unique characteristics

and they relate to other services in a completely different way. They also provide

benefits that core services can not provide you.

Value-added Service Characteristics:-

All VAS share the same characteristics:

1. Not a form of basic service but rather adds value total service offering

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2. Stands alone in terms of profitability and/or stimulates incremental demand for

core service(s)

3. Can sometimes stand alone operationally

4. Does not cannibalize basic service unless clearly favorable

5. Can be an add-on to basic service, and as such, may be sold at a premium price

6. May provide operational and/or administrative synergy between or among other

services – not merely for diversification

Every VAS will demonstrate one or more of the above characteristics. Furthermore, a

value-added service will never stand in stark contrast to any of the above characteristics.

VAS also have a certain time dimension associated with them. Subjectively speaking, a

value-added service today becomes a basic service when it becomes sufficiently common

place and widely deployed to no longer provide substantive differentiation on a relative

basis.

Relationship to other Services

There are two types of VAS. The first service type are those value-added services that

stand alone from an operational perspective. These types of services need not be coupled

with other services, but they can be. Many non-voice services fall into this category.

They are often provided as an optional service along with voice services, but they could

be offered and used by themselves without the voice service. For example, SMS could be

offered and used as a service without voice calling.

The second, and arguably more numerous and important type of VAS, are those services

that do not stand-alone. Instead, this category adds value to existing services. While it

seems implicit in the definition of value-added, this is an important principle that makes

value-added services stand apart from other services.

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Value-added Services Examples

There are many services that could be considered "value-added". For discussion

purposes, we will a few of these services below.

Push-to-Talk

Push-to-Talk (PTT) is a VAS because it:

Drives additional revenue to the wireless carrier, but doe not cannibalize existing

revenues

Provides differentiated service offerings

May be packaged with various other VAS such as MIM to provide even greater

value

Call Management Services

This type of service can not stand alone as a service. Instead, it adds value to a core

service by allowing the subscriber to manage incoming and/or outgoing calls. For

example, value-added service interactions occur when the subscriber receives a call.

Many call management services allow the subscriber to establish when, where, and under

what circumstances they may be reached by calling parties. This provides value to the

core service - voice communications - by way of increased control and flexibility.

Depending on the specific commercial situation, this value-added service could be

offered as either a premium service (at a premium price) or be bundled with other the

core service offering. The benefit of bundling would be to provide a differentiated core

service and/or to increase the use of the core service

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.

Location Sensitive Billing

This is another example of a service that can not stand-alone. Instead, location sensitive

billing (LSB) adds value to the core service by location enabling the core service.

Location sensitive billing can be used in conjunction with post-paid, prepaid, and/or VPN

based mobile communications services to establish zones for which differentiated billing

treatment may be applied. For example, a "home zone", "work zone", and "premium

price zone" could be established to allow an operator to offer differentiated service to its

customers.

This is viewed as a value-added service to both the customer and the mobile operator.

The customer benefits from LSB through his ability to use the mobile phone at preferred

rates based on location. The wireless carrier benefits from incremental revenues derived

from additional usage and from premium charge zones where there is already high

demand and perhaps overly taxed system capacity. While the issue of potential

cannibalization of existing service arises, customer behavior and studies indicate a net

benefit derived from overall increased usage and revenues.

Taken together, call management services and LSB also depict characteristic number six,

operational synergy. Call management services add value in terms of providing the user

options depending on location. For example, the user may want to receive certain calls at

the home zone, but not at work, and perhaps receive only urgent calls when traveling or

on vacation. LSB provides the additional synergistic benefit of location based billing

when the user is in those various locations.

Mobile Data Services

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This is an example of a value-added service that does stand-alone. Mobile data services

are considered value-added because they depict many of the characteristics discussed

earlier.

Does not cannibalize existing services

Can be offered at a premium price

Provides differentiation

Can provide synergy with basic service

Largely due to the current state of mobile communications evolution, many non-voice

services can be considered to be value-added. However, the extent to which additional

value-added services can be layered on top of mobile data services will determine the

limit of their value. For example, many non-voice services will have even greater value

through personalization. Two of the most significant ways to personalize wireless

services are through location enabling them and making them personal profile driven.

