A PROJECT REPORT ON

Market reasearch on the impact of Advertisement and Media Exposure on the Customer Satisfaction of Vodafone in Jaipur(ROTO). At

Project Report Submitted to IIPM ,Jaipur (for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree)

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Submitted by: Nikhil Mehla

Under the guidance of

Internal Guide

External Guide

Mr. Sai Gunaranjan

Mr. Manpreet Singh

DECLARATION

I, the undersigned Nikhil Mehla, a student of MBA 2 semester of Indian Institute of planning & management, Jaipur declare that the project work Presented in this report is my own work. This work has not been submitted to any other university for any other Examination.

(Nikhil Mehla)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is almost inevitable to incur indebtedness to all those who generously helped me by sharing their invaluable time and rich experience with me. Without which this project would have never been accomplished. Project work is a combination of views, ideas, suggestion and contribution of many people. Thus, it is one of the pleasant part of writing. The report is the opportunity to thank those who contributed towards its fulfillment. I am very thankful to VODAFONE ESSAR DIGILINK LTD. For giving me an opportunity to work with them and to gain knowledge and learning that would assets to me forever. It is difficult to find words to express my deep sense of gratitude and obligation to Mr.Sai Gunaranjan Bose for his co-operative endeavor in my efforts. I also extend my heartiest thanks to Mr Manpreet Singh Sindhu (Deputy manager Marcom Department ) for his regular assistance all through the project . His working has motivated me to do better. I am also want to thank all our team mates. Who have played an imperative role in the successful completion for this project.

Nikhil Mehla

Sr. no
1. 2.

Topic
Industry profile Company profile Conceptual framework SWOT analysis Research methodology Data analysis and interpretations Findings and conclusion Suggestions Bibliography Annexure

Page no.
5-27 28- 39 40-44 45-49 50-58 59-69 70-73 74-75 76-77 78-86

3. 4.
5.

6. 7. 8. 9.
10.

Introduction:
Telecommunication is the transmission of information, over significant distances, for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for example. In the modern age of electricity and electronics, telecommunications now also includes the use of electrical devices such as telegraphs, telephones, and teletypes, the use of radio and microwave communications, as well as fiber optics and their associated electronics, plus the use of the orbiting satellites and the Internet. The first breakthrough into modern electrical telecommunications came with the push to fully develop the telegraph starting in the 1830s. The use of these electrical means of communications exploded into use on all of the continents of the world during the 19th century, and these also connected the continents via cables on the floors of the ocean. The use of the first three popular systems of electrical telecommunications, the telegraph, telephone and teletype, all required the use of conducting metal wires. A revolution in wireless telecommunications began in the first decade of the 20th century, with Guglielmo Marconi winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his pioneering developments in wireless radio communications. Other highly notable pioneering inventors and developers in the field of electrical and electronic telecommunications include Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse (telegraph), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), Nikola Tesla, Edwin Armstrong, and Lee de Forest (radio), as well as John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth (television). Telecommunications play an important role in the world economy and the worldwide telecommunication industry's revenue was estimated to be $3.85 trillion in 2008.[1] The service revenue of the global telecommunications industry was estimated to be $1.7 trillion in 2008, and is expected to touch $2.7 trillion by 2013.

History

Early telecommunications

A replica of one of Chappe's semaphore towers in Nalbach During the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could only pass a single bit of information, so the meaning of the message such as "the enemy has been sighted" had to be agreed upon in advance. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, when a beacon chain relayed a signal from Plymouth to London that signaled the arrival of the Spanish warships. In 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system (or semaphore line) between Lille and Paris. However semaphore systems suffered from the need for skilled operators and the expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometers (six to twenty miles). As a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial semaphore line was abandoned in 1880.

The telegraph and the telephone The first commercial electrical telegraph was constructed by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke, and its use began on April 9, 1839. Both Wheatstone and Cooke viewed their device as "an improvement to the [already-existing, so-called] electromagnetic telegraph" not as a new device. The businessman Samuel F.B. Morse and the physicist Joseph Henry of the United States developed their own, simpler version of the electrical telegraph, independently. Morse successfully demonstrated this system on September 2, 1837. Morse's most important technical contribution to this telegraph was the rather simple and highly efficient Morse Code, which was an important advance over complicated Wheatstone's telegraph system. The communications efficiency of the Morse Code anticipated that of the Huffman code in digital communications by over 100 years, but Morse had developed his code purely empirically, unlike Huffman, who gave a detailed theoretical explanation of how his method worked. The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed on 27 July 1866, allowing transatlantic electrical communication for the first time. An earlier transatlantic cable had operated for a few months in 1859, and among other things, it carried messages of greeting back and forth between President James Buchanan of the United States and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, that transatlantic cable failed soon, and the project to lay a replacement line was delayed for five years by the American Civil War. Also, these transatlantic cables would have been completely incapable of carrying telephone calls even had the telephone already been invented. The first transatlantic telephone cable (which incorporated hundreds of electronic amplifiers) was not operational until 1956. The conventional telephone now in use worldwide was first patented by Alexander Graham Bell in March 1876. That first patent by Bell was the master patent of the telephone, from which all other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed. Credit for the invention of the electric telephone has been frequently disputed, 9

and new controversies over the issue have arisen from time-to-time. As with other great inventions such as radio, television, the light bulb, and the digital computer, there were several inventors who did pioneering experimental work on voice transmission over a wire, and then they improved on each other's ideas. However, the key innovators were Alexander Graham Bell and Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who created the first telephone company, the Bell Telephone Company of the United States, which later evolved into American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T). The first commercial telephone services were set up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven, Connecticut, and London, England. Radio and television In 1832, James Lindsay gave a classroom demonstration of wireless telegraphy via conductive water to his students. By 1854, he was able to demonstrate a transmission across the Firth of Tay from Dundee, Scotland, to Woodhaven, a distance of about two miles (3 km), again using water as the transmission medium. In December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi established wireless communication between St. John's, Newfoundland and Poldhu, Cornwall (England), earning him the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1909, one which he shared with Karl Braun. However small-scale radio communication had already been demonstrated in 1893 by Nikola Tesla in a presentation before the National Electric Light Association. On March 25, 1925, John Logie Baird of England was able to demonstrate the transmission of moving pictures at the Selfridge's department store in London, England. Baird's system relied upon the fast-rotating Nipkow disk, and thus it became known as the mechanical television. It formed the basis of experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning September 30, 1929. However, for most of the 20th century, television systems were designed around the cathode ray tube, invented by Karl Braun. The first version of such an electronic television to show promise was produced by Philo Farnsworth of the United States, and it was demonstrated to his family in Idaho on September 7, 1927.

