History Of Telecommunition

The telecom industry has been divided into two major segments, that is, fixed and wireless cellular services for this report. Besides, internet services, VAS, PMRTS and VSAT also have been discussed in brief in the report.

In todays information age, the telecommunication industry has a vital role to play. Considered as the backbone of industrial and economic development, the industry has been aiding delivery of voice and data services at rapidly increasing speeds, and thus, has been revolutionising human communication.

Although the Indian telecom industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, the current teledensity or telecom penetration is extremely low when compared with global standards. Indias teledensity of 36.98% in FY09 is amongst the lowest in the world. Further, the urban teledensity is over 80%, while rural teledensity is less than 20%, and this gap is increasing. As majority of the population resides in rural areas, it is important that the government takes steps to improve rural teledensity. No doubt the government has taken certain policy initiatives, which include the creation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund, for improving rural telephony. These measures are expected to improve the rural tele-density and bridge the rural-urban gap in tele-density.

Introduction - Evolution
Indian telecom sector is more than 165 years old. Telecommunications was first introduced in India in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the government near Kolkata (then Calcutta), although telephone services were formally introduced in India much later in 1881.

Further, in 1883, telephone services were merged with the postal system. In 1947, after India attained independence, all foreign telecommunication companies were nationalised to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a body that was governed by the Ministry of Communication.

The Indian telecom sector was entirely under government ownership until 1984, when the private sector was allowed in telecommunication equipment manufacturing only. The government concretised its earlier efforts towards developing R&D in the sector by setting up an autonomous body Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in 1984 to develop state-of-the-art telecommunication technology to meet the growing needs of the Indian telecommunication network. The actual evolution of the industry started after the Government separated the Department of Post and Telegraph in 1985 by setting up the Department of Posts and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The entire evolution of the telecom industry can be classified into three distinct phases.

Phase I- Pre-Libralisation Era (1980-89) Phase II- Post Libralisation Era (1990-99) Phase III- Post 2000

Until the late 90s the Government of India held a monopoly on all types of communications as a result of the Telegraph Act of 1885. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, until the industry was liberalised in the early nineties, it was a heavily government-controlled and small-sized market, Government policies have played a key role in shaping the structure and size of the Telecom industry in India. As a result, the Indian telecom market is one of the most liberalised market in the world with private participation in almost all of its segments. The New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) provided the much needed impetus to the growth of this industry and set the trend for libralisation in the industry.

Current Status
Globalisation has made telecommunication an integral part of the infrastructure of the Indian economy. The telecom sector in India has developed as a result of progressive regulatory regime.

According to the TRAI, the total gross revenue of the Indian telecom services industry was Rs 1,524 bn in FY09 up from Rs 1,291 bn in FY08 registering a growth of 18.03% over FY08 and its subscriber base grew by 43% over FY08 to touch 429.70 mn subscribers in FY09.

The telecom sector in India experienced a rapid growth over the past decade on account of regulatory libralisation, structural reforms and competition, making telecom one of the major catalysts in Indias growth story. However, much of this growth can be attributed to the unprecedented growth in mobile telephony as the number of mobile subscribers grew at an astounding rate from 10 million in 2002 to 392 million in 2009. Besides, the growth in the service and IT and ITeS sector also increased the prominence of the telecom industry in India.

Telecom has emerged as a key infrastructure for economic and consumer growth because of its multiplier effect and the fact that it is beneficial to trade in other industries. The contribution of the sector to GDP has been increasing gradually (its contribution in GDP has more than doubled to 2.83% in FY07 from 1.0% in FY92).

Telecom is one of the fastest-growing industries in India; on an average the industry added 8 million wireless subscribers every month in FY08. The government had set a target of 500 million telecom connections by 2010. However, according to the TRAI, the total subscriber base (wireless and wireline) in the industry crossed the 500-mn-mark and reached 509.03 mn by the end of September 2009, which took India to the second position in terms of wireless network in the world next only to China.

Prior to liberalisation, the telecom sector was monopolised by the public sector and recorded marginal growth; in fact, during 1948-1998, the incremental teledensity in the country was just 1.92%. However, the introduction of NTP99 accelerated the growth of the sector and the teledensity increased from 2.33 in 1999 to 36.98 in 2009; however, much of this growth was brought about by the NTP-99 policy changes such as migration from fixed license fee to revenue sharing regime and cost-oriented telecom tariffs.

From 2003 onwards the government has taken certain initiatives such as unified access licensing regime, reduced access deficit, introduction of calling party pays (CPP) and revenue sharing regime in ADC that has provided further impetus to the sector.

The Indian telecom industry is characterized with intense competition, and continuous price wars. Currently, there are around a dozen telecom service providers who operate in the wired and wireless segment. The government has been periodically implementing suitable fiscal and promotional policies to boost domestic demand and to create volumes for the industry.

The Indian telecom industry has immense growth potential as the tele density in the country is just 36 as compared with 60 in the US, 102 in the UK and 58 in Canada. The wireless segment growth has played a dominant role in taking the teledensity to the current levels. In the next few years, the industry is poised to grow further, in fact, it has already entered a consolidation phase as foreign players are struggling to acquire a pie in this dynamic industry.

The history of telecommunication began with the use of smoke signals and drums in Africa, the Americas and parts of Asia. In the 1790s, the first fixed semaphore systems emerged in Europe; however it was not until the 1830s that electrical telecommunication systems started to appear.

This article details the history of telecommunication and the individuals who helped make telecommunication systems what they are today. The history of telecommunication is an important part of the larger history of communication.

Early telecommunications
Early telecommunications included smoke signals and drums. Talking drums were used by natives in Africa, New Guinea and South America, and smoke signals in North America and China. Contrary to what one might think, these systems were often used to do more than merely announce the presence of a camp.

In 1792, a French engineer, Claude Chappe built the first visual telegraphy (or semaphore) system between Lille and Paris. This was followed by a line from Strasbourg to Paris. In 1794, a Swedish engineer, Abraham Edelcrantz built a quite different system from Stockholm to Drottningholm. As opposed to Chappe's system which involved pulleys rotating beams of wood, Edelcrantz's system relied only upon shutters and was therefore faster. However semaphore as a communication system suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers often at intervals of only ten to thirty kilometres (six to nineteen miles). As a result, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880.

Telegraph and telephone

Main articles: Electrical telegraph, Transatlantic telegraph cable, Invention of the telephone, and History of the telephone

Stock telegraph ticker machine by Thomas Edison

A very early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an 'electrochemical' telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Smmering in 1809, based on an earlier, less robust design of 1804 by Catalan polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo.[5] Both their designs employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent almost all Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers (in von Smmering's design), with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid.

An electrical current was sequentially applied by the sender through the various wires representing each digit of a message; at the recipient's end the currents electrolysed the acid in the tubes in sequence, releasing streams of hydrogen bubbles next to each associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message, albeit at a very low baud rate. The principal disadvantage to the system was its prohibitive cost, due to having to manufacture and string-up the multiple wire circuits it employed, as opposed to the single wire (with ground return) used by later telegraphs.

The first commercial electrical telegraph was constructed in England by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke. It used the deflection of needles to represent messages and started operating over twenty-one kilometres (thirteen miles) of the Great Western Railway on 9 April 1839. Both Wheatstone and Cooke viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph" not as a new device.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837. Soon after he was joined by Alfred Vail who developed the register a telegraph terminal that integrated a logging device for recording messages to paper tape. This was demonstrated successfully over three miles (five kilometres) on 6 January 1838 and eventually over forty miles (sixty-four

kilometres) between Washington, DC and Baltimore on 24 May 1844. The patented invention proved lucrative and by 1851 telegraph lines in the United States spanned over 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometres).

The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed on 27 July 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time. Earlier transatlantic cables installed in 1857 and 1858 only operated for a few days or weeks before they failed. The international use of the telegraph has sometimes been dubbed the "Victorian Internet".

