Chapter 1

Introduction
1.1 About the Industry

India has a fast-growing mobile services market with excellent potential for the
future. With almost five million subscribers amassed in less than two years of
operation, India's growth tempo has far exceeded that of numerous other
markets, such as China and Thailand, which have taken more than five years to
reach the figures India currently holds. The number of mobile phone subscribers
in the country would exceed 90 million by 2010 and cross 900 million by 2015,
according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

According to recent strategic research by Frost & Sullivan, Indian Cellular

Services Market, such growth rates can be greatly attributed to the drastically
falling price of mobile handsets, with price playing a fundamental role in Indian
subscriber requirements. Subscribers in certain regions can acquire the handset
at almost no cost, thanks to the mass-market stage these technologies have
reached internationally. The Indian consumer can buy a handset for $150 or less.
This should lead to increased subscribership. This market is growing at an
extremely fast pace and so is the competition between the mobile service
providers.

With the presence of a number of mobile telephony services providers including

market leaders like Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Tata Indicom, Spice
Communications etc. who are providing either of the two network technologies
such as Global System for Mobile Communications

(GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). In cellular service there
are two main competing network technologies: Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and Code

Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Understanding the difference between GSM

and CDMA will allow the user to choose the preferable network technology for
his needs.

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is a new digital technology

developed by the

European community to create a common mobile standard around the world. It

helps you achieve higher sell capacity and better speech quality and one can
enjoy crystal clear reception on ones mobile phone. It automatically solves the
problem of eavesdropping on ones calls.

Before analyzing the telecom licensing framework in India, it is imperative that

one must examine what is a license. License issued by the government is an
authority, given to a person upon certain conditions to do something which
would have been illegal or wrongful otherwise.
For example, a driver’s license issued by the government, gives the authority
to a person to drive a motor vehicle. There are three main types of license fee
which the government charges: (I) initial license fee, which generally is non-
refundable, (ii) annual license fee, and (iii) additional fee for allocation of
spectrum.

Licensing framework has been an integral part of India’s telecommunication

law. Under the

Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, section 4 gives power to the government to

grant license to any person to establish, maintain or use a telegraph.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) describes a communication

channel access principle that employs spread spectrum technology and a
special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code). It is a
spread spectrum signaling, since the modulated coded signal has a much
higher bandwidth than the data being communicated. CDMA is the current
name for mobile technology and is characterized by high capacity and small
cell radius. It has been used in many communication and navigation systems,
including the Global Positioning System and the omnitracs satellite system
for transportation logistics.

Indian mobile telephony market is increasing day by day and there is to happen
more with
technological up gradations occurring nearly every day and the ever-increasing
demand for easier and faster connectivity, the mobile telephony market is
expected to race ahead.

National Telecom Policy 1994 (NTP-94)

The National Telecom Policy was announced in 1994 which aimed at

improving India's competitiveness in the global market and provide a base
for a rapid growth in exports. This policy eventually facilitated the
emergence of Internet services in India on the back of established basic
telephony communication network. This policy also paved way for the entry
of the private sector in telephone services.

The main objectives of the policy were:

 To ensure telecommunication is within the reach of all, that is, to

ensure availability of telephone on demand as early as possible
 To achieve universal service covering all villages, that is, enable all people to
access certain basic telecom services at affordable and reasonable prices

 To ensure world-class telecom services. Remove consumer

complaints, resolve

disputes and encourage public interface and provide a wide permissible

range of services to meet the demand at reasonable prices

 To ensure that India emerges as a major manufacturing base and major

exporter of telecom equipment
 To protect the defence and security interests of the nation.

The policy also announced a series of specific targets to be achieved by 1997

and further recognized that to achieve these targets the private sector association
and investment would be required to bridge the resource gap.

Thus, to meet the telecom needs of the nation and to achieve international
comparable standards, the sector for manufacture of telecom equipment had
been progressively relicensed and the sub- sector for value-added services was
opened up to private investment (July 1992) for electronic mail, voice mail, data
services, audio text services, video text services, video conferencing, radio
paging and cellular mobile telephone. The private sector participation in the
sector was carried out in a phased manner. Initially the private sector was
allowed in the value added services, and thereafter, it was allowed in the fixed
telephone services. Subsequently, VSAT services were liberalized for private
sector participation to provide data services to closed user groups.
 Establishment of TRAI

The entry of private players necessitated independent regulation in the sector;

therefore, the

TRAI was established in 1997 to regulate telecom services, for fixation/revision

of tariffs, and also to fulfil the commitments made when India joined the World
Trade Organization (WTO) in

1995. The establishment of TRAI was a positive step as it separated the

regulatory function from policy-making and operation, which continued to be
under the purview of the DoT2.

The functions allotted to the TRAI included:

a. To recommend the need and timing for introduction of new service provider
b. To protect the interest of customers of telecom services
a. To settle disputes between service providers
b. To recommend the terms and conditions of license to a service provider
c. To render advice to the Central government on matters relating to the
development of telecommunication technology and any other matter
applicable to the telecommunication industry in general.

New Telecom Policy 1999 (NTP-99)

In recognition of the fact that the entry of the private sector, which was
envisaged during NTP-

94, was not satisfactory and in response to the concerns of the private operators
and investors about the viability of their business due to non realization of
targeted revenues the government decided to come up with a new telecom
policy. Moreover, convergence of both markets and technologies required
realignment of the industry. To achieve India’s vision of becoming an IT
superpower along with developing a world class telecom infrastructure in the
country, there was a need to develop a new telecom policy framework.
Accordingly, the NTP 1999 was framed with the following objectives and
targets:

 Availability of affordable and effective communication for citizens was at the

core of the vision and goal of the new telecom policy
 Provide a balance between provision of universal service to all uncovered
areas, including rural areas, and the provision of high-level services capable of
meeting the needs of the economy
 Encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and
tribal areas of the nation
 To facilitate India’s journey to becoming an IT superpower by creating a
modern and efficient telecommunication infrastructure taking into account the
convergence of IT, media, telecom and consumer electronics
 Convert PCOs, wherever justified, into public telephone information centers
having multimedia capability such as ISDN services, remote database access,
government and community information systems etc.

 To bring about a competitive environment in both urban and rural areas by

providing equal opportunities and level playing field for all players
 Providing a thrust to build world-class manufacturing capabilities and also
strengthen research and development efforts in the country
 Achieve efficiency and transparency in spectrum management
 Protect the defense and security interests of the country
 Enable Indian telecom companies to become global players.

In line with the above objectives, some of the specific targets of the NTP 1999
were:

 Make available, telephone on demand by 2012 and achieve a tele density of

7% by 2015 and 15% by 2017
 Encourage development of telecom in rural areas by developing a suitable
tariff structure so that it becomes more affordable and by also making rural
communication mandatory for all fixed service players and thus

o Achieve a rural tele density of 6% by 2016 and provide reliable

transmission media in all rural areas.

Players in the market

 BSNL is the market leader with a 67.7 per cent share followed by MTNL with
11.5 per cent market share. Next is Bharti Airtel at 10.9% followed by Tata
and Reliance at 5% and 4.1% respectively.
 BSNL as a company is growing and showed annual revenues of
approximately $4.5 billion as of 2016. BSNL is serving more than 125 million
customers across the country and is catalyst in checking the price point for
telecom services.

 Also, with the government intensifying its rural focus, only BSNL can turn
into reality the next wave of rural telecom penetration.

 BSNL is a 100% Central Government entity and employees with BSNL are
entitled to get salaries and perks as decided by Government of India and not
by BSNL
 However both, MTNL and BSNL are plagued by declining revenues coupled
with high costs. BSNL has massive infrastructure, manpower, systems, and 80
per cent of landlines and 90 per cent of broadband connections in India are
operated by it.

 “Vodafone is investing nearly US$ 3 billion over the next two years in India in
expanding its network infrastructure and distribution channel in the country,”
as per Vittorio Colao, CEO, Vodafone Plc.