Mobile data services are utilized to obtain information, content, and to perform

transactions. All of these activities are more meaningful if they are tailored to the

individual. Location based services add value by way of putting the data into a location

context for the user. Personal profiles further enhance the value through Personalization

Idea as glance

New Delhi: Minister of Communications, Information

Technology and Parliamentary Affairs Pramod Mahajan

has launched the services of Idea Cellular in Delhi.

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Idea Cellular, India’s fastest-growing mobile telephony services operator, redefines the

mobile telephony standards in the capital by offering the following distinct

advantages:

India’s first 3G compatible, EDGE upgradeable network that enables Idea

Cellular to launch high-speed data services, offer multimedia services and

operates superior quality of voice telephony network

Over 925 cells from day one for seamless coverage in Delhi and NCR and

6,00,000 simultaneous call handling capacity (BHCA) at any given time — much

higher than any other network

Delhi’s only GPRS (general packet radio services) enabled network that enables

to experience wireless Internet on the mobile and computer at blistering speeds

First time in India a full-capacity multimedia messaging service (MMS) on both

prepaid and postpaid, and can add life to text messages by attaching coloured

photographs and voice clips

Multiple tariff plans on prepaid; for the first time the pre-paid customer gets to

choose a tariff plan that suits his needs and Idea philosophy (‘pay less for more’)

rewards him for higher usage

Five value-rich tariff plans that enable Idea subscribers to choose a plan that suits

their ‘talk needs’

M-coupon, a first-ever innovative value-added service from Idea, enables to avail

of discounts at the flash of the mobile

For the first time Delhi subscribers get full roaming on prepaid (in Mumbai and

six more circles). Idea subscribers also get automatic national roaming for

incoming.

Says Idea Cellular CEO Graham Burke: “As the fastest-growing cellular service provider

in India, we have set standards in service delivery for others to follow. The fact that we

were voted No 1 in customer satisfaction in a nationwide survey conducted by NFO-

MBL speaks volumes for our service levels. We are also the only non-metro player to

cross the 1-million subscriber mark owing to our range of superior products and services.

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“We now bring all of these standards and many more

value-added services for enhancing the productivity of

mobile phone users in Delhi. Idea is committed to remain

the most customer-focused mobile service provider in

India, by continuously innovating so as to liberate our

customers from the shackles of time and space.”

Says Idea Cellular COO Himanshu Kapania: “To offer a truly revolutionary experience to

its subscribers, Idea Cellular has not only set up a world-class network that enables us to

offer a host of value-added services and innovative tariff plans, but we have also set up a

full capacity 24x7 call centre that will offer personalised assistance to the Idea

subscribers, within a response time of three rings. This is minutes ahead of current

practice as voiced by the consumer research.”

Idea Cellular, formerly Birla Tata AT&T, is India’s premier and fastest-growing cellular

company, promoted by the country’s largest business houses the Aditya Birla group and

the Tata group, and the world’s largest telecom giant AT&T Wireless, USA.

Having its footprints in the six states of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat,

Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) the company has now launched

its services as the fourth operator in its flagship circle — Delhi.

Reliance at a glance

The latest episode in the Indian mobile rate war started when Reliance Infocomm pulled

the trigger a few weeks back with a massive 60% cut in tariffs for prepaid Reliance India

Mobile (RIM) cell users across its network. Reliance prepaid call costs came down to 99

paise as against Rs 2.49 before. The Reliance move rattled the entire cell spectrum.

The first one to take on the Reliance juggernaut was Bharti Televentures (which owns

Airtel and Airtel Magic), which unleashed its own reduced tariffs. The GSM major

kicked up dust, and others followed suit. Airtel announced Airtel One 150 plan, where a

call to any GSM cellular network is charged at Rs 2 per minute under post-paid category.

44

Under the pre-paid category of Airtel One 150 plan, a call to any cell or WLL or fixed

line is charged at Rs 2.25 per minute.

Reliance had announced a tariff of Rs 1.79-per-minute for a call to any cell under the pre-

paid category and Re 1 per minute to any cell under the post-paid category.

 The next one to jump into the fray was the state-owned telecom

behemoth Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which operates

CellOne cellular services across the country except in Delhi and

Mumbai, apart from land lines and a host of other value-added

services. The new BSNL rates undercut Reliance and the

discounts were for cell and land phone users as well.