The electric telephone was invented in the 1870s, based on earlier work with harmonic (multi-signal) telegraphs. The first commercial telephone services were set up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London. Alexander Graham Bell held the master patent for the telephone that was needed for such services in both countries.

The technology grew quickly from this point, with inter-city lines being built and telephone exchanges in every major city of the United States by the mid-1880s. Despite this, transatlantic voice communication remained impossible for customers until January 7, 1927 when a connection was established using radio.

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However no cable connection existed until TAT-1 was inaugurated on September 25, 1956 providing 36 telephone circuits.

In 1880, Bell and co-inventor Charles Sumner Tainter conducted the world's first wireless telephone call via modulated light beams projected by photo phones. The scientific principles of their invention would not be utilized for several decades, when they were first deployed in military and fibre-optic communications.

Radio and television

Main articles: History of radio and History of television

In 1832, James Lindsay gave a classroom demonstration of wireless telegraphy to his students. By 1854, he was able to demonstrate a transmission across the Firth of Tay from Dundee to Woodhaven, a distance of two miles (3 km), using water as the transmission medium.

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Addressing the Franklin Institute in 1893, Nikola Tesla described and demonstrated in detail the principles of wireless telegraphy. The apparatus that he used contained all the elements that were incorporated into radio systems before the development of the vacuum tube. However it was not until 1900 that Reginald Fessenden was able to wirelessly transmit a human voice. In December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi established wireless communication between Britain and Newfoundland, earning him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1909 (which he shared with Karl Braun).

On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird publicly demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette pictures at the London department store Selfridges. In October 1925, Baird was successful in obtaining moving pictures with halftone shades, which were by most accounts the first true television pictures. This led to a public demonstration of the improved device on 26 January 1926 again at Selfridges. Baird's first devices relied upon the Nipkow disk and thus became known as the mechanical television. It formed the basis of semiexperimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning September 30, 1929.

However for most of the twentieth century televisions depended upon the cathode ray tube invented by Karl Braun. The first version of such a television to show promise was produced by Philo Farnsworth and crude silhouette images were demonstrated to his family on September 7, 1927.

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Farnsworth's device would compete with the concurrent work of Kalman Tihanyi and Vladimir Zworykin. Zworykin's camera, based on Tihanyi's Radioskop, which later would be known as the Iconoscope, had the backing of the influential Radio Corporation of America (RCA). In the United States, court action between Farnsworth and RCA would resolve in Farnsworth's favour.[16] John Logie Baird switched from mechanical television and became a pioneer of colour television using cathode-ray tubes.

After mid-century the spread of coaxial cable and microwave radio relay allowed television networks to spread across even large countries.

Computer networks and the Internet

Main articles: Computer Networking -History and History of the Internet

On September 11, 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.[17] This configuration of a centralized computer or mainframe with remote dumb terminals remained popular throughout the 1950s. However it was not until the 1960s that researchers started to investigate packet switching a technology that would allow chunks of data to be sent to different computers without first passing through a centralized mainframe.

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A four-node network emerged on December 5, 1969 between the University of California, Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of Utah and the University of California, Santa Barbara. This network would become ARPANET, which by 1981 would consist of 213 nodes. In June 1973, the first non-US node was added to the network belonging to Norway's NORSAR project. This was shortly followed by a node in London.

ARPANET's development centred around the Request for Comment process and on April 7, 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 protocols the Internet relies upon today were specified through this process. In September 1981, RFC 791 introduced the Internet Protocol v4 (IPv4) and RFC 793 introduced the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) thus creating the TCP/IP protocol that much of the Internet relies upon today. A more relaxed transport protocol that, unlike TCP, did not guarantee the orderly delivery of packets called the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) was submitted on 28 August 1980 as RFC 768. An e-mail protocol, SMTP, was introduced in August 1982 by RFC 821 and http://1.0 a protocol that would make the hyperlinked Internet possible was introduced on May 1996 by RFC 1945.

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

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Olof Sderblom 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.

Internet access became widespread late in the century, using the old telephone and television networks.

Timelines

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Distance telecommunications
Visual signals (non-electronic):

Prehistoric: Fires, Beacons, Smoke signals 6th century BC: Mail 5th century BC: Pigeon post 4th century BC: Hydraulic semaphores 490 BC: Heliographs 15th century AD: Maritime flags 1790 AD: Semaphore lines 19th century AD: Signal lamps

Audio signals:

Prehistoric: Communication drums, Horns 1838 AD: Electrical telegraph. See: Telegraph history. 1876: Telephone. See: Invention of the telephone, History of the

telephone, Timeline of the telephone

1880: Photophone 1896: Radio. See: History of radio.

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Advanced electrical/electronic signals:

1927: Television. See: History of television 1930: Videophone 1964: Fiber optical telecommunications 1969: Computer networking 1981: Analog cellular mobile phones 1982: SMTP email 1983: Internet. See: History of Internet 1998: Satellite phones

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History of Indian Telecommunication

India is the worlds fastest growing industry in the world in terms of number of wireless connections after China, with 811.59 million mobile phone subscribers. According to the world telecommunications industry, India will have 1.200 billion mobile subscribers by 2013.

Furthermore, projections by several leading global consultancies indicate that the total number of subscribers in India will exceed the total subscriber count in the China by 2013.

So how Telecommunication started in India??

Well Postal means of communication was the only mean communication until the year 1850. In 1850 experimental electric telegraph started for first time in India between Calcutta (Kolkata) and Diamond Harbor (southern suburbs of Kolkata, on the banks of the Hooghly River).

In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. Subsequently construction of telegraph started through out India. A separate department was opened to the public in 1854. Dr.William OShaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works

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Department, and worked towards the development of telecom. Calcutta or thethen Kolkata was chosen as it was the capital of British India.

In early1881, Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England opened telephone exchanges at Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai) and Ahmedabad. On the 28th January 1882 the first formal telephone service was established with a total of 93 subscribers.

From the year 1902 India drastically changes from cable telegraph to wireless telegraph, radio telegraph, radio telephone, trunk dialing. Trunk dialing used in India for more than a decade, were system allowed subscribers to dial calls with operator assistance. Later moved to digital microwave, optical fiber, satellite earth station. During British period all major cities and towns in India were linked with telephones.

So who was looking after Telecom??

In the year 1975 Department of Telecom (DoT) was responsible for telecom services in entire country after separation from Indian Post &

Telecommunication. Decade later Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) was chipped out of DoT to run the telecom services of Delhi and Mumbai.

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In 1990s the telecom sector was opened up by the Government for private investment. In1995 TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) was setup. This reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The Government of India corporatized the operations wing of DoT in 2000 and renamed Department of Telecom as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

In last 10 years many private operators especially foreign investors successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom market. Globally acclaimed operators like Telenor, NTT Docomo, Vodafone, Sistema, SingTel, Maxis, Etisalat invested in India mobile operators.

Wireless Communication
Pager Services
Pager communication successful launched in India in the year 1995. Pagers were looked upon as devices that offered the much needed mobility in communication, especially for businesses. Motorola was a major player with nearly 80 per cent of the market share. The other companies included Mobilink, Pagelink, BPL, Usha Martin telecom and Easy call. Pagers were generally worn on the belt or carried in the pocket.

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The business peaked in 1998 with the subscriber base reaching nearly 2 million. However, the number dropped to less than 500,000 in 2002. The pager companies in India were soon struggling to maintain their business. While 2-way pagers could have buffered the fall, the pager companies were not in a position to upgrade their infrastructure to improve the ailing market.

The Indian Paging Services Association was unable to support the industry. Pager companies in India also offered their services in regional languages also. However, the end had begun already. By 2002, Motorola stops making or servicing pagers. When mobile phones were commercially launched in India, the pager had many advantages to boast. Pagers were smaller, had a longer battery life and were considerably cheaper. However, the mobile phones got better with time and continuously upgraded themselves.