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Computer networks and the Internet On 11 September 1940, George Stibitz was able to transmit problems using teletype to his Complex Number Calculator in New York and receive the computed results back at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.[16] This configuration of a centralized computer or mainframe computer with remote "dumb terminals" remained popular throughout the 1950s and into the 60's. However, it was not until the 1960s that researchers started to investigate packet switching a technology that allows chunks of data to be sent between different computers without first passing through a centralized mainframe. A four-node network emerged on December 5, 1969. This network soon became the ARPANET, which by 1981 would consist of 213 nodes. ARPANET's development centred around the Request for Comment process and on 7 April 1969, RFC 1 was published. This process is important because ARPANET would eventually merge with other networks to form the Internet, and many of the communication protocols that the Internet relies upon today were specified through the Request for Comment process. In September 1981, RFC 791 introduced the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and RFC 793 introduced the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) thus creating the TCP/IP protocol that much of the Internet relies upon today. However, not all important developments were made through the Request for Comment process. Two popular link protocols for local area networks (LANs) also appeared in the 1970s. A patent for the token ring protocol was filed by Olof Soderblom on October 29, 1974, and a paper on the Ethernet protocol was published by Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs in the July 1976 issue of Communications of the ACM. The Ethernet protocol had been inspired by the ALOHAnet protocol which had been developed by electrical engineering researchers at the University of Hawaii.

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The telecom network in India is the fifth largest network in the world meeting up with global standards. Presently, the Indian telecom industry is currently slated to an estimated contribution of nearly 1% to Indias GDP. The Indian Telecommunications network with 960.9 million connections is the third largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for U.S. companies in the stagnant global scenario.

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1.1)

Evolution of the Industry - Important Milestones: Description

First operational land lines were laid by the govt. near Calcutta(seat of British Power) Telephone Service introduced in India Merger with the postal system Formation of Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) Merger of ETC and IRT into the Indian Radio and Communication Company(IRCC) Nationalization of all foreign telecommunication companies to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph(PTT), a monopoly run by the governments Ministry of Communication Department of Telecommunications (DOT) established, an exclusive provider of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system) Conversion of DOT into two wholly government-owned companies: the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in metropolitan areas. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India created Cellular Services are launched in India. New National Telecom Policy is adopted. DoT becomes a corporation, BSNL

Year
1851 1881 1883 1923 1932 1947

1985

1986

1997 1999 2000

(Source: The Indian Telecom Industry by consulting club, IIM Calcutta)

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1.2)

Major Players:

There are three types of players in telecom services: State owned companies (BSNL and MTNL) Private Indian owned companies (Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices) Foreign invested companies (Vodafone-Essar,Etislat,BhartiTele-Ventures,

Escotel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications) India's mobile telecom sector is one of the fastest growing sectors. Unlike in the 1990s when the mobile phone was an elitist product, mobile operators now tap a mass market with mass marketing techniques. "Unified licensing" rules allow basic and mobile operators into each others territory, and have ushered in perhaps the final phase of industry consolidation. It seems that only companies with deep pockets can effectively compete as primary operators mobile markets. Economies of scale, scope, and end-to-end presence in longdistance as well as local telecom, are desirable. There are, besides, new challenges. Operators have to find new growth drivers for the wire line business. There are problems of getting broadband to take off, of technology choice, of when to introduce new technologies, and of developing a viable business model in an era of convergence.

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1.3) Growth of mobile technology:

India has the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. The mobile services were commercially launched in August 1995 in India. In the initial 5-6 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions. However, after the number of proactive initiatives taken by regulator and licensor, the monthly subscriber additions increased to around 2 million per month in the year 2008-09 and 2009-10. Although mobile telephones followed the New Telecom Policy 1994, growth was tardy in the early years because of the high price of hand sets as well as the high tariff structure of mobile telephones. The New Telecom Policy in 1999, the industry heralded several pro consumer initiatives. Mobile subscriber additions started picking up. The number of mobile phones added throughout the country in 2003 was 16 million, followed by 22 millions in 2004, 32 million in 2005 and 65 million in 2006. The only countries with more mobile phones than India with 156.31 million mobile phones are China 408 million and USA 170 million. India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in the mobile sector. The mobile tariffs in India have also become lowest in the world. A new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$ 5 only. In 2005 alone 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile market.

TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA

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The Indian telecommunications Network with 960.9 million (May 2012)

telephone

connections is the third largest in the world and is the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for UK companies in the stagnant global scenario. Teledensity, which was languishing at 2% in 1999, has shown an impressive jump to 9.5% in 2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set to increase to 20% in the next five years beating the Govt. target by three years. Accordingly, India requires incremental investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five years. Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest growing (over 164% p.a.) in India. With more than 33 million users (both CDMA and GSM), wireless is the principal growth engine of the Indian telecom industry. Given the current growth trends, cellular connections in India will surpass fixed line by late 2004/early 2005. Intense competition between the four main private groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and Reliance and with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and MTNL has brought about a significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost 74% in cell phone charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges, resulting in a boom time for the consumers. The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and liberalising the industry, ushering in competition and paving the way for growth. While there were regulatory irregularities earlier, resulting in litigation, these have all been addressed now. Customs duties on hardware and mobile handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent. The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries to speed up reforms and decision on the Communication Convergence Bill to enable the common regulation of the Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be taken after the new Government assumes responsibilities in may this year. An independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement body (TDSAT) is fully functional.

INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET

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Bharti Airtel Limited commonly known as Airtel, is the largest Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's thirdlargest mobile telecommunications company with over 261 million subscribers across 20 countries as of August 2012.It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 200.00 million subscribers as of 09 August 2012. Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (abbreviated BSNL) is an Indian state-owned telecommunications company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is the largest provider of fixed telephony and fourth largest mobile telephony provider in India, and is also a provider of broadband services. However, in recent years the company's revenue and market share plunged into heavy losses due to intense competition in Indian telecommunications sector.[4][5] BSNL is India's oldest and largest communication service provider (CSP). It had a customer base of 95 million as of June 2011.[6] It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi, which are managed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL). . Vodafone, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest operator with a subscriber base of 598,779,674 . Unlike fellow public sector undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Jaipur, BSNL has been a very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular operators who expected BSNL to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise and did not take effective steps to counter it, till it was too late in the day," said a telecom analyst. Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell club has reported a 7.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so far, during March 2005. Year-onyear, the cellular subscriber base in the country has almost doubled in March 2005, and is expanding at the rate of 25% per year thereafter. The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. Idea, which operates in Seven circles, is the fourth largest operator. Idea's subscriber base as at the end of August 2011 according to the statistics, is totalling to 98,441,714 or 16.09% (Approx.) of

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the total mobile connections in India., higher than BPL's 11.31 lakh subscribers across four circles. The subscriber numbers per operator drop sharply with the sixth largest operator, Spice Communications, having a subscriber base of 9.40 lakh, followed by Reliance Telecom's. Reliance Communications Ltd. (commonly called RCOM) is an Indian broadband and telecommunications company headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. RCOM is the world's 15th largest mobile phone operator with over 150 million subscribers and India's 2nd largest telecom operator in India, only after Bharti Airtel. Established on 2004, a subsidiary of the Reliance Group. Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher than the 2,58,646 added by Jaipur, the Capital's cellular subscriber base of over 80 lakh is still higher than Mumbai's 66.89 lakh. While the cellular industry has been on roll for the first three quarters of the previous financial year with an average of 16.75 lakh monthly additions in the third quarter, the first two months of 2007 had seen the growth slowing down.

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GSM MARKET IN INDIA

Regional Interest Groups - GSM India

With a population of around 1.3 billion growing at roughly 1.7 per cent a year, India is potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world. After two rather difficult years, the past 12 months have seen the region's promise beginning to come to fruition. Much of this success can be attributed to the stabilisation of the licensing and regulatory environment.

India's telecommunications have undergone a steady liberalisation since 1994 when the Indian government first sought private investment in the sector. More significant liberalisation followed in 1996 with the licensing of new local fixed line and mobile service providers. However, it has been the government's New Telecom Policy (1999) that has had the most radical impact on the development of GSM services. 'The policy's mission statement is 'affordable communications for all', There is a genuine commitment to creating a modern and efficient communications infrastructure that takes

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account of the convergence of telecom, IT and media. In addition, the policy places significant emphasis on greater competition for both fixed and mobile services.'

Competition in the mobile sector has already had a visible impact on prices with calls currently costing less than 9 cents per minute. This means that service costs have fallen by 60 per cent since the first GSM networks became live in 1995. It also helps explain why a recent Telecom Asia survey revealed that more than 70 per cent of Indian mobile subscribers felt that prices were now at a reasonable level. One of the challenges facing GSM operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions -from remote rural regions to some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. India has more than 40 networks, which cover the seven largest cities, over 7000 towns and several Lacs villages. Such depth of coverage has required enormous investment from India's operators. It is estimated that more than Rs200 billion had been invested in India's GSM industry by mid-2000, a figure that is set to be supplemented by a further Rs. 300 billion over the next five years.

The good news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look healthy. With India's low PC penetration and high average Internet usage -at 14-20 hours a month per user it is comparable to the US -the market for mobile data and m-commerce looks extremely promising. WAP services have already been launched in the subcontinent and the first GPRS networks are in the process of being rolled out. In the year ahead, GSM India will work with its members to realise the potential of early packet services in anticipation of the award of 3GSM licences.

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India fastest growing GSM mart

India is expected to have 145 million GSM (global system for mobile communications) customers by 2010-11 compared to 26 million subscribers as on March 2010, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. "For GSM, India is a success story. It is one of the fastest growing markets with its subscriber base doubling. At this pace, the target of 150 million subscribers is definitely achievable,"

Indias GSM mobile firms revenue up 30 pct

Indias private telecoms firms offering GSM-based mobile services reported a 24 percent rise in revenue but said future growth rates could slow because of heavy taxes on the nascent industry. Although Indias mobile sector is the worlds fastest growing major wireless market, it is amongst the highest taxed industries in the country. Mobile carriers pay as much as 25 percent of their revenue as licence fee, spectrum charges and other taxes. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said revenue for current fiscal stood at 83.08 billion rupees ($1.86 billion) compared with 64 billion rupees a year earlier. According to T.V. Ramachandran, director general at COAI, These revenue growth rates cannot be maintained unless there is a concerted effort by the government to cut excessive levies and allow sharing of infrastructure But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge demand in the sector. Ramachandran said the sector was still losing money but declined to elaborate. Sales jumped because of a doubling of the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) user base as more people entered the flourishing market thanks to one of the lowest call rates in the world. But the monthly average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability, declined 17.4 percent to 432 rupees in the fourth quarter compared with 523 rupees in the first quarter due to a cut in tariffs and excessive competition among companies. Growth slowing, demand untapped: The association has not included the financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam

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Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Ramachandran said. There are 956 million GSM customers and more than 96 million users of the rival CDMA-based mobile services in the country. The pace of growth in monthly additions is slowing after just 1.25 million users took up the service in April compared with 1.9 million in the previous month and 1.63 million in February. Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a majority of small GSM operators being unable to expand networks into rural swathes where demand remained largely untapped. Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and financing charges on loans. We are making money only to cover operating expenses, he said. Carriers are now subsidising handset costs to woo users into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have more than 250 million customers by 2007. Roughly three percent of Indians own a mobile phone compared with about 20 percent in China. About a dozen firms such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, 28 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian GSM-unit of Vodafone group battle in the hotly competitive sector.

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DOES GSM HAVE THE EDGE? GSM operators are not the only ones who are worried about the rapid strides made by CDMA mobile players Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom in the Indian cellular market? The GSM suppliers both handset and equipment - who incidentally also have their other foot firmly placed in the CDMA pie, are beginning to lose some sleep over what was earlier termed as `niche and `minuscule data carriage market by the operators Apart from the strong success of the two CDMA operators whose networks are based on code division multiple access (CDMA), the miserable showing of the four global standard for mobile (GSM) based networks that launched general packet radio service (GPRS) service for data connectivity in last three years, has the vendors worried. Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) now believes that even though India will primarily remain a voice traffic-led market in next two-three years, the data traffic component will grow by 25-30 per cent, an optimism that its trying to make GSM operators feel as well.

