INCON13-MKT-029

Customer preferences towards various mobile service providers Madhuri Ajit Chaudhari

Sachin Ashok Ambekar

ASM’s IIBR , Pimpri

ASM’s IIBR , Pimpri

Asst. Professor

Asst. Professor

ABSTRACT Since last few years booming revolution had made in Information Technology sector has pushed the India’s telecom market significantly. India has shown higher growth in past few years in terms of cellular services. Past 25 year ago customer prefer the wire line services. Because at that time, telecommunication industry has not done much innovation in wireless services. And company not is possible to give many services to consumer as compare to wire line services. From past few years consumers prefer wireless mode of telephone services to wire line services. Since past few years telecommunication industry made vast improvement on cell phone device and now today life cell phone is necessary. Government and Private Company’s run local and long distance telephone services. There are many company’s provided mobile services like as Airtel, Reliance comm. , Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL etc. There are many smaller players, with operations in only a few states. Customer prefer any one mobile services , which is given better services and less calling rate as per her perception . This study conducted, to know exactly customer requirement about service provider, also study on factor influencing for decision making process.

1. INTRODUCTION Since last few years booming revolution had made in Information Technology sector has pushed the India’s telecom market significantly. India has shown higher growth in past few years in terms of cellular services. Past 25 year ago customer prefer the wire line services. Because at that time, telecommunication industry has not done much innovation in wireless services. And company not be possible to give many services to consumer as compare to wire line services. From past few years consumers prefer wireless mode of telephone services to wire line services. Since past few years telecommunication industry made vast improvement on cell phone device and now today life cell phone is necessary. Government and Private 1

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Company have run local and long distance telephone services. There are many company’s provided mobile services like as Airtel, Reliance comm. , Vodafone, Idea cellular and BSNL/MTNL etc. There are many smaller players, with operations in only a few states. Customer prefer any one mobile services , which is given better services and less calling rate as per her perception

1.1 BASICS OF CELL PHONE

Cellular (cell) phones first became widely available in the United States in the 1990s, and now a day cell phone is an asset

0G Networks - Represents the 1st Generation of mobile telephony, where satellite phones were developed and deployed for boats mainly – but anyone could get one in one’s car in the beginning of the 90s for several thousand dollars. Networks such as Iridium, Global Star and Eutelsat were truly worldwide. 1G Network - Provided the facilities of making voice calls and sending text messages. (NMT, AMPS, TACS) are considered to be the first analog cellular systems, which started in early 1980s. The greatest disadvantage 1G had was that it only allowed to contact within the premises of that particular nation, NO CROSS OPERATOR ROAMING FACILITIES were provided. 2G Network - Represents the 2nd Generation of mobile telecommunications and is still the most widespread technology in the world; also known as GSM (GSM stands for Groupe Spécial Mobile in French, renamed in Global System for Mobility). Delivered data at the slow rate of 9.6 Kbytes/sec. 2.5G Network - This mid generation was introduced mainly for involving latest bandwidth technology with addition to the existing 2G generation. This offered a higher data rate than 2G technology and enabled the delivery of basic data services like text messaging. Still the data rates were not enough to download an image or browse a website from a PDA. 2.5 G could provide data rate up to 144 kbps. GPRS, EDGE and CDMA 2000 were 2.5 technologies. 2