Mobile Communication
First mobile telephone service on non-commercial basis started in India on 48th Independence Day at countrys capital Delhi. The first cellular call was made in India on July 31st, 1995 over Modi Telstras MobileNet GSM network of Kolkata. Later mobile telephone services are divided into multiple zones known as circles. Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest in the world.

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Most of operator follows GSM mobile system operate under 900MHz bandwidth few recent players started operating under 1800MHz bandwidth. CDMA operators operate under 800Mhz band, they are first to introduce EVDO based high speed wireless data services via USB dongle. In spite of this huge growth Indian telecom sector is hit by severe spectrum crunch, corruption by India Govt. officials and financial troubles.

In 2008, India entered the 3G arena with the launch of 3G enabled Mobile and Data services by Government owned MTNL and BSNL. Later from November 2010 private operators started to launch their services.

Broadband communication
After US, Japan, India stands in third largest Internet users of which 40% of Internet used via mobile phones. India ranks one of the lowest provider of broadband speed as compared countries such as Japan, India and Norway. Minimum broadband speed of 256kbit/s but speed above 2Mbits is still in a nascent stage.

Year 2007 had been declared as Year of Broadband in India. Telcos based on ADSL/VDSL in India generally have speeds up to 24Mbit max while those based on newer Optical Fiber technology offer up to 100Mbits in some plans Fiber-optic

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communication (FTTx). Broadband growth has been plagued by many problems. Complicated tariff structure, metered billing, High charges for right of way, Lack of domestic content, non implementation of Local-loop unbundling have all resulted in hindrance to the growth of broadband.

Many experts think future of broadband is on the hands of wireless factor. BWA auction winners are expected to roll out LTE and WiMAX in India in 2012.

Next Generation Network (NGN)

Next Generation Networks, multiple access networks can connect customers to a core network based on IP technology. These access networks include fiber optics or coaxial cable networks connected to fixed locations or customers connected through Wi-Fi as well as to 3G networks connected to mobile users.

As a result, in the future, it would be impossible to identify whether the next generation network is a fixed or mobile network and the wireless access broadband would be used both for fixed and mobile services. It would then be futile to differentiate between fixed and mobile networks both fixed and mobile users will access services through a single core network. Cloud based data services are expected to come.

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Indian Satellites
India has launched more than 50 satellites of various types, since its first attempt in 1975. The organization responsible for Indian satellites is the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Most Satellites have been launched from various vehicles, including American, Russian, European satellite-launch rockets, and the U.S. Space Shuttle. First Indian satellite Aryabhata on 19th April 1975, later Bhaskara, Rohini, INSAT, Edusat, IRS, GSAT, Kalpana, Cartosat, IMS, Chandrayaan, ResourceSat, RiSat, AnuSat, etc.

Well guys this is how telecom Industry is growing in India, hope to see India far ahead of other countries in near future.

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Role in Indias Development

Contribution to GDP
According to the UNCTAD, there is a direct correlation between the growth in mobile teledensity and the growth in GDP per capita in developing countries, which tend to have a high percentage of rural population. The share of the telecom services industry in the total GDP has been rising over the past few years (the telecom sector contribution in GDP went up from 2.52% in FY05 to 2.83% in FY07).

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Employment
The Indian telecommunication industry employs over 400,000 direct employees and about 85% of these employees are from government-owned companies. The ratio of number of subscribers to employees, an indication of efficiency and profitability, is much higher for private companies than for government companies.

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

Foreign direct investment has been one of the major contributors in the growth of the Indian economy, and therefore, the need for higher FDI is felt across sectors in the Indian economy. The telecom sector has played a crucial role in attracting FDI in India. The share of telecom sector in the total FDI inflows in India has gone up to 10% in FY09 as compared with just 3% in FY05.

The telecom sector requires huge investments for its expansion as it is capitalintensive and FDI plays a vital role in meeting the fund requirements for expansion of the telecom sector. Telecom accounts for almost 10% of the total FDI inflows in the country and has been the third-largest sector to attract FDI in India in the post-liberalisation era.

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The Indian telecom industry has been an attractive avenue for foreign investors over the years. As per DIPP figures, the cumulative FDI inflow during August 1991 to June 2009 period, in the telecommunication sector amounted to US$ 113 bn. FDI calculation takes into account radio paging, cellular mobile and basic telephone services in the telecommunication sector.

In the 2004-05 Budget, the government raised the FDI limit from 49% to 74% in the telecom services segment subject to retention of local management control. According to the new norms, 26% share out of the 74% should be held by an Indian company or an Indian citizen with Indian management. Further, 100% FDI is permitted in telecom manufacturing, category I infrastructure providers, ISPs without gateway, call centres and IT-enabled services. Further, direct or indirect FDI up to 74% is permitted subject to licensing and security requirements for ISPs with gateways, radio paging operators and category II infrastructure providers.

The relaxation in FDI norms has attracted many foreign telecom majors to the sector. The presence of foreign players has not only encouraged faster infrastructure development and upgradation but also has opened up the domestic industry to foreign competition. Since 2004, there has been a large inflow of FDI in the sector. During 2004-05 and 2005-06, a period during which the FDI norms were relaxed, the FDI inflow grew by an astounding 300% to US$ 624 mn in 2005-06 from merely US$ 125 mn in 2004-05.

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The inflow of FDI has provided tremendous impetus to the sector in the past few years and the attractiveness of the sector has kept the FDI inflows growing steadily. During FY09 the FDI in the telecom sector at US$ 2,558 mn was 103% higher than that seen in FY08 at US$ 1,261 mn. Further, the FDI in the sector has already reached US$ 2010 mn for a six month period of FY10 (Apr-Sep 09) and is expected to surpass the total FDI for FY09.

The governments liberalised FDI policies have resulted in several foreign companies entering into the Indian markets. The influx of foreign players in the Indian telecom industry has led to capacity creation, and better infrastructure, which in turn has bettered the network quality. The rise in FDI has also enabled technology transfer, market access and has improved organisational skills; going forward, FDI could be used for providing telecom services to rural areas, where teledensity is still very low.

The change in FDI policy that has raised the FDI limit from 49% to 74% for the sector has made it more attractive for foreign players. In the long run the growth prospects of telecom players that have foreign partners will improve and other players will get new avenues to raise capital.

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Growth of IT-ITeS and Financial Sector

India has entered the league of countries with the most-advanced

telecommunication infrastructure after the industry was deregulated. Furthermore, deregulation has stimulated Indias economic growth through industry growth and through rise in investments. It is evident that a well-developed communication sector improves access to social networks, lowers transaction costs, increases economic opportunities, widens markets, and provides better access to information, healthcare and educational services.

The growth in Indian telecom sector has been concomitant with overall growth in GDP, government revenue, employment et al. Besides, telecommunication has increased efficiency, reduced transaction costs, attracted investments and has created new opportunities for business and employment.

The NTP-99 was particularly helpful for the ITeS-BPO industry as it ended the government monopoly in international calling by introducing IP telephony. After the introduction of IP telephony, there was rapid growth in the number of data processing centres and inbound/outbound call centres, which ultimately led to the outsourcing revolution in India.

The telecom sector has been instrumental in creating jobs for a vast pool of talented and knowledge professionals in the IT and ITeS-BPO industry, which

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thrives on reliable telecommunication infrastructure. India has become an important outsourcing destination for the world and the boom in this sector also has transformed Indias economic dynamics. The evolution of telecom sector has brought about a revolutionary change in the way some businesses operate.

Another beneficiary of the telecom revolution is the financial services industry, which has been on a growth trajectory. The progress and quality of the financial sector has been a key factor that has driven the pace and diversity of the real economy. India has an extensive and well-developed financial sector with wide and sophisticated banking network.