 BlackBerry plans to set up enterprise solutions centres to educate corporate

customers about various BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10 solutions.
"India is one of the fastest growing markets in terms of smartphone and
mobile data adoption,” said according to Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director
(MD), BlackBerry India.

 Tata Teleservices plans to set up nearly 4,000 wi-fi hotspots in nine cities
across the country in the next two years.

Booming sectors

 The tide has turned for the telecom sector in India, as growth and profitability
has accelerated in recent times. Tower companies are reaping benefits of a
turnaround in the sector as operators have started investing in networks to
boost data penetration.

 However is in the country’s booming mobile segment in which the major

it battles are

being fought. Three major private players – Bharti, Reliance and

Vodafone - with a formidable 54% share of the market between them, lead
a large field of mobile operators.

State-owned enterprises –BSNL and MTNL – have also been making their
presence felt with a combined market share of 12%.

A look ahead

 According Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and U.S.

to Telecommunications leader,

Deloitte & Touche LLP, the big challenge for the telecom industry in 2016
– which also
 presents a major growth opportunity for the sector – is that consumers are
getting addicted to connectivity and speed.

 The ongoing expansion of the mobile ecosystem, coupled with

demand for high-

 bandwidth applications and services such as video and gaming, is keeping

pressure on the industry to increase the availability and quality of broadband
connectivity.

 What does this mean for players in the sector? Carriers will
continue to pursue

technological advancements to handle demand, including offloading some

mobile bandwidth needs to Wi-Fi, which is proving an effective
complement to mobile networks.

At the same time, long-term spectrum availability, spectrum efficiency,

small cells and continued backhaul improvements are likely to be a key
focus to assure continued mobile broadband momentum
Company Profile

1.2 Company profile

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The
businesses at Bharti

Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s)

1. Mobile services

2. Broadband and telephone services (B&T)

3. Enterprise services

The Mobile services group provides GSM mobile services across India in 23
telecom circles, while
B&T business group provides broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The
Enterprise Services group has two sub-units – carriers (long distance services)
and services top corporates. All these services are provided under the Airtel
brand

Airtel comes to you from Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited - a part of the biggest
private integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. A consortium of
giants in the telecommunication business.

In its six years of pursuit of greater customer satisfaction, Airtel has redefined
the business through marketing innovations, continuous technological up
gradation of the network, introduction of new generation value added services
and the highest standard of customer care.

Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with an all India footprint covering
all 23 telecom

circles of the country. It has over 25 million satisfied customers.

Bharti Airtel limited is a telecom MNC headquartered in New Delhi India, with
a presence in 20 countries across the world its the 4th largest telecom company
in the world in terms of subscribers base which was over 275 million as on July
2013. Airtel is also the largest telecom company in India and the second largest
in country mobile operator by subscriber base after china mobile.

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the head of Airtel. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile
telephony and second in terms of fixed telephony and also provides broadband
and DTH services. Airtel became the first

Indian company to get gold

certification by CISCO.

Airtel is appreciated for forming a business strategy of outsourcing all its

operations except sales, marketing and finance ensuring low cost and high
volumes. The network is outsourced to Ericsson and Nokia Siemens whereas it
is outsourced to IBM, transmission towers are maintained by bharti infratel ltd.
In India.

Cellular telephony was introduced in India during the early 1990s. At that time,
there were only two major private players, Bharti (Airtel) and Essar (Essar)
and both these companies offered only post-paid services. Initially, the cellular
services market registered limited growth. Moreover, these services were mostly
restricted to the metros. Other factors such as lack of awareness among people,
lack of infrastructural facilities, low standard of living, and government
regulations were also responsible for the slow growth of cellular phone.
With the presence of a number of mobile telephony services providers including
market leaders like

Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Tata Indicom, Spice Communications etc. who
are providing either of the two network technologies such as Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code

Division Multiple Access (CDMA). In cellular service there are two main
competing network technologies: Global System for Mobile Communications
(GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access

(CDMA). Understanding the difference between GSM and CDMA will allow
the user to choose the preferable network technology for his needs.

Indian mobile telephony market is increasing day by day and there is more to
happen with technological up gradations occurring nearly every day and the
ever-increasing demand for easier and faster connectivity, the mobile telephony
market is expected to race ahead…
The mobile telephony services providers Airtel, Vodafone (Formerly Hutch),
have been competing aggressively for their market share with MTNL, Tata
Indicom, Reliance and Idea Cellular entering into the foray, this tussle has only
become tougher. With major market share in the hands of the likes of Reliance,
Airtel, Vodafone (Formerly Hutch), Idea Cellular the others have been finding it
difficult to compete in the market.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) has been playing an

important role in keeping a watch on these existing players and bringing new
environment as well as policies and reforms for these Mobile Telephony Service
Providers and permitting them to provide mobile telephony services including
permission to carry its own long distance traffic within their service area without
seeking an additional license. TRAI’s mission is to create and nurture
conditions for the growth of telecommunications including broadcasting
and cable services in the country in a manner and at a pace which will
enable India to play a leading role in the emerging global information
society. The service providers are free to provide, in its service area of
operation, all types of mobile services including voice and non-voice messages,
data services and PCO’s. The Operators would be required to pay a one-time
entry fee. The basis for determining the entry fee and the basis for selection of
additional operators would be recommended by the TRAI. Apart from the one
time entry fee, operators would also be required to pay license fee based on a
revenue share. It is proposed that the appropriate level of entry fee and
percentage of revenue share arrangement for different service areas would be
recommended by TRAI in a2
Although the cellular services market in India grew during the late 1990s (as the
number of players increased and tariffs and handset prices came down
significantly) the growth was rather marginal.

This was because the cellular service providers offered only post-paid cellular
services, which were still perceived to be very costly as compared to landline
communications. Following this realization, the major cellular service providers
in India, launched pre-paid cellular services in the late 1990s. The main purpose
of these services was to target customers from all sections of society (unlike
post-paid services, which were targeted only at the premium segment).

Bharti’s Vision

By 2015 Airtel will be the most admired brand in India:

 Loved by more customers
 Targeted by top talent
 Benchmarked by more businesses

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MERGEFORMATINET in fresh

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feel. We deliver what we promise and go out of our way to delight the customer
with a little bit more

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Bharti’s Mission

To be globally admired for telecom services that delight customers.

 We will meet global standards for telecom services that delight customers
through:

 Customer Service Focus

 Empowered Employees
 Cost Efficiency
 Unified Messaging Solutions
 STRENGTHS

· Cost advantage

· Current leaders
in quality service

· Largest
distribution
network

· Ability to
constantly
innovate

· Highly skilled
workforce
 · Entrepreneurial zeal

· Airtel’s increased equity

and market cap.

 WEAKNESSES

· To prove credibility

· Price pressures

· Need for Government

support

· Awareness

· Sales and Marketing

 OPPORTUNITIES

· To sustain passion and commitment

· Airtel’s market share increasing at other service

provider expense.

· Attain higher value services

· Collaborative business needs to be explored

 · Vertical repeatable solutions.

· Low penetration level in rural markets.

 THREATS

· Foreign investment

· Global trends moving from

GPS to WLL.

· Lack of global parity in

telecom tariff

· Other competition
 The Airtel Brand and its Logo

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MERGEFORMATINET
There has been no change in the brand name Airtel was born free, a force to
unleash into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to
succeed. A spirit charged with energy creativity and team driven to seize the day
with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service.

The Airtel logo is a strong, contemporary and confident symbol for a brand that
is always ahead of

the rest. It is a specially drawn wordmark.

 The unique symbol is an interpretation in Airtel. The curved shape & the
of the 'a' gentle

highlights on the red color make it warm & inviting, almost as if it were a living
object.

