A Comparative Study of customer satisfaction for cellular service providers B.S.N.

L, Airtel, Idea & Vodafone in AMBEGAON of Pune city.

Project Report Submitted to University of Pune In Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for the Award of Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

By SHIRLEY CHATTERJEE (6) SHUBHAM KESARI Under the guidance of Prof. MANJULA DHULIPALA

SKN SINHGAD SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

AMBEGAON ,PUNE

DECLARATION

We, the undersigned, hereby declare that the Project entitle A Comparative Study of customer satisfaction for cellular service providers B.S.N.L, Airtel, Idea & Vodafone in Ambegaon of Pune city.

written and submitted by us to the University of Pune, in partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of degree of Master of Business Administration under the guidance of Prof. Manjula Dhulipala is OUR original work and the conclusions drawn therein are based on the material collected by ourself.

Place:Date:Rajesh Kumar Mo. Shakil Pathan Praveen Kumar

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives us indeed a great pleasure to present this project based on A Comparative Study of customer satisfaction for cellular service providers B.S.N.L, Airtel, and Idea & Vodafone in Ambegaon of Pune city. to the university of Pune. We are really very thankful to the university to give us such an opportunity to present this project. we express my sincere gratitude to all the individual customers who have provided me an opportunity to understand their buying structure the way of purchasing and for the timely and immediate assistance which was needed and required during the course of project and while completing the project we express my sincere and grateful thanks to our project guide Prof. Manjula Dhulipala who has guided us throughout the project for continuous guidance and co operation without which we would have hardly been able to complete the project. We are also thankful to the THE DIRECTOR,THE DEAN AND ALL LECTURERS of college who gave us an opportunity to undertake this project work, for their full co operation, guidance and assistance in project work

Date:

Place: Pune

INDEX Ch No. I Particulars Introduction Page No 06

II

Company Profile

08

III

Objectives Of Study

11

IV

Research Methodology

13

Data Analysis

20

VI

Recommendation & Suggestions

30

VII VIII

Conclusion Bibliography

34 36

IX

Appendix/Annexure

38

Introduction Cellular Industry in India

Cellular services are a part of the telecommunication sector of India. It was launched in 1999 with the adoption of New National Telecom Policy by Telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI). Cellular services are further divided into two categories, namely GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).GSM segment consists of players like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL. Whereas, CDMA segment consists of players like Reliance, Tata, etc the telecom services have been recognized the world-over as an important tool for socioeconomic development for a nation. It is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy. It has achieved a phenomenal growth during the last few years and is poised to take a big leap in the future also.

Status of Telecom Sector

The Indian Telecommunications network with 911 million connections (as on Feb. 2012) is the third largest in the world. This rapid growth is possible due to various proactive and positive decisions of the Government and contribution of both by the public and the private sectors. The rapid strides in the telecom sector have been facilitated by liberal policies of the Government that provides easy market access for telecom equipment and a fair regulatory framework for offering telecom services to the Indian consumers at affordable prices.

Performance of telecom equipment manufacturing sector

As a result of Government policy, progress has been achieved in the manufacturing of telecom equipment in the country. There is a significant telecom equipmentmanufacturing base in the country and there has been steady growth of the manufacturing sector during the past few years. The figures for production and export of telecom equipment are shown in table given below: (Rs. in crore)
Year 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 (projected @ 18%) (projected @ 25%) Production 14400 14000 16090 17833 23656 41270 48800 50000 Export 402 250 400 1500 1898 8131 11000 13500

History of Cellular Telephony in India Year

1992 Telecommunication sector in India liberalized to bridge the gap through government spending & to provide additional resources for the nations 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, and 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 1995(August) 19 more telecom circles get mobile licenses Kolkata became the first metro to have a cellular network

1997 1998 1999

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is set up Annual foreign investment in telecom stands at Rs 17,756.4 million. FDI inflow into telecom sector falls by almost 90% to Rs. 2126.7 million

1999 1999(March) 2000(June) 2000 (January)

Tariff rebalancing exercise gets initiated National Telecom Policy is announced. FDI inflow drops further down to Rs 918 million coming Amendment of TRAI Act.

Change in the Prices of Services

Before 1999, call rates were Rs 16.80/min for both outgoing & Incoming calls for all the operators. For Airtel, call rates to fixed, WLL & cellular operators were Rs 5.40/min each & Rs 3.96 for incoming calls. In 2003, call rates for fixed line fell down to Rs 2.80/min & Rs 2.40 for cellular calls. Incoming calls were made free in 2003.