Banking in India has become service-oriented, and has matured greatly from the days of walk-in customers to the present situation when banks have migrated to a 24-hour banking platform to attract customers; however, this disintermediation in the business has led banks to be extremely prudent in terms of their internal operations and has led them to adopt newer products and delivery channels. Further, with introduction of internet & mobile banking the long ques at the banks are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

Both the financial and the IT-ITeS segments rely on good domestic as well as international network connectivity; therefore, there is a need for a sound telecommunication network.

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Factors Facilitating Growth of the Sector

The phenomenal growth in the Indian telecom industry was brought about by the wireless revolution that began in the nineties. Besides this, the following factors also aided the growth of the industry.

Libralisation
The relaxation of telecom regulations has played a major role in the development of the Indian telecom industry. The liberalisation policies of 1991 and the consequent influx of private players have led the industry on a high growth trajectory and have increased the level of competition. Post-liberalisation, the telecom industry has received more investments and has implemented higher technology.

Increasing Affordability of Handsets

The phenomenal growth in the Indian telecom industry was predominantly aided by the meteoric rise in wireless subscribers, which encouraged mobile handset manufacturers to enter the market and to cater to the growing demand. Further, the manufacturers introduced lower-priced handsets with add-on facilities to cater to the increasing number of subscribers from different strata of the society.

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Now even entry-level handsets come with features like coloured display and FM radio. Thus, the falling handset prices and the add-on features have triggered growth of the Indian telecom industry.

Prepaid Cards Bring in More Subscribers

In the late nineties, India was introduced to prepaid cards, which was yet another milestone for the wireless sector. Prepaid cards lured more subscribers into the industry besides lowering the credit risk of service providers due to its upfront payment concept. Prepaid cards were quite a phenomenon among first-time users who wanted to control their bills and students who had limited resources but greater need to be connected. Pre-paid cards greatly helped the cellular market to grow rapidly and cater to the untapped market. Further, the introduction of innovative schemes like recharge coupons of smaller denominations and life time incoming free cards has led to an exponential growth in the subscriber base.

Introduction of Calling Party Pays (CPP)

The CPP regime was introduced in India in 2003 and under this regime, the calling party who initiated the call was to bear the entire cost of the call. This regime came to be applicable for mobile to mobile calls as well as fixed line to mobile calls.

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So far India had followed the Receiving Party Pays (RPP) system where the subscriber used to pay for incoming calls from both mobile as well as fixedline networks. Shifting to the CPP system has greatly fuelled the subscriber growth in the sector.

Changing Demographic Profile

The changing demographic profile of India has also played an important role in subscriber growth. The changed profile is characterised by a large young population, a burgeoning middle class with growing disposable income, urbanisation, increasing literacy levels and higher adaptability to technology. These new features have multiplied the need to be connected always and to own a wireless phone and therefore, in present times mobiles are perceived as a utility rather than a luxury.

Increased Competition & Declining Tariffs

Liberalisation of the telecom industry has fuelled intense competition, especially in the cellular segment. The ever-increasing competition has led to high growth of subscribers and has put pressure on tariffs, which have seen a sharp drop over the years. When the cellular phones were introduced, call rates were at a peak of Rs 16 per minute and there were charges for incoming calls too.

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Today, however, incoming calls are no longer charged and outgoing calls are charged at less than a rupee per minute. Thus, the tariff war has come a long way indeed. Increased competition and the subsequent tariff war has acted as a major catalyst for attracting more subscribers. Apart from these major growth drivers, an improved network coverage, entry of CDMA players, growth of value-added services (VAS), advancement in technology, and growing data services have also driven the growth of the industry.

Outlook
The telecom industry in India has experienced exponential growth over the past few years and has been an important contributor to economic growth; however, the cut-throat competition and intense tariff wars have had a negative impact on the revenue of players. Despite the challenges, the Indian telecom industry will thrive because of the immense potential in terms of new users.

India is one of the most-attractive telecom markets because it is still one of the lowest penetrated markets. The government is keen on developing rural telecom infrastructure and is also set to roll out next generation or 3G services in the country. Operators are on an expansion mode and are investing heavily on telecom infrastructure. Foreign telecom companies are acquiring considerable stakes in Indian companies.

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Burgeoning middle class and increasing spending power, the governments thrust on increasing rural telecom coverage, favourable investment climate and positive reforms will ensure that Indias high potential is indeed realised.

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COMPETITION IN INDIAN TELECOMMUNICATION

The major players in the mobile phone service industry are enlisted as:

BSNL
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, countrys largest cellular service operator was set up in the year 2000. It is a state owned telecom company with its headquarters located in New Delhi. BSNL is also the largest land line telephone establishment in India. As of April, 2011 87.1 million users have been reported to be BSNL users.

MTNL
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) was set up in the year 1985, to run telecom operations in the major metro cities of India, Mumbai and Delhi. Its headquarters are based in Mumbai. MTNL was the first company in India to initiate 3G services in India, having the brand name of MTNL 3G Jadoo Services which provided options as Video call, Mobile TV, Mobile Broadband etc to the customers.

37

Airtel
Also known as Bharti Airtel Limited was started in July 1995, with its head office based in New Delhi. Airtel runs its operations in as many as 19 countries across the world and is also ranked fifth as telecom service provider globally. As of April 2011, figures show that Airtel has over 164.61 million users which make it the biggest mobile service operator in India. Its service includes both 2G and 3G facilities.

Reliance Communications
Also known as RCOM was set up in 2004, with its head office in Navi Mumbai. Reliance Communications as of now has more than 128 million users all across the world.

Aircel
Aircel was founded in 1999, with its head office in New Delhi. It is a joint enterprise between Maxis Communications and the Apollo Hospitals.

Vodafone Essar
Vodafone Essar was founded in 1994 with its head office at Mumbai. Vodafone provides services to 23 telecom circles across India.

38

Tata Indicom
The Tata Teleservices was founded in 1996, with its headquarters in Navi Mumbai.

Idea Cellular
Idea Cellular was started in 1995, with its head office in Mumbai. It also provides 3G services to its subscribers.

Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile started its services in India in 2008, March. It is a U.K. based company.

Uninor
This Company is a joint venture between Telenor Group and Unitech Group and was started in 2009.

39

BSNL Company Profile

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.

BSNL is India's oldest and largest communication service provider (CSP). It had a customer base of 95 million as of June 2011. It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi, which are managed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL).

BSNL then known as the Department of Telecommunications had been a near monopoly during the socialist period of the Indian economy. During this period, BSNL was the only telecom service provider in the country. MTNL was present only in Mumbai and New Delhi. During this period BSNL operated as a typical state-run organization, inefficient, slow, bureaucratic, and heavily unionised.

40

As a result subscribers had to wait for as long as five years to get a telephone connection. The corporation tasted competition for the first time after the liberalisation of Indian economy in 1991. Faced with stiff competition from the private telecom service providers, BSNL has subsequently tried to increase efficiencies itself. DoT veterans, however, put the onus for the sorry state of affairs on the Government policies, where in all state-owned service providers were required to function as mediums for achieving egalitarian growth across all segments of the society. The corporation (then DoT), however, failed to achieve this and India languished among the most poorly connected countries in the world. BSNL was born in 2000 after the corporatisation of DoT.

The corporatisation of BSNL was undertaken by an external international consulting team consisting of a consortium of A.F.Ferguson & Co, JB Dadachanji and NM Rothschild - and was probably the most complex corporatisation exercise of its kind ever attempted anywhere because of the quantum of assets (said to be worth USD 50 Billion in terms of breakup value) and over half a million directly and indirectly employed staff. Satish Mehta, who led the team later confessed that one big mistake made by the consortium was to recommend the continuation of the state and circle based geographical units which may have killed the synergies across regions and may have actually made the organisation less efficient than had it been a seamless national organisation.

41

Vinod Vaish, then Chairman of the Telecom Commission made a very bold decision to promote younger talent from within the organisation to take up a leadership role and promoted the older leaders to a role in licensing rather than in managing the operations of BSNL. The efficiency of the company has since improved, however, the performance level is nowhere near the private players.

