Introduction Background of the study

Communication is the life blood of modern businesses and a part in life style. Telecommunications industry has grown from earth to sky in a short span of time. In the earlier days there was no or less competition because the demand was more than supply. After globalization the scenario has changed entirely, many players entered in to the business and privatization came into existence. Mobile phone has come to Sri Lanka before 30 years or more than it. In those days it was very comfortable product. But in these 10 years it became most convenient product on Sri Lanka. Many people like urban, suburban also rural areas people use mobile phone in their daily life without any troubles. An also both male and female including school students use mobile phone. When we consider in Sri lankan contest.there are mainly five mobile tele communication providers such as Airtel, Dialog, Hutch, Etisalat and Mobitel. Actually most of those things are operating global level and know about those things. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world with over 207.8 million subscribers across 19 countries at the end of 2010. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 164.61 million subscribers at the end of 2011 April Dialog Axiata PLC is Sri Lanka's largest telecommunications service provider, which operates Dialog Mobile, the country's largest mobile phone network with over 6 million subscribers. Dialog launched its services in 1995 as the 4th entrant to Sri Lankas Cellular Market and was the first digital network in South Asia. Dialog was also the first operator in the region to deliver international roaming in 1997.Dialog Mobile presently has the largest number of subscribers and revenue share. Dialog was the first mobile operator to cover the Jaffna peninsula Mobitel (Pvt.) Ltd. is a mobile phone network in Sri Lanka. It is wholly owned by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). The network offers a variety of services and currently operates a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA network utilising 3.5G technology. Mobitel

was the first 3.5G operator in Sri Lanka and South Asia.It covers most of Sri Lanka with its GSM network. Mobitel is considered to be the country's most dynamic mobile telephone operator and is known the 'National' mobile service provider in Sri Lanka. Since being acquired by Sri Lanka Telecom in 2002, it has grown in leaps and bounds and is now on par technologically with the very latest in the telecommunications industry. Mobitel has a very strong brand image, with high visibility at strategic locations. Etisalat was come to the Sri Lanka in 1989 as Celtel. Then they have changed their brand, as Tigo. Now it become another new brand namely Etisalat. They try to provide not only the widest coverage but also a host of other Value Added Services. Etisalat is a company fully owned and operated by the giant Telecom Etisalat Telecommunication Corporation in the UAE. Hutch Sri Lanka is a 100% prepaid mobile telecommunications brand under the company Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited that offers a range of GSM services throughout Sri Lanka. Hutchison launched its GSM service in 2004 with the aim of being a nationwide operator in Sri Lanka. As of April 2010, Hutch has network coverage of approximate 70% of the entire Island. Most of the situation they target young boys and girls as their major segment. The Purpose of the Study and Rationale The study was undertaken to know the preference level of consumers towards various mobile connections. To know the reason for preferring the particular brand over the other brands and finally to receive the suggestions for the further improvement. Service industry is found to have continuous growth in the past due to the growing competition; a service company needs to undertake many steps to remain in the industry and being profitable. One of such measures is that conducting a survey to understand the consumer preference. It helps the service to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the outlet from the customers perspective. This study aims to reveal the consumer preference towards the services offered by various mobile connections. This study is to mainly focus on different attributes that contribute to the consumer preference and to

provide suggestions to improve the quality of service been rendered and to focus on building market share.

