PROJECT REPORT

ON

“A STUDY ON PERCEPTION OF CUSTOMER’S WITH REGARD TO

SERVICES PROVIDED BY BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED”

HIMANSHU VASHISHTA

CM14217

1
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project titled “A STUDY ON PERCEPTION OF CUSTOMER’S WITH
REGARD TO SERVICES PROVIDED BY BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED” is an original work of
HIMANSHU VASHISHTA bearing roll no.CM14217 of BE +MBA 5th year from UICET.
This report is an authentic work done by him under my guidance. This project work has not
been submitted to any other university or institute for the award of any degree or diploma.

2
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

With a grateful heart, I want to thank almighty god and all those who have helped me in making
this project a success. I take great pleasure in acknowledging with gratitude the constant guidance and
wholehearted support that I received.

In particular I would like to thank Ms Roopali for her wholesome support throughout the project
work.

HIMANSHU
VASHISHTA

3
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project titled “A STUDY ON PERCEPTION OF CUSTOMER’S

WITH REGARD TO SERVICES PROVIDED BY AIRTEL LIMITED” has not been submitted
anywhere in full (or) part to any other university / institutions for award of any degree, diploma
fellowship or similar titles or prizes otherwise.

HIMANSHU
VASHISHTA

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Airtel comes to you from Bharti Cellular Limited - a part of the biggest private integrated telecom
conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which include Cellular,
Basic, Internet and recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports
telephone terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone
instruments in India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA. Bharti is the leading
cellular service provider, with a footprint in 19 states covering all four metros and more than 9 million
satisfied customers.
Bharti Tele-Ventures believes that the demand for mobile services in India will continue to grow rapidly
as a result of the following factors:
• Lower tariffs and handset prices over time;
• Growth in pre-paid customer category;
• Greater economic growth and continued development of India’s economy;
• Higher quality mobile networks and services; and
• Greater variety and usage of value added services.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No. Topic Page No.

CERTIFICATE 02

ACKNOWLEDMENT 03

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 05

1. CHAPTER: INTRODUCTION 09

1.1. ABOUT THE INDUSTRY 11

1.2. PRODUCT 12

1.3. SCOPE OF STUDY 13

1.4. SERVICES OF BHARTI AIRTEL 14

1.5 . CORPORATE STRUCTURE 18

1.6. BHARTI’S VISION 19

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 1.7. BHARTI’S MISSION 19

1.8. SWOT ANALYSIS 20

1.9. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BHARTI’ 22

AIRTEL

1.10. NETWORK OF AIRTEL 23

2. CHAPTER: LITERATURE REVIEW 27

3. CHAPTER: MARKETING STRATERGIES OF AIRTEL 31

4. CHAPTER: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37

5. CHAPTER: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS 40

6. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 53

7. SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 55

CONCLUSIONS 57

BIBLIOGRAPHY 58

ANNEXURE 60

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 CHAPTER 1.

INTRODUCTION

8
 Introduction

TYPE PUBLIC
Traded as: BSE: 532454NSE:
BHARTIARTL BSE SENSEX
Constituent
Industry: Telecommunications

7 July 1995
Founded:
Founder: Sunil Bharti Mittal

Headquarter: Bharti crescent , 1, nelson Mandela road , new delhi,India.

Area Served: Worldwide

Products: Fixed line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet
services, digital television and IPTV

966 billion (US$14 billion)

Revenue:
2327 billion (US$32 billion)
Total assets:
800 billion (US$11 billion)
Total equity:
25,868
Number of
employees:
54 billion (US$800 million)
Profit:
www.airtel.com
Website:

9
In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India, which he earlier used to import
from a Taiwan company, Kingtel, replacing the old fashioned, bulky rotary phones that were in use in
the country then. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie up
with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button phones. By the early 1990s,
Bharti was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear. He named his first push-
button phones as 'Mitbrau'.

In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licences auctioned in India. One
of the conditions for the Delhi cellular license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom
operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi. He was one of the first
Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area. His plans were
finally approved by the Government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti
Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Within a
few years Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark.
Bharti also brought down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India under brand name 'Indiaone'.

In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in
Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went
public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange
of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were re-branded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004,
Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to
Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India.

Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in July 2004 becoming to the
first operator in India to do so. The Airtel theme song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most
popular tune in that year.[19]

In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South
Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle
East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake
in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides
emphasise the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti
would be marrying up," as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic

10
coverage. However, the talks fell apart as MTN Group tried to reverse the negotiations by making
Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.] In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it was
in talks with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July
2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement, some sources stating that this was due to opposition
from the South African government.

In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure
for the fixed line business. Later, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for
setting up an Internet Protocol access network across the country. This would help consumers access
internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.

In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In June 2010, Bhartil
acquired the African business of Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion making it the largest ever acquisition
by an Indian telecom firm. In 2012, Bharti tied up with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number
of retail stores across India. In 2014, Bharti planned to acquire Loop Mobile for
₹7 billion (US$97 million), but the deal was called off later.

Bharti Airtel Limited ("Airtel"), the world's third largest mobile operator with operations in 20 countries
across Asia and Africa, said that its Treasury division has been adjudged as a highly commended winner
of the Top Treasury Team (Asia) Awards at the Adam Smith Asia Awards 2015.