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THE CDMA CHALLENGE

CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1X-based networks, which can give hi-speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet, and other data services. GSM operators, on the other hand, have had to migrate from the frustrating experience of WAP (wireless application protocol) to GPRS, which has not significantly improved the subscribers experience of surfing the Net on/from mobile. The top brass of GSA, an organisation comprising Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies - met on Tuesday in the capital to persuade the operators to adopt EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and leave GPRS behind as a dream gone sour. Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched GPRS, but the data transfer speeds of GPRS have been abysmal. The field trials gave a speed of around 54 kbps, but the actual speeds have not exceeded 14-18 kbps, a major reason why GPRS growth has been so slow. As against the total GSM cellular base of 5.61 crore, the country has between 2,80,000 lakh GPRS users only. In comparison, the two CDMA operators have about 120 lakh connections. All these sets are data compliant. Though no figures are available as to how many use these for data services, the figure is believed to be respectable as a percentage ratio for CDMA.

Bharti is almost there

But first, the EDGE! Bharti Cellular is close to commercially launching its EDGE service in Jaipur by end May or early June, sources said. The company was the first to conduct field trials in November with its equipment supplier Ericsson. Idea too held EDGE field trials in February this year with its vendor Nokia. Vodafone and BPL are yet to hold the trials. The two companies would eventually migrate to EDGE, but perhaps after seeing the response to Bhartis service.

EDGE holds the promise of delivering data speeds of around 170-180 kbps (as against the theoretical speed of around 380 kbps) which, if achieved, promises the launch of many data applications. The scalable cost of migrating from GPRS to EDGE is not too 24

high and mainly comprises software upgrades in case of a modern network such as Bharti and Hutch, claimed chairman of GSA India chapter Rakesh Malik.

Will GSM maintain its headstart? At the GSM Evolution Forum held in New Jaipur, GSA president Alan Hadden predicted that GSM growth will far outstrip CDMA as was happening globally. He felt India could have as many as 200 million GSM subscribers, up from nine million in previous year. According to GSA, there are over 1.1 billion GSM subscribers worldwide as against 250 million CDMA customers. The revenue of top 25 global operators from data averages 18 per cent and 22 of these operators run GSM networks. Overall, there are 76 operators in 50 countries that have committed to deploy EDGE. Almost every country has a GSM-based network and even those US operators, which operated on now-defunct TDMA technology, were migrating gradually to GSM, not CDMA, pointed out Hadden at the GSM Evolution Forum. The Forum is a global GSA program to assist the operators for evolution to third generation (3G) technologies. People are using their phones for much more than voice. Fifteen networks have commercially launched EDGE as it can run 3G like services in the existing spectrum for the operators without needing a 3G license. Even the migration to a full-fledged 3G level of Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) will be smooth with EDGE, said Hadden. Besides, the automatic roaming provided by GSM networks in almost 200 countries is a power that CDMA doesnt give you. We know for sure that almost 20-25 per cent of the revenue for some GSM operators comes from roaming customers, he added. But CDMA is no pushover with Korea and Philippines as the shining jewels in its crown. The first CDMA 2000 1X was commercially deployed.

Already, 81 operators have launched 77 CDMA 2000 1X networks whereas nine have launched services based on 1xEV-DO platform across Asia, the Americas and Europe. At least, 16 new 1X and six 1xEV-DO networks are scheduled to be deployed in 2004, 25

according to CDMA Development Group. EV-DO and EV-DV are the next level of evolution on the CDMA 2000 1X platform, capable of delivering services comparable to 3G WCDMA.

Where are the models? What will matter a lot in this war will be the availability of EDGE compliant handsets at affordable rates. While the two CDMA operators have been giving out handsets that can give hi-speed data transfer, same has not been the case with GSM. Even now, GPRS handsets have not become commonplace and GPRS feature is found only in mid and high-end segment handsets.

End sum game When the networks deploy EDGE, subscribers can expect the delivery of advanced mobile services such as easy downloading of video and music clips, full multimedia messaging, besides high-speed Internet and e-mail access, provided their handset supports all this. But the real cruncher will be the migration at a later stage to 3G technologies such as WCDMA, EV-DO or EV-DA as and when the government decides what to do with the 3G licences. WCDMA for example promises delivery of a phenomenal 2 megabytes per second (mbps), equivalent to what a leased line in many middle level corporates gives.

More importantly, WCDMA will spawn a whole new range of full motion audio-video applications, including video telephony. GSM lobby may continue to remain gung ho over the future of their technologies over that boosted by the American firms Qualcomm and Motorola, but Indian market could well throw an interesting scenario that industry experts will do well to watch. In the coming months, Reliance plans to offer its CDMA

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subscribers much more than what GSM players intend to deliver through their EDGE for their subscribers.

Who succeeds in this battle for mobile customers eyeballs is most difficult to predict. A Korea and Japan may not be waiting to happen in India, but India will probably be more like the Chinese market with both standards co-existing. For now, GSM rules!

1.4) Cellular Service Providers:

As on March 2010 India has 167 million mobile phone subscribers. Out of this 125 million are GSM users and 41 million CDMA users. BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Hutch, Idea, Aircel, Spice and MTNL are the main GSM providers in India. Reliance Communications and Tata Indicom are the main CDMA providers in India. Bharti Airtel Airtel is providing cellular services in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, UP and West Bengal. Airtel is the No.1 cellular service provider in India using GSM technology. Airtel has 23% market share in India with a total subscriber base of 38 million. Reliance Communications Reliance has both CDMA and GSM networks and total subscriber base of 29 million or 17% market share. It has GSM network in Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, North East, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. Reliance has CDMA networks in other states and cities.

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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) BSNL is a state owned telecom company which has GSM presence in almost every cities and towns. BSNL has 47 million subscribers with a market share of 16%.

Vodafone Vodafone is another emerging GSM provider in India with coverage in Kerala, Rajasthan, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab with a total subscriber base of 141,519,840. Tata Docomo Tata Indicom is a main CDMA provider in India with 46 million subscribers all over India. Tata Docomo has presence in almost every state and cities in India. In 2012 Tata Indicom rebranded as Tata Docomo which is a join venture of Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo Japan in India for operating GSM services.

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2.1) Introduction:
Vodafone is a mobile network operator headquartered in Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and has a market value of about 75 billion (August 2008). Vodafone currently has operations in 25 countries and partner networks in a further 42 countries. The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones." As of 2006 Vodafone had an estimated 260 million customers in 25 markets across 5 continents. On this measure, it is the second largest mobile telecom group in the world behind China Mobile. In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless.

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2.2) Mission:
Vodafone is primarily a user of technology rather than a developer of it, and this fact is reflected in the emphasis of our work program on enabling new applications of mobile communications, using new technology for new services, research for improving operational efficiency and quality of our networks, and providing technology vision and leadership that can contribute directly to business decisions.

2.3) Vision:
Our Vision is to be the worlds mobile communication leader enriching customers lives, helping individuals, businesses and Communities be more connected in a mobile world.