Aggression personified, the PSU giant went straight for the

jugular, with a reduction in domestic long distance rates as well. Hutch (which operates

Orange and Hutch brands) and BPL Mobile followed suit and before one knew it, the

rates had crashed to levels unheard of even in the global telephony market.

 The next to don battle paint was MTNL, another PSU blue-chip and BSNL's city cousin.

MTNL operates telecom networks in Delhi and Mumbai under its brand Dolphin and

prepaid brand Trump. MTNL slashed cell-to-cell rates by about 37% in the postpaid

segment and about 28% in the prepaid segment. It also slashed STD rates for both

cellular and landline services by up to 50% in the over 500 km slab to Rs 2.40 a minute.

Also, for local calls to mobile networks, the pulse duration was revised from 60 to 90

seconds, effectively halving the tariff. “In Delhi and Mumbai, we are the cheapest,”

preened MTNL chairman and managing director RSP Sinha.

 Continuing the tariff war, Tata Indicom followed by cutting its prices by 33 per cent for

calls in both intra and inter-circle calls. The company has reduced intra-circle call rates to

Rs 1.20 with a 60-second pulse rate, compared to the earlier rate of Rs 1.80. The new

rates are applicable for Tata Indicom fixed wireless, wireline and public telephone booth

tariffs. Tata Indicom is the telecom umbrella brand of Tata group companies, which

provides CDMA based wireless services apart from broadband services. The call rates for

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inter-circle calls have been slashed to Rs 2.40 per minute to any number above 50 km

from the prevailing Rs 3.60. At the time of uploading this article, almost all Indian

cellular and landline operators have undertaken massive rate cuts.

 It's literally talk time for us consumers, but is the cut-throat rate war good or bad?

Memories of 1997 come to mind, when Reliance Infocomm was yet to be born, when the

Mumbai cellular market was dominated by only two players who had comfortably carved

out the market between themselves. Users from those days recollect how the rate changes

of both Hutch and BPL were almost identical so that customers had little to choose from.

If you are unsatisfied with BPL, you go to Hutch which offered identical tariffs. The

cellular market was an oligarchy.

 The scene changed with the grand entry of MTNL and AirTel. MTNL sported cheaper

cell tariffs, but trailed others in terms of customer service and coverage. Besides, other

cell operators in the country ostracised MTNL for not being with the Cellular Operators

Association of India (COAI). Those days were the days when the GSM-CDMA battle

was picking up momentum. MTNL tried to ride both the horses with Garuda CDMA in

one hand and Dolphin in the other. Consequently, when other GSM operators sewed up

roaming tie-ups with other operators, the Dolphin user could swim only in Delhi and

Mumbai pools.

 Even as the GSM-CDMA battle unfolded in the

background, it was happening days in the cellular services

industry. As more and more operators came in, the

oligarchies collapsed and the rates started declining. Mobile

phone usage was no longer and expensive affair. With the

installation of the Calling Party Pays (CPP) system, the last

hurdle to mobile expansion disappeared. Now, telecom

operators realized the potential size of the market and dived

in.

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 The battle was taken to the next level with the birth of Reliance Infocomm, which

undercut all existing players with rates unheard so far. The company's aggressive sales

and marketing made it one of the country's biggest wireless operators almost overnight.

Cellular operators cried foul, saying Reliance was using license for land telephony to

provide wireless services. The battle went to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India,

the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal and finally, the Supreme Court,

where Reliance won the battle. Forking out a license fee of Rs 10,000 crore, Reliance

migrated to the newly-installed Unified License regime.

 All through the battle, cell phone tariffs declined steadily. The deep cuts started bleeding

the small fry. It was time for consolidation in the cellular space. The Birla-Tata-AT&T

consortium, which was a loose entity, coalesced into Idea Cellular. Escotel, which had

limited operations in Kerala and Punjab joined the Idea embrace and merged into it. BPL

bought out AT&T's stake in its JV BPL Cellular. Sky cell in Tamil Nadu was taken over

by Bharti and renamed AirTel. AirCel, a Sivasankaran-promoted cell operator in Tamil

Nadu, in December 2003 bought RPG Cellular. Later in June 2004, AirCel was in turned

acquired by Hutch in one of biggest acquisitions in Indian telecom history estimated at Rs

1,600 crore. In another deal, Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte and Telekom

Malaysia Bhd jointly bought a one-third stake in Idea.