The corporation remains heavily unionised and is comparatively slow in decision making and its implementation, which largely acts at the instances of unions without bothering about outcome. Management has been reactive to the schemes of private telecom players.[citation needed] Though it offers services at lowest tariffs, the private players continue to notch up better numbers in all areas, years after year. BSNL has been providing connections in both urban and rural areas. Preactivated Mobile connections are available at many places across India. BSNL has also unveiled cost-effective broadband internet access plans (DataOne) targeted at homes and small businesses. At present BSNL enjoy's around 60% of market share of ISP services.

Year of Broadband 2007

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2007 was declared as "Year of Broadband" in India and BSNL announced plans for providing 5 million broadband connectivity by the end of 2007. BSNL upgraded Dataone connections for a speed of up to 2 Mbit/s without any extra cost. This 2 Mbit/s broadband service was provided by BSNL at a cost of just US$ 11.7 per month (as of 21 July 2008 and at a limit of 2.5GB monthly limit with 0200-0800 hrs as no charge period). Further, BSNL is rolling out new broadband services such as triple play.

BSNL planned to increase its customer base to 108 million customers by 2010. With the frantic activity in the communication sector in India, the target appears achievable. BSNL is a pioneer of rural telephony in India. BSNL has recently bagged 80% of US$ 580 m (INR 2,500 crores) Rural Telephony project of Government of India.

On 20 March 2009 BSNL advertised the launch of BlackBerry services across its Telecom circles in India. The corporation has also launched 3G services in select cities across the country. Presently, BSNL and MTNL are the only players to provide 3G services, as the Government of India has completed auction of 3G services for private players.

BSNL shall get 3G bandwidth at lowest bidder prices of Rs 18,500 crore, which includes Rs 10,186 crore for 3G and Rs 8313crore for BWA. [As of December

43

2011, many other private operators have started rolling out their 3rd Generation(aka 3G) services alongside and are enjoying some success in their campaigns to get market share. While BSNL still maintains it's connectivity standard and expands to many more areas including rural areas with their 3G services. Also the network infrastructure has been upgraded from to provide 3.6 Mbit/s to 7.2 MBits/sec. It is enjoying a slow but somewhat steady success in gaining market share in this regard.

The introduction of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) which is an service that lets the consumer change wireless service providers while retaining their actual mobile number, BSNL has seen many customers opting for this service to move away from the services to other operators. Despite this as the Indian Wireless market grows BSNL still has a loyal base of subscribers and many more subscribers being added to it every day.

Challenges
During the financial year 2008-2009 (from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009) BSNL has added 8.1 million new customers in various telephone services taking its customer base to 75.9 million. BSNL's nearest competitor Bharti Airtel is standing at a customer base of 62.3 million. However, despite impressive growth shown by BSNL in recent times, the Fixed line customer base of BSNL is declining.

44

In order to woo back its fixed-line customers BSNL has brought down long distance calling rate under OneIndia plan, however, the success of the scheme is not known. However, BSNL faces bleak fiscal 2009-2010 as users flee.

Presently there is an intense competition in Indian Telecom sector and various Telcos are rolling out attractive schemes and are providing good customer services. But situation as on 2012 BSNL will be third largest operator (Service) and No 1 access operator among country. As Trai Report 2011-12 BSNL became most trustworthy brand due to its loyalty towards customers and its rule.

Access Deficit Charges (ADC, a levy being paid by the private operators to BSNL for provide service in non-lucrative areas especially rural areas) has been slashed by 20% by TRAI, w.e.f. April 1, 2009.[16] The reduction in ADC may hit the bottom lines of BSNL.

BSNL has started 3G services in 290 cities and acquired more than 6 Lakh customers. It has planned to roll out 3G services in 760 cities across the country in 2010-11. according to users and big sources BSNL's 3G data speed is much higher than other operator and also it is competitively cheap.

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Broadband services
The shift in demand from voice to data has revolutionized the very nature of the network. BSNL is poised to cash on this opportunity and has planned for extensive expansion of the Broadband services. The Broadband customer base of 3.56 Million customer in March'2009 is planned to be increased to 16.00 million by March 2014. On 13 June 2012, BSNL employees participated called off an earlier planned nationwide strike against discriminatory policies of BSNL management upon promise by Management to resolve the Demands of the protesting unions.

BSNL - MTNL Merger Plans

On February 23, 2011, The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said it wanted to revive a proposal for the merger of state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL. In its draft plan, the department while showing concern over the deteriorating performance of BSNL and MTNL said that BSNL and MTNL should be merged as they have complimentary operations and can combine their strengths for synergies.

DoT said the government should set up a multi-stakeholder committee to develop a restructuring plan for both firms. The committee should have members from

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public enterprises, the DoT, department of IT and ministry of finance. However the BSNL's staff unions are opposing this merger tooth and nail realising that MTNL is in dire state and need help of its big brother, BSNL, to alleviate itself from getting into red balance sheet

MTNL in spite of having its operations in two big metro cities viz. New Delhi & Mumbai is realising cascading fall in revenue and profits for the past 10 successive years. The telecommunication operators should focus on enterprise business, services to government and the public sector, value-added services and technologies like 3G, the department recommends.

3G
While it did not participate in the 3G auction, BSNL paid the Indian government Rs. 10,187 crores for 3G spectrum in all 20 circles it operates in. State-owned MTNL provides 3G services in the other 2 circles - Delhi and Mumbai. Both these state-owned operators were given a head start by the government in the 3G space by allotting the required 3G spectrum, on the condition that each will have to pay an amount which will be equivalent to the highest bid in the respective service areas as and when the 3G auctions take place.

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BSNL recently launched a 3G wireless pocket router named Winknet Mf50 for 5800/- Indian rupees. It was released in collaboration with another telecom service provider Shyam networks. Winknet Mf50 enables you to connect multiple devices to the internet using a single sim card.

T-Pad Specifications IS701R

T-Pad IS701C

T-Pad WS704C

T-Pad WS802C

3G Coverage
BSNL has the largest 3G network in India. Additionally, BSNL 3G services usually cover not only the main town/city but also the adjoining suburbs and rural areas as well. As of now BSNL has 3G services in 826 cities across India. The following is a list of BSNL 3G enabled towns/cities. This list covers only BSNL 3G services provided through HSDPA/HSUPA and HSPA+ for GSM subscribers and not EVDO for CDMA subscribers.

Note: This list may not be complete as new towns/cities are added regularly.

BSNL Tablet
BSNL initially Launched three tablets manufactured by Pantel. Now fourth tablet (T-Pad IS701C) is also available. The tablet's brand name is Penta. The tablet is available for pre-order online.

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Price 7

3250.00 Inch, 7

4949.00 Inch, 7

10999.00 Inch, 8

13500.00 Inch,

800x480 Screen size pixel Resistive

800x480 pixel Capacitive

800x600 pixel Capacitive

800x600 pixel Capacitive

Central processor unit speed Random256MB access DDR2 memory Flash 2 GB Memory 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB DDR3 DDR3 DDR3 512MB 512MB 512MB 1 GHz 1 GHz 1 GHz 1.2 GHz

Recognitions
The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory ranked BSNL in the 65th position of the list of Most Trusted brands.

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Competitors
BSNL competes with 14 other mobile operators throughout India. They are Aircel, Airtel, Idea, Loop Mobile, MTNL, MTS, Reliance Communications, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Uninor, Videocon, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.

Quality of Service
Bangalore Telecom goes by the motto "Connecting India, faster" and displays the same at their homepage. The service quality of BSNL Customer service has been severely criticized as very poor. The mobile services provided by BSNL in Kolkatta city were criticized for network outages and frequent call drops. Despite the criticism there is very negligible or no amount of work being carried out by the authorities to improve the performance and quality of the network. BSNL claims to offer seamless coverage in almost all forests of India in collaboration with state forest department.

Censorship
BSNL enforces censorship of online content as per orders of Indian Department of Telecom.