 The logo represents a dynamic force of unparalleled energy that brings us and
our customers closer," it added.
 The "unboxed" having been freed of its rigid boundaries. Airtel calls the new
logo youthful, international, inclusive and dynamic – representing the journey
of the first Indian brand to go truly global. The new identity underlines
Airtel’s willingness to embrace everything that is new. The red color, which is
an integral part of the brand, continues to represent the energy and dynamism
that has made Airtel the success it is today. The new curved addition to the
logo is a symbol which will help ensure instant recognition across diverse
international markets.

 The color "Red is part of our heritage. It is the color of energy & passion that
expresses the dynamism that has made Airtel the success it is today, in India,
and now on the global stage.

BRAND AMBASSADORS USED BY AIRTEL

In order to take the advantage of the growing number of youth in our country,
Airtel introduced

Sachin Tendulkar, Shahrukh khan, Saif ali khan, kareena Kapoor, Gautam
gambhir and many others as brand ambassadors to tap the potential.
 Airtel has taken the lead on many occasions. It has been the first

 Launched Cellular service in Delhi on November, 1995.

 Operator to revolutionize the concept of retailing with the inauguration of
Airtel Connect

(exclusive showrooms) in 1995.

 To expand its network with the installation for second mobile switching center
in April, 1997 and the first in Delhi to introduce the Intelligent Network
Platform First to provide Roaming to its subscribers by forming an association
called World 1 Network.

 First to provide roaming facility in USA. Airtel has the largest automatic
roaming service
 "SMART ROAM"- National in 400 cities in India and "SMART
ROAM" - International in over 60 countries and 95 networks all over the
world.

 It is also the first company to export its products to the USA.

Awards for the year 2012-2013

 Bharti Airtel Shared Services Team won two awards in

categories of

Value and Innovation & at SSON (Shared Services &

Creation Improvement the Outsourcing

Network) Excellence Awards 2012.

 Bharti won four Effie awards at the Effie Airtel's extremely 'Har
Airtel Awards 2012. popular

ek friend zaroori campaign conceptualized by Taproot India, stood

hota hai' out as a

campaign amongst all three Gold Effie Apart from a

nominations, winning awards. Gold in

the 'Telecom & Related category, the campaign won a Gold 'Digital
Services' each in

Advertising' and 'Integrated Advertising'. Bharti Airtel one Silver

also won Effie

award 'Baat sirf paison ki nahin campaign for Airtel moneyin the
for its hai' telecom

category.

 Sanjay Kapoor was "Telecom Person of the year at "Voice &

awarded the 2012" the Data

Telecom Leadership Awards 2012". The award was accorded by

Honourable Minister of
 New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah.

 Won QUEST Forum India Quality Award for the Top Telecom Service
the Provider

QuEST Forum is a unique collaboration of information and

communication technologies

(ICT) service providers and suppliers across the world, dedicated to

improving operational and supply chain quality and performance.

 Awarded the #1 Service brand in Brand "Most Trusted Brands".

Equity's List of

 Bharti Airtel was 'Best Mobile Service and 'Innovation in

felicitated for Provider'

mMoney Aegis Graham Bell held on November 1, 2012.The Aegis

' at Awards Graham Bell

awards honor the best innovations in the field of TIME (Telecom,

Internet, Media &

Edutainment) recognizing the most exceptional contributions in the

respective fields.
 Bharti Airtel was 'Brand of the a the CNBC flagship
awarded the Year' t TV18's initiative,

the India Business Leader Awards for its Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota
(IBLA)

Hai campaign. The IBLA Brand of The Year Award seeks to recognize a
brand mass media/

communication campaign based on its key message, popularity amongst

the target audience and impact on the brand.

 Bharti Airtel won 'Excellence in First People award at the People

the Initiative' first, 2012

Awards. Airtel HR's multiple initiatives in enhancing the internal

customer's experience
 through innovation and leveraging mobile technology helped us to win the
prestigious award.

 The Airtel Centre of Excellence received the 'Excellence Award for

(ACE) Shared Service

Centre Operations in the 2nd National Shared Services Council by All

in India' India

Management Association and Delhi Management Association in

recognition of their outstanding efforts to identify key strategic drivers
and implementing them to deliver value to all.

 Bharti won the highly Porter Prize in the 'Exploiting Trade-

Airtel prestigious offs' category.

The Porter Prize Awards, named after Professor Michael Porter – the
father of modern strategic field, are the most coveted awards in the field of
strategy and competitiveness. The award recognises and honours Indian
companies which have embraced the best strategic management practices.

 Bharti Airtel Sri Lanka bagged a silver at the HRM awards. Airtel Sri
prestigious Lanka was
 recognized for their HR practices by HRM awards.

 Bharti Airtel won Star News Viewer’s Choice Best Mobile Network, Best
the Quality

Mobile Network Service at 6th National Telecom Awards hosted

Provider, the 2012

by CMAI in May 2012.

 Bharti Airtel won 5 awards at the Telecom Operator Awards 2012, announced
in March 2012

by Tele.net . Airtel 'Best National Mobile Operator', 'Best VAS

bagged the Provider',

'Best Enterprise Services Provider', 'Best Ad Campaign and 'Most

by an Operator'

innovative Solution' for Airtel money.

 Airtel Networks

 Cellular Service

Airtel Completes Its 23 Circle All India Footprint Airtel now connects
India from the Indus to the Indian Ocean and from Sabarmati to the
Brahmaputra on a network of more than 10,000 base stations with
cumulative investments of more than Rs. 16,000 crores.

 Internet infrastructure

Our Internet backbone involves state of the art high-end routers and
switches as may deployed on the best networks across the world to offer
you reliable service of unmatched quality. Three years back we had
established satellite based gateway for internet access. This was the first
gateway by a private operator. Now we have established our fibre gateway
on Network i2i, first private submarine cable owned by us and SingTel.
 Fixed line infrastructure

Our high quality fibre-based, fixed line networks in Delhi, Haryana, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chahattisgarh , intensively covers
the most prominent commercial and business districts in the country. We
provide the power of last mile fixed line network to bring end-to-end
voice and data solutions.

 Long distance infrastructure

Our 25,000 km advanced fibre-optic cable long distance network covers

India's top 200 cities.
And it powers the services of India's leading private telecom service
providers - cellular, fixed line and internet through Our Long Distance
Services.

 Submarine cable

We have partnered with SingTel to create the world's largest submarine

cable system-

Network i2i with 8.4 Tbps capacity. This 3200 km undersea cable
structure stretches from

Chennai to Singapore and thereon to Tier-1 carriers on SingTel's capacity

on 175,000 km of cables. The huge capacity on network i2i is distributed
locally in India through our 25,000 km of advanced fibre-optic domestic
long distance backbone, providing unprecedented capacity,
speed,reliability.

Organization structure
 Partners

The company has a strategic alliance with SingTel. The investment made by
SingTel is one of the largest investments made in the world outside Singapore, in
the company.

The company’s mobile network equipment partners include Ericsson and Nokia.
In the case of the broadband and telephone services and enterprise services
(carriers), equipment suppliers include

Siemens, Nortel, Corning, among others. The Company also has an information
technology alliance with IBM for its group-wide information technology
requirements and with Nortel for call center technology requirements. The call
center operations for the mobile services have been outsourced to

IBM Daksh, Hinduja TMT, Teletech & Mphasis. The company's unique
strategic outsourcing model has been studied and documented by Harvard
Business School as a case study which is available for download at:
www.hbsp.harvard.edu.

 Factsheet At-a-glance guide to Bharti Airtel

 Organization Structure Organisation chart depicting the Senior Management
positions
 Shareholding Structure Details on the latest shareholding structure and major
shareholders, as on

June 30, 2007

 Awards & Recognitions Laurels recognising Bharti's consistent efforts

Corporate Governance

Bharti Airtel Limited firmly believes in the principles of Corporate Governance

and is committed to conduct its business in a manner, which will ensure
sustainable, capital-efficient and long-term growth thereby maximising value for
its shareholders, customers, employees and society at large.