Objective of the study

To conduct a survey and ascertain / identify various types of services which effect retailers satisfaction and there operations.

To determine the market share of all the telecom service providers. To determine and analyze the results of the survey along with the various relationships between factors.

To study the impact of competition introduced through deregulation on the prices of services provided by Bharti (Airtel), Vodafone, Idea and BSNL.

To study the impact of competition introduced through deregulation on the services provided Bharti (Airtel), Vodafone, Idea and BSNL.

Company Profile

Major Service Providers In India

Sunil Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Mittal incorporated the cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Sky cell 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. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the Kuwait based Zain Telecom.In March 2012,Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda. Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and the fourth largest in the world. On 26 February 2013, Airtel announced that it had deployed Ericssons Mobile Broadband Charging (MBC) solution and completely modernized its prepaid services for

its subscribers in India. As a part of the deal, Ericssons multi service MBC suite allows prepaid customers to have personalized profile based data charging plans. Prepaid customers will be able to customize their data plans across mobility, fixed line and broadband by cross bundling across multiple domains (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE & Wi-Fi). It will also offer flexible multi service charging in geographical redundant mode, making Airtel the first operator to implement geographical redundancy at such a large scale. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services, access through the gateways and landing station. Bharti Airtel owns the Airtel brand and provides the following services under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line, Internet Connectivity (DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise Services (Telecommunications consulting for corporate). Almost 80% of the cellular subscriber base belongs to the pre-paid segment.

Worldwide presence

Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 20 countries

Airtel is the first largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands. According to the latest update of September 2012 Bharti Airtel is the leading player in the mobile telephony market with 185.92 million subscribers all over India, hence covering 28% of the total market. It is followed by Vodafone Essar with 152.46 million subscribers covering 23% of the market. This makes it to be the second-largest cellular company in India.

Group Company wise % market share (Subscribers) as of November 2012

Videocon, 0.60 Uninor, 6.12 MTNL, 0.77 Loop, 0.46 All India, 0

,0

Aircel, 9.84 Airtel, 27.66

BSNL, 14.64

Vodafone, 22.71 IDEA, 17.20

Idea Cellular

Idea Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, Indias first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by over 1, 30,000 employees belonging to 30 nationalities. The Group has been adjudged the 6th Top Company for Leaders in Asia Pacific Regionin a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, in partnership with The RBL Group, and Fortune. The Group has also been rated The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia by the Hewitt Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007. Idea Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in March 2007.

IDEA Cellular has operations in Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Haryana, UP-West, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala. As a leader in Value Added Services, Innovation is central to IDEA's VAS Factory. It is the first cellular company to launch music messaging with 'Cellular Jockey', 'Background Tones', 'Group Talk', a voice portal with 'Say IDEA' and a complete suite of Mobile Email Services.

Bharat sanchar nigam limited

BSNL, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (known as BSNL, India Communications Corporation Limited) is a public sector communications company in India. BSNL is India's largest Telco and one of the largest Public Sector Undertakings with estimated market value of $ 100 Billion. BSNL has installed Quality Telecom Network in the country and now focusing on improving it, expanding the network, introducing new telecom services with ICT applications in villages and wining customer's confidence.

VISION

To become the largest Telecom Service Provider in Asia.

MISSION
To provide world class State-of-art technology telecom services to its Customers on demand at competitive prices. To provide world class telecom infrastructure in its area of operation and to contribute to the growth of the country's economy.

Challenges
During the financial year 200809 (from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009) BSNL has added 8.1 million new customers in various telephone services taking its customer base to 75.9 million. BSNL's nearest competitor Bharti Airtel is standing at a customer base of 62.3 million. However, despite impressive growth shown by BSNL in recent times, the fixed line customer base of BSNL is declining. In order to woo back its fixed-line customers BSNL has brought down long distance calling rate under One India plan, however, the success of the scheme is not known. However, BSNL faces bleak fiscal 2009-2010 as users flee. Presently there is an intense competition in Indian Telecom sector and various Telcos are rolling out attractive schemes and are providing good customer services. But situation as on 2012 BSNL will be third largest operator (Service) and No 1 access operator among country. As Trai Report 2011-12 BSNL became most trustworthy brand due to its loyalty towards customers and its rule. Access Deficit Charges (ADC, a levy being paid by the private operators to BSNL for provide service in non-lucrative areas especially rural areas) has been slashed by 20% by TRAI, w.e.f. April 1, 2009.The reduction in ADC may hit the bottom lines of BSNL.