1.1 ABOUT THE INDUSTRY

Indian mobile telephony market is increasing day by day and there is more to happen with technological up
gradations occurring nearly every day and the ever-increasing demand for easier and faster connectivity,
the mobile telephony market is expected to race ahead. India has a fast-growing mobile services market
with excellent potential for the future. With almost 7 million subscribers amassed in less than two years of
operation, India's growth tempo has far exceeded that of numerous other markets, such as China and
Thailand, which have taken more than five years to reach the figures India currently holds. Bharti Airtel
Limited (commonly shortened to Airtel and stylised airtel) is an Indian global telecommunications services
company based in New Delhi, India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa. Airtel

11
provides GSM, 3G, 4G LTE mobile services, fixed line broadband and voice services depending upon the
country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecom circles
except Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and is likely to launch in these circles soon. It is the second
largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest mobile network operator in the world with
over 438.04 million subscribers. Airtel was named India's second most valuable brand in the first ever
Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc. Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of
outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes
factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been adopted by several operators.
Airtel's equipment is provided and maintained by Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia Networks whereas IT
support is provided by IBM.The transmission towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture
companies of Bharti including Bharti Infratel and Indus Towersin India. Ericsson agreed for the first time to
be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front,
which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of ₹1 (1.4) minute.

1.2 Product

Airtel provides a host of voice and data products and services, including high-speed GPRS

services.Airtel also offers a wide array of 'postpaid' and 'prepaid' mobile offers, with a range of

tariff plans that target different segments. A comprehensive range of value-added, customized

services are part of the unique package from Airtel. The company's products reflect a desire to

constantly innovate. Some of these are reflected in the fact that Airtel was the first to develop

'single integrated billing system'. Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited - a part of the

biggest private integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti is the leading cellular

service provider with an all India footprint covering all 23 telecom circles of the country. It has

over 21 million satisfied customers. Established in 1976, Bharti has many joint ventures with

world leaders like SingTel (Singapore Telecom); Warburg Pincus, USA, Telia, Sweden; Asian

infrastructure find, Mauritius; International Finance Corporation, USA and New York Life

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International, USA. Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which include Cellular, Basic,

Internet and recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports

telephone terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone

instruments in India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA.

Airtel's journey to leadership began in Delhi in 1995. Since then, Airtel has established itself

across India in sixteen states covering a population of over 600 million people. Airtel will soon

cover the entire country through a process of acquisitions and green field projects. With a

presence in over 1,400 towns, Airtel today has the largest network capacity in the country.

An excellent example is Easy Charge - India's first paperless electronic recharging facility for

prepaid customers. As evidence of its fine record, Airtel has also been conferred with numerous

awards. It won the prestigious Techies Award for 'being the best cellular services provider' for

four consecutive years between 1997 and 2000 - a record that is still unmatched. And in 2003, it

received the Voice & Data Award for being 'India's largest cellular service provider' amongst

others.

1.3 SCOPE OF STUDY:

• Before business can develop marketing strategies, they must understand what factors influence
buyers’ behavior and how they make purchase decision to satisfy their needs and wants.

• This study aims towards collecting information about consumers Psychology towards Airtel and
thus helping Airtel in understanding customer’s nature and help in developing strategies which
will thus help them in increasing their business.

• It is done to understand what consumers consider while going for purchasing Airtel Products.

• By this study we came to know how the organization retaining and sustaining its customer.

• The main purpose of this project is to study marketing strategies which help Airtel in increasing
their market share.

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 • This study is mainly focused on various factors that affect consumers buying decision. Such as
social, psychological and personal.

• This study helps to understand the satisfactory level of stratergies towards the brand. And also
understanding the consumer attitudes and their buying motives by means of company brand
image.

1.4 SERVICES OF BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED.

Services
• M o b i l e - Prepaid – Postpaid (2G,3G,4G).
• H o m e Phones – Fixed Line - Fixed Wireless Phones
• B r o a d b a n d & Internet
• C a l l i n g Cards
• W i r e l e s s Internet – Data Card - USB Modem
• A i r t e l Digital Tv (DTH).

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Bharti Airtel became the first private fixed-line service provider in India. It is now promoted under the
Airtel brand. Recently, the Government opened the fixed-line industry to unlimited competition. Airtel
has subsequently started providing fixed-line services in the four circles of Delhi, Haryana, Madhya
Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu & UP (West).
Airtel Enterprise Services, India's premium telecommunication service, brings to you a whole new
experience in telephony. From integrated telephone services for Enterprises and small business
enterprises to user-friendly plans for Broadband Internet Services (DSL), we bring innovative,
costeffective, comprehensive and multi-product solutions to cater to all your telecom and data needs.

1. Voice - Product Portfolio Airtel Enterprise Services telephone services go beyond basic
telephony to offer our users a whole host of Value Added Services as well as premium add-ons. Each
telephone connection from Airtel Enterprise Services is backed by a superior fibre-optic backbone for

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enhanced reliability and quality telephony. Few of the Value Added Services offered are Calling Line
Identification, Three Party Conferencing, Dynamic Lock, Hunting Numbers, and Parallel Ringing etc.
Airtel Enterprise Services Voice Services provide Free Dial-up Internet access that is bundled along
with your Telephone connection from Airtel. It’s fast, reliable and gives you unlimited Internet access.