Company’s policies are in line with Corporate Governance guidelines prescribed

under Listing

Agreement/s with Stock Exchanges and the Company ensures that various
disclosures requirements are complied in ‘letter and spirit’ for effective
Corporate Governance.

During the financial year 2003-04, your Company was assigned highest
Governance and Value

Creation (GVC) rating viz. ‘Level 1’ rating by CRISIL, which indicates that the
company’s capability with respect to creating wealth for all its stakeholders is
the highest, while adopting sound Corporate

Governance practices. This rating was re-affirmed by

CRISIL on April 20,2006
Literature Review
Literature review

The growth in demand for telecom services in India is not limited to basic
telephone services. India has witnessed rapid growth in cellular, radio paging;
value added services, internet and global communication by satellite item
(GMPCS) services. The agents of change, as observed from international
perspective, have been broadly categorized into economic structure, competition
policy and technology. Economic reforms and liberalization have driven telecom
sector through several transmission channels of which these three categories are
of major significance.

The effective research cannot be accomplished without critically studying what

already exists in the form of general literature and specific studies. Therefore, it
is considered as an important pre-requisite for actual planning and execution of
research project. This helps to formulate hypotheses and framework for further
investigation. In this research, the survey of literature has been classified into
two parts - studies related to telecom sector and studies related to marketing
strategies.
 Seth et al (2008) analyzed that there is relative importance of service
quality attributes and showed that responsiveness is the most importance
dimension followed by reliability, customer perceived network quality,
assurance, convenience, empathy and tangibles. Liu

(2002) found that the choice of a cellular phone is characterized by two

attitudes: attitude

towards the mobile phone brand on one hand and attitude towards the
network on the other.

Samuvel (2002) observed that most of the respondents consider size,

quality, price, instrument servicing are an important factors for selecting
the handset while majority of the respondents are satisfied over the
payment system, quality of services, coverage area and the process of
attending the complaints regarding their mobile service provider.
 Nandhini (2001) examined that attitude of the respondents using cell phones
was not influenced by either education or occupation and income.Kalpana and
Chinnadurai (2006) found that advertisement play a dominant role in
influencing the customers but most of the customers are of opinion that
promotional strategies of cellular companies are more sale oriented rather than
customer oriented. Haqueet (2007) suggested that price, service quality,
product quality & availability, and promotional offer play a main role during
the time to choose telecommunication service provider.

 Muller in his a research focuses that the success of the mobile commerce can
be attributed to the personal nature of wireless devices. Adding to this are its
unique features of voice and data transmission and distinct features like
localization, feasibility and convenience. The sustained growth of the mobile
commerce around the world has been more because of the transfer of
technology according to the needs of local geography.

 National Telecom Policy projected a target 75 million telephone 2005 and

lines by the year

175 million telephone lines by 2010 has been set. Indian telecom sector
has already achieved

100 million lines. With over 100 million telephone connections and an
annual turnover of Rs.
61,000 crores, our present tele density is around 9.1%. The growth of
Indian telecom network has been over 30% consistently during last 5
years.
 According to Wellenius and Stern (2001) information is regarded today as a
fundamental factor of production, alongside capital and labor. The information
economy accounted for one- third to one-half of gross domestic product
(GDP) and of employment in Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the 1980s and is

countries in expected to

reach 60 percent for the European Community in the Information also

year 2000. accounts for

a substantial proportion of GDP in the newly industrialized economies and

the modern sectors of developing countries.

 Virat Bahri (2006) explains the viewpoint of Sam Pitroda the Chairman of
Worldtel that identifies opportunities for investments in telecommunications.
He analyses that there is an increasing role for telecom in e-governance in
India. According to him, technology can be leveraged to take India’s
development to next level.
 In the study of consumer behaviour, it is possible to conclude that perception
is presented as one of personal factors determines consumer behaviour. A
personal factor is the closest environment of a consumer, including everything
that makes up the individual, his/her head and soul, which characterised his
personality. Using sensory receptors and influenced by external factors, the
person receives information, accepts and adapts it, forms his personal attitude,
opinion, and motives that influence behaviour. Perception within this context
is one of the principal personal factors, conditioning the nature of the
consumer and his/her behaviour and other variables.

 Analysing classifications proposed by marketing specialists, suggests that

sensation, attention, interpretation and retention are the dominating elements
of the perceptual process (Branyte et al, 2007). Crane and Klarke (1994) posit
the theory of perceptual filters, based on the idea that the perceptual process is
a set of filters, used for sorting and modifying a stimulus leading finally to
stored memory of consumers. Indeed consumer cannot perceive all the stimuli
in the phase of sensation; consumers do not react to every stimulus received in
the attention phase lest they fail to understand the proper meaning of a
stimulus while interpreting it.

 Essentially, they do not remember everything they have understood. The

theory reflects the importance of evaluation and recognition of the elements of
the perceptual process, seeking to activate and affect the consumer’s
perception. Every phase makes the consumer feel differently as the intensity
of his/her reactions and the importance of external influence change.
According to Chernatony and McDonald, (1998), the challenge for marketers
 is to appreciate how all the marketing resources supporting a brand interact to
produce the benefits that consumers perceive as being unique to a specific
brand.

 Consumers interpret the meaning of the marketing activity behind a brand and
project values onto the brand, endowing brands with a personality. They
developed a useful framework to help understand the diverse types of brand-
added value which includes; added values from experience; added values from
reference group effect; added values from a belief that the brand is effective;
and, added values from the appearance of the brand. Consumers form
impressions of a brand from their packaging and develop brand preferences
based on their attraction to the package design.
 Demographic variable is an importance determinant of customer behaviours.
Study shows that gender has significant moderating effect on perception,
satisfaction- loyalty relationship. On this note, social identity theory proposes
that attitudes are moderated by demographic, situational, environmental, and
psychosocial factors (Haslam et al, 1993). According to the social
psychological theories, consumers’ evaluations are moderated, or in some
cases mediated, by personal feelings of equity in the exchange,
disconfirmation between desires and outcomes, individual preferences, social
comparisons, and other complex phenomena. These theories strongly suggest
that consumers’ differences influence their attitudes. Women are affected by
sales process while men are satisfied with the impact of the product. That is,
there is significant relationship and consistent differences in the levels of
perception among demographic groups.

 Kotler and Keller (2006) and Karjoluoto et al (2005) report that demographic
variables have an
influence on the evaluation of different attributes related to mobile phone
choice.

Specifically, gender and social class will impact on the evaluations of the
attributes as men belonging to higher social class seem to be more
technology savvy. Decision making mainly follows a rational decision
making process in which different attributes are evaluated, but also has
some symbolic nature as brand was regarded as important among many
study participants.

 Product choice also is greatly affected by occupation, economic

 circumstances, spending income (level, stability and time pattern), savings
and assets (including the percentage that is liquid) debt, borrowing power,
and attitude towards spending and saving (Kotler and Keller

2006). Personality and selfconcept are important determinants of buying

behaviour. Kotler

(2001) defines personality as a set of distinguishing human psychological

traits that lead to relatively consistent and enduring responses to
environmental stimuli.

 Personality are characterised by such traits as selfconfidence, dominance

autonomy difference, sociability, defensiveness and adaptability. Consumer’s
personality is very useful variable in analysing consumer brand choices. This
is because brands also have personalities, and consumers are likely to choose
brands whose personality matches their own. Brand personality is defined as
the specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand
(Kotler and Keller, 2006). Aaker (1997) identifies the following as brand
personality traits, sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and
Ruggedness.

27
 However, people from same subculture, social class and occupation may lead
quite different lifestyle. Lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as
expressed in activities, interests and opinions. Marketers often search for
relationships between their products and lifestyle groups (Kotler and Keller,
2006). Factors that relate to the user’s surroundings and interactions with other
people in his/her personal network of family, friends, colleagues and other
important people also have important implications on consumers purchase.