BSNL has started 3G services in 290 cities and acquired more than 6 Lakh customers. It has planned to roll out 3G services in 760 cities across the country in 2010-11. According to users and big sources BSNL's 3G data speed is much higher than other operator and also it is competitively cheap. Broadband services: The shift in demand from voice to data has revolutionized the very nature of the network. BSNL is poised to cash on this opportunity and has planned for extensive expansion of the Broadband services. The Broadband customer base of 3.56 Million customers in March'2009 is planned to be increased to 16.00 million by March 2014. On 13 June 2012.

Vodafone India

Timeline
1992: Hutchison Whampoa and MAX group establish Hutchison Max 2000: Acquisition of Delhi operations and entry into Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Gujarat markets through Essar acquisition 2001: Won auction for licenses to operate GSM services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai

A 'You and I' print advertisement of Hutch featuring Cheeka (dog)

2003: Acquired AirCel Dig link (ADIL ESSAR Subsidiary) which operated in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East and Haryana telecom circles and rebranded it 'Hutch'. 2004: Launched in three additional telecom circles of India namely Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal. 2005: Acquired BPL Mobile operations in 3 circles. This left BPL with operations only in Mumbai, where it still operates under the brand 'Loop Mobile'. 2007: Vodafone acquires a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar for $10.7 billion. The company is renamed Vodafone Essar. 'Hutch' is rebranded to 'Vodafone'. 2008: Vodafone acquires the licenses in remaining 7 circles and has starts its pending operations in Madhya Pradesh circle, as well as in Orissa, Assam, North East and Bihar. 2011: Vodafone Group buys out its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. It paid $5.46 billion to take Essar out of its 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It left Vodafone owning 74% of the Indian business. Vodafone India covers 16 telecom circles in India. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India and is especially strong in the

major metros. Offering voice and data services in 16 of the country's 23 license areas.

Ownership
Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals, 15%. On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, piping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion.

Research methodology

SOURCES OF DATA:
1. Primary Data: The Primary data will be collected using survey as a mode of data collection. To conduct surveys separate sets of structured questionnaire would be prepared for Consumers.

2. Secondary Data: The secondary data shall be collected from various

Publications of Apparel and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The facts, figures

and statistics on Telecom Industries explored through Books, Magazines, Journals, Periodicals and internet.

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

1.)

Uses of mobile phone 96% 4%

USER NON USER

Percentage of Mobile Users

No 4%

Yes 96%

INFERENCE: It has been observed that there are 96% mobile users and 4% non users.

2.) BSNL

service provider companys SIM cards uses. 15% 35% 27% 20% 3%

AIRTEL VODAFONE IDEA OTHERS

Sim card user's

Sim card user's 35 27 15 20

3 BSNL Airtel Vodafone Idea

Other

INFERENCE: It has been observed that there are 35% customers are Airtel SIM card users. It shows that Airtel is the top level in the market.

3.)

type of connection by service providers

Prepaid Postpaid

70% 15%

Bothe

15%

SIM connections
Both 15%

Postpaid 15% Prepaid 70%

INFERENCE: It has been Observed that there are 70% prepaid users,15% postpaid users & Both (prepaid & postpaid) 15%.

4.) satisfied with the with network performance, reliability and Availability

a) Highly dissatisfied c) Dissatisfied

b) Satisfied d) Highly Satisfied

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Airtel Vodafone Idea BSNL

Highly dissatisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Highly Satisfied

INFERENCE: It has been observed that there are maximum numbers of users are satisfied.

4.)

the satisfied with billing performance of your cellular service provider

AIRTEL VODAFONE IDEA

55% 65% 35%

BSNL

30%

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Highly Satisfied Dissatisfied Satisfied Highly dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Highly Satisfied

INFERENCE: It has been observed that in Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL, there are 55%, 65%, 35%, and 30% users are satisfied respectively.

6.) think about call rate

LOW

30%

HIGH

70%

Percentage of call rate

LOW 30%

High 70%

INFERENCE: There are 70% mobile users who say that the call rate is high.

7.)service providers scheme of call rates attracts Consumer more IDEA AIRTEL BSNL VODAFONE 26% 32% 16% 26%

Percentage of call rates schemes that attracts the users

Idea 26%

Airtel 32%

BSNL 16% Vodafone 26%

INFERENCE: According

to users, and market survey Airtel schemes of call rate attracts

more to customer.