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2.75G Network (a.k.a EDGE) - To be able to watch streaming video and download mp3 files faster – that’s precisely what EDGE stands for where data packets can effectively reach 180kbps. EDGE is now widely being deployed in India. 3G Network - Represents the 3rd Generation designed to overcome all the limitations of above technologies. In this, 3G Wide Brand Wireless Network is used to increase the clarity giving the perfection like that of a real conversation. GSM 3G networks are termed UMTS, or the universal mobile telecommunications service, in the United States, while wideband CDMA (WCDMA) is an effectively synonymous term for UMTS used elsewhere in the world. One of the major positive points of UMTS is its global roaming capabilities. The speed is 3 times that of a GSM, so it’s called a 3GSM service. 3.5G or 3G+ NETWORK: HSDPA (3.5G) standard today offers anywhere between 7.2 and 14.4 Mbps on cell phones, Practically speaking, this would mean downloading an mp3 file would take about some seconds instead of something like 2 minutes. 4G Networks - It is mainly a marketing buzzword at the moment. Some basic 4G research is being done, but no frequencies have been allocated. The Forth Generation could be ready for implementation around 2012. The term also has become shorthand for Internet everywhere — a high-speed wireless network that gives speeds and QoS similar to fiber and will enable business applications and personalized consumer services alike. LTE is considered as 4G technology. Harri Honkasalo, the director of IPR for Nokia Corporation, states that “4G should support at least 100 Mbps peak rates in full-mobility wide area coverage and 1Gbps in low-mobility local area coverage”. The speeds of 3G can be up to 2Mbps, which is much slower than the speeds of 4G. 5GNetworks (Real wireless world) (completed WWWW: World Wide Wireless Web) The idea of WWWW, World Wide Wireless Web, emerged from 4G technologies. The following evolution will be based on 4G that will boost the dream of having a REAL wireless world. Thus, 5G should make an important difference and add more services and benefit to the world over 4G; 5G should be a more intelligent technology that interconnects the entire world without limits.

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2. NEED OF THE STUDY

The researcher has tried to identify the core customer service parameters & study their impact on customer satisfaction. There exists gap between the services delivered & services received by the customer. Similarly there is a gap in understanding the customer requirements from the service provider’s & customer’s perception. Service satisfaction is associated with the service quality & service expectation. But this expectation is closely related & associated with customer perception, which changes from person to person. To raise the service satisfaction level & to ensure good service quality Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has put up several benchmarks5&6. The need is to compare the observed data against these benchmarks in order to understand the service satisfaction level. Service level satisfaction is a qualitative term & so can be measured in terms of customer satisfaction Index score. A customer satisfaction index is a parameter for measuring the Customer satisfaction. CSI is a way of measuring the service satisfaction. Measurement of customer satisfaction thus needs to take a number of service factors & service parameters into consideration. Indices consist of manifest variables (independent variables) and latent variables (dependent variable). Satisfaction as a latent variable is measured through several manifest variables. The manifest variables considered in this study for mobile satisfaction are : Network connectivity, Customer Care, Billing services, call drop and Value Added Services.

2.1 OBJECTIVES The main objectives that the research is focusing is to find out 1) To understand the consumer preferences about mobile service providers. 2) To understand major influence parameter of decision making process in mobile service provider 3) To understand consumer preferences towards mobile phone service providers on the basis of purpose

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2.2 PROBLEM

The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing service industries in India. Mobile operator provider various kind of services like internet etc. Now a day mobile is a asset of consumer. Today, many mobile operator company is exit, but quality of service providing is different for each mobile operator. This research deal with competitiveness of Air Tel mobile operators and Idea mobile operators and their strategies for achieving the major share in the sector

3. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

TABLE NO. - 1 TABLE SHOWING COMPOSITION OF RESPONDENTS

S.NO.

MOBILE

PHONE

SERVICE PROVIDER

NUMBER OF RESPONDENT

1

VODAFONE

16

2

AIRTEL

30

3

RELIANCE

8

4

BENL

36

5

IDEA

5

6

TATA INDICOM

4

7

MTS

1

8

VIRGIN

0

9

OTHER

0

TOTAL

100

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Table 1 show that maximum number of customer prefers the BENL service provider

Consumer Preferences TABLE NO. – 2 TABLE SHOWING CONSUMER PREFERENCES TOWARDS MOBILE PHONE SERVICE PROVIDERS ON THE BASIS OF PLAN

MOBILE S.NO.