2. Mobile Services
Airtel’s mobile footprint extends across the country in 21 telecom circles. It’s service standards
compare with the very best in the world. In fact, that’s how Bharti has managed to win the trust of
millions of customers and makes it one of the top 5 operators in the world, in terms of service and
subscriber base.

The company has several Firsts to its credit:

• The First to launch full roaming service on pre-paid in the country.
• The First to launch 32K SIM cards.
• The First in Asia to deploy the multi band feature in a wireless network for efficient usage of
spectrum.
• The First to deploy Voice Quality Enhancers to improve voice quality and acoustics
• The First telecom company in the world to receive the ISO 9001:2000 certification from
British Standards Institute.

3. Satellite Services
Airtel Enterprise Services provides you connectivity where ever you take your business Our Satellite
Services bring you the benefits of access in remote locations. Airtel Enterprise Services is a leading
provider of broadband IP satellite services and DAMA/PAMA services in India. Our solutions support
audio, video and voice applications on demand.
Satellite Services include:
• PAMA/DAMA
• BIT - Internet
• VPN
• Satellite based IPLCs for redundancy reasons

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4. Managed Data & Internet Services
Airtel Enterprise Services brings you a comprehensive suite of data technologies. So we are able to
support all types of networks and ensure that our customers can migrate their network in future
seamlessly. Our Managed Data & Internet services make our customers future proof.
Managed Data & Internet Services include:
• MPLS
• ATM
• FR
• Internet
• Leased Lines
• Customized Solutions
• International Managed Services
•IPLC

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CORPORATE STRUCTURE.

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 Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering
determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a team driven “to seize the day”
with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service. Airtel, in just ten years of
operations, rose to the pinnacle to achievement and continues to lead.
As India's leading telecommunications company Airtel brand has played the role as a
major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence. Today ‘Airtel’ touches
people’s lives with the Mobile services, Telemedia services to connect India's leading 1000+ corporates.
The brand also connects Indians living in USA, UK and Canada with our
call home service.

1.6 Bha rti’s Visio n.

By 2010 Airtel will be the most admired brand in India:

• Loved by more customers

• Targeted by top talent
• Benchmarked by more businesses

We at Airtel always think in fresh and innovative ways about the needs of our customers and how we
want them to feel. We deliver what we promise and go out of our way to delight the customer with a little

bit more

1.7 Bha rti’s M iss i

on

To be globally admired for telecom services that delight customers.

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

• Customer Service Focus

• Empowered Employees

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 • Cost Efficiency
• Unified Messaging Solutions

Board of Directors

Name Designation
Sunil Bharti Mittal Chairman
Chua Sock Koong Director
Manish Kejriwal Director
Sheikh Faisal Thani Al-Thani Director
V K Viswanathan Director
Shishir Priyadarshi Director
Gopal Vittal Managing Director & CEO

Craig Ehrlich Director

Tan Yong Choo Director

Ben Verwaayen Director

D K Mittal Director

Rakesh Bharti Mittal Non-Executive Director

1.8 SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate strength weaknesses, opportunity and
threats involved in a project or in Business. SWOT analysis will give us a quick review of an
organization current status. SWOT analysis for Airtel in India:

STRENGTHS

• Cost advantage
• Current leaders in quality service
• Largest distribution network

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 • Ability to constantly innovate
• Highly skilled workforce
• Entrepreneurial zeal
• Airtel’s increased equity and market cap.

WEAKNESSES
• To prove credibility
• Price pressures
• Need for Government support
• Awareness
• Sales and Marketing

OPPORTUNITIES
• To sustain passion and commitment
• Airtel’s market share increasing at other service provider expense.
• Attain higher value services
• Collaborative business needs to be explored
• Vertical repeatable solutions.
• Low penetration level in rural markets.

THREATS
• Foreign investment
• Global trends moving from GPS to WLL.
• Lack of global parity in telecom tariff
• Other competition

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1.9 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BHARTI AIRTEL

• Bharti Foundation, a separate vehicle established in 2000 to lead the CSR agenda of Bharti Group of
Companies.
• Bharti Airtel’s response to Tsunami Disaster, Donated Rs. 1 Crore to the Prime Minister’s Relief
Fund.
• Bharti Airtel during Mumbai Floods: Bharti Airtel employees climbed up the towers to restore the
networks so that our customers could conveniently reach its employees.
• Bharti Airtel’s response to Kashmir earthquake: Bharti Airtel’s ‘Rapid Response Team’ responded to
the Kashmir earthquake by bringing more than 2000 food packets and water bottles to the affected
area.
• Promise of better life by Educating Rural India i.e Satya Bharti School Program.
• Supporting the community such as action for Autism, Cry, Help Age India , Save life Foundation etc.