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EVOLUTION OF BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED (BSNL)

In India, the Posts and Telegraph Department originated in 1851 as a small part of the Public Works Department. Dr. William Shaughnessy pioneered telegraph and telephone in India. A regular separate department was opened around 1854 when telegraph facilities were thrown open to the public.

The major milestones of the organization are as shown below.1851 First operational land lines were laid by the government near Kolkata1881 Telephone service introduced in India1883 Merger with postal system1923 Formation of Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT)1932 Merger of ETC and IRT into the Indian Radio and Cable Communication Company (IRCC)1947 Nationalization of all foreign telecommunication companies to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT)1985 Department of Telecommunication (DOT) established, an exclusive provider of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system)1986 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 areas1997 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) created1999 Cellular Services are launched in India. New National Telecom Policy is adopted2000 DOT becomes a corporation, BSNL2001 Policy announced for additional licenses in Basic and Mobile Services2002 BSNL enters into GSM cellular operation2003 Unified Access (Basic & Cellular) Service License (USAL) introduced as a first step towards

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Unified License Regime2004 License fee reduced by 2% across the board for all the access licenses2005 Introduced Broadband in the country.

Customers have voted with their phones to make Vodafone Group the world's top wireless phone services carrier by sales with more than 200 million customers; in terms of subscribers, Vodafone trails only China Mobile. The company does most of its business in Europe where it is a leader in wireless markets of the UK and Germany. In the US, the group holds a 45%stake in the #2 US wireless provider Verizon Wireless. Vodafone also serves callers in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Pacific region through subsidiaries and joint ventures. The group also provides wireless data, broadband Internet, as well as fixed-line phone services through German subsidiary Arc or.

IDEA Cellular
IDEA Cellular provides wireless services to about 24 million subscribers in 22 service areas such as Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, and Maharashtra. The company's network covers about 60% of the country. IDEA offers contract and pre-paid cellular service options in addition to a number of value-added services such as mobile Web browsing, video streaming, and multimedia messaging. The company is controlled by Indian industrial manufacturing conglomerate Aditya Birla Group.

52

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) can help you call a deli in Delhi, or mumble to a friend in Mumbai. The company provides fixed-line and wireless telecommunications services for two of the largest metropolitan areas of India. The company also provides Internet access services. It divides its operations into two business segments: basic (fixed line, CDMA-based mobile, and Internet access) and cellular (GSM-based mobile). Outside of India, the company offers services in Nepal (through a joint venture) and Mauritius. The government of India owns56% of the company

Aircel
The Aircel Group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India, with Maxis

Communications holding a majority stake of 74%. Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and became the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu within 18 months. In December 2003, it launched commercially in Chennai and quickly established itself as a market leader a position it has held since. It began its outward expansion in 2005 and met with unprecedented success in the Eastern frontier circles. Item urged a market leader in Assam and in the North Eastern provinces within 18 months of operations.

Till today, the company gained a foothold in 17 circles including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, UP(West),

53

UP(East) and Mumbai. The Company has currently gained a momentum in the space of telecom in India post the allocation of additional spectrum by the Department of Telecom, Govt. of India for 13 new circles across India. These include Delhi (Metro), Mumbai (Metro), Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP (West) and UP (East). With over 17 million customers in the country, Aircel has revved up plans to become a full-fledged national operator by end of 2009.

MTS
Mobile Tele Systems OJSC (MTS) is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, and the 8th largest in the world. MTS is 52.8% majority-owned by Sistema, the largest private sector consumer services company in Russia and the CIS.

Sistema Shyam Tele Services Limited is a joint venture company between Sistema of Russia and Shyam Group of India. Sistema has a controlling 73.71% stake in the venture. Sistema Shyam Tele Services Limited has licenses and spectrum to provide mobile telephony services on the CDMA platform in all22 circles across the country. Shyam Tele link became Sistema Shyam Tele Services and brought globally renowned brand MTS to India. Shyam Tele link is the first telecom operator to acquire the fastest 100,000 customers in the state of Rajasthan.

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KERALA TELECOM CIRCLE

Trivandrum had the first Telephone exchange, a 10 Line Magneto Exchange, in 1930, managed by the Travancore State Electricity Department. By 1947 there was only about 2500telephones in the entire West Coast. We had automatic exchanges in 1930. By 1950 New Auto Exchanges were installed at Quill on, Kottayam and Alleppey. In 1950-'51 Travancore Telephone System was integrated with the Indian Post and Telegraph Department. Kerala

Telecommunication detached from Postal Department in 74 and Kerala Telecommunication Circle was formed with Head Quarters at Trivandrum.

Evolution of Kerala Telecom Circle

Kerala Telecom Circle, which was first formed as a combined Postal and Telecom Circle in the year 1961, provides services to a population of over 31 million people in the state of Kerala, Union territories of Lakshadweep Islands and major part of the Union territories of Pondichery. The circle comprises of 11 Major secondary switching areas and one minor secondary switching area at Lakshadweep. Kerala Telecommunication circle has been segmented into eleven Secondary Switching Areas (SSA) and each SSA is further divided into several Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCA) for all charging. The SSAs are Trivandrum, Qulin, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikkode, Cannanore, Malappuram and Lakshadweep.

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Kerala Telecom Circle Profile

Kerala Telecommunication has an impressive record the growth development and modernization of Telecommunication facilities in the state. It has always been in the forefront in providing telecom facilities to the people of Kerala. It was the first state in India to fully atomize all telephone exchanges, the first to link all the exchanges through the STD facility, the first to provide public telephone facilities in all Panchayath Head Quarters and the first to provide Public telephones in every villages.

Kerala telecommunications has a large network of modern digital switches linked through reliable and high capacity optical fibre media. It has started providing Internet services in the state of Kerala in a big way. BSNLs Cellular Mobile Service was launched in the circle on 23-10-2002 covering most of the major cities and towns along with 2112kms of highway in the initial stage and connections are provided both prepaid (Excel) and post paid (Cell one).

The initial plan comprises are 247 BTS sites which include 183 cities and 64 highways BTS sites. The network comprises of two MSC locations at Ernakulum and Trichur and 6 BSC locations at Trivandrum,, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Trichur, Kozhikode and Kannur. The cellular mobile project for Kerala Circle envisages asubscriber base of 326585 in two phases with first phase comprising of 12500 lines and second comprising of 201585 lines.

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DEPARTMENTAL ANALYSIS
The major departments prevailing in the BSNL include; Administration Department, Finance Department, Marketing Department, Mobile Department (IMPCS),Planning Department, Operations Department and Vigilance

Department. All these departments have their own functions and each of them have classified in to several sections according to the functions they performs with in the organization. The Human Resource Department undertakes the activities of training of employees for the organization. The Finance Department deals with the revenue and finance analysis of the organization. The marketing department undertakes promotional activities, advertisement, publicity etc.

ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT
This department is mainly intended for all the administrative policies related to the organization. It includes human resource management consist of recruitment, selection, training etc. Human resource in an organization is concerned with the creation of harmonious working relationships among its participants and bringing about utmost individual development. This department is situated in the second floor of the circle house. This department is formulated for all the personnel policies related with the organization and also coordinating all the functions of the employees or staff.

HRD deals with staffing function of the business activity, it deals with the human aspects of the business to improve the functioning of employees for achieving through organizational objective. In BSNL HRD-Human Resource Development

57

is meant for helping employees to develop there skills, knowledge and ability. HRD is the development of the company in terms of human which includes training and development, career development and organization development.

TRAINING CENTERS
BSNL has a wide range of well established, high quality training centres in India. It has 15 Regional Telecom Training Centres (RTTC), 18 Circle Telecom Training Centres (CTTC) and 7 District Telecom Training Centres. In Kerala the training centre is located in Trivandrum..BSNL has a wide range of wellestablished, high-quality training centres across India. It has 15 Regional Telecom Training Centres (RTTC), 18 Circle Telecom Training Centres (CTTC) and 7 District Telecom training Centres. In Kerala, the regional Training Centre is located in Trivandrum.