8) Supplementary and value added services provided from cellular service provider Service provider Talk time Free SMS Free Internet None

BSNL IDEA VODAFONE AIRTEL

50 20 15 20

10 25 55 40

30 25 25 30

10 30 15 10

Value added services

Talk time Free SMS Free Internet None

BSNL

50

10

30

10

Idea

20

25

25

30

Vodafone

15

55

25

15

Airtel

20

40

30

10

9.) From period consumer are using this companys service. Services provider BSNL Last 5 to 7 yr. 50 Last 2 to 4 yr. 30 Last 1 yr. 15 Last 4 to6 yr. 5

IDEA VODAFONE AIRTEL

30 25 20

40 45 40

20 15 30

10 15 10

Period of SIM uses, by the users

Last 5 to 7 yrs. ) Last 2 to 4 yrs Last 1 year Last 4 to 6 months

BSNL

50

30

15

Idea

30

40

20

10

Vodafone

25

45

15

15

Airtel

20

40

30

10

10.The satisfied with overall service quality of service provider.

Service provider AIRTEL VODAFONE IDEA BSNL

Highly dissatisfied 10% 20% 5% 30%

satisfied 40% 30% 45% 30%

dissatisfied 20% 40% 30% 20%

Highly satisfied 30% 10% 20% 20%

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Airtel VODAFON IDEA BSNL Highly dissatisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Highly Satisfied

11.) Consumer will be continue with this service provider.

Service provider AIRTEL VODAFONE IDEA BSNL continue 90% 70% 75% 40% Not continue 10% 30% 25% 60%

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Airtel Vodafone IDEA BSNL NO YES

Recommendation and suggestions

Should focus more on new rural area where tele density is very low and competition is less. Make strategic alliance with equipment supplier so that become a market leader in the terms of technology.

Since tele density is still around 21% therefore telecom companies have to try to those market which is still untapped by the other telecom companies. Keep their technology up to date so that they should always offer something new to their existing customer and also new customer. Should provide better customer service through better customer relation so that old customer doesn't left. Indian telecom companies should invest more in self Research & Development activity rather than depending upon foreign suppliers to tackling the threats of substitute.

Keep the price lowest in market. Actively participate in research and development activities to offer new technology. Try to maintain the uniqueness of product as long as possible. Try to be market leader in product and service range offerings.

Try to eliminate the intermediaries involved in providing products and services to reduce the cost Indian telecom industry should make alliance with foreign supplier and invest jointly in Research & Development activity.

CONCLUSION
1. 2. 3. Improved product and process quality of Cellular service provider. Incorporates lessee learned and best practices from global telecom industries. Cellular providers giving the attractive schemes and value added services to the customers. 4. 5. Provides a quality system network. Thus the level of customer satisfaction is maintained by the service providers specially Bharti Airtel, and there is more scope for them in the INDIAN market

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books: Research Methodology

News Papers: Times of India. Economic Times. Finical Express Web Sites: www.wikipedea.org studygalaxy.com asiancorrespondent.com Vodafone. in

Questions

A Comparative Study of customer satisfaction for cellular service providers B.S.N.L, Airtel, Idea & Vodafone in Warje region of Pune city. QUESTIONNAIRE

Customer Details:

Date:

Name: __________________________________________Age__________ Address: ______________________________________________________ Contact No: ___________________________________ Gender: Male Female

1.) Do you have a mobile phone? a) Yes b) No

2.) Which service provider companys sim card are you using? a) Airtel d) Idea b) Vodafone c) BSNL

e) if Other _________________

3.) Which type of connection are you using?

a) Postpaid

b) Prepaid

c) Both

4.) Are you satisfied with the with network performance, reliability and Availability? a) Highly Dissatisfied b) Satisfied c) Dissatisfied d) Highly Satisfied

5.) Are you satisfied with billing performance of your cellular service provider?

a) Highly dissatisfied C) Dissatisfied

b) d)

Satisfied Highly Satisfied

6.) What do you think about call rate? a) High b) Low

7.) Which service providers scheme of call rates attracts you more? a) Airtel d) Idea b) Vodafone c) BSNL

8) What are supplementary and value added services you get from your cellular service provider? a) Talk time d) None 9.) From last how much period are you using this companys service? a) Last 5 to 7 yrs. c) Last 1 year b) Last 2 to 4 yrs. d) Last 4 to 6 months b) Free SMS c) Free Internet

10. Are you satisfied with overall service quality of your service provider? a) Highly dissatisfied C) Dissatisfied b) d) Satisfied Highly Satisfied

11.) Will you continue with this service provider? a) Yes i) If yes/No then why? ............................................................................................................................................ ...................................................... b) No