Although, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Bharti encompasses much more

than only social outreach programs. It is an integral part of the way Bharti conducts its business.
The essence of Bharti’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility is embedded in the
‘Corporate Values’, which stem from its deepest held beliefs. These values are:

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1.10 NETWORK OF AIRTEL

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

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

FIXED LINE INFRASTRUCTURE

Our high quality fibre-based, fixed line networks in Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya
Pradesh and Chahattisgarh, intensively covers the most prominent commercial and business districts in

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the country. We provide the power of last mile fixed line network to bring end-to-end voice and data
solutions.

LONG DISTANCE INFRASTRUCTURE

Our 25,000 km advanced fibre-optic cable long distance network covers India's top 200cities. And it
powers the services of India's leading private telecom service providers -cellular, fixed line and internet
through Our Long Distance Services.

AIRTEL BROADBAND
Bharti Televentures is the fixed line operator business of Airtel. In the recent branding exercise, all the
services have been offered under the Airtel brand. Data is the next driver for growth. This is clear to the
operators who have belatedly realized the implications for having a pie in all the segments of
telecommunications. Hence Bharti ventured in the broadband market.

WIRELESS INTERNET

It Includes :

1. Data Card
2. USB Modem
Data Card
Airtel Data Card is the superior PC Data Card solution which delivers wireless internet capabilities to
laptops and notebooks, by providing EDGE and GPRS technologies in a single PC Card package. On an
EDGE network, Airtel Data Card enables connection to the Internet using EGPRS. In areas where
EDGE services are not available, the Airtel Data Card still enables reliable and secure data connections
over GPRS. Airtel Data Card opens up the true world of wireless internet and is an ideal companion for
a mobile professional, enabling Internet, Email, and Office applications with real-time secure VPN
access to corporate applications whilst on the move. Anytime, Anywhere Connectivity!
USB Modem
Airtel USB Modem is the superior PC solution delivering wireless internet capability to laptops and
notebooks by providing EDGE and GPRS technologies in a single PC Card Package.

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 On an EDGE network Airtel USB Modem enables connection to the Internet using EGPRS. In areas
where EDGE services are not available, the Airtel USB Modem enables reliable secure data connections
over GPRS. Airtel USB Modem opens up the true world of mobile wireless internet and is the ideal
companion for the mobile professional, enabling Internet and Email whilst on the move. Anytime-
Anywhere Connectivity.
Configure Internet On Airtel Broadband Modem
1. Connect LAN port of modem to the computer using an Ethernet cable.
2. Type 192.168.1.1 on the address bar of the browser and press enter.
3. Enter the default login username and password for Airtel modem. ...
4. Click on Advanced Setup.
5. Click Add button. ...
6. ATM PVC Configuration. ...
7. Reboot.

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CHAPTER 2.

LITERATURE
REVIEW.

26
 Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1. Introduction.
In this chapter, an attempt has been made by the researcher to review the literature relating to the
modern concepts of customer satisfaction and telecom sector. Accordingly, they are reviewed in Part
‘A’ and Part ‘B’ respectively.

PART - A
There was an increase in conducting customer satisfaction surveys by many service
industries (Danaher and Haddrell, 1996)1. Increased research into customer satisfaction has been
influenced dramatically by the variety of measurement scales used in customer satisfaction instruments
tests (Devlin et al., 1993)2. Customer satisfaction is defined generally as the feelings or judgments of
the customer towards products or services after they have been used (Jamal and Naser, 2003)3.
Customer satisfaction in service industries has been approached differently by equity theory,
attribution theory, the confirmation and disconfirmation paradigm, and satisfaction as a function of
perception (Parker and Mathews, 2001)4. Equity theory is essentially a social comparison theory in
which an individual evaluates his 'inputs into' versus outputs derived from a given situation relative to
those of another, where this may be another person, a class of people, an organization, or the individual
himself relative to his experiences from an earlier point in time (Jacoby, 1976)5. Such theory deals with
exchange relationships and the fairness or equity of these exchange relationships. One way to
operationalize equity theory is to measure the fairness of each facet or attribute in the decision process
(Campbell and Pritchard, 1976)6. Attribution theory is a social psychology theory developed in 1958.
The theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behaviour of others or
themselves (selfattribution) with something else. It explores how individuals "attribute" causes
to events and how this cognitive perception affects their usefulness in an organization. The
confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm provides the grounding for the vast majority of satisfaction
studies (Parker and Mathews, 2001). The confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm views customer
satisfaction judgments as the result of the consumer's perception of the gap between their perceptions of
performance and their prior expectations (Parasuraman et al., 1994)7. However, the disconfirmation
theory has been increasingly criticized by many marketing scholars (e.g., Teas, 1994)8. In particular,

27
Teas (1994) argued that the different definitions of expectations and the difficulties with measurement
have undermined these models which used expectation concepts. However, to avoid the debate
surrounding the nature of the expectation concept in measuring customer satisfaction, this research has
followed an alternative approach. This approach initially depended on customers' actual evaluations of
satisfaction, rather than on the gap between perception and expectations (Cronin and Taylor, 1994;
Teas, 1994).