 This is based on the fact that an individual’s decisions and behaviours are not
made solely by him/her, but rather are influenced by the opinions and
recommendations of other important people. As a person is part of a social
network, he/she normally interacts with others in daily life and talks and
shares with others on what he/she sees, thinks and experiences (Pedersen,
2005). That is why, for example, word of mouth is known as one of the most
effective channels through which positive and negative ideas and perceptions
and spread in a social setting. Today, for every firm a critical question for its
success is that how it can maintain its current customers and how it can make
them loyal to the brands.

 Loyal customers play important role in building businesses by making

different moves like buying more, by paying premium prices and most
importantly providing companies different sets of new customers by positive
word of mouth (Aydin and Ozer, 2004). In fact telecommunication companies
lose their customer quite regularly. So it’s very challenging task for the mobile
phone operators to retain existing customers as well as bringing new
customers towards their brands and creating loyalty in them. It happens in
almost every industry but especially in telecommunication services, it is said
that when customers are connected to a particular service provider or operator
then their long term relationship with the operator is of great importance for
the success of the company in the competitive market.
About the Topic

Mobile phone markets are one of the complete market atmospheres nowadays
due to increased competition and change. Thus, the growing concern requires
marketers to strictly look at

Customers buying decision processes and demand focus on the factors such as
Prices, Purchase intention, Perceived intention, Perceived quality, Perceived
sacrifice and Perceived value that subsequently determine willingness to
purchase between different mobile phones with an appropriate service.

In this competitive environment, to find out the customer satisfaction, customer

preferences, expectations and perception about the Airtel life time card out of all
other Cellular service providers in the market. The underlying problem in
predicting customer choice resides much more in the fact that purchase decisions
are made on the basis of many different criteria. This problem is further
confounded in service applications where customers may consider intangible
features and characteristics of the market offerings and interactions between
service providers and the consumers with an appropriate service.
In this competitive environment, to find out the customer satisfaction, customer
preferences, expectations and perception about the Airtel life time card out of all
other Cellular service providers in the market.

Theories of Perception

On a straightforward view, we directly perceive the world as it is. The way that
things look, feel, smell, taste, and sound is the way that they are. We see colours,
for example, because the world is coloured. This view of perception is called,
somewhat dismissively, naive realism.

Plausibly, perception is a lot more

complicated than this.
Though things may appear to be coloured to us, our experiences of colour are
merely representative of the surface properties of objects; the physical property
of reflecting certain wavelengths of light and the colour red as we experience it
are two quite different things.

This has led to representative realism, which suggests that perception is not the
passive process that the naive realist suggests, that we do not simply receive
information about the world through our senses.

Rather, we are actively involved in perception, supplying much of the content of

our experiences, and must bear this in mind if we are to know what the world is
really like in itself.

More extreme than either naive or representative realism is idealism. Idealists,

persuaded by the thought that we have direct access only to our experiences of
the world, and not to the world itself, have questioned whether there is anything
beyond our experiences. A more recent theory that bears some similarities to
idealism has also been proposed: phenomenalism.

The underlying problem in predicting customer choice resides much more in the
fact that purchase decisions are made on the basis of many different criteria. This
problem is further confounded in service applications where customers may
consider intangible features and characteristics of the market offerings and
interactions between service providers and the consumers.
Many philosophers, such as Jerry Fodor, write that the purpose of perception is
knowledge, but evolutionary psychologists hold that its primary purpose is to
guide action. For example, they say, depth perception seems to have evolved not
to help us know the distances to other objects but rather to help us move around
in space. Evolutionary psychologists say that animals from fiddler crabs to
humans use eyesight for collision avoidance, suggesting that vision is basically
for directing action, not providing knowledge.

Building and maintaining sense organs is metabolically expensive, so these

organs evolve only when they improve an organism's fitness. More than half the
brain is devoted to processing sensory information, and the brain itself consumes
roughly one-fourth of one's metabolic resources, so the senses must provide
exceptional benefits to fitness. Perception accurately mirrors the world; animals
get useful, accurate information through their senses.
Scientists who study perception and sensation have long understood the human
senses as adaptations. Depth perception consists of processing over half a dozen
visual cues, each of which is based on a regularity of the physical world. Vision
evolved to respond to the narrow range of electromagnetic energy that is
plentiful and that does not pass through objects. Sound waves provide useful
information about the sources of and distances to objects, with larger animals
making and hearing lower-frequency sounds and smaller animals making and
hearing higher- frequency sounds. Taste and smell respond to chemicals in the
environment that were significant for fitness in the EEA.

The sense of touch is actually many senses, including pressure, heat, cold, tickle,
and pain. Pain, while unpleasant, is adaptive. An important adaptation for senses
is range shifting, by which the organism becomes temporarily more or less
sensitive to sensation. For example, one's eyes automatically adjust to dim or
bright ambient light. Sensory abilities of different organisms often coevolve, as
is the case with the hearing of echo locating bats and that of the moths that have
evolved to respond to the sounds that the bats make.

Evolutionary psychologists claim that perception demonstrates the principle of

modularity, with specialized mechanisms handling particular perception tasks.
For example, people with damage to a particular part of the brain suffer from the
specific defect of not being able to recognize faces

(prosopagnosia). EP suggests that this indicates a so-called face-

reading module.
Customer Perception

Consumers can evaluate a product along several levels. Its basic characteristics
are inherent to the generic version of the product and are defined as the
fundamental advantages it can offer to a customer. Generic products can be
made distinct by adding value through extra features, such as quality or
performance enhancements.

The final level of consumer perception involves augmented properties, which

offer less tangible benefits, such as customer assistance, maintenance services,
training, or appealing payment options. In terms of competition with other
products and companies, consumers greatly value these added benefits when
making a purchasing decision, making it important for manufacturers to
understand the notion of a “total package” when marketing to their customers.
Sensations can be the passive process of bringing information from the
defined as outside world

into the body and to the The process is passive in the sense that we do not
brain. have to be

consciously engaging in a "sensing" the active process of selecting,

process. Perception can be defined as organizing, and interpreting the
information brought to the brain by the
selecting, organizing, and interpreting
senses.selecting, organizing, and
the information brought to the brain
interpreting the information brought to
by the senses.
the brain by the senses.

For example, when manufacturing automotive parts, a high-performing product

will provide the customer base with basic benefits, while adding spare parts,
technical assistance, and skill training will offer enhanced properties to create a
total package with increased appeal to consumers.

Perception is the process through which a person forms an opinion about the
various stimuli he receives from his sensory organs. In marketing, perception is
concerned with understanding how the consumer views a product or service. The
five senses of a person help him in this process
 To identify which cellular service they are using presently and try to convert
them.
 To identify the type of connection plan, that the consumers currently have.
(Postpaid, Prepaid, or Life time card)
 To find out the communication channels most used by the consumers to know
about

Airtel.

 To analyze consumer perception and expectation towards Airtel.

 To analyze the Reason and Purpose behind using Airtel.
 To find out the satisfaction level of customers towards Airtel.

Lacking and factor for dissatisfaction has been studied from the customer’s
point of view.

 Getting an opportunity to convince and interact with the customers.

 Creating awareness and perception towards Airtel.
 The limit of the study is only for the Telecommunication of Airtel.
 The survey was taken from some people of Delhi city alone so the result may
not be feasiblefor other locations other than Delhi city. So, the findings only
suitable for intention and perception towards Airtel.
Today, for any organization or firm to survive in this competitive world depends
on its ability to be dynamic and be different from the competition to be unique in
the industry. Customer

Satisfaction helps every organization to keep the existing customer and to

build new customer.

This research is aimed at profiling the standard customer with an aim to increase
the network and improve company-customer relations. The information gathered
through this research can be used by the company to improve its services and
became more customers friendly. This can increase the goodwill of the company
and its overall performance.