Theoretical back ground Review of Literature Under theoretical background it should be considered main theories and concepts related to the preference. These theories are very important when it comes to consumer preference. 1. Theory of choice 2. Consumer Preference Theory Prior to conduct the research it is worth to review the literature which is related to preference on mobile connections. As those previous researches help to derive some insights to this research. Hutchisons managing director Asim and Ghosh 2005 says in the article, Telecommunication telecommunication is such a huge sector and it is so easy to be reduced by its different ponts, but thankfully we were. Debnath (2008) This study explain that the prime focus of the service providers is to create a loyal customer base by benchmarking their performances and retaining existing customers in order to benefit from their loyalty. Bhatt (2008), in his study titled A Study of Mobile Phone Usage Among the Post Graduate Students This paper has tried to compare the usage difference by gender with respect to the difference manufacturing and service provider companies. Jha (2008), in his study analyzed that it is the youth which is the real growth driver of the telecom industry in India. Considering this fact, this paper is an attempt to give a snapshot of how frequently young people use their mobile phones for several embodied functions of the cell phones. Kalavani (2006)attitudes towards cell phone services The overall customers attitude towards cell phone services is that they are satisfied with the existing services but still they want more services to be provided. Kumar (2008), in their study titled Customer Satisfaction and Discontentment vis-avis BSNL Landline Service: A Study. Though the telecom industry is growing rapidly, India's telecom density is less than the world's average telecom density as most of India's market is yet to be covered. Seth et al (2008), in their study titled Managing the Customer Perceived Service Quality
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for Cellular Mobile Telephone: an Empirical Investigation 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. Fernandez (2007) in their study titled Understanding Dynamics in an Evolving Industry: Case of Mobile VAS in India analyzed that Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) is a rising star in the fast growing wireless business. Bismut (2006) in his study titled Competition in European Telecom Markets analyzed that in recent years the European telecommunications market has witnessed major developments, with rapid expansion in access to telecommunications networks and a surge in the number of available services and applications. Kalpana and Chinnadurai (2006) in their study titled Promotional Strategies of Cellular Services: A Customer Perspective analyzed that the increasing competition and changing taste and preferences of the customers all over the world are forcing companies to change their targeting strategies. The study revealed the customer attitude and their satisfaction towards the cellular services in Coimbatore city. Fredric (2008) analyzed the importance of yield management and discrimination pricing in telecommunication sector. Yield management techniques can help telecom operators and similar companies to optimize the benefits they can derive from a subtle management of information networks and partnerships. Chris (2003) has analyzed Telecom advertising in print media. From study it has been revealed that the appearance of sport celebrities in advertising endorsement occurred more often in Telecom magazines than in other magazines 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. Haque et al (2007) suggested that price, service quality, product quality & availability, and
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promotional offer play a main role during the time to choose telecommunication service provider. Sree nandhini, an investigation of user perception and altitude to cellular phone in Coimbatore, an unpublished submitted to Bharathiar university, December, 2001. P. Adhavan (2003), in his study existing customer relation found that the dealers service regarding Aircel cellular is highly satisfactory. Robins (2008) This paper is about marketing the next generation of mobile telephones. The study is about third generation of cell phone technology, what is usually known as 3G for short.

Research Questions or Objectives of the Research Research question What is the customer preference level towards mobile connections among university students?

Research objectives Main objective The main objective of this research is to identify the customer preference level mobile among university students. Sub objectives To know about the awareness level of consumers regarding the mobile service providers To identify the factors affecting when buying a mobile connection connections

Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1 H: Availability has a positive impact on preference towards mobile connection H: Availability has no impact on preference towards mobile connection

Hypothesis 2 H: Mobile Rates has a positive impact on preference towards mobile connection H: Mobile rates has no impact on preference towards mobile connection Hypothesis 3 H: Network coverage has a positive impact on preference towards mobile connection H: Network coverage has no impact on preference towards mobile connection Hypothesis 4 H: Service quality has a positive impact on preference towards mobile connection H: Service quality has no impact on preference towards mobile connection Methodology Research design Survey method will be used as research design to collect primary data from target respondents. This is because of quantitative type of research approach. Data are usually collected through the use of questionnaires, although sometimes researchers directly interview subjects. Surveys can use qualitative or quantitative measures. Here I will used qualitative measures

Instrument As the major purpose of the study is to understand the consumers preference level towards mobile connections among university students, a structured questionnaire was developed to collect the required primary data from the consumers. Using a questionnaire data will be collected. This questionnaire will include both structured and unstructured questions. Under the structured question there will be open ended questions to express the respondents insights. Multiple choice questions, dichotonomous and scaling question will be there under the structured questions method. Dichotonomous questions means respondents will be asked to mark the responses based on Yes or
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No. In the research questionnaire likert scales will also be used. The Likert scale is the sum of responses on several Likert items Designing and implementing the question is one of the most interesting and challenging tasks of conducting research and analysis. When designing the questionnaire I should consider about the questions that I should include in the questionnaire. The researcher has used questionnaire for the following purposes: For analyzing the consumer preference towards mobile connection To study the interest and awareness level To know the opinion of different set of consumers towards a particular brand and identifying the reason for choosing a particular brand over the other brands.