 Analysts say cell tariff cuts are necessary as operators roll out networks in new markets.

Meanwhile, the smaller players, even the efficient ones, get pushed outside, since they

can't match the scale and synergies of the big boys on the scene. In the short to medium

term, expect more price cuts. The Dhirubhai Ambani Plan (remember STD at 40

paisa/minute?) and other marketing pushes are believed to have brought Reliance

Infocomm to dire financial straits, but the company sure has lots of sleeves up its sleeve.

Expect BSNL to match, if not better, Reliance rates at every stage. If push comes to

shove, BSNL & MTNL can unleash a no-profit blitzkrieg and drive Reliance and others

out of the market. Profit is not their primary concern. Once the BSNL-MTNL merger

becomes a reality -- which seems quite real now -- the nationwide scale

and synergies will enable the combined entity to take a quantum leap.

47

Expect fewer, smarter, mobile players in the future offering schemes that more people

can make sense of.

 Quaint are the ways of the market, isn't it?  From the oligarchy of early cellular days,

competition threw up a dozen operators, many of which are now merging into the bigger

players. Telecom experts believe that the number of cell players in India will come down

to a lean mean set of about 4-5 from about a dozen now. But don't fear a 1997 rewind.

Competition has come home to stay. And it's not going to go -- the rentals have crashed,

you see!

Tata indicom cdma cellular service at glance

Value Added Services

PIN-less dialing helps you to save time by remembering your 12 digit PIN for you. All

you need to do is to register your phone number from which you intend to use the card.

So the next time just dial the access number , dial 1 for English or 2 for Hindi and then

directly dial the destination number you would like to call.

You can register a maximum of 5 phones using this facility

Speed Dialing   Speed dialing enables you to store up to three of your most frequently

called numbers on your calling card. All you need to do is register your frequently dialed

numbers. So the next time you just need to dial the access number, punch in your PIN ,

dial 1 for English or 2 for Hindi and then hit the speed dial code to directly reach your

destination number. If you have already configured for PIN-less Dialing, just dial the

access number , dial 1 for English or 2 for Hindi and then directly punch in your speed

48

dial numbers.

You can configure a maximum of 3 speed dial numbers. The three speed dial numbers

that can be configured are #2, #3 and #4.

Itemized Billing   the other Calling Cards, we also offer you the option of viewing your

call details on the internet, thus ensuring that every rupee of your prepaid calling card is

accounted for. You can avail of this unique feature by registering your card.

Other Value Added ServicesFollow on call Follow on call helps you to make more than one call in the same attempt.

When the called party has disconnected the call, you can simply dial the next number you

would like to call. This helps you to save the trouble of dialing the access number and the

PIN again.

Redial When the called party has disconnected the call, and you need to call them again,

you can hit ‘2’ in order to redial the previously dialed number. This helps you to save the

trouble of dialing the access number, PIN, and the destination number again.

Balance on demand The Tata Indicom Global Calling Card empowers you to know the

available balance on your calling card whenever you want it by following three simple

steps:

1. Dial the access number of the country you are calling from.

2. Press 1 for English or 2 for Hindi

3. Dial your 12 digit PIN

4. Hit ‘8’ to know available balance on your card

Recharge your card The Tata Indicom Global Calling Card enables you to recharge your

calling card by following three simple steps:

1.Dial the access number of the country you are calling from.

2. Press 1 for English or 2 for Hindi

49

3. Dial your 12 digit PIN

4. Then hit ‘1’ to recharge your card. Than dial the 14 digit PIN. Enter your 14 digit PIN

now to recharge your card.

50

RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY

SAMPLING PLAN

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The Sampling plan was designed as follows:

Sampling Unit: Sampling Units are those people who are above the age of 18

years, they may be the students, house wife or the working people having some knowledge

about GSM and CDMA mobiles and services provided by the operators.

Sample Size: The sample size of my data is 50. People who are belonging to the

different areas of Bareilly city.