2.4) History:
In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK cellular telephone network licenses. The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985. Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985. On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB110 million. In September 1988 the company was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB1.7 billion On 16 September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.

31

In July 1996 Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for 30.6 million. On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for 77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network. In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores. In 1997 Vodafone introduced its Speech mark logo, as it is a quotation mark in a circle; the O's in the Vodafone logotype are opening and closing quotation marks, suggesting conversation. On 29 June 1999 Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. Trading of the new company commenced on 30 June 1999. To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk. The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.

Vodafones original logo used until the introduction of the speech mark logo in 1998.

On 21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000. In November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator. Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's

32

home territory. The hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resists Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of 112bn, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the merger in April 2000. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off. On 28 July 2000 the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc. In April 2001 the first 3G voice call was made on Vodafone United Kingdom's 3G network. In 2001 the Company took over Eircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and rebranded it as Vodafone Ireland. It then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator JPhone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan. On 17 December 2001 Vodafone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks" by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved the introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.) In February 2002 Finland was added into the mobile community, as Radiolinja is signed as a Partner Network. Radiolinja later changed its named to Elisa. Later that year the Company rebranded Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as Vodafone live! and on 3 December 2002 the Vodafone brand was introduced in the Estonian market with signing of a Partner Network Agreement with Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti) later changed its name to Elisa. On 7 January 2003 the Company signed a group-wide Partner agreement with mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia were added to the community. In April 2003 Og Vodafone was introduced in the Icelandic market and in May 2003 Vodafone Italy (Omnitel Pronto-Italia) was rebranded Vodafone Italy. On 21

33

July 2003 Lithuania was added to the community, with the signing of a Partner Network agreement with Bit. In February 2004 Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with Luxembourg's LuxGSM and a Partner Network Agreement with Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its mobile phone operations to Cytamobile-Vodafone. In April 2004 the Company purchased Singlepoint airtime provider from John Caudwell (Caudwell Group) and approx 1.5million customers onto its base for 405million, adding sites in Stoke on Trent (England) to existing sites in Newbury (HQ), Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury. In November 2004 Vodafone introduced 3G services into Europe. In June 2005 the Company increased its participation in Romania's Connex to 99% and also bought the Czech mobile operator Oskar. On 1 July 2005 Oskar of the Czech Republic was rebranded as Oskar-Vodafone. Later that year on 17 October 2005 Vodafone Portugal launched a revised logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and a 3D version of the Speech mark logo, but still retaining a red background and white writing (or vice versa). Also, various operating companies started to drop the use of the SIM card pattern in the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-Vodafone and ConnexVodafone also does not use the SIM card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on their font family InterFace) formed part of the new identity. On 28 October 2005 Connex in Romania was rebranded as Connex-Vodafone and on 31 October 2005 the Company reached an agreement to sell Vodafone Sweden to Telenor for approximately 1 billion. After the sale, Vodafone Sweden became a Partner Network. In December 2005 Vodafone won an auction to buy Turkey's second-largest mobile phone company, Telsim, for $4.5 billion. In December 2005 Vodafone Spain became the second member of the group to adopt the revised logo: it was phased in over the following six months in other countries. In 2006 the Company rebranded its Stoke-on-Trent site as Stoke Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company dealing with Customer Care for its higher value customers, technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations and upgrades

34

started to be dealt with by this call centre. On 5 January 2006 Vodafone announced the completion of the sale of Vodafone Sweden to Telenor. On February 2006 the Company closed its Birmingham Call Centre. In 1 February 2006 Oskar Vodafone became Vodafone Czech Republic, adopting the revised logo and on 22 February 2006 the Company announced that it was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria group. On 12 March 2006 former chief, Sir Christopher Gent, who was appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quits following rumours of boardroom rifts. In April 2006 the Company announced that it has signed an extension to its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its Latvian subsidiary "BITE Latvija" to become the latest member of Vodafone's global partner community. Also in April 2006 Vodafone Sweden changed its name to Telenor Sverige AB and Connex-Vodafone became Vodafone Romania, also adopting the new logo. On 30 May 2006 Vodafone announced the biggest loss in British corporate history (14.9 billion) and plans to cut 400 jobs; it reported one-off costs of 23.5 billion due to the revaluation of its Mannesmann subsidiary. On 24 July 2006 the respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedly and on 25 August 2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for 2 billion. After the deal, Proximus was still part of the community as a Partner Network. On 5 October 2006 Vodafone announced the first single brand partnership with Og Vodafone which would operate under the name Vodafone Iceland and on 19 December 2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Switzerland's Swisscom for CHF4.25 billion (1.8 billion). After the deal, Swisscom would still be part of the community as a Partner Network. Finally in December 2006 the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK, signaling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the ICT marketplace. Early in January 2007 Telsim in Turkey adopted Vodafone dual branding as Telsim Vodafone and on 1 April 2007 Telsim Vodafone Turkey dropped its original brand and became Vodafone Turkey. On 1 May 2007 Vodafone added Jersey and Guernsey to the

35

community, as Airtel was signed as Partner Network in both crown dependencies. In June 2007 the Vodafone live! Mobile Internet portal in the UK was relaunched. Front page was now charged for and previously "bundled" data allowance was removed from existing contract terms. All users were given access to the "full" web rather than a Walled Garden and Vodafone became the first mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its newly launched mobile Internet portal in the UK. On 1 August 2007 Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. On 17 April 2008 Vodafone extended its footprint to Serbia as VIP mobile was added to the community as a Partner Network and on 20 May 2008 the Company added VIP Operator as a Partner Network thereby extending the global footprint to Macedonia. In May 2008 Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone Faroe Islands. On 30 October 2009, the company announced a strategic, non-equity partnership with MTS group of Russia. The agreement adds Russia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to the group footprint.

2.5) VODAFONE ESSAR

36

2.5.1) Introduction:

37

Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 21 telecom circles in India. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India and is especially strong in the major metros. Vodafone Essar provides 2G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 22 of the country's 23 licence areas.

2.5.2) Ownership:
Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals, 15%. On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on May 8, 2007.