Procedures For the study in hand, both the primary and secondary data will be collected. The primary data for the study will be collected directly from target respondents through structured questionnaire. Here I myself will be conducted a face to face survey to gather information. So I will not used other people to conduct the survey. The secondary data for the study will be collected from different sources such as technical and trade journals, articles, newspapers, magazines, internet, periodicals, books, reports, publications of associations related to mobile phone service provider. Questionnaires were systematically distributed utilizing non-probability. That means convenience sampling. This will cover all departments in the university when gathering primary data from students. The survey questionnaire consists of distinct sections, each of which contains relevant questions pertaining different parts of the study. After gathering information those information will be analyzed using analytical techniques such as SPSS. Then completing the analysis part, we can come up with some findings of this study.

Sample The data is collected from students in the Kelaniya University through distributing questionnaire and the sample size is 100 respondents. This sample will cover all departments in the university and also this sample is representing university population. So findings can be generalized to that university population.

Data analysis After gathering information data will be analyzed by using SPSS analytical technique.

Significance of the study The customers are very important and play a crucial role in any process of marketing. Today, customers are the kings of the market because them customer preference are built by the products and the services offered to the customers and they seek for the more benefits and moneys worth for the amount they spend. That is where the concept of customer preference and consumer behavior comes because the customers make the marketers to rethink about designing the products and services. This study helps the organization to understand the consumer psychology on choosing the service so that easily the services can be positioned. It assesses the preference of choosing the particular mobile service provider by the respondents. This study helps to know the consumer preference towards various mobile brands. It also helps to assess the real opinion and mindset of consumers and aids to meet out their expectation in future in turn that will increase the volume of sales. It helps the company to understand the efficiency of existing service providers to the consumers, so that it can create the root for further improvement. It will identify the usage level of the consumers so that it helps the company to educate the customers towards the services availability. So that it really creates an impact on consumer preference towards the services

Limitations of the study Though the detailed investigation is made in the present study, it has got the following limitations. The survey was limited Kelaniya University only. So, the results may not be applicable to other areas. The survey covers five variants of competing brands that includes, Airtel, Hutch, Mobitel, Etisalat and Dialog The number of respondents will be limited to 100 only.
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Some of the respondents will not open in giving their opinions. This is normal in any field study. This study will be based on the prevailing customers preference. But the customers preference may change according to time, fashion, technology, development, etc.

Generally the respondents will busy in their work and were not interested responding rightly. Some of the respondents will be using the service first time of their company and they were not able to properly differentiate among their product. In this research primary will be collected only through a survey giving questionnaires but other data collection methods like observational research, telephone conversations, and focus groups could be used along with the survey.

Errors like sampling frame, data analysis can be occurred. Respondent selection errors, questioning errors also will happen when conducting the survey

Delimitations of the study There will be a number of interesting research questions than I put in this research Participation in this study is delimited to university students in Kelaniya University. this can conducted by the community participation also

Time Schedule August weeks 1 Activity 1. Research commencement 2. Finding Literature review 3. Prepare the Research proposal 4. Questionnaire development 5. Data collection 6. Analyze the data 7. Prepare final report 8. Submission 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 September Oct:

References 1. A study of consumers preference and satisfaction towards various cell phone service provides coimbatore, tamilnadu, India by Sukumar, 2. Consumer preferences and satisfaction towards various mobile phone service providers by Prof. R.C.S. Rajpurohit*, Dr. M.L. Vasita** , 3. Consumer preference on mobile connections and buyer behavior towards relience mobile in chennai city by Dr.Y.Lokeswara Choudary 4. Customer satisfaction on mobile service provider networks in international market research bureau (imrb) hyderabad by ch. Karthik 5. Thesis of critically analyze the customer preference and satisfaction measurement in indian telecom industry by Naman Shah PGP/SS/06-08, Alumni reference id: SS/06 08/AHD/MKTG/2, Prof. Pabitra Ranjan Chakravorty Senior Research Associate (Marketing) IIPM, (2008) 6. Consumer preference for Reliance Mobile 7. A Study of Mobile Phone Usage Among the Post Graduate Students, Bhatt (2008)
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