KERALA (RTTC)

REGIONAL

TELECOM

TRAINING

CENTER

The regional training centre of kerala is located in Trivandrum. RTTC is mainly for training the executive staff. Regional telecom training centre, Trivandrum is committed to impart high quality training in modern telecommunication technology areas, satisfying in all respects the requirements and reasonable expectations of its trainees and their sponsors. RTTC is also committed to establish a QMS conforming to the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and to

58

continually improve the same. Quality shall be the responsibility of each staff of the RTTC in their area of operation.

KERALA CIRCLE TELECOM TRAINING CENTER (CTTC)

Circle telecommunication training centre, Thiruvananthapuram gives training to the Non-executive staff of kerala telecommunication circle. Popularly known as CTTC Trivandrum, it is co-located with Regional Telecommunication training centre (RTTC) at RTTC campus, Kaimanam, Trivandrum.

The following are the various training centres in India:

RTTCs Ahmedabad Bhubaneshwar Chennai Guwahati Hyderabad Jaipur Kalyani Lucknow Mysore Rajpura Nagpur Ranchi Pune Trivandrum RGMTTC, Chennai CTTCs Ahmedabad Bhubaneshwar Calcutta Guwahati Jaipur Jammu Indore Kakinada Kurukshetra Lucknow Mysore Meerut Nasik Patna Rajpura Shillong Sundernagar Trivandrum DTTCs Ahmedabad Bangalore Calcutta Chennai Delhi Hyderabad Pune Agra Jeipur

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ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

60

Interesting facts

There are 2 million BSNL mobile connections in rural India(a record, no other connection is as famous as BSNL in rural areas)

BSNL supplies phone lines to all other network such as Airtel, Vodafone etc.

BSNL is the only network which offers broadband connections

More than 50% of the international calls coming to India, use Reliance network.

Largest pan India coverage-over 11000 towns & 3 lakh villages.

Indias No. 1 wireless service provider with more than 50million customers.

An incredible speed of 2mbps is only offered by BSNL

The only Mobile service available throughout the country including Jammu and Kashmir and North Eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram etc.

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THE BSNL SERVICES

BSNL LANDLINE PHONE PLUS SERVICE NEW TELEPHONE CONNECTION PERMANENT CONNECTION CONCESSION IN RENTALS SHIFT OF TELEPHONE TRANSFER OF TELEPHONE TELEPHONE TARIFF BSNL MOBILE POSTPAID PREPAID UNIFIED MESSAGING GPRS/WAP/MMS DEMOs WI-FI CO-LOCATION SERVICE BSNL WEB HOSTING INTERNET TARIFF DIAL UP INTERNET SMS& BULK SMS BSNL BROADBAND REGISTER ONLINE TARIFF

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FAQ CHECK USAGE BSNL MPLS-VPN ISDN LEASED LINE INTELLIGENT NETWORK FREE PHONE SERVICE PREMIUM RATE SERVICE INDIA TELEPHONE CARD VIRTUALPRIVATENETWORK(VPN) VOICE VPN UNIVERSAL NUMBER UNIVERSAL PERSONAL NUMBER TELE VOTING VIDEO CONFERENCING OVERVIEW AUDIO CONFERENCING I NET SERVICES ON I NET USING ON I NET I NET CONNECTIONS TELEX/ TELEGRAPH EPABX FREE EPABX CENTREX

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CENTREX TARIFF HVNET RABMN INMARSAT KU-BAND TRANSPONDER FACCESS BSNL WLL

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Objective of the study

To determine the awareness of consumers towards BSNL Pre-paid service.

To find out the consumers attitude for the BSNL Pre-paid service.

To find out the utility perceived by the subscriber in Pre-paid service of BSNL.

To find out some meaningful information about overall BSNL services.

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Methods of Data Collection

Primary Data:
I used QUESTIONNAIRE as primary data for my survey.

Secondary Data:
I used Various books Internet sites

Sampling technique:
Convenience sampling Random sampling

Area of the field work:

In mirzapur city.

Sampling unit:
Subscribers of BSNL pre-paid Franchisers of BSNL pre-paid Employees of BSNL office

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Contact method:
Personal opinion through schedule and by mobile.

No. of sample collected:

100 samples.

Duration of the study:

Dated: 10 June 2012- 26 July2012 (46 days)

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DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Reasons for prefer pre-paid service over post-paid

Table 1:
Reasons for prefer prepaid Service Over post-paid Convenience Control over expenditure Control over use Self customization Total 30 10 15 45 100 30% 10% 15% 45% 100 Number of Respondents Percentage

Chart 1:

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
45% subscriber use the pre-paid service of BSNL cause of self

customization. 30% use this cause of convenience. 15% are for control over use and only 10% for control over expenditure.

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Having the post-paid connection before pre-paid one

Table 2:
Having the post-paid before pre-paid service Yes No Total 30 70 30% 70% Number of Respondents Percentage

Chart 2 :

70 60 50 40 No. of respondents 30 20 10 0 Yes No

70

Interpretation :
Only 30% subscribers use post-paid connection before pre-paid service.

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Reasons for promoted to switch pre-paid service

Table 3:
Reasons for promoting Pre-paid service Convenience Control over expenditure Control over use Self customization Anything else Total Number of Respondents 5 15 Nil 5 Nil 30 Percentage 16.67 50.67 Nil 16.67 Nil 100

Chart 3 :

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
15 consumers promoted pre-paid service because its control over expenditure. Cause of convenience there are 10 consumers and only 5 of them use this by self customization.

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Opinion about the tariff plan of BSNL pre-paid service

Table 4 :
Opinion about the tariff plan of BSNL pre-paid service Best Good Bad Worst Total 15 70 15 Nill 100 15% 70% 15% Nill 100 Number of Respondents Percentage

Chart 4

70 60 50 40 No. of respondents 30 20 10 0 Good Best Bad Worst

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Interpretation :
70% users think that the BSNL pre-paid service has good tariff plans, 15% and 15% has the opinion of best and bad tariff plans of BSNL pre-paid service respectively.

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Following is true as regards the call rate of BSNL pre-paid service

Table 5 :
Opinion for the call rates of BSNL pre-paid service Highly satisfied Satisfied Indifferent Dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied Total Number of Respondents 5 20 60 10 5 100 Percentage 5% 20% 60% 10% 5% 100

Chart 5 :
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Highly satisfied Satisfied Indifferent Dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
60% subscribers gave the response in neutral way and 20% , 10%, 5%, and also 5% responses as satisfied, dissatisfied, highly satisfied, and highly dissatisfied respectively for the call rate of BSNL pre-paid service.

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Views on the sms pack of BSNL pre-paid service

Table 6 :
Views on the SMS pack Number of Respondents Very economical Not economical Customize to the customers need Not customize to the consumers need Total 100 100 24 24% 11 30 34 Percentage 11% 30% 34%

Chart 6 :

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Very Not economical economical Customize to the needs Not customize to the needs No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
11% people have their own view that the sms pack of BSNL prepaid is very economical. 30% says that it is not economical, but 34% subscribers are agree that it is customize as the needs but in other side 24% are against this and say that it is not customize as their needs too.

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Satisfaction level with overall services of BSNL pre-paid

Table 7 :
Satisfaction level with overall BSNL services Highly satisfied Satisfied Indifferent Dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied Total Number of Respondents 3 17 62 18 Nill 100 Percentage 3% 17% 62% 18% Nill 100

Chart 7 :

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 No. of respondents

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Interpretation:
Only 3% users are highly satisfied with over all services of BSNL pre-paid other -wise 17% are only satisfied, 62% are indifferent in

behaviour, 18% are dissatisfied too.