Perception

Our perception is an approximation of reality. Our brain attempts to make sense

out of the stimuli to which we are exposed. This works well, for example, when
we “see” a friend three hundred feet away at his or her correct height; however,
our perception is sometimes “off”—for example, certain shapes of ice cream
containers look like they contain more than rectangular ones with the same
volume.

Factors in perception

Several sequential factors influence our perception.Exposure involves the extent

to which we encounter a stimulus. For example, we are exposed to numerous
commercial messages while driving on the freeway: bill boards, radio
advertisements, bumper-stickers on cars, and signs and banners placed at
shopping malls that we pass. Most of this exposure is random—we don’t plan to
seek it out. However, if we are shopping for a car, we may deliberately seek out
advertisements and “tune in” when dealer advertisements come on the radio.

Exposure is not enough to significantly impact the individual—at least not based
on a single trial

(certain advertisements, or commercial exposures such as the “Swoosh” logo,

are based on extensive repetition rather than much conscious attention). In order
for stimuli to be consciously processed, attention is needed. Attention is actually
a matter of degree—our attention may be quite high when we read directions for
getting an income tax refund, but low when commercials come on during a
television program. Note, however, that even when attention is low, it may be
instantly escalated—for example, if an advertisement for a product in which we
are interested comes on.

Interpretation involves making sense out of the stimulus. For example, when we
see a red can, we may categorize it as a CokeÒ.
Weber’s Law suggests that consumers’ ability to detect changes in stimulus
intensity appear to be strongly related to the intensity of that stimulus to begin
with. That is, if you hold an object weighing one pound in your hand, you are
likely to notice it when that weight is doubled to two pounds. However, if you
are holding twenty pounds, you are unlikely to detect
the addition
of

one pound—a change that you easily detected when the initial weight was one
pound. You may be able to eliminate one ounce from a ten ounce container, but
you cannot as easily get away with reducing a three ounce container to two
(instead, you must accomplish that gradually.

The wholly empirical approach holds that this experience is the sole determinant
of perceptual qualities. The reason percipients see an object as dark or light, the
argument goes, is that in both our own past and the past of the species it paid off
to see it that particular way. Returning to the bucket analogy, imagine that each
of the three hoses pumps out water of a different color: one pumps out black
water, one pumps out gray water, and one pumps out clear water.

All one sees is the water in the bucket, which can be clear, gray, black, or any
shade in between.

As expected, it is impossible to perform some calculation on the color of the

water in the bucket to find out how much water came out of each hose. Now
imagine that it is your job to bet on how much water came out of the gray hose.

The output ratios of the hoses are not co-vary in all kinds of complicated
 random, but ways based

on the time of day, how long it takes to fill up the bucket, etc. At first your
behavior in response to the color of the bucket might not be so good, but over
time this would gradually improve as different shades and behaviors in response
became associated by trial and error. The key is that in order to improve you
have to know whether or not your behaviors worked by interacting with the
world.

Several factors influence the extent to which stimuli will be noticed. One
obvious issue is relevance. Consumers, when they have a choice, are also more
likely to attend to pleasant stimuli (but when the consumer can’t escape, very
unpleasant stimuli are also likely to get attention—thus, many very irritating
advertisements are remarkably effective). One of the most important factors,
however, is repetition. Consumers often do not give much attention to a stimuli
—particularly a low priority one such as an advertisement—at any one time, but
if it is seen over and over again, the cumulative impact will be greater.
Surprising stimuli are likely to get more attention—survival instinct requires us
to give more attention to something unknown that may require action. A greater
contrast (difference between the stimulus and its surroundings) as well as greater
prominence (e.g., greater size, center placement) also tend to increase likelihood
of processing.

Subliminal stimuli. Back in the 1960s, it was reported that on selected evenings,
movie goers in a theater had been exposed to isolated frames with the words
“Drink Coca Cola” and “Eat

Popcorn” imbedded into the movie. These frames went by so fast that people did
not consciously notice them, but it was reported that on nights with frames
present, Coke and popcorn sales were significantly higher than on days they
were left off.

This led Congress to ban the use of subliminal advertising. First of all, there is a
question as to whether this experiment ever took place or whether this
information was simply made up.

Secondly, no one has been able to replicate these findings. There is research to
show that people will start to giggle with embarrassment when they are briefly
exposed to “dirty” words in an experimental machine. Here, again, the exposure
is so brief that the subjects are not aware of the actual words they saw, but it is
evident that something has been recognized by the embarrassment displayed.
Research Methodology
Research as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a
specific topic. Research

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

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we
study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher to know not
only the research methods or techniques but also the methodology. We not only
talk of the research methods but also consider the logic behind the methods we
use in the context of our research study and explain why we are using a
particular method or evaluated either by the researcher himself or by others.

Purpose of the study

The purpose is to check out the consumer preference towards Airtel and
its services and what are their requirements and why a problem costumer
faces.

Research Objective of the study

The objective of the study is to check out the preference of consumer towards
Airtel and study the requirements of consumer and their grievances towards the
company. The secondary objective of the study.
 To study Advertising Strategy of Airtel Cellular Service: Ads are an
internal part of every company and company has to know how and when to
use it.
 Its effect on existing mobile users: The cellular services market in India
grew during the late 1990 and is increasing. Airtel has to launch services in the
market.

Research methodology of the study

Research methodology is done to solve the research problems involving a

study of various steps that are adopted by the researcher in studying his
problem.

Throughout the entire project the emphasis was to check the awareness
level of the customers towards the different services of Airtel and there
views and perception about the same.

Finally the project was concluded by taking the feedback from the
customers.
Research Design

The project is more of a qualitative than quantitative study. The project aims at
the perception of consumers regarding the consumers.

Explorative Research: Explorative Research includes surveys and fact-finding

enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of description of the state of
affairs it exists at present. In social science and business research we quite often
use the term expost factor research for descriptive research studies.

A Main characteristic of this method is that the researcher has no control over
the variables; he can only report what has happened or what is happening.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD

 THERE TWO TYPE OF METHOD OF DATA

COLLECTION.

 PRIMARY DATA

 SECONDARY DATA
 DATA USED FOR THE RESEARCH WORK WAS PRIMARY

 Primary Data: The primary source of data collection is through

questionnaire. The questionnaires are distributed among 35 peoples and the
there view is recorded and used in analyzing the data Secondary sources.
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source
material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being
studied. In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source
(also called original
source or evidence) is an artifact, a document, a recording, or other
source of

information that was created at the time under study. If created by a

human source, then a source with direct personal knowledge of the events
being described. It serves as an original source of information about the
topic. Similar definitions are used in library science, and other areas of
scholarship. In journalism, a primary source can be a person with direct
knowledge of a situation, or a document created by such a person.Primary
sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment
on, or build upon primary sources, though the
 distinction is not a sharp one. "Primary" and "secondary" are relative
terms, with sources judged primary or secondary according to specific
historical contexts and what is being studied.

 Secondary Data :

 Secondary sources include online sites (www.Google.Co.in,

www.Airtel.com), newspapers

(Times of India) and templates from AIRTEL distributions centers and

AIRTEL Customer

Care. In scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that

relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. Secondary
source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the
information being discussed; a primary source can be a person with direct
knowledge of a situation, or a document created by such a person.

Secondary sources involve generalization, analysis, synthesis,

interpretation, or evaluation of the original information. Primary and
secondary are relative terms, and some sources may be classified as
primary or secondary, depending on how it is used. An even higher level,
the tertiary source, resembles a secondary source in that it contains
analysis, but attempts to provide a broad overview of a topic that is
accessible to newcomers.\

Sample designing
 Target population:- The Target population under this survey are the
consumers of mobile network providers.

The target population is limited to the central Delhi.

SAMPLE SIZE : - The sample size included 100 related people in

variousdifferent location.