COLLECTION OF DATA

The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been defined. While

deciding about the method of data collection to be used for the study; the researchers

should keep in mind two types of data i.e. Primary and Secondary data.

PRIMARY DATA:-

The primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus

happen to be original in character. The data used for the present research is primary data.

The different methods that are used for collecting primary data are as follows:

A) Contact Method:

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The 'contact method ' considering the short coming was selected to personal interview.

B) Observation Method:

The present investigation was done on the basis of making note of behavior and gestures of

the target customers.

C) Questionnaire Method:

The method of data collection is quite popular and is being adopted by researchers, private

individuals and organization.

D) Schedule Method:

The method of data collection is very much like the collection of data through

questionnaire, with little difference which lies in the fact that schedules are being filled in

by the enumerates who are specially appointed for the purpose, these enumerators go to

the respondents along with the schedule and put up the question. Inferences are drawn on

the answers given by them.

SECONDRY DATA :-

53

Data already collected by any person or institution is called secondary data.

These data are often used by the investigators and other people having its need.

The advantages of the secondary data can be –It is economical, both in terms of

money and time spent.

The researcher of the report also did the same and collected secondary data from

various internet sites.

The researcher of the report also visited various libraries for collection of the

introduction part.

The sources of secondary data are Books, journals etc.

54

DATA

PRESENTATION

55

QUESTIONARE

Age :-

10-20 21-31 31-41 Above 45

3% 41% 49% 5%

AGE

10-20YRS3%

21-31YRS42%

31-41YRS50%

ABOVE 41 YRS5%

10-20YRS 21-31YRS 31-41YRS ABOVE 41 YRS

56

Gender :-

Male Female

63% 37%

GENDER

MALE63%

FEMALE37%

MALE FEMALE

57

Education :-

Intermediate Graduate P graduate others

16% 29% 33% 22%

EDUCATION

INTERMEDIATE

16%

GRADUATE29%P. GRADUATE

33%

OTHERS22%

INTERMEDIATE GRADUATE P. GRADUATE OTHERS

58

Q1. Which Mobile service do you use?

GSM CDMA

76% 24%

GSM76%

CDMA24%

GSM CDMA

59

Q2. Which operator/service you prefer in GSM?

BSNL VODAFONE AIRTEL IDEA OTHERS

26% 16% 26% 21% 11%

BSNL26%

VODAFONE16%AIRTEL

26%

IDEA21%

OTHERS11%

BSNL VODAFONE AIRTEL IDEA OTHERS

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Q3. Which operator/service do you prefer in CDMA?

RELIANCE TATA INDICOM OTHERS

50% 33% 17%

RELIANCE50%TATA

INDICOM33%

OTHERS17%

RELIANCE TATA INDICOM OTHERS

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Q4. How long you are using CDMA service?

6 MONTHS 1 YEAR 2 YEARS

50% 32% 18%

6 MONTHS50%1 YEAR

32%

2 YEARS18%

6 MONTHS 1 YEAR 2 YEARS

62

Q5. How long you are using GSM service?

6 MONTHS 1 YEARS 3 YEARS 5 YEARS

16% 16% 32% 36%

6 MONTHS16%

1 YEAR16%

2 YEARS32%

5 YEARS36%

6 MONTHS 1 YEAR 2 YEARS 5 YEARS

63

Q6. Which facility more suits to you in CDMA?

NETWORK

FACILITY

ROAMING

FACILITY

VOICE

FREQUENCY

RINGTONES

34% 43% 19% 4%

NETWORK FACILITY

34%

ROAMING FACILITY

43%

VOICE FREQUENCY

19%

RINGTONES4%

NETWORK FACILITY ROAMING FACILITYVOICE FREQUENCY RINGTONES

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Q7. Are you satisfied with the billing system of CDMA?

YES NO

20% 80%

YES20%

NO80%

YES NO

65

Q8. Are you satisfied with the billing system of GSM POSTPAID?

YES NO

28% 72%

YES28%

NO72%

YES NO

66

Q9. Are you interested in internet facility provided by mobile operators?

YES NO

48% 52%

YES48%

NO52%

YES NO

67

Q10.Are you satisfied with the network of your phone?

YES NO

28% 72%

YES28%

NO72%

YES NO

68

Q11. Do you use the life time facility?