38

39

2.6) Previous brands:

In December 2006, Hutch Essar re-launched the "Hutch" brand nationwide, consolidating its services under a single identity. The Company entered into agreement with NTT DoCoMo to launch i-mode mobile Internet service in India during 2007. The company used to be named Hutchison Essar, reflecting the name of its previous owner, Hutchison. However, the brand was marketed as Hutch. After getting the necessary government approvals with regards to the acquisition of a majority by the Vodafone Group, the company was rebranded as Vodafone Essar. The marketing brand was officially changed to Vodafone on 20 September 2007. On September 20, 2007 Hutch becomes Vodafone in one of the biggest brand transition exercises in recent times. Vodafone Essar is spending somewhere in the region of Rs 250 crores on this highprofile transition being unveiled today. Along with the transition, cheap cell phones have been launched in the Indian market under the Vodafone brand. There are plans to launch co-branded handsets sourced from global vendors as well. A popular daily quoted a Vodafone Essar director as saying that "the objective is to leverage Vodafone Group's global scale in bringing millions of low-cost handsets from across-the-world into India." While there is no revealing the prices of the low-cost Vodafone handsets, the industry is abuzz that prices might start at Rs 666, undercutting Reliance Communications' muchhyped 'Rang Barse' with cheap handsets beginning at Rs 777. Meanwhile, Vodafone Essar sources said there would be no discounts or subsidized handset offers -- rather handset-bundled schemes for customers. Incidentally, China's ZTE, which is looking to set-up a manufacturing unit in the country, is expected to provide several Vodafone handsets in India. Earlier this year, Vodafone penned a global low-cost handset procurement deal with ZTE 40

41

42

Customer Satisfaction
3.1) Introduction:
Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms.

3.2) Measuring customer satisfaction

Organizations are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry, Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined

43

ten 'Quality Values' which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Interdepartmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the "confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured.

3.3) Vodafone had highest customer satisfaction index in 2007

Lisbon, 25 August 2008 - Vodafone obtained the highest customer satisfaction index in the telecommunications sector in 2007, according to annual results published by Anacom. Vodafone achieved a satisfaction index of 74.4 (on a scale of 0 to 100), the highest score of all the companies in the Portuguese telecommunications market and considerably above the sector average of 67.6.

44

In the report published by Anacom, Vodafone is ranked in first place in all the indicators included in the survey: Satisfaction with the operator, Image that customers have of the operator, Customer Expectations, Perceived Quality of the operator's network and services, Perceived Value for Money, Complaints received and their handling, and Loyalty of customers to their operator. In the Perceived Quality indicator, Vodafone obtained a score of 8.3 points for overall quality, way ahead of the scores of the other two operators (both obtained 7.7 points). Vodafone comes top in all the indicators for perceived quality of network and services: technical quality of the network (8.2 points); customer service and advice capability (7.6 points); quality (8.2 points), diversity (8.0 points) and reliability (7.9 points) of products and services offered; clarity and transparency of information supplied (7.8 points); network coverage (7.9 points) and clarity and transparency of price plans (7.9 points). Similarly, in the indicators measuring the Image of mobile operators, Vodafone comes top in the five categories analyzed (on a scale of 1 to 10): 'It is a reliable company in terms of what it says and what it does' (8.1 points); 'It is stable and well established in the market' (8.8 points); 'It contributes positively to society' (7.5 points); 'It cares about its customers' (7.6 points); and 'It is innovative and forward looking' (8.5 points). The methodology used in the ECSI Portugal 2007 survey (ECSI European Customer Satisfaction Index) is similar to that used by the European Commission to survey customer satisfaction in 25 Member States, enabling comparisons to be made between the results obtained in each country. The ECSI Portugal 2007 Communications survey was carried out by the Higher Institute of Statistics and Information Management at Lisbon's New University in partnership with the Portuguese Quality Institute and the Portuguese Quality Association, with sponsorship from Anacom.

45

46

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a research project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.

Strengths Leadership Position Global Brand Strength

Weaknesses Centralized Low Flexibility High rates Threats Consumer churn Control

Internal

High Geographical reach Opportunities Expanding boundaries Growth through 3G

marketing Increased Competition Market Europe Emergencies of Low cost Brands saturation in

External

Strategic Alliances

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SWOT analysis of Vodafone

4.1) Strengths:
The main strength of Vodafone within the telecommunications market lies in its brand image and recognition. Vodafone, having established a global presence and having invested highly in marketing a differentiated image by promoting a Vodafone life style, currently enjoys a differentiating advantage that, if exploited properly, can offer a lead in competition. The presence of Vodafone in numerous countries within Europe as well as in all part of the world enhances this image. It allows customers to travel and enjoy easily the services of their home country operator. In the few countries that Vodafone is not physically present (e.g. Norway) it has well established strategic alliances which allow for a better service of mobile clients.

4.2) Weaknesses:
The expansion of Vodafone has been completed at the expense of direct control of its operations. The company grew through a process of acquisitions of national telecommunications companies (e.g. the acquisition of the third biggest Czech mobile phone operator, Cesky mobile) rather than organic growth. This increased its subscribers base quickly, offering direct market knowledge and immediate additions of customer bases at the expense of direct effective control of the subsidiaries. At the same time though, it implicitly imposed a centralized operational structure for the group, nominating the UK headquarters as the leading business unit running a much centralised marketing and handset procurement at group level. This has resulted in the neglect of local markets and local differences, allowing market share to be gained by smaller local competitors. Due to the highly saturated Western European market this has resulted in an increase in the price elasticity of demand, with consumers becoming continuously price oriented. This has resulted in high customer churn rates reaching the level of 32.8% in the UK compared to O2s 24%.

48

4.3) Opportunities:
The telecommunications market, even though highly saturated in some regions offers great potential due to the ageing population and the sophistication of the consumers. It offers great opportunities through a careful market segmentation and exploitation of particular profitable segments. Different strategies should be pursued simple phones and simplified pricing plans to the ageing population and more updated, sophisticated solutions for younger generations. The expanding Boundaries of the market could provide further opportunities by allowing Vodafone to enter more aggressively into fixedline service and to better enjoy the benefits of its high investment in 3G technology. Moreover the company has undertaken its first steps in establishing strategic alliances to develop customized solutions for endusers: Vodafone recently announced two new partnerships, one with supermarket group ASDA to launch an ASDA branded mobile service in the UK, and another with electrical retailer DSG International to provide mobile solutions to small businesses. This could further be enhanced to avoid being a lateentrant in this new method of distribution which offers access to a wide potential customer base.

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5.1) Introduction:
50

Marketing research means the systematic gathering, recording, analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services Marketing research has proved an essential tool to make all the need of marketing management. Marketing research therefore is the scientific process of gathering and analyzing of marketing information to meet the needs of marketing management. But gathering of observation is must be systematic. The systematic conduct of research requires: Orderliness, in which the measurements are accurate. Impartiality in analysis and interpretation.