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Heed for use the GPRS features of BSNL pre-paid services

Table 8:
Heed for use GPRS feature Number of Respondents Errorless connection Internet speed Low cost On interrupted service Total 5 68 7 20 100 Percentage 5% 68% 7% 20% 100

Chart 8 :

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Errorless connection Internet speed Low cost On interrupted service No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
5% users of BSNL pre-paid use GPRS cause of errorless

connection, 68% use it for internet speed, 5% for low cost and 20% are for on interrupted service.

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Causes of preference BSNL over other service providers

Table 9:
Cause of prefer BSNL Number of Respondents Most economical Efficient services Attractive tariff & vouchers Curtis customer care offices Total 7 40 40 13 100 Percentage 7% 40% 40% 13% 100

Chart 9:

40 35 30 25 20 No. of respondents 15 10 5 0 Most economical Efficient services Attractive tariff & vouchers Curtsies customer care nodes

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Interpretation :
7% consumers prefer BSNL service over other companies because it is most economical, cause of efficient services and attractive tariff and vouchers 40% and 40% subscribers prefer BSNL services respectively and 10% are use it for curtsies customer care nodes.

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Ponder for improving in following features in BSNL pre-paid service

Table 10 :
Want to improve in the BSNL pre-paid features Call drop Uncooperative customer care Unattractive tariffs & vouchers Network problem Nothing Total 20 5 100 20% 5% 100 45 5 25 45% 5% 25% Number of Respondents Percentage

Chart 10 :

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
45% consumers like to improve the call drop in BSNL pre-paid service, 5% in uncooperative customer care nodes, 25% in tariff & vouchers 20% in network problem and 5% consumers has also no any problem by BSNL services.

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Recommendation to the friends or relative whose wants to get pre-paid service provider

Table 11 :
Suggestion to oters to get pre-paid connection BSNL Reliance Tata DoCoMo Vodafone Any other Total 40 9 23 8 20 100 40% 9% 23% 8% 20% 100 Number of Respondents Percentage

Chart 11 :

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 BSNL Reliance Vodafone Tata Do Co Mo Any other No. of respondents

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Interpretation :
40% consumers recommend BSNL to their friends and relatives if they want to purchase, 10% to Reliance, 9% to Vodafone, 19% to Tata Do Co Mo, and another 22% are consider their friends to being the user of others like Uninor and Virgin too.

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Conclusion

Mostly consumer prefer the BSNL pre-paid service by self customization and control over their use but only a few persons give preference it cause of convenience & control over expenditure.

In the case of tariff plans of BSNL pre-paid services, only a few persons says that it provides a best tariff plans. Most of the consumers prefer it because it provides good services. But some of them say that it has a bad & worst service too.

According to the consumer survey it shows that mostly BSNL consumers are only satisfied or have a neutral behaviour for the pre-paid service of BSNL. Only a few persons are highly satisfied to this but against it there are also some consumers who are dissatisfied to this.

Some consumers attitude shows that the sms pack of BSNL pre-paid is not economical & according to their needs but the same ratio of consumers are against it & says it is much expensive & not satisfied their needs.

Over all service of BSNL, there is a little number of person whose are satisfied with their highly intension & mostly persons are satisfied to these all services but in the comparison of satisfaction level of consumers

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between indifferent, there is a little bit difference & a few persons are dissatisfied to this too.

According to consumers behaviour the internet speed of BSNL pre-paid service is best. It provides a low cost service with interrupted network too.

Maximum consumers like BSNLs efficient services & others like thats attractive vouchers comparison of other companies & but some of them says that it is very economical over other companies.

Maximum consumers wants to improvement in network problem area & call drop in BSNL pre-paid connection but some of them says that the BSNL has no any attractive tariff & vouchers according to their needs. But it is so good for BSNL service that there are also some consumers who have no any problem to the BSNL pre-paid service.

It is a good news that mostly persons are like BSNL service but the high competitor of BSNL is Tata DoCoMo & Reliance. There are some other competitors like Vodafone & Uninor but it is not affected too much.

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Recommendation

According to the public survey report there are a maximum number of people who have their own opinion to being the subscriber of BSNL prepaid service. It also controls the consumers expenses & use too & easy in convenience. It has only a good tariff plans & some time it provide best but not for all persons. Try to get develop the tariff & make it according to maximum consumers need.

Consumers are only behaving like neutral for the call rates but not too much satisfied. Try to make the sms pack according to customers need & as it is much economical so make it cheaper & best.

In the term of overall services of BSNL the consumers are not much satisfied they use it only in neutral way so try to enhance the BSNL services according to consumers needs & under their budget.

Peoples like BSNL pre-paid GPRS features because it provide a good internet speed but it has also a problem of network connection & its high cost which is the basic cause that not all consumers get full enjoyment of internet in this modern & technical era by this network & use other for this.

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It has not sufficient services but have many attractive vouchers but as it is a high profile company so it is not in the budget of rural & all lower caste persons so try to make it for all levels & enhance it in rural areas too.

The BSNL pre-paid service has two basic problem by which the maximum person are not satisfied to this service thats two are- first of all its network problem which is not available in all areas & the second one is it call drop. As it has also its unattractive tariffs & vouchers problem which is also a main cause to leave the BSNL service by subscriber.

So try to enhance the tariffs & vouchers & provide an interrupted network to the subscriber according to their needs with low cost too by which they can use it much more comparison of other networks & make it broader & efficient & spread out in rural areas too. It has basically two higher competitors Reliance & Tata docomo which provides the consumers much efficient services in lower cost according to the consumers needs. If BSNL want to touch the high level so it must to see its competitors & also have to satisfied the subscriber by which they can give maximum suggestion to their friends & relatives for being the subscriber of BSNL.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kothari C.R. Research Methodology Kotlar Philip Marketing management New Delhi, Prentice hall of India Private Ltd. 2007

BSNL website- www.bsnl.in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/history-of-telecommunication http://www.dnb.co.in/indian-telecom-industry/overviewII.asp http://www.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/35405/1/block-5.pdf http://business.mapsofindia.com/communications-industry/companies/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bharat-sanchar-nigam-limited http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/45505131?width=320

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LIMITATION OF RESEARCH

I have completed my summer training programme at BSNL OFFICE, MIRZAPUR under wonderful environment and learn things very much there, but to complete my summer training, some limitations I have to face. These are:

Some subscribers are not ready to give me any information.

In Mirzapur city there are a maximum number of subscriber who are illiterate or have no much literate, so they cant able to fulfil the questionnaire by themselves.

I have no much more support to collect maximum information from subscribers.

The franchisees and the employees of BSNL office did not take any interest to give full information about this.

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QUESTIONNAIRE
Name_____________________ Age_______________________ Occupation___________________ Contact No._____________________

Why do you prefer pre-paid service over post-paid services? Convenience control over expenditure Control over use Self customization

Did you have post-paid connection before prepaid one? Yes No

If yes, which feature of pre-paid service promoted you to switch? Convenience Control over expenditure Control over use Self customization Anything else(specified)......................................

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What do you think about the tariff plan of BSNL pre-paid service? Good Best Bad Worst

Which of the following is true as regards the call rate of BSNL pre-paid

service? Highly satisfied Satisfied Indifferent Dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied

What is your views on the sms pack of bsnl pre-paid service? Very economical Not economical Customize to the needs Not customize to the needs

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How far are you satisfied with overall service of BSNL pre-paid? Highly satisfied Satisfied Indifferent Dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied

Why do you like the GPRS features of BSNL pre-paid service? Errorless connection Internet speed Low cost On interrupted service

Why do you prefer BSNL services over other companies? Most economical Efficient services Attractive tariff & vouchers Curtsies customer care nodes

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Which of the following features of BSNL pre-paid service you would like

to be improved? Call drop Uncooperative customer care nodes Unattractive tariff & vouchers Network problem Other(specified)............................................

If your friend or relative wants to get pre-paid connection which service

provider you recommended? BSNL Reliance Vodafone Tata docomo Any other(specified).....................................

THANKS

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