YES NO

70% 30%

YES70%

NO30%

YES NO

69

Q12.Are you satisfied with the customer care services?

YES NO

32% 68%

YES32%

NO68%

YES NO

70

Q13. Are you satisfied with tariff rate of recharge voucher of your mobile phone

service?

YES NO

40% 60%

YES40%

NO60%

YES NO

71

Q14. Are you satisfied with the new schemes provided to you by your mobile phone

operator?

YES NO

44% 56%

YES44%

NO56%

YES NO

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CONCLUSION

73

On the basis of research analysis following conclusions are drawn:-

We come to know that GSM is more preferred than CDMA mobile

Services.

AIRTEL is more bigger player in this industry and obliviously in the

Bareilly region after that BSNL is there and now a days IDEA is also in

growth of telecommunication.

Most of people are not satisfied with the customer care services.

People are not satisfied with the billing system of postpaid mobiles

Some people are using CDMA sets for roaming facility.

Many people use internet through mobile.

Lifetime facility is good and customers use this facility.

Reliance is preferred by most of the customers because of its new schemes

which are much more in favour of customers .

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SUGGESTIONS

75

SUGGESTIONSSuggestions are valuable which play a vital role in any area of Business. They not only

help to develop the product but also enable it to stay in Tune with the changing tastes and

preferences of customers.

Call drop frequency should be checked for better service.

There must be local Service Point.

The Complaints must be attained with the period of 24 hours in BSNL

specifically

Airtel services should to give more emphasis on internet and voice quality and

other facility also.

The employee should make better relation with customer.

The company should conduct seminar and awareness program of

telecommunication services.

Emphasis on better advertising by services.

Take feedback with customer time to time for improving their services.

Improving there services and makes better relation with customer.

Communicate with customer for knowing the problem of customer in respect with

services.

Improve services by the customer care.

76

LIMITATIONS

77

LIMITAION

Since the feedback of the customers was done through Questionnaire major

limitation was unavailability of customers thus leading to highly low success rate.

Most of the customers were so furious that they refused to part with any

information.

Employees of company were so irritated that they don’t interested in giving any

information about broadband.

Time factor is also a part of limitation.

Since many of the people were not showing their interest so they might not have

given the correct information, but as we were less aware of it we can not ignore

their response.

78

BIBLIOGRAPHY

79

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.Bsnl.co.in

www.ideacellular .com

www.tataindicom.com

www.relianceinfo.com

Research Metholodgy “C.R.Kothari”

80

ANNEXURE

81

QUESTIONNAIRE

AGE-………………..

GENDER-…………………..

OCCUPATION. - …………………..

EDUCATION-………………..

Q1. Which Mobile service do you use?

(a) CDMA (b) GSM

Q2. Which operation/service you prefer in GSM?

a) BSNL (b) IDEA

(c) AIRTEL (d) VODAFONE

(e) OTHERS

Q3. Which operator/service do you prefer in CDMA?

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(a) RELIANCE (b) TATA

(c) OTHERS

Q4. How long you are using CDMA service?

(a) 6 MONTHS (b) 1 YEARS

(c) 3 YEARS (d) 5 YEARS

Q5. How long you are using GSM service?

(a) 6 MONTHS (b) 1 YEARS

(c) 3 YEARS (d) 5 YEARS

Q6. Which facility more suits to you most in CDMA?

(a) NETWORK FACILITY (b) ROAMING FACILITY

(c) VOICE FACILITY (d) RING TONE

Q7. Are you satisfied with the billing system of CDMA?

(a) YES (b) NO

Q8. Are you satisfied with the billing system of GSM POSTPAID?

(a) YES (b) NO

Q9. Are you interested in internet facility provided by mobile operators?

(a) YES (b) NO

Q10. Are you satisfied with network of your phone?

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(a) YES (b) NO

Q11. DO you use the life time facility?

(a) YES (b) NO

Q12. Are you satisfied with customer care services?

(a) YES (b) NO

Q13. Are you satisfied with tariff rate of recharge voucher of your mobile phone service?

(a) YES (b) NO

Q14. Are you satisfied with the new schemes provided to you by your mobile phone

operator?

(a) YES (b) NO

84