Service quality
Service quality can be defined as the conformance to customer requirements in the delivery of a service
(Chakrabarty et al., 2007)9. Service quality is important to service firms because it has been shown to
increase profit levels, reduce costs, and increase market shares (Parasuraman et al., 1985)10. Moreover,
service quality has been shown to influence purchase intentions (Sullivan and Walstrom, 2001), and is
introduced SERVQUAL, a 22-item instrument that assesses five dimensions of service quality.
The five dimensions are: 1) Tangibles - physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel, 2)
Reliability - ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately, 3) Responsiveness -
willingness to help customers and provide prompt service, 4) Assurance - knowledge and courtesy of
employees, and their ability to inspire trust and confidence, and 5) Empathy - caring, individualized
attention the firm provides to its customers. The SERVQUAL instrument has demonstrated both
excellent validity and reliability (Babakus and Boiler, 1992; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin et al.,
1992)13 and applied to different industries, such as professional services (Freeman and Dart, 1993),
health care (Lam, 1997), tourism (Tribe and Snaith, 1998), business school (Pariseau and McDaniel,
1997), and information systems (Kettinger and Lee, 1994)14. used by some firms to strategically
position themselves in the market place (Brown and Swartz, 1989)11.
Service quality is an abstract and elusive construct, and in the absence of objective measures,
consumers' perception of service quality is commonly assessed. Among the measurement instruments
used to assess service quality, SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988)12, SERVPERF (Cronin and
Taylor, 1992), and the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) (Dabholkar et al., 1996) have been the most
prominent and most widely used instruments.

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PART B:

The Indian Telecom sector has emerged as the fastest growing telecom market in the world. With more
affordable services, increased penetration and a supportive Government have brought significant
changes in the number of consumers and usage of cellular telecom services. The volume of formal
research carried out in the field of Telecom Industry is not much in quantity. Despite the high growth
market of mobile communication, it is understood that the research is still in its initial stages to develop
an understanding about the Cellular Industry.
In this part, an attempt has been made to examine the literature relating to the
telecom sector which is grouped under the following heads:
1. Growth of telecommunication industry.
2. Customer satisfaction studies in telecommunication services.
3. Performance of the service providers.
4. Customers’ usage pattern of the cellular services.
5. Strategies used by the cellular service providers to enhance their market
share and customer satisfaction.

29
 CHAPTER 3.

MARKETING
STRATERGIES OF
AIRTEL.

30
 MARKETING STRATERGIES OF AIRTEL

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to

promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of
paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.
Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use
the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon
marketing and advertising through search engines emerged.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or

more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts.Affiliate
marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use
regular advertising methods.Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search
engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some sense display advertising.
The Affiliate Marketing industry has four core players at its heart: the Merchant (also known
informally as 'Retailer' or 'Brand'), the Network, the Publisher (also known informally as 'the
Affiliate') and the Customer, Affiliate marketing—using one website to drive traffic to another—is a
form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, email,
and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers.

31
32
Social Networking Sites
A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social
relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service
essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of
additional services. Most social network services are web based and provides means for users to interact
over the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Although online community services are
sometimes considered as a social network service in a broader sense, social network service usually
means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions (such as
former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends and a recommendation system
linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook, and Twitter widely
used worldwide.

Facebook
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook,
Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify
friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school,
and region. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the
academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know
each other better.

Orkut
Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is
designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships.Although Orkut is less
popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited
websites in India and Brazil.

Online Reputation Management

ORM is the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or
industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media.

33
Why ORM
• Influence consumer perception
• Respond to / protect against negative reviews
• Thwart competitor attacks and bogus reviews
• Improve online brand / service awareness
3 steps of ORM
1. Monitor: Monitor and track what is Being Said Online
2. Analyze: Analyze How the visible information affects your Brand, your reputation.
3. Influence: Influence the results by participating in the conversation and eliminating negative Sites.

Email Marketing

E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of
communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every
e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term
is usually used to refer to:

▪ sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current
or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
▪ sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current
customers to purchase something immediately,
▪ adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and
▪ sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet (e.g.,
network e-mail and FIDO).

Advantages
E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:
▪ A mailing list provides the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential
customers at a relatively low cost.

34
▪ Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, e-mail is less
expensive.
▪ An exact return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done
properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective
online marketing tactic.
▪ The delivery time for an e-mail message is short (i.e., seconds or minutes) as compared to a mailed
advertisement (i.e., one or more days).
▪ An advertiser is able to "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to website-based advertising,
which relies on a customer to visit that website.
▪ E-mail messages are easy to track. An advertiser can track users via autoresponders, web bugs, bounce
messages, unsubscribe requests, read receipts, click-throughs, etc. These mechanisms can be used to
measure open rates, positive or negative responses, and to correlate sales with marketing.
▪ Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically.
▪ Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to
receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
▪ Over half of Internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day.
▪ Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger (1) other messages to be delivered
automatically, or (2) other events, such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific
interest category.
▪ E-mail marketing is paper-free (i.e., "green").
▪ Tracking and response metrics enables tuning and optimisation of the E-mail marketing channel by a
process of testing different variants and calculation of statistically significant results.
▪ E-mail is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to £292m in the UK.