SERVICE PROVIDER

NO. OF RESPONDENTS POSTPAID

PREPAID TOTAL

NO

NO

NO

1

VODAFONE

6

10

16

2

AIRTEL

10

20

30

3

RELIANCE

3

5

8

4

BENL

8

28

36

5

IDEA

1

4

5

6

TATA

0

3

3

INDICOM 7

MTS

0

2

2

8

VIRGIN

0

0

0

9

OTHER

0

0

0

TOTAL

28

72

100

Table show that maximum number of customer prefers the prepaid services rather than the post paid services.

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TABLE NO. - 3 TABLE SHOWING FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CONSUMERS TO USE A PARTICULAR MOBILE PHONE SERVICE

RELIANCE BSNL

4 2

5

0 0

2 4

1 4

0 0

2

3 1

0 0

0 0

1

2 0

0 0

0 1

1

INDICOM

7

MTS

1

0

8

VIRGIN

0

0

9

OTHERS

0

0

56

13

TOTAL

0

TOTAL

NO. 1 2

OTHERS

UES

NO. 0 0

COLLEG-

DEALERS

NO. 2 1

ADVERTI-

NO 1 3

SMENTS

NO 1 1

FRIENDS

3 4

6

NEIBHO- URS

VODAFONE AIRTEL

IDEA TATA

RELATIVE

1 2

N 8 1

5

NO. 3 4

FAMILY

MEMBER

SERVICE

PROVIDER

S.NO

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

NO. NO 0 16 0 30 0 1

8 36

0

5

0

3

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

11

10

0

7

56

100

Tabel – 3 show that family member is major factor of decision purchase of mobile service provider

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TABLE NO- 4 TABLE SHOWING CONSUMER PREFERENCES TOWARDS MOBILE PHONE SERVICE PROVIDERS ON THE BASIS OF PURPOSE NO. OF RESPONDENTS MOBILE

2

AIRTEL

2

3

RELIANCE

TOTAL

1

OTHER

1

0

0

16

0

10

0

30

5

1

0

0

8

NO.

NO.

13

1

1

17

2

0

S

VODAFONE

NO

INTER

1

NO.

NO.

NET

NO.

SMS

NO.

BOTH

PROVIDER

OUTGO

-

-

SERVICE

ING INCOM

PHONE

ING

S. NO.

4

BSNL

2

1

20

3

10

0

36

5

IDEA

1

0

4

0

0

0

5

TATA

1

0

0

0

2

0

6

3

INDICOM

7

MTS

2

0

0

0

0

0

2

8

VIRGIN

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

9

OTHERS

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

11

3

59

5

22

0

TOTAL

10

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TABLE NO - 5 TABLE SHOWING CONSUMERS' OVERALL EXPERIENCE OF GETTING, OWNING AND USING A PARTICULAR MOBILE PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER

EXCELLENT GOOD VODAFONE

3

12

FAIR

8

19

2

RELIANCE

1

5

1

6

26

IDEA

1

4

TATA

0

2

TOTAL

0

16

1

30

1

8

0

36

0

5

0

3

1

AIRTEL

BSNL

POOR

4

1

INDICOM MTS

0

2

0

0

2

VIRGIN

0

0

0

0

0

OTHERS

0

0

TOTAL

19

70

0 9

0 2

0 100

Table 5 shows that out of total respondents,70% respondents say that their overall experience of getting, owning and using their mobile phone service provider is good while 2% respondents say that it is poor

CONCLUSION

In India, a number of cellular companies competing to provide efficient and quality services to their customers. The study in hand reveals that consumers prefer a particular mobile phone service provider on the basis of call tariffs, network coverage and value added services The consumers are highly influenced by their family members, They generally use their mobile phone for their personal use and for both incoming and outgoing calls. The study reveals that BSNL is the most preferred mobile phone service providers it is concluded from the study that majority of consumers are aware about the services offered by their mobile phone operators. 9

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References Book 1. Marketing Management By Philip Kotler 2. Marketing Management By Rajan Saxena

Website 1. http://networkworld.com/topics/service-providers.html 2. http://ideas.repec.org/a/mgn/journl/v4y2011i6a6.html

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