All of research can be categorized into basic and applied. 1. BASIC RESEARCH: - Basic Research is that intended to expand the body of knowledge for the use of others. 2. APPLIED RESEARCH: - Applied Research is one, which is carried out to find the solution for a particular problem or for guiding a specific decision. It is usually private in nature. My research on Vodafone is carried on for guiding specific decisions and its results are useful only to Vodafone for taking particular decision regarding product quality, staff and security. Hence the nature of my research study is APPLIED RESEARCH .

5.2) Objective of Study:

51

Following are the main objective to study about the customer satisfaction on Vodafone. To study telecommunication industry. To study the company profile of Vodafone. To study customer satisfaction of Vodafone. To study various Marketing activities provided by Vodafone. To study the various services provided by Vodafone. To know the expectation of Vodafone Customers.

5.3) Benefits of study:

There are many benefits related to take this study. Some of the benefits of taking this study are as follows: By analyzing this information, the company would be able to better design schemes & services & target right prospects needs & wants. More people will get aware about Vodafone that will increase profit level of Vodafone. This study helps to identify the behavior of consumer when there are no offers & schemes from Vodafone.

5.4) Process of Marketing Research:

52

The marketing research is done in systematic process. The Researcher has pursued the below process of marketing for my study at Vodafone:

Problem Identification

Research Design

Data Collection

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Research Report & Presentation

5.4.1) Problem Identification:

53

The first and the most important step of marketing research is properly defining the problem. In order to identify the research problem two categories of problem should be carefully noticed.

Here the researchers problems are: A number of customers are not satisfied with services, new schemes and offers. A number of customers are not satisfied with the network coverage. A number of customers are not satisfied with the current call rates of Vodafone. A number of customers are not satisfied with the Free SMS schemes. A number of customers are not satisfied with the service of customer care of Vodafone.

5.4.2) RESEARCH DESIGN:

Research design indicates the methods and procedure of conducting research study. Research design can be done in following three types:1 Exploratory Research:Exploratory research focuses on the discovery of new ideas and is generally based on secondary data. 2 Descriptive Research:Descriptive research is undertaken when the researcher want to know the characteristics of certain groups.

3 Causal or Experimental Researches:-

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An experimental research is undertaken to identify causes and effect relationship between two variables. The Research Design is: Descriptive Research Design

5.4.3) Data Collection and Sampling:

A) Sources of Data Collection:Basically there are two types of data i.e. secondary and primary: I) Primary Data Collection:-

Primary data collection contains the following four types of methods: 1 Observation Method: It contains Causal observation, Systematic observation, direct observation and contrived observation. 2 Survey Method: It contains Personal Interview, Telephone Interview and Mail Interview. 3 Experimental Method. 4 Panel Method.

II) Secondary Data Collection: It can be collected from internal as well as external sources

1 Internal Source:

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Various internal sources like employee, books, sales activity, stock availability, product cost, etc. 2 External Sources: Libraries, trade publications, literatures, etc are some important sources of external data. The Researcher has used primary data for the core purpose of the project and this primary data has been gathered by survey method. The researcher has also used secondary data

B) Data collection Tools: To conduct a survey, the Researcher has selected a structured questionnaire as an instruction for gathering valuable information from the customers. Questionnaire, which is used for the survey, is consisting of questions and checklist questions to check the customer feedback. C) Sampling Plan: The researcher has design a sampling plan that is consist of five decisions. I) Sampling unit: Who is to be surveyed? The Researcher has selected youngsters, businessmen, and housewives, employees to conduct survey and to measure satisfaction level. II) Sampling types: There are two types of sampling i.e. Probability Sampling and Non probability Sampling. i) Probability Sampling : -

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Probability sampling means each unit of the universe has equal chance of getting selected. The most frequently used probability sampling methods are as below: a) Simple Random Sampling. b) Stratified Random Sampling. c) Multi-stage Random Sampling. d) Cluster Sampling. e) Multi phase Sampling. f) Replicated Sampling.

ii) Non Probability Sampling:Non Probability sampling contains following methods:a) Judgment Sampling. b) Convenience Sampling. c) Panel Sampling. d) Quota Sampling For this purpose the researcher has used non probability convenience sampling.

III) Sample Size:

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Sample size means limited numbers of respondents covered under the research study from a population and the researcher has taken a survey of 100 respondents to know the satisfaction level of customer.

IV)

Sampling Area: The researchers area for survey was: Mansarovar and Malviya Nagar Vodafone Store all Outside Gaurav Tower Malviya Nagar

V)

Sampling Unit: Here the researcher has randomly selected the respondents of the Surat city.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

After all the above steps are completed now the important step is data analyzing and interpretation. For this there are various analytical and statistical tools. Some of these tools are Percentage, Average, Dispersion, Co-relation, Co-efficient, etc.

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59

Q1) Do you have a mobile phone? Purpose:

The main purpose of this question is to know how many respondents use mobile phone.

Suggestions No. respondents

Yes No of 93 7

Interpretation:
93% of the respondents are have a mobile phone while 7% of the respondents do not have a mobile phone.

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Q2) Are you aware about telecommunications services? Purpose:

The main purpose behind this question is to know about the awareness of respondents regarding different telecommunications services and also to know about which telecommunication(operators) service they use.

Suggestions No. respondents

Yes No of 95 5

Interpretation:
95% aware telecommunications services while 5% are not aware. of the are about

respondents

Which operators service do you use?

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Operators name Vodafone Airtel Idea Reliance BSNL Tata Indicom

service No. of respondents (in %) 54 18 10 13 3 2

Interpretation:
Major respondents using mobile are enjoying Vodafone services. 16% of the respondents use Airtel, 6% respondents use Idea while 12%, 4% and 2% respondents use Reliance, BSNL and Tata Indicom respectively.

Q3) Are you aware about Vodafone?

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Purpose:
The purpose behind this question is to know about the awareness of Vodafone among all the respondents.

Suggestions No. respondents

Yes No of 100 0

Interpretation:
Here 100% of respondents are aware about Vodafone Services.

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Q4) From which source you came to know about Vodafone? Purpose:
The purpose behind this question is to know from which source the respondents came to know about Vodafone.

Sources Advertisements Hoardings Newspapers Mouth Publicity

No. of respondents 63 52 35 26

Interpretation:
36% of the respondents are aware about Vodafone through Advertisements, 29% are aware because of Hoardings while 20% and 15% of the respondents are aware because of Newspapers and Mouth Publicity respectively.