Search process was done by interacting with number of customers during the
activities performed, which included, markets, cold calling, canopies, etc. Sample
design consist of

CONVIENCE SAMPLING.

Method of data collection

Instrument of Data collection

Data Collection is an important aspect of any type of research study. Inaccurate
data collection can impact the results of a study and ultimately lead to invalid
results. For the above objectives, quantitative methods were used. Interviews
were studied for the employees and structured

Questionnaires were given to them. Then the data was analyzed and interpreted
in the form of tabulation and charts.

There are two types of data collection methods used:

1. Primary data collection

2. Secondary data collection

Primary data collection method-

Primary data is the data in which the researcher collects data through various
methods like interviews, surveys, questionnaires etc., to support the secondary
data.

Primary data collected in this project is using the interview and questionnaire.

Secondary data collection method-

Secondary data is data collected by someone other than the user. Common
sources of secondary data for surveys, organizational records and data collected
through qualitative methodologies or qualitative research.

Secondary data used in this project is records of Human Resource Department

for the service file of the separating staffs, various HR Journals, projects and
research papers of different scholars both national and international.
Drafting of a questionnaire
A questionnaire consisting of 18 questions was prepared which consisted of
questions like the working of various welfare committees of the organization and
the development systems, canteen and rest room facilities etc. So, keeping in
view all the aspects of research and it consisted of following types of questions-

 Close ended Questions- A closed-ended question is a

question format that limits respondents with a list of
answer choices from which they must choose to
answer the question. Commonly these type of
questions are in the form of
multiple choices, either with one answer or with
check-all-that-apply, but also can be in scale format,
where
 respondent should decide to rate the situation in along the scale
continuum, similar to

Likert questions.

Types of closed ended questions used-

1. Dichotomous Questions- Fixed-alternative question that can

only be answered in one of the two indicated ways, such as
'A' or 'B', True or False, Yes or No.

2. Multiple Choice Questions- Multiple choice is a form of

assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best
possible answer (or answers) out of the choices from a list. The
multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational
testing, in market research, and in elections, when a person chooses
between multiple candidates, parties, or policies. Multiple choice
testing is particularly popular in the United States. If guessing an
answer, there's usually a

25 % chance of getting it correct on a 4 answer choice question.

Limitations
 The project has been successfully completed with certain inherent limitations,
which are as follows:

 This Project report is based on the secondary sources for data collection and
no Primary data has been used, due to which there is lack of practical
knowledge.

 Time and work constraints were also there.

 Limited information & Respondent’s unavailability.

 Time pressure and fatigue on the part of respondents and interviewer.

 Courtesy bias& the behavior of the customer while approaching them to fill
the questionnaire was unpredictable.
 Lack of customer’s cooperation was a major
constraint.

 Majority of the customer were too aggressive in

nature.
 Analysis & Interpretation

AGE GROUP

Age Group (in years) Users

15-21 29
21-28 56
28-35 15

Table 4.1

Chart 4.1
Interpretation:
As we can see from the above graph, the people who are in the age group of 21-28
years are the ones who are the maximum users of mobile phones. This segment is
the one which give maximum business to the mobile operators. This segment
constitutes the young executives and other office going people. They are

65% of the total people who were interviewed. The next age group are the people
who are 28-35 years old. They are 20% of the total. They are those who are at
home or have small business units etc. And the next age group is the youngest
generation who are 15-21 years old. They are school and college going students
and carry mobile phones to flaunt. They are 15% of the total interviewed people.

Occupation

What is your occupation?

1. 2. 3. 4.Other
Student Household Executive

Occupation Users
Student 15
Executive 55
Household 20
Other 10

Table 4.2
 Char
t

4.2

Interpretation
Above graph shows that 55% of the total people interviewed are working. So,
these people are the ones who are the maximum users of mobile phones. They are
the young executives, managers etc. who require mobile for their official purposes.
The next category is the households 20 %, who are either housewife, small units
which operate from their homes etc. The next segment is the students. They are
15%of the whole. And 10% of the whole is categories who are the professionals.

Customer Service at Airtel Graph

What is your satisfaction level with Airtel?

1.Fully 3.Distassi 4.Fully

2.Partiall fied distassisfi
y ed

Table 4.3

Satisfied Users
Fully dissatisfied 10
Fully Satisfied 20
Dissatisfied 60
Partially 10
 Chart 4.3

Interpretation

As the above graph clearly shows that customer services at Airtel seems poor.
60% of the people are dissatisfied with the customer services provided by Airtel.
They are the ones who have the maximum share in the market but they are
lagging behind in the customer services. This could leave an impact on the mind
of the consumer

Features convinced to use Airtel

Which feature of AIRTEL convinced you to use Airtel

1.Advertisement 2.Connectivit 3.Scheme 4.Goodwil

s y s l
Convincing Factor Users
Advertisement 23
Scheme 8
Connectivity 58
Goodwill 19

Table 4.4
 Chart 4.4

Interpretation

The above data shows that the connectivity of the Airtel is its backbone and it is
the main reason that the consumers are using it and the network is still is in
usage and goodwill of the company is at risk and falling at a huge rate.

Usage of Airtel

Which service do you use of Airtel

Mobile service

 Internet
DTH

Other

Usage Users
DTH 10
Internet 25
Mobile Service 64
Others 8
 Table 4.5

Chart 4.5

Interpretation

It can be seen from the data represented above that most the customers use Airtel
because of its

Mobile service’s rather than any other requirement as it provides them the best
service in Airtel in the service Department.

Monthly expense graph

How much is your monthly expenses?

 500 – 1000
 1000 – 2000
 2000 & above

Table 4.6

Expenses Users
500-1000 24
1000-2000 64
 2000 & Above 12

Chart 4.6

Interpretation

People on an average spend RS 500 per month as their mobile phone expense.
64% people spend this amount. 24% people spend RS 300 per month as their
monthly mobile expense. And the remaining

12% had an expense more than RS 1000, they could the ones having sim
connections or having cash cards and having a lot of business calls on their
mobiles.

Influencer
What makes Airtel different from others?

1.Connectivity 2.Tariff plans

3.New
schemes

4.Other

Factors Users
Connectivity 72
New schemes 14
Tariff plans 32
Other 12
 Table 4.7

Chart 4.7

Interpretation

The above figure shows that connectivity is the favored influencer of Airtel
and it persuades consumer to use the network and later on tariff and schemes
play there role in the company.

Celebrity Factor

Which celebrity you like very much in AIRTEL

 Sachin Tendulkar
 Shahrukh khan
 Kareena Kapoor
 A.R. Rehman

Celebrities Users
Shahrukh Khan 36
Kareena Kapoor 2
A.R. Rehman 19
 Sachin Tendulkar 28

Table 4.8

Celebrity
Factor
Chart 4.8
Sachin Shahrukh
Kareena A.
Rehman

40

35

30

25

20

36
15
28

10 1
9
5

0 2

Interpretation
The main celebrity that is responsible for the success of the Network is Shahrukh
khan then Sachin

Tendulkar and behind him is A.R. Rehman and Kareena Kapoor comes in the
last.These celebrity did their best to promote it but the network was hugely
favored by the above data.

Users

What type of Airtel service you use?

 Postpaid

 Prepaid

Card Users
Prepaid 46
Postpaid 54

Table 4.9
 Chart 4.9

Interpretation

The above data shows that earlier prepaid was the favorite of consumers but with
the flow of time the time this preference has shifted towards the postpaid side
and now they are in demand as earlier only network was used for call’s only and
now it provides number of facilities like internet etc.

Service Provider Graph

Which was your first choice of cellular service when you want to use mobile
phone?

1.AIRTEL 2.VODAFONE 3.IDEA 4.RELIANCE 5.OTHERS

Networks Users
Vodafone 25
Idea 5
Airtel 35
Reliance 15
Others 20
 Table 4.10

Chart 4.10

Interpretation

The above graph shows a slice of 50%. These are the total no. of people who are
using Airtel. It seems that people are more aware of Airtel than any other brand.
The next popular brand is Hutch.