35
 CHAPTER 4:

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

36
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is considered as the nerve of the project. Without a proper well-organized
research plan, it is impossible to complete the project and reach to any conclusion. The project was
based on the survey plan. The main objective of survey was to collect appropriate data, which work as a
base for drawing conclusion and getting result.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
Data collection : The data has been used from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data
was collected from the residents of Chandigarh who are actually using smart phones. Whereas,
Secondary data was collected from books, newspaper, journals, various web sites etc.
Sampling: Simple random sample was used for the purpose of data
collection.
The study was conducted on a sample of 85 customers using smart phones in Chandigarh. The
questionnaire were distributed to 110 customers out of which 93 returned the questionnaire. After
checking the questionnaire 85 became the final respondents.
Analytical Tools : For the purpose of analysis of descriptive information tables, graphs, pie charts have
been used.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

The scope of the study is limited to tricity. Only the customers who are using airtel were selected as
respondents and were given the Questionnaire for the purpose of data collection to meet the needs of the
study.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.

1. To study the awareness of customers with regard to various offers provided by Bharti Airtel.
2. To study the problems faced by the customers having postpaid Airtel connections.
3. To study the satisfaction level of the customers with respect to Airtel services.
4. To give suggestions for the improvement of services.
37
 LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS OF STUDY

A researcher has to face certain difficulties while he carries out the research work. He knows the
limitations before hand. Some of them are controllable and some others are uncontrollable. Some
limitations ,which were faced during the research, are as follows:

1. As the research is completed in a limited time, it is quite possible that

one cannot collect the sufficient data and has to depend upon other sources of data.
2. Availability of funds was another limitation owing to shortage of money.
3. The research needs a lot of statistical work involving collection and
tabulation of data, interpretation of data and drawing out the necessary results. It requires an
able, efficient and experienced researchers
4.Some of the respondents were not honest and genuine in their approach while the others could not
understand certain queries.

38
 CHAPTER5:

DATA ANALYSIS
AND
INTERPRETATION

39
 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION.

1. PLAN SUBSCRIBED BY CUSTOMERS

40

30

20

10

0
299 249 399 Others
PLANS

PLAN NO. OF CUSTOMER

1 My plan 299 20

2 249 delight 10

3 Super Saver 399 40

4 Others 30

INTERPRETATION: In the study it was founded that most of the customers (40%)
having Supersaver – 399 plan. My plan 299 - (20%), 249 delight- (10%) & others (30%) It is shown

in the above bar diagram.

40
INTERPRETATION In the survey it is observed that most of the customers paid their bill through
cash (45%) & credit cards (35%) respectively. And the rest pay it through cheque (18%) & Internet
banking (2%).

41
3.OFFERS TAKEN BY THE CUSTOMERS:

Others
5%

Local SMS pack

20%

42
 Local Mobile pack 10%
SPECIAL
pack 65%

OFFER CUSTOMER PERCENTAGE

1 SPECIAL Pack 65 65%

2 Local SMS Pack 20 20%

3 Local Mobile Pack 10 10%

4 Others 5 5%

INTERPRETATION In the survey it has been found that most of the customers have taken SPECIAL
pack (65%). It is shown in the above pie diagram.

43
 4.CUSTOMER'S PROBLEM TOWARDS
POSTPAID CONNECTION

70

53

35

18

0
Bill Payment Never Get bill on time Wrongly Charged Never Get bill

PROBLEM TOWARDS POSTPAID

PROBLEM CUSTOMER
1 Bill Payment 70

2 Never Get Bill on Time 20

3 Wrongly Charged 7

4 Never Get Bill 3

INTERPRETATION In the survey it has been found that most of the customers (70%) have
faced their Problems towards bill payment in counter. 20%, 7% & 3% are those who Never receive
bill on time, wrongly charged & never get the bill.
5.BILL PAYMENT SYSTEM USED BY
CUSTOMER

20%
 30%
50%

Airtel Relationship Center

E-seva
Drop Box

BILL PAYMENT SYSTEM USED BY CUSTOMER

Airtel Relationship Center 50

E-seva 30

Drop Box 20

INTERPRETATION 50 % customers are using airtel relationship centre for bill payment
and 30 % using e-seva while 20 % customer are usiing drop box.
 SATISFACTION LEVEL CUSTOMER PERCENTAGE
1 Excellent 25 25%
2 Good 50 50%
3 Average 20 20%
4 Unsatisfied 5 5%

INTERPRETATION In the survey it was founded that most of the customer’s view towards Airtel
Post paid connections & toppings are Good (50%) & Excellent (25%). But Airtel must take care
towards unsatisfied customers (5%), if they want to stay at top.
7. C U STOME R’S LO Y ALT Y

Less than 6 Months

5%

6 months to 1 year
10%
 More than 2 years
50%
1 to 2 years
35%

LOYALTY LEVEL CUSTOMER PERCENTAGE

1 More Than 2 Years 50 50%
2 1 to 2 Years 35 35%

3 6 Months to 1 Year 10 10%

4 Less Than 6 Months 5 5%

INTERPRETATION In the survey it is observed that (50%) of the customers are constantly buying
Post paid connections for the past two years, 35% between 1to2 years10% between 6months to 1 year
and 5% less than 6 months. The survey indicates good consistency level & commitment of the
customer.
8. SERVICE EXPECTATIONS OF THE CUSTOMERS
 Cheap
Roaming
charges Improved
8% Service
14%

Cheap SMS
22%

Good Network
24%

Cheap Call
rates
32%

INTERPRETATION As per the research, the people are more inclined towards cheap call rates of
their service providers followed by the good network. After that people expects cheap SMS,
improved service and cheap roaming charges from their service provider.
9. TYPES OF CONNECTION

Connection
 42%
58%

Prepaid
Postpaid

INTERPRETATION Through the above analysis we can easily find out that, majority
of the people still prefer prepaid connections more. There are 58% people who prefer
prepaid connections whereas 42% people prefer postpaid connection which shows that
there is tough competition for prepaid. It is because of billing problems in postpaid.
10. CUSTOMERS PREFERENCE ABOUT THE NETWORK CONNECTION.

airtel
jio
BSNL
idea

INTERPRETATION Through the above analysis it is found that 33% people will prefer airtel
connection, 30% prefer jio, 27% prefer idea and rest 10% prefer bsnl .
 11. SATISFACTION LEVEL OF CUSTOMERS WITH NETWORK.

90

80

70

60

50 Good
Bad
40

30

20

10

0
1 2 3 4

INTERPRETATION: The table shows that 84% consumers feel that signal of AIRTEL at their area is
good, remaining 16% of them feel that signal is not good.
 12. USER LOGIN TO INTERNET PER DAY

Frequency Percentage (%)

Once 5 12
Twice 7 18
More 14 35
Not even once 14 35
Total 50 100

Chart showing number of times customers log into internet per day

usage of internet perday

not even once,
 35 more, 35 35
30
25
20 twice, 18
once, 12
15
10
5
0
once
twice
more
not even
once

Interpretation: The table shows that 35% of the customers are log into internet more than once per
day, 18% twice per day, 12% once per day and the remaining 35% do not use internet services.
 CHAPTER 6:

FINDINGS OF THE
STUDY.
 FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
1. Through this survey, It is observed that much customers are satisfied with the super saver plan
and the other people by my plan , delight and others.
2. It was observed that mostly people pay their bills by cash, some by credit cards and least by
cheque and internet banking respectively.
3. The topping most preferred by the customers is the Special pack which is used by most of
them while some prefer local SMS pack, quite a few prefer local mobile pack and other plans.
4. It was observed that large number of the customers expressed their unhappiness over bill
payment problems and few are those who were wrongly charged or they never received bills on
time.
5. The bill payment system used by the majority of customers is airtel relationship center while
the other people prefer E-seva and Drop Box respectively.
6. Through the survey, it came to know that quite a few people have an excellent experience with
airtel call center executives, majority have a good and average experience while the others
are unsatisfied.
7. It was observed that majority of the customers are constantly buying post paid connections for
the past 2 years, most between 1 to 2 years, quite a few between 6 months to 1 year and least
than 6 months.The survey indicates good consistency level and commitment of the
customers.
8. Majority people expect cheap call rates from the service provider, some people expect a good
Network. Quite a few people expect cheap SMS, Least people expect improved service and the
other expect cheap roaming charges.
9. Through the analysis, it was found out that, majority of the people still prefer prepaid
connections more. There are majority people who prefer prepaid connection whereas other
people prefer postpaid connection which shows that there is tough competition for prepaid.
10. It was found that half people prefer Idea connection and the other half still prefer Airtel
connection after looking at the pros and cons of airtel.
11.It was found that majority of the people answered that airtel signals are good at there areas
whereas least found it bad.
12 It was found that majority of the people login to internet more than twice a day, some login it
once or twice and quite a few do not login to internet this may be due to lack of knowledge.

53
 CHAPTER 7:

SUGGESTIONS AND
RECOMMENDATION

54
 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Airtel should continue to offer the super saver plan to the customers which will lead to
customer satisfaction and profit maximization.
2. To ensure better customer satisfaction & maintain higher level of Customer relationship
management, the billing department has to be more effective & efficient.
3. Airtel should continue to offer the best offer like the special pack to stay at the top.
4. Customer’s problems towards postpaid connection like the bill payment on counter, never
getting bill on time etc. must be solved.
5. Bill payment systems like Airtel Relationship Center, E-seva, Drop Box must be properly
maintained by Airtel so that there are no customer complaints.
6. Airtel must take care of the people whose experience is not good with them and they are not
satisfied with the services. It should try to know the problem and solve it as soon as possible.
7. To retain existing customers means offering the best scheme. This would automatically attract
new customers. Airtel need not spend on advertisement to attract new customers.
8. There should be no compromise in quality and the network facility. Cheap call rates must be
provided with cheap SMS and international charges other than special packs. There must be
improved service too. These are some expectations of customers from airtel.
9. Airtel must focus more on the postpaid connections as customers face billing problems in the
postpaid connections and they switch to the prepaid connections.
10.After using airtel connection, some of the customers wanted to switch to idea connection .So
airtel must focus on those 70% people who are not satisfied with the services of airtel and
want to buy other connection.
11.After using airtel connection, majority of people said that its signal is good but airtel should
look after those who answered it as bad and must provide them assistance.