Q5) Since how long you are using Vodafone Services?

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Purpose:
The purpose behind this question is to know about the usage time of Vodafone customers i.e. since how long they are using Vodafone services.

Time period Less month 2-6 months 6-12 months than

No. of respondents 1 12

19 22

More than 1 year 34

Interpretation:
Major Respondents using Vodafone are old customers. 39% of the respondents use Vodafone services from past more than 1 year while the lowest is 14% respondents using Vodafone services less than 1 month.

Q6) Which of the following services do you use of Vodafone?

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Purpose:
The purpose behind this question is to know which services do the Vodafone customer use, Pre-Paid or Post-Paid.

Services Pre-Paid Post-paid

No. of respondents 73 14

Interpretation:
84% of the respondents use pre-paid services while only 16% of the respondents use post-paid services.

Q7) Which services are more helpful to you while using Vodafone Services?

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Purpose:
The purpose behind this question is to know which services are more helpful to the respondent while using Vodafone.

Services Call Rates SMS Rates Network Value Services

No. of respondents 27 48 36 Added 19

Interpretation:
Here major Respondents are youngsters so they mainly use SMS services of Vodafone. 37% of the respondents use Vodafone for SMS services while only 14% of the respondents use Vodafone for Value Added Services.

Q8) Do you call at customer care? Purpose:

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The purpose of this question is to know how many times and how often the respondents call at customer care of Vodafone.

Suggestions No. respondents

Yes No of 76 11

Interpretation:
87% of the respondent calls at customer care while 13% respondents do not call at customer care.

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If yes, how often you call at customer care? Time Period Daily Once a week Once a month Occasionally No. of respondents 5 12 24 35

Interpretation
Major respondents here call customer care occasionally. 31% respondents respondents call customer care once a month while 16% and 7% of respondents call once a week and daily respectively.

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Findings
93% of the respondents are have a mobile phone while 7% of the respondents do not have a mobile phone. 100% of the respondents are aware about telecommunications services. 16% of the respondents use Airtel, 6% respondents use Idea while 12%, 4% and 2% respondents use Reliance, BSNL and Tata Indicom respectively. 100% of respondents are aware about Vodafone Services. 36% of the respondents are aware about Vodafone through Advertisements, 29% are aware because of Hoardings while 20% and 15% of the respondents are aware because of Newspapers and Mouth Publicity respectively. 39% of the respondents use Vodafone services from past more than 1 year while the lowest is 14% respondents using Vodafone services less than 1 month. 84% of the respondents use pre-paid services while only 16% of the respondents use post-paid services. 37% of the respondents use Vodafone for SMS services while only 14% of the respondents use Vodafone for Value Added Services. 87% of the respondent calls at customer care while 13% respondents do not call at customer care. 31% respondents respondents call customer care once a month while 16% and 7% of respondents call once a week and daily respectively. 34% of respondents call at customer care for complaining purpose while 30%, 19% and 17% of respondents call customer care for other queries, information regarding new schemes and value added services respectively

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 5 respondents among the total no. of respondents dont use Vodafone services because of high prices. 3 respondents dont use Vodafone services because of poor services while 2 respondents each dont use vodafone services because of lack of awareness and poor network. 90% of the Vodafone customers would like to recommend Vodafone services to others while 10% of the Vodafone Customers wont recommend to others.

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Conclusion
Follwing are the conclusion that the researcher found after the survey. From the above analysis the researcher concludes that major respondents are dissatisfied with some of the major services like call rates, SMS rates and new schemes & offers. Major respondents from all respondents use services of Vodafone. Major customers of Vodafone are old customers so many of the respondents are satisfied with the services of Vodafone and thus they would like to recommend Vodafone to others. Major respondents using Vodafone use pre-paid services compared to post-paid services. Major respondents are youngsters so they need more SMS facilities and low call rates, but Vodafone dissatisfies these age group (18-25) as their call rates and SMS rates are much high.

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Suggestions

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Following are some of the suggestions given by the researcher so that Vodafone can serve people and its customers in an improved way: Vodafone should decrease call rates for local users. Vodafone should provide more offers to Post-Paid customers so that the number of Post-Paid customers increase. Vodafone should bring introduce some new SMS schemes for the youngsters. Vodafone should introduce more schemes and offers. Vodafone should provide more schemes and offers to its old customers. Vodafone should decrease call rates of STD and ISD.

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Books:
Marketing Management Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller.

Websites:

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 http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/local_press_releases/po rtugal/portugal_press_release/vodafone_had_highest.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_satisfaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutch_(Indian_cellular_company) http://bora.nhh.no/bitstream/2330/1919/1/Saplitsa%202008.pdf www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=606658 www.iimcal.ac.in/community/consclub/reports/telecom.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Sanchar_Nigam_Limited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel

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Name: ________________Age: ___ years Sex:______ Contact no.: ___________Prof :__________________

Q1) Do you have a mobile phone?

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o Yes o No Q2) Are you aware about telecommunications service? o Yes o No If yes, then which operators Service do you use? o Vodafone o Airtel o Idea o Reliance o BSNL o Tata Indicom ( If not Vodafone then go to Q12 ) Q3) Are you aware about Vodafone? o Yes o No (If No, then go to Q11 ) (Multi-choice)

Q4) From which source you came to know about Vodafone? o Advertisement o Hoardings o Newspapers o Mouth Publicity (Multi-choice)

Q5) Since how long you are using Vodafone services? o Less than 1 month o 2-6 months

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o 6-12 months o More than 1 year Q6) Which of the following services do you use of Vodafone? o Pre-paid o Post-paid Q7) Which services are more helpful to you while using Vodafone services? o Call rates o SMS service o Network o Value Added Services Q8) Dou you call at customer care? o Yes o No If yes, how often you call at customer care? o Daily o Once a week o Once a month o Occasionally Q9) For what reason you call at customer care? o Value added services o Information regarding new schemes o Other queries o Complaining (Multi-choice) (Multi-choice)

Q10) Rate the following services on the basis of your satisfaction.

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Services

Excellen t

Very Good Fairly good

Average

Poor

Network SMS rates New schemes and offers Customer Care Recharge outlets Call Rates Value Added Services

Q11) What makes you unaware about Vodafone? o Less Advertisements o Less Publicity o Others (If others then mention ________________________) Q12) Why you are not using Vodafone services? o o o o Lack of awareness High Prices Poor Services Poor network (Multi-choice)

Q13) Would you like to recommend Vodafone to others? o Yes o No 82

Q14) Give your suggestions to help in serve you better. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______

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