305 of the people interviewed had Hutch connections. The next popular brand
was Idea. 15% people had Idea connections. As it came very late in the market
when Airtel had established it self very well.
 AIRTEL is #1 in India

Opinion Users
Yes 87
No 13

Table 4.11
 Chart 4.11

Interpretation

The above graph shows the result of the survey that how many people
think Airtel is best in its services. According to the survey done, 95% of
the people think that Airtel is the best which provides better
telecommunication services and only 5% of the people thinks vice-
versa.Purple color shows people who say ‘yes’ to the survey that Airtel is
No. 1 and maroon color shows who do not agree.

Type of Card Graph

 Cards Users
Sim Card 15
Cash cards 85

Table 4.12
 Chart 4.12

Interpretation

Cash cards seemed quite popular among the people interviewed. 85% of the total
mobile users were having cash card connections. This means that the cash cards
should be easily and readily available in the local markets. Airtel should make
sure that Magic is available in each and every nook and corner of the market.
15% of the people were having sim connections which is the regular bill.
 Advertisement

Type of advertisement you most like in AIRTEL

 Audio Visual
 Print
 Audio

Advertisement Users
Audio 20
 Audio Visual 58
Print 22

Table 4.13

Chart 4.13

Interpretation

It can be seen from the above data that audio visual advertisements are still the
best mode of reaching the consumers and influence them.
 Findings & Suggestions

Findings

 Airtel is a very successful brand in India as it covers a wide network and is

still one of the best still in network coverage and stands one of the best
network in the world and has covers major of the population coverage.
  There is still scope of improvement as some of the rural and remote areas are
not till covered by any service provider and the company is shifting its focus
towards them as well to reach a wide area and generate loyal customers.

 Business houses are the major users of Airtel as it is better than all other
network’s in broadband coverage and plans are better than any.

 Airtel focuses on its customer’s satisfaction but it can provide some more
relaxation to its users and provide some more incentives for its dealers so that
they can be more loyal towards the company and market it better.

 Company is undertaking extensive promotional activities like advertisements

released in different Medias to create brand awareness in target pulling areas
like campuses etc. Free samples should be distributed among the prospects
like free recharge or sims & sales promotion tools like gifts, contests and
coupons must be given to retailers as well as customers and prospects.
Catalogues should be distributed among customers.
 The company is focusing more on the Youth & the untapped areas of the
country like rural areas to hold a strong position in the country and prosper
further.

 Company has shifted to its concern to one of the most influential target market
i.e. YOUTH as population concern more on the youth as they consist majority
of the population in the country and are most spenders in today’s age.

 Airtel provides value added packs for its heavy users as to retain them as
postpaid connections are on the rise as compared to prepaid.
 It is used mainly for its mobile network coverage across the globe as it covers
a huge area so its connectivity is high and the goodwill factor comes into play.
 SUGGESTIONS

 Following are the few suggestions to AIRTEL for improving the market share
and image of the products concerned.

 Modification must be brought about in AIRTEL, in terms of quality. Its

demand should be increased and provides its consumer with value added
services as to retain them.
 In today’s age the brand must focus on other areas to market it like Malls,
theatre and crowed area to get attention and market it and gather audience
interest.

 Most of the respondents are satisfies with the services provided by Airtel to
mobile user steps to be taken to make customers more satisfied but many are
still not aware of phone plus facility and steps are to be taken to popularize it.

 Many of the respondents are not satisfied with the features provided to prepaid
users as compared to Landline users.
 Conclusion

Airtel is a very successful brand in India & providing customer satisfaction is to

be there main motive.Provides Internet access on the move as people are more
dependent on it in their daily lives like wide network and good 3G services.

Airtel possesses congestion free & wide network, unique value added &
customer services.

Providing customer satisfaction is the most crucial step of the company as they
are to be satisfied and provides Internet access on the move such as Wide
network and good 3G services as they are important and technology advanced
stuff required by almost everybody in today’s environment,

Airtel is a home brand and a very successful brand in India and overseas and one
of the most successful brands still to date. It possesses congestion free & wide
network, unique value added & customer services to cover one of the widest areas.

From the details it can be concluded that 70% of Airtel users preferred to
remain with Airtel. Also good number of users who were willing to switch from
their respective subscribers showed interest in

Airtel. Hence, these statistics imply a bright future for the company. Also the
company is used mainly by executives who want wide coverage for their
operations but the problem of customer satisfaction still persists with the
company and cause of its lacking new customers.

Connectivity is the backbone of the company and it is still the reason why
consumers use it and the most users of the company fall in the youth category
and are now using postpaid services as they are aware of the services provided
as the youth is the main target of major of companies as the country mainly
comprises of them.
 ANNEXURE

 QUESTIONNAIRE
 NAME:

 ADDRESS:

 OCCUPATION:

1. Do you think that Airtel tariff plans are better than others?

Yes

No

2. Which service do you use of Airtel?

 Mobile service
 dth
 internet
 other

3. Which was your first choice of cellular service when you want to use mobile
phone?

 AIRTEL
 HUTCH
 IDEA
  RELIANCE
 TATA INDICOM
 OTHERS

4. How did you know about AIRTEL cellular service?

 Friends
 Advertisements
 Relatives
 Other Sources

5. Which feature of AIRTEL convinced you to use AIRTEL?

 Advertisements
 Connectivity
 Schemes
 Goodwill

6. Which feature of AIRTEL is better than your previous cellular service?

 Advertisements

Connectivity

 Schemes

7. What is your age?

 15-21 years

 21-28 years

 28-35 years

8. Which type of advertisement you most like in AIRTEL?

 Audio Visual
 Print
 Audio

9. Which celebrity you like very much in AIRTEL?

 Sachin Tendulkar
 Shahrukh khan
 Kareena kapoor
 A.R. Rehman

10. What is your occupation?

 Student

Household

 Professional

Other

11. Are you an Airtel customer?

 Yes

No

12. What type of Airtel service you use?

 Postpaid

 Prepaid

13. How did you come to know about Airtel?

 Friend

Dealer

Advertisement

Other

14. What makes Airtel different from others?

 Connectivity

 Tariff plans

New schemes

Other

15. What is your satisfaction level with Airtel?

 Fully
 Partially
 Distassified
 Fully distassisfied

16. How much is your monthly expenses?

 500 - 1000
 1000 – 2000
 2000 & above
 Bibliography

In this project report, while finalizing and for analyzing quality problem in
details the following

Books, Magazines/Journals and Web Sites have been referred. All the
material detailed below provides effective help and a guiding layout while
designing this text report.

 Books :

 Kothari. C.R (2004): Research Methodology Methods & Techniques‟, New

Age

International Publishers, New Delhi, 2nd Edition.

 Richard I. Levin, David S. Rubin (2004): „Statistics for Management‟,
Prentice Hall of

India Private Limited, New Delhi, 7th Edition.

 Principles of Marketing –Philip Kotler & Kevin keller edition 12

 Market Research – D.D. Sharma

 Research Methodology – C.R. Kothari

Websites:

 www.Airtelworld.com

 www.google.com

 www.info-matic.com

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel

 http://www.slideshare.net/muskan19/airtel-brand-analysis

 http://www.airtel.in/
 http://www.slideshare.net/dpdas3/bharti-airtel

 http://www.authorstream.com

 http://www.moneycontrol.com/competition/bhartiairtel/comparison/BA08

 http://wirelesstelecom.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/swot-analysis-of-
indias-largest-

mobile-telecom-operator-bharti-airtel/

 http://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/history-about-the-generic-
strategies- marketing-essay.php

 http://www.themediaant.com/airteladvertising

 http://mythbhagat.blogspot.in/2009/04/successful-sales-and-distribution.html