55
 CONCLUSION

India has one of the world’s largest telecommunication networks. The telecom story continues to
be the best evidence of the reforms process. In just six years, the number of mobile subscribers
have gone up from just about one million to 100 million, a subscriber base that only four other
countries China, US, Japan and Russia can boast of. No one can doubt the correlation between
this explosive growth in numbers and the steep decline in the cost of the mobile phone.

After analyzing the findings of the research, it can conclude that Airtel is the leader in
customer service and availability. The maximum no. of people who use the mobile is in the age group
of 20 to 28. Prepaid is popular type of mobile connections, as they are consumer friendly and
recharging the connection is not a problem. People do not prefer postpaid because of billing
problems. Maximum no. of people spend more than Rs 500 on their connections. As Airtel is the
only company having the maximum no of mobile connections so it must seriously look into the loop
holes of the existing customer service department. Airtel is a very successful brand in India &
providing customer satisfaction is to be there main motive. Provides Internet access on the move as
people are more dependent on it in their daily lives like wide network and good 4G services.

Providing customer satisfaction is the most crucial step of the company as they are to be satisfied and
provides Internet access on the move such as Wide network and good 4G services as they are
important and technology advanced stuff required by almost everybody in today’s environment,

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

From the details it can be concluded that 70% of Airtel users preferred to remain with Airtel. Also
good number of users who were willing to switch from their respective subscribers showed interest in
Airtel. Hence, these statistics imply a bright future for the company. Also the company is used
mainly by executives who want wide coverage for their operations but the problem of customer
satisfaction still persists with the company and cause of its lacking new customers.

56
Connectivity is the backbone of the company and it is still the reason why consumers use it and the
most users of the company fall in the youth category and are now using postpaid services as they are
aware of the services provided as the youth is the main target of major of companies as the country
mainly comprises of them.

We can say that in spite of so many competitors in the market Airtel is having a good position just
because every time, it tries its best to understand the need of its important customers.People like its
schemes and it has a major impact on them.Airtel has created a very good image on the mind of new
users of cellular service.It is popular among businessmen and professionals and is successful in
capturing the highest market share.

57
 Bibliography

In this project report, while finalizing and for analyzing quality problem in details the
following Books, Magazines/Journals and Web Sites have been referred. All the material
detailed below provides effective help and a guiding layout while designing this text report.

Books:

• C.R Kothari : Research Methodology Methods & Techniques‟, New Age International
Publishers, New Delhi, 2nd Edition.

• Richard I. Levin, David S. Rubin : „Statistics for Management‟, Prentice Hall of India Private
Limited, New Delhi, 7th Edition.

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

• Market Research – D.D. Sharma

Web sites:

• www.wikipedia.com
• www.Airtelworld.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel
• http://www.airtel.in/
• http://managementhelp.org/customer/satisfy.htm
• http://airtelbroadband.in/wps/wcm/connect/airtel.in/airtel.in/Home

58
ANNEXURE

59
 QUESTIONNAIRE

(A)Customer Name :
(B) Age :
(C) Mobile No. :
(D) Occupation :
Self Employed [ ]
Government Employee [ ]
Non Government Employee [ ]
Student [ ]
Others [ ]

(E) Income per month :

Less than Rs 5,000 [ ]
Rs 5001 to 10,000 [ ]
Rs 10,001 to Rs 20,000 [ ]
Above Rs 20,000 [ ]

1. Which plan you are using?

(a) My plan-299 (b) 249 Delight
(c) Supersaver-399 (d) Others

2. How you pay your bill?

(a) By Cash (b) By Cheque
(c) By Credit card (d) By Internet Banking

60
3. What kind of Toppings are preferred by customers?
(a) Special Pack (b) SMS Pack
(c) Local Mobile Pack (d) Others………..

4. Which type of problem you are facing in postpaid connection?

(a) Bill payment (b) Never get bill on time
(c) Wrongly charged (d) Never get bill.

5. Mostly where do you pay your bill?

(a) Airtel Relationship Center (b) E-seva
(c) Drop Box

6. Are you satisfied with Airtel call center executives?

(a) Excellent (b) Good
(c) Satisfied (d) Unsatisfied

7. How long have you been using Airtel postpaid connection?

(a) Less than 6 Months (b) 6 months to 1 year
(c) 1 to 2 years (d) More than 2 years

8. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider?

(a) Cheap international charges (b) Cheap SMS
(c) free calls (d) Good network

9. Given a choice, which type of connection will you prefer further?

(a) Pre-paid (b) Post-paid

61
10. Given a choice ,which service provider will you select after looking at pros
and cons of airtel?
(a) Airtel (b) idea
(c) Jio (d)bsnl
11. Is Airtel signal good at your area?
(a) Good (b) Bad

12.How many times do you login to internet per day?

(a) once (b)twice (c)more (d) not even once

13. Please rate on the scale of 1 to 5 to tell us “ How satisfied are you about the
following aspects of Airtel?”
(a) very much satisfied
(b) satisfied
(c) neither unsatisfied nor satisfied
(d) dissatisfied
(e) very much dissatisfied.

14. Any suggestions:

SIGNATURE :

62
THANK YOU.

63