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INTRODUCTION
MARKETING

Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. It is a
critical business function for attracting customers.
From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society‘s material requirements
and its economic patterns of response. Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through
exchange processes and building long term relationships. The process of communicating the
value of a product or service through positioning to customers. Marketing can be looked at as an
organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value
to customers, and managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and
its shareholders. Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis
and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing
superior customer value.
There are five competing concepts under which organizations can choose to operate their
business; the production concept, the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing
concept, and the holistic marketing concept. The four components of holistic marketing are
relationship marketing, internal marketing, integrated marketing, and socially responsive
marketing. The set of engagements necessary for successful marketing management includes,
capturing marketing insights, connecting with customers, building strong brands, shaping the
market offerings, delivering and communicating value, creating long-term growth, and
developing marketing strategies and plans.

MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing strategy is defined as a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its
resources on the optimal opportunities with the goals of increasing sales and achieving a
sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing strategy includes all basic and long-term activities
in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial situation of a company

1
and the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented strategies and therefore
contributes to the goals of the company and its marketing objectives.
Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill
market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for
measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as multi-year plans, with a
tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the current year. Time horizons
covered by the marketing plan vary by company, by industry, and by nation, however, time
horizons are becoming shorter as the speed of change in the environment increases. Marketing
strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned.
See strategy dynamics. Marketing strategy needs to take a long term view, and tools such
as customer lifetime value models can be very powerful in helping to simulate the effects of
strategy on acquisition, revenue per customer and churn rate.
Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments. Internal
environmental factors include the marketing mix and marketing mix modeling, plus performance
analysis

and

strategic

constraints. External

environmental

factors

include

customer

analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the
technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success. A key
component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's
overarching mission statement.
Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify
business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain
these goals, and detail implementation. A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to
create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the
implementation of the plan.
Marketing Mix Modeling is often used to help determine the optimal marketing budget and how
to allocate across the marketing mix to achieve these strategic goals. Moreover, such models can
help allocate spend across a portfolio of brands and manage brands to create value.
Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions.
When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of
the strategic environment. An Ansoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's
2
strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing
plan to pursue a defined strategy. Marketing is often used to simulate different strategic flexing
go the 4Ps. Customer lifetime value models can help simulate long term effects of changing the
4Ps, e.g.; visualize the multi-year impact on acquisition, churn rate, and profitability of changes
to pricing.
MARKETING MIX
The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketing professionals. The
marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's offering, and is often
synonymous with the four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place; in service marketing,
however, the four Ps have been expanded to the Seven Ps or eight Ps to address the different
nature of services.
4Ps
PRODUCT:A product is seen as an item that satisfies what a consumer needs or wants. It is a tangible good
or an intangible service. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry, the hotel
industry and the financial industry. Tangible products are those that have an independent
physical existence. Typical examples of mass-produced, tangible objects are the motor car and
the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass-produced service is a computer
operating system.
Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by a maturity phase
and finally an eventual period of decline as sales falls. Marketers must do careful research on
how long the life cycle of the product they are marketing is likely to be and focus their attention
on different challenges that arise as the product moves through each stage.
The marketer must also consider the product mix. Marketers can expand the current product mix
by increasing a certain product line's depth or by increasing the number of product lines.
Marketers should consider how to position the product, how to exploit the brand, how to exploit
the company's resources and how to configure the product mix so that each product complements
the other. The marketer must also consider product development strategies.

3
PRICE:The amount a customer pays for the product. The price is very important as it determines the
company's profit and hence, survival. Adjusting the price has a profound impact on the
marketing strategy, and depending on the price elasticity of the product, often it will affect
the demand and sales as well. The marketer should set a price that complements the other
elements of the marketing mix.
When setting a price, the marketer must be aware of the customer perceived value for the
product. Three basic pricing strategies are: market skimming pricing, market penetration
pricing and neutral pricing. The 'reference value' (where the consumer refers to the prices of
competing products) and the 'differential value' (the consumer's view of this product's attributes
versus the attributes of other products) must be taken into account.
PROMOTION:All of the methods of communication that a marketer may use to provide information to different
parties about the product. Promotion comprises elements such as: advertising, relations,
personal and sales promotion.
Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and
Internet advertisements through print media and billboards. Public relations is where the
communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals,
exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word-of-mouth is any apparently
informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people
specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important
role in word of mouth and public relations.
DISTRIBUTION (PLACE):Refers to providing the product at a place which is convenient for consumers to access.
Various strategies such as intensive distribution, selective distribution, exclusive distribution
and franchising can be used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of the marketing
mix.

4
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To study the importance and development of tele – communication industry in today‘s
scenario.
To understand the various Marketing Strategies which Airtel has adopted to survive in highly
competitive cell phone industry.
To make a comparative study of the major players in Indian Service Provider.
To study the consumer trend in telecommunication sector.

5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Market research is often needed to ensure that we offer what customer really want and not what
we think they want.
Collection of data:There are two sources for data collection. They are as follows:1. Primary Data:It involves collecting the information from its origin. Primary data is the first hand data
information collected by the marketer. This method of data collection is expensive and time
consuming.
2. Secondary Data:It involves using the information that other have already put together. When we collect
information through published sources, it is known as secondary data collection.
Primary as well as secondary data will be used in this project. Data has been largely collected
from internet and books
Types of research:There are three types of research:1. Descriptive:A form of conclusive research that aims to describe a product or market or
identify association among variables
2. Explanatory:In the explanatory research each and every thing is well explained. A style of
research in which the primary goal is to understand the nature or mechanism
6
of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

3. Exploratory:It is conducted into an issue or problem where there are few or no earlier studiesto refer
to. The focus is on gaining insight and familiarities for later investigation .
Secondly, descriptive research describes phenomena as they exist. Here data isoften quantitative
and statistics applied. It is used to identify and obtain to explain information on a particular
problem or issue. Finally casual or predictive researcher seeks what is happening in a particular
situation.
This project has evolved a descriptive study. Descriptive research in the sense as it involves
describing about consumer buying behaviour.
Analysis of data:The data collected from primary and secondary source is analysed in the theoretical manner and
diagram are used in the project.

7
COMPANY PROFILE OF BHARTI AIRTEL
VISION:-"As we spread wings to expand our capabilities and explore newhorizons, the
fundamental focus remains unchanged: seek out thebest technology in the world and put it at the
service of our ultimateuser: our customer."These are the premise on which Bharti Enterprises has
based itsentire plan of action.Bharti Enterprises has been at the forefront of technology and
hasrevolutionized
telecommunications
with
its
world-class
products
andservices.Established in 1985, Bharti has been a pioneering force in thetelecom sector. With m
any firsts and innovations to its credit,ranging from being the first mobile service in Delhi, first
privatebasic
telephone
service
provider
in
the
country,
first
Indian
companyto provide comprehensive telecom services outside India inSeychelles and first private s
ector service provider to launchNational Long Distance Services in India. Bharti had
approximately3.21 million total customers – nearly 2.88 million mobile and334,000 fixed line
customers

Its services sector businesses
include
mobile operations
in
Andhra
Pradesh
, Chennai, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya
Pradesh circle, Maharashtra circle, Mumbai, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (West)
circle.In addition, it also has a fixed-line operations in the states of Madhya
Pradesh
and
Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and nationwide broadband and
long distance networks.Bharti has recently launched national long distance services byoffering
data
transmission
services
and
voice
transmission
services
for calls originating and terminating on most of India's mobilenetworks.The Company is also im
plementing a submarine cable project connecting Chennai Singapore for providing international
bandwidth.Bharti Enterprises also manufactures and expors telephoneterminals and cordless pho
nes. Apart from being the largestmanufacturer of telephone instruments, it is also the first
telecom company to export its products to the USA.Bharti Tele-Ventures' strategic objective is
―to
capitalize
on
the
growth
opportunities
that
the
Company
believesare available in the Indian telecommunications market andconsolidate its position to be t
he leading integratedtelecommunications services provider in key markets in India, with a focus
on providing mobile services‖. The Company has developed the following strategies to achieve
its strategic objective:

• Focus on maximizing revenues and margins;

• Capture maximum telecommunications revenue potential withminimum geographical
coverage;
8
• Offer multiple telecommunications services to providecustomers with a "one-stop shop"
solution;

• Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data services;

• Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring highlevel of customer satisfaction;

• Leverage strengths of its strategic and financial partners; and

• Emphasize on human resource development to achieveoperational efficiencies.

9
2.1 TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA

The Indian telecommunications Network with 250m telephone connections is the fifth largest in
the world and is the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today it is the
fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for UK companies in the
stagnant global scenario. Tele-density, which was languishing at 2% in 1999, has shown an
impressive jump to 9.5% in 2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set to increase to 20% in the next five
years beating the Govt. target by three years. Accordingly, India requires incremental
investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five years.
Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest growing (over 164% p.a.) in India.
With more than 33 million users (both CDMA and GSM), wireless is the principal growth engine
of the Indian telecom industry. Given the current growth trends, cellular connections in India will
surpass fixed line by late 2004/early 2005. Intense competition between the four main private
groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and Reliance and with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and
MTNL has brought about a significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost 74% in cell phone
charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges, resulting in a boom time for the
consumers.
The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and liberalising the industry,
ushering in competition and paving the way for growth. While there were regulatory
irregularities earlier, resulting in litigation, these have all been addressed now. Customs duties on
hardware and mobile handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent.
The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries to speed up reforms and
decision on the Communication Convergence Bill to enable the common regulation of the
Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be taken after the new Government assumes
responsibilities in may this year. An independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement
body (TDSAT) is fully functional.

INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET
The Bharti Group, which operates in 23 circles, continues to be the country's largest cellular
operator, with 50 lakh subscribers. BSNL, which operates in 22 circles, has a subscriber base of
37 lakh subscribers. Thus BSNL stands second largest cellular operator in terms of subscriber

10
base at the end of the fiscal ending March 31, 2007, displacing Vodafone from the second
position.
Vodafone, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest operator with a subscriber
base of 32 lakh. Unlike fellow public sector undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and
Delhi, BSNL has been a very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular operators who expected
BSNL to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise and did not take effective steps to counter it,
till it was too late in the day," said a telecom analyst.
Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell club has reported a
7.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so far, during March 2005. Year-on-year, the
cellular subscriber base in the country has almost doubled in March 2005, and is expanding at
the rate of 25% per year thereafter.
The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. This is much higher than 5.9
lakh subscribers added in February 2005 and 2.13 lakh in January 2005. Idea, which operates in
Seven circles, is the fourth largest operator with a subscriber base of 17.80 lakh, higher than
BPL's 11.31 lakh subscribers across four circles. The subscriber numbers per operator drop
sharply with the sixth largest operator, Spice Communications, having a subscriber base of 9.40
lakh, followed by Reliance Telecom's 8.9 lakh subscribers. MTNL is the ninth largest operator,
with a base of 8.32 lakh subscribers.
While the subscriber base-jumped by 3.38% to 44.39 lakh in the metros, subscriber base of
category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu jumped
by 10.18 % to reach 43.64 lakh. Category B circles of Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
(West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal recorded a jump of
10.69%, with a total base of 33.74 lakh subscribers. Circle C has reported 12.74 % growth with
subscriber numbers jumping to 5.08 lakh.
Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher than the 1,58,646 added
by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base of over 80 lakh is still higher than Mumbai's
66.89 lakh. While the cellular industry has been on roll for the first three quarters of the previous
financial year with an average of 16.75 lakh monthly additions in the third quarter, the first two
months of 2007 had seen the growth slowing down.

11
2.1.2GSM MARKET IN INDIA

Regional Interest Groups - GSM India

With a population of around 1.1 billion growing at roughly 1.7 per cent a year, India is
potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world. After two rather difficult years,
the past 12 months have seen the region's promise beginning to come to fruition. Much of this
success can be attributed to the stabilisation of the licensing and regulatory environment.

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

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

The good news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look healthy. With India's low PC
penetration and high average Internet usage -at 14-20 hours a month per user it is comparable to
12
the US -the market for mobile data and m-commerce looks extremely promising. WAP services
have already been launched in the subcontinent and the first GPRS networks are in the process of
being rolled out. In the year ahead, GSM India will work with its members to realise the
potential of early packet services in anticipation of the award of 3GSM licences.

INDIA FASTEST GROWING GSM MART
India is expected to have 145 million GSM (global system for mobile communications)
customers by 2007-08 compared to 26 million subscribers as on March 2005, according to the
Global Mobile Suppliers Association. "For GSM, India is a success story. It is one of the fastest
growing markets with its subscriber base doubling in 2005. At this pace, the target of 150 million
subscribers by 2007-2008 is definitely achievable," Alan Hadden, president of GSA, said at a
news conference in New Delhi. Globally, the GSM market reached 1 billion users in February
2005, he said, adding GSM accounted for 80 per cent of the new subscriber growth in
2005."Almost every Latin American operator has chosen GSM. In North America GSM growth
is bigger than CDMA (code division multiple access)," he said. Commenting on the raging
debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile services arena, Hadden said: "GSM is the world's
most successful mobile standard with over 1 billion users, and is an open mobile standard. It also
supports automatic international roaming, which is a major contributor to business plans."

INDIA’S GSM MOBILE FIRMS’ REVENUE UP 30 PCT
India‘s private telecoms firms offering GSM-based mobile services reported a 24 percent rise in
revenue in the year to March 2007 but said future growth rates could slow because of heavy
taxes on the nascent industry. Although India‘s mobile sector is the world‘s fastest growing
major wireless market, it is amongst the highest taxed industries in the country. Mobile carriers
pay as much as 25 percent of their revenue as licence fee, spectrum charges and other taxes. The
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said revenue for fiscal 2003/04 stood at 83.08
billion rupees ($1.86 billion) compared with 64 billion rupees a year earlier. According to T.V.
Ramachandran, director general at COAI, ―These revenue growth rates cannot be maintained
unless there is a concerted effort by the government to cut excessive levies and allow sharing of
infrastructure‖

―But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge demand in the sector.‖
Ramachandran said the sector was still losing money but declined to elaborate. Sales jumped
because of a doubling of the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) user base as
more people entered the flourishing market thanks to one of the lowest call rates in the world.
13
But the monthly average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability, declined 17.4 percent
to 432 rupees in the fourth quarter compared with 523 rupees in the first quarter due to a cut in
tariffs and excessive competition among companies. Growth slowing, demand untapped: The
association has not included the financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd,
Ramachandran said. There are 150 million GSM customers and more than 96 million users of the
rival CDMA-based mobile services in the country.
The pace of growth in monthly additions is slowing after just 1.25 million users took up the
service in April compared with 1.9 million in the previous month and 1.63 million in February.
Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a majority of small GSM operators being unable to
expand networks into rural swathes where demand remained largely untapped.
―Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and financing charges on
loans. We are making money only to cover operating expenses,‖ he said. Carriers are now
subsidising handset costs to woo users into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have more
than 250 million customers by 2007. Roughly three percent of Indians own a mobile phone
compared with about 20 percent in China. About a dozen firms such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, 28
percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian GSMunit of Vodafone group battle in the hotly competitive sector.

14
2.1.3 DOES GSM HAVE THE EDGE?

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

2.1.4 THE CDMA CHALLENGES
CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1X-based networks, which can
give hi-speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet, and other data services. GSM operators, on
the other hand, have had to migrate from the frustrating experience of WAP (wireless application
protocol) to GPRS, which has not significantly improved the subscriber‘s experience of surfing
the Net on/from mobile.
The top brass of GSA, an organisation comprising Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel and Lucent
Technologies - met on Tuesday in the capital to persuade the operators to adopt EDGE
(Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and leave GPRS behind as a dream gone sour.
Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched GPRS, but the data transfer
speeds of GPRS have been abysmal. The field trials gave a speed of around 54 kbps, but the
actual speeds have not exceeded 14-18 kbps, a major reason why GPRS growth has been so
slow. As against the total GSM cellular base of 5.61 crore, the country has between 2,80,000
lakh GPRS users only. In comparison, the two CDMA operators have about 120 lakh
connections. All these sets are data compliant. Though no figures are available as to how many
15
use these for data services, the figure is believed to be respectable as a percentage ratio for
CDMA.

BHARTI IS ALMOST THERE

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

EDGE holds the promise of delivering data speeds of around 170-180 kbps (as against the
theoretical speed of around 380 kbps) which, if achieved, promises the launch of many data
applications. The scalable cost of migrating from GPRS to EDGE is not too high and mainly
comprises software upgrades in case of a modern network such as Bharti and Hutch, claimed
chairman of GSA India chapter Rakesh Malik.

WILL GSM MAINTAIN ITS HEADSTART?
At the GSM Evolution Forum held in New Delhi, GSA president Alan Hadden predicted that
GSM growth will far outstrip CDMA as was happening globally. He felt India could have as
many as 200 million GSM subscribers by 2007-2008, up from nine million in December 2004.
According to GSA, there are over 1.1 billion GSM subscribers worldwide as against 250 million
CDMA customers. The revenue of top 25 global operators from data averages 18 per cent and 22
of these operators run GSM networks. Overall, there are 76 operators in 50 countries that have
committed to deploy EDGE.
Almost every country has a GSM-based network and even those US operators, which operated
on now-defunct TDMA technology, were migrating gradually to GSM, not CDMA, pointed out
Hadden at the GSM Evolution Forum. The Forum is a global GSA program to assist the
operators for evolution to third generation (3G) technologies. ―People are using their phones for
much more than voice. Fifteen networks have commercially launched EDGE as it can run 3G
like services in the existing spectrum for the operators without needing a 3G license. Even the
16
migration to a full-fledged 3G level of Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) will be smooth with
EDGE,‖ said Hadden.
―Besides, the automatic roaming provided by GSM networks in almost 200 countries is a power
that CDMA doesn‘t give you. We know for sure that almost 20-25 per cent of the revenue for
some GSM operators comes from roaming customers,‖ he added. But CDMA is no pushover
with Korea and Philippines as the shining jewels in its crown. The first CDMA 2000 1X was
commercially deployed in October 2000.

Already, 81 operators have launched 77 CDMA 2000 1X networks whereas nine have launched
services based on 1xEV-DO platform across Asia, the Americas and Europe. At least, 16 new 1X
and six 1xEV-DO networks are scheduled to be deployed in 2004, according to CDMA
Development Group. EV-DO and EV-DV are the next level of evolution on the CDMA 2000 1X
platform, capable of delivering services comparable to 3G WCDMA.
WHERE ARE THE MODELS?
What will matter a lot in this war will be the availability of EDGE compliant handsets at
affordable rates. While the two CDMA operators have been giving out handsets that can give hispeed data transfer, same has not been the case with GSM. Even now, GPRS handsets have not
become commonplace and GPRS feature is found only in mid and high-end segment handsets.

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

More importantly, WCDMA will spawn a whole new range of full motion audio-video
applications, including video telephony. GSM lobby may continue to remain gung ho over the
future of their technologies over that boosted by the American firms Qualcomm and Motorola,
but Indian market could well throw an interesting scenario that industry experts will do well to
watch. In the coming months, Reliance plans to offer its CDMA subscribers much more than
what GSM players intend to deliver through their EDGE for their subscribers.
17
Who succeeds in this battle for mobile customer‘s eyeballs is most difficult to predict. A Korea
and Japan may not be waiting to happen in India, but India will probably be more like the
Chinese market with both standards co-existing. For now, GSM rules!

2.2 Airtel (Bharti Airtel Ltd.)

Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in
telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel
is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong
customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which constitute, 44.6 million mobile and
5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31, 2007.

Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel 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 has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration
with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23
states covering all four metros and more than 50 million satisfied customers.
Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in
telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel
is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong
customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which constitute, 44.6 million mobile and
5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31, 2007.

18
Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel 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 has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration
with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23
states covering all four metros and more than 50 million satisfied customers.

Bharti Airtel Ltd is one of the world's leading providers of telecommunication services with
presence in 19 countries including India & South Asia and Africa. The company is the largest
wireless service provider in India, based on the number of customers. The company offers an
integrated suite of telecom solutions to its enterprise customers, in addition to providing long
distance connectivity both nationally and internationally. The Company also offers Digital TV
and IPTV Services. All these services are rendered under a unifi ed brand 'airtel' either directly or
through subsidiary companies. The company operates in four strategic business units, namely
Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone
services in 95 Indian cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services
across India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate
customers and national and international long distance services to telcos. The company also
deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under their
subsidiary Bharti Infratel Ltd. Bharti Infratel Ltd own 42% of Indus Towers Ltd. Bharti Infratel
Ltd and Indus Towers Ltd are the largest passive infrastructure service providers for telecom
services in India. Bharti Airtel Ltd was incorporated in the year 1995 with the name Bharti TeleVentures Ltd. The company was promoted by Bharti Telecom Ltd, a company incorporated
under the laws of India. The name of the company was changed from Bharti Tele-Ventures to
Bharti Airtel Ltd with effect from April 24, 2006 in order to reflect their brand essence, objective
and the nature of their business activities. During the year 1995-96, the company launched
mobile services under the brand name 'Airtel' for the first time in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

19
During the year 1997-98, the company became the first private telecom operator to obtain a
license to provide basic telephone services in the state of Madhya Pradesh. They incorporated
Bharti BT VSAT Ltd and Bharti BT Internet Ltd during the year. During the year 1999-2000, the
company acquired JT Mobiles for providing cellular services operator in Punjab, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh. Also, they acquired Skycell, Chennai and thus, they expanded their South
Indian footprint. During the year 2001-02, they launched IndiaOne, India's first private sector
national and international long distance service. They acquired licenses for eight new circles
across India. In July 2001, the company acquired 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel Ltd
(erstwhile Spice Cell Ltd), which provided mobile services in the Kolkata circle. During the year
2002-03, the company launched cellular mobile services in the circle of Mumbai, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana and Gujarat, fixed line
services in the circles of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and International Long Distance Services.
They also commenced commercial operations for their submarine cable landing station. During
the year 2003-04, the company obtained the new licenses for providing the Unified Access
Services, which include telecom circles of West Bengal (including Andaman & Nicobar and
Sikkim), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir and UP (East). They also
acquired interest in the telecom circles of Rajasthan and North Eastern States, through the
acquisition of 67.5% equity stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd. During the year 2004-05, Bharti
Cellular Ltd and Bharti Infotel Ltd, subsidiaries of the company, merged with the company with
effect from April 1, 2004. Prior to merger of Bharti Cellular Ltd with the company, Bharti
Mobile Ltd operated in circles of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab merged with Bharti
Cellular Ltd. The company acquired an additional stake of 1% from Fouad M T Al Ghanim
Trading & Cont Co Kuwait one of the shareholder of Bharti Hexacom Ltd. During the year, the
company and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd entered into an agreement to share the company's
national long distance network for a period of 15 years for a consideration of Rs 5,000 million.
They entered into a regional mobile services agreement with six other leading mobile operators,
namely Globe Telecom, Philippines; Maxis, Malaysia; Optus, Australia; SingTel, Singapore;
Taiwan Cellular Corporations, Taiwan and Talkomsel, Indonesia and formed a regional alliance,
namely Bridge Alliance. In April 2005, the company through their erstwhile 100% subsidiary
Bharti Infotel Ltd, which was merged with the company acquired 100% equity stake in Bharti
Broadband Ltd (formerly known as Comsat Max Ltd) by acquiring their holding company
20
Satcom Broadband Equipment Ltd (formerly known as CMax Infocom Ltd). Also, Satcom
Broadband Equipment Ltd and Bharti Broadband Ltd were amalgamated with the company with
effect from October 1, 2005. During the year 2005-06, the company signed a managed capacity
expansion contract with Ericsson for providing managed services and expands their GSM /GPRS
network into rural India in 15 circles. Also, they entered into an agreement with Nokia to expand
their managed GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE networks in eight circles. The company and IBM launched
Managed Services under their joint go-to-market program. During the year, Vodafone acquired
10% economic interest in the company by way of subscription of convertible debentures in
Bharti Enterprises Ltd. Also, the company entered into strategic partnership outsourcing
agreements for their customer care call center operations with four international BPOs - Hinduja
TMT (HTMT), IBM Daksh, Mphasis and TeleTech Services. During the year 2006-07, the
company incorporated seven wholly owned subsidiaries namely Bharti Airtel (USA) Ltd, Bharti
Airtel (UK) Ltd, Bharti Airtel (Hong Kong) Ltd and Bharti Airtel (Canada) Ltd, Bharti Infratel
Ltd, Bharti Telemedia Ltd and Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. They received letter of offer from
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka for providing 2G and 3G mobile
services in Sri Lanka. During the year, the company entered into agreement with Microsoft to
offer software and services for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market in India and to
offer Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile 5.0 technology to its customer. They entered into
agreement with Google to offer search services on Airtel Mobile. Also, they entered agreement
with Adani Group to connect Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone and with IBM to deliver
India's first 'Service Delivery Platform'. In July 2006, the company launched 'Airtel Mega' Fixed
Wireless Phone (FWP) services. In September 14, 2006, they acquired 43,750 thousand shares of
Bharti Hexacom Ltd for an aggregate consideration of Rs 875,000 thousand thereby increasing
their stake from 68.5% to 68.89%. In December 2006 the company announced their foray into
USA with the launch of Airtel CallHome service for Non-Resident Indians. In March 2007, they
introduced BlackBerry 8800TM business phone. In April 3, 2007, Bharti Airtel (Singapore) Pvt
Ltd, Singapore, was incorporated for providing Voice Interconnection, Prepaid International
Calling Services, International Private Leased Circuits and VSAT Trading. During the year
2007-08, Bharti Airtel Services Ltd (erstwhile Bharti Comtel Ltd), the wholly owned subsidiary
of the company, sold their entire shareholding in Bharti Telemedia Ltd to the company and
Bharti Enterprise Ltd in the ratio of 40% and 60%, respectively. The company acquired 2% stake
21
in a subsidiary of IFFCO Ltd called IFFCO Kissan Sanchar Ltd at a consideration of Rs 50,125
thousand. Also, they invested USD 1,200 thousand towards 1,200 thousand shares, of Bridge
Mobile Pte Ltd, Singapore (Bridge Mobile). During the year, the company entered into a joint
venture agreement with Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd and formed an independent
tower company namely, Indus Towers Ltd for providing passive infrastructure services in 16
circles of India. In September 7, 2007, the company acquired 49% of the equity in Bharti
Aquanet Ltd, India, at a consideration of Rs 159,549 thousand making Bharti Aquanet Ltd a
100% subsidiary of the company. In September 28, 2007, they acquired 100% of the equity in
Network i2i Ltd, Mauritius, at a consideration of USD 133,400 thousand. In October 1, 2007, the
company incorporated a new company namely, Bharti Airtel Holding (Singapore) Pte Ltd in
Singapore as an investment holding company of the company. In January 2008, the company
transferred the passive telecom infrastructure business of the company to Bharti Infratel Ltd.
During the year 2008-09, the company made their foray into media and television by redefining
home entertainment with Airtel digital TV. They launched their virtual calling card service
'Airtel CallHome' in UK, Singapore and Canada. The service is targeted at the huge Indian
Diaspora, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Indian students in these markets. The company
launched their mobile services in Sri Lanka under the Airtel brand. They expanded their footprint
by launching their Mobile Services in Lakshadweep. They also launched VeriSign Identity
Protection (VIP) Services for their enterprise customers in India in partnership with VeriSign. In
February 19, 2009, the company increased their stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd by 1.11% through
acquisition of 2,780,306 equity shares for an aggregate consideration of Rs 166,818 thousand. In
March 4, 2009, the company subscribed 1,470,000 equity shares (49% stake) in Bharti Teleports
Ltd for an aggregate consideration of Rs.14,700 thousand. In October 2009, the company
launched live mobile comic service on their mobile entertainment portal, Airtel Live. In October
23, 2009, they acquired an additional 55% equity stake in their subsidiary, Bharti Telemedia Ltd
for a consideration of Rs 7.38 crore. Consequently, the total equity interest of the company in
Bharti TelemediaLtd increased to 95%. In January 12, 2010, the company agreed to acquire 70%
stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group. Warid
Telecom is offering mobile services across all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. As of January
2010, the company had an aggregate of over 131 million customers in South Asia, including
121.7 million mobile customers in India. In March 11, 2010, the company made their debut into
22
Media & Entertainment with the launch of the Airtel Digital Media Business. With this, the
company is able to offer Content Delivery Solutions for media and entertainment sector. In June
2010, the company acquired Zain Group's mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa for an
enterprise valuation of USD 10.7 billion. With this, the company has become the first Indian
brand to go truly global with a footprint that covers over 1.8 billion people. Also, the company
has become a major Indian MNC with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa with a
customer base of over 180 million. During the year 2010-11, the company introduced a
completely new, fresh and vibrant brand logo and identity.Apart from India and Sri Lanka, the
brand also started to offer its services to consumers in Bangladesh making the Company a
powerhouse across South Asia. Across the seas, the Company established a strong presence in
the 16 countries across the African continent. During the year, Airtel won the 'Most Preferred
Cellular Service Provider Brand' award in the CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards 2010 for the 6th
year in a row. The CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards were based on an extensive consumer
survey done by Nielsen, wherein the customers rated brands across different categories which
delivered true value for money. During the year, the company launched 3G Services in 9 of 13
circles with 3G spectrum, empowering all 3G customers to manage their data usage and avoid
'bill shock' with proactive, personalised and timely data usage alerts coupled with introduction of
easy-to-understand intuitive tariffs with personalised data usage limits. They launched various
new and innovative products and services, such as airtel money, airtel call manager, airtel voice
blog, airtel world SIM, Live Aarti, LearnNext, IPTV, airtel broadband TV, Unified Service
Management Centre (uSMC), Global Data Services, airtel digital TV recorder, MAMO (My
Airtel My Offer) and i-Care directly and through its subsidiaries, which enabled it to strengthen
their leadership in an intensely competitive market. During the year, the company launched their
New Vision for India and South Asia 'By 2015, airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the
lives of millions' inspiring and directing all stakeholders for the next stage of growth. Also, they
launched their vision for Africa 'By 2015 airtel will be the most loved brand in the daily lives of
African people'. In August 27, 2010, the ccquired the 100% interest in Telecom Seychelles Ltd, a
telecom operator of Seychelles, for an enterprise value of USD62 million. In September 2011,
the company choose Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as
network partners to launch 3G Services in India. These partners will plan, design, deploy and
maintain a 3G HSPA Network in Bharti Airtel 3G license circles. In January 2011, the company
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and State Bank of India (SBI) entered into a Joint Venture (JV) agreement to make available
banking services to India's unbanked millions. The newly formed entity, will harness the power
of State Bank's strengths and airtel's mobile telephony to add value to the banking and financial
services sector and empower millions of financially excluded in the country to enhance their
livelihood and quality of life. The Joint Venture will become the Business Correspondent of SBI
and offer banking products and services at affordable cost to the citizens in unbanked and other
areas.

2.3 COMPETITORS OF AIRTEL

BSNL
On October 1,2000 the department of telecom operations and government of india became a
corporation and was renamed bhart sanchar nigam limited(bsnl).BSNL is now india‘s leading
telecommunication company and the largest public sector undertaking.it has a network of over
45 million lines covering 5000 towns with over 35 million telephone connections.
The state-controlled bsnl operates basic,cellular (gsm and cdma) mobile, internet and long
distance services throughout india(except delhi and mumbai). BSNL, which became the third
operator of gsm mobile service in most circles, is now planning to overtake bharti to become the
largest GSM operator in the country.BSNL is also the laegest operator in the internet market,
with a share of 21 per cent of the entire subscriber base.

MTNL
MTNL was set up on 1st april 1986 by government of india to upgrade the quality of telecom
services, expand the telecom network, and introduce new services and to raise revenue for
telecom development needs of india‘s key metros-delhi and Mumbai. In the past 17 years, the
company has taken rapid strides to emerge as india‘s leading and one of asia‘s largest telecom
operating companies.
The company has also been in the forefront of technology induction by converting 100% of its
telephone exchange network into the state-of-the-art digital mode. The govt. of india currently
holds 56.25% stake in the company. MTNL has over 5 million subscribers and 329,374 mobile
subscribers.

24
RELIANCE INFOCOMM
Reliance is a $16 billion integrated oil exploration to refinery to power and textiles
conglomerate.
It is also an integrated telecom service provider with licences for mobile , fixed, domestic lond
distance and international services. Reliance infocomm offers a complete range of telecom
services, covering mobile and fixed line telephony including broadband, national and
international long distance services. Data services and a wide range of value added services and
applications.
However, it has now acquired a unified access licence for 18 circles that permits it to provide the
fill range of mobile services. It has rolled out its CDMA mobile network and enrolled more than
6 million subscribers in one year to become the country‘s largest mobile operator.

IDIA CELLULAR
India regional operator IDIA Cellular Ltd.has a new ownership structure and grant designs to
become a national player, but in doing so is likely to become a thorn in the side of reliance
communications Ltd. IDEA operates in eight telecom‖circles‖, or regions,in western india,and
has received additional GSM licenses to expand its network into three circles in eastern india—
the first phase of a major expansion plan that it intends to fund through a ipo, according to parent
company aditya birla group.

VODAFONE ESSAR
Vodafone Essar,previously Hutchison essor is a cellular operator in india that covers 23 telecom
circles in india. Dispite the official name being Vodafone essar, its products are simply branded
Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid gsm cellular phone coverage throught india with
good presence in the metros.
Vodafone essar provides 2.75G services based on 900MHz and 1800MHz digital GSM
technology, offering voice and data services in 23 of the country‘s 23 license areas. It is among
the top three GSM mobile operators of india. Vodafone essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, essar
group33% and other Indian nationals 15%.
25
On February 11, 2007,Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by li ka
shing holdings in hutch essar for us$11.1 billion, piping reliance communications, hinduja group,
and essar group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at
usd 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on may 8,2007.

26
2.4 SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Cost advantage
Current leaders in quality service
Largest distribution network
Ability to constantly innovate
Highly skilled workforce
Entrepreneurial zeal
Airtel‘s increased equity and market cap.

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

27
OPPORTUNITIES

To sustain passion and commitment
Airtel‘s market share increasing at other service provider expense. Thus opportunity to wipe
it out.
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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3.1 SERVICES PROVIDED BY AIRTEL
3.1.1 GSM SERVICES.
I Airtel Prepaid:Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtel comes to you from Bharti Enterprises,
India's leading integrated telecom service provider. Going mobile with Airtel Prepaid is a new
way of life. With a host of great features, also simple to use, Airtel Prepaid makes everything
that you dreamt and believed, possible.

Total Cost Control
You can control your Airtel Prepaid like never before. No more rentals or deposits – simply
recharge as much as you need to from as low as Rs. 10, to as high as Rs. 10,000/-.

Pre activated STD/ISD without deposits or rentals
You can now enjoy a pre-activated STD/ISD on your Airtel Prepaid. No more paying deposits or
having a minimum balance in your account to make an STD/ISD call. Hassle-free calls are here
to stay!

Strong Network Coverage
Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel‘s world-class technology and unbreakable
network coverage that spans over 23 circles across the country.

Instant Balance and Validity Enquiry
Your account balance is updated on the screen of your handset at the end of each chargeable call.
You can also call 123 from your mobile phone and listen to the voice announcement or simply
dial *123#, press 'OK' or 'YES' button and your account balance will be displayed on the screen
of your handset.

29
Recharge your Airtel Prepaid
Recharging is Easy. The calling value on your card keeps reducing as you make calls or use any
other chargeable service. Choose the Airtel Prepaid Recharge Coupon that‘s right for you, from a
variety of tailor– made recharge coupons with different denominations, which are available at a
number of outlets across your city. Simply follow the procedure mentioned below, to recharge
your phone.

Prepaid Roaming
Airtel Prepaid comes preactivated with 'National Roaming', so you stay connected no matter
wherever you are. You can also send or receive MMS, check your email and access other GPRS
services while roaming in India as you would in your own city. While traveling abroad you can
receive calls & send or receive SMS.

Other Services
Airtel brings you, a wide range of Services that will change the way you communicate. Try them
and discover a whole new world of fun and excitement.

Call management Services
Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification Presentation – all with your
Airtel prepaid connection.

Voice Mail
When your handset is switched off, or you‘re too busy to answer the phone, Airtel Voicemail
will answer your calls and record a message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost
for setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service.

30
SMS (Short Messaging Service)
Send messages quickly and easily using text, if it's too noisy to talk or you don't have much time.
It's the way to share those interesting one-liners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with
anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.

Subscription Alerts
Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel mobile phone with
Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> to 3333 for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB
BIZ> for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips.

MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service):
Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with MMS from Airtel! To
activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465 and save service settings.

Airtel Live!
Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings
you the latest in entertainment and information services, right on your phone!
Airtel Live! WAP Services: Download the latest ring tones, games, wallpapers, videos and
much more. You can also get news clips, watch live TV and download full songs on you phone.
To get Airtel Live! settings on your phone, SMS 'Live' to 56465 and save the settings that you
receive as your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be accessed from you GPRS
enabled phone, by sending a SMS 'FUN' to 56465.
Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465, and name the service. For e.g. say ring tones to
download your favorite ring tones. You can also choose a variety of content options like Live

31
Cricket Commentary, latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market
Updates.
Airtel Live! SIM Services: Access loads of fun content and exciting services like cricket,
stocks, on your phone at the touch of a few buttons with Airtel Live! SIM based Services on your
SIM card menu. To download new services on your Airtel SIM, choose the "What's new" option
under the "Airtel services" menu.
Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by sending a keyword as an SMS
to 56465! Choose Astrology / Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring
tones. In case you need assistance SMS, Help to 56465.

Hello Tunes
Tired of that boring old ‗tring tring‘ on your phone? Well now when a friend calls, you can make
them groove to the hottest new tracks burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel!
You get a wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are updated
regularly. What's more you can directly call the number for your kind of music, e.g. call 678005
for English New and 678001 for Hindi New. This would directly take you to your favorite artist's
Hello Tunes listing.

Copy a Hello Tune
Get the tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the simple voice instructions
to copy your favorite Hello Tunes. Once inside the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel
mobile number you want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune assigned
to your number.

Gift a Hello Tune
Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a song instead! Gift a Hello
Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055 and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow

32
the simple voice instructions and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want to gift
the Hello Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon successful receipt of that gift.

Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops
Buying your favorite Hello Tune or Ring tone is as simple as recharging your phone with talk
time. Simply walk into your nearest Airtel Shop and walk out with your favorite song. Choose
from Bollywood Hits to Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra
Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs.

Reach us Anytime Anywhere
In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number, accessible from anywhere in the
country, even while roaming. You can also send us an SMS to 121 or mail us at
121@airtelindia.com.

*In case of email, mention your mobile no. like, 9810012345, in the subject of the mail for a
quicker response.

II Airtel Postpaid:Airtel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities. More exciting, innovative yet
simple new ways to communicate, just when you want to, not just through words but ideas,
emotions and feelings. To give you the unlimited freedom to reach out to your special people in
your special way.

Easy Billing
Enjoy a host of rich features only with Airtel e-bill. Register free on ‗My Airtel‘ section and
view your monthly bill with call details for last three months. Sort your calls between personal
and official or analyze your usage, at the click of a button. To change your tariff plan call our
IVR at 121 and leave a request.

33
Easy Payment Options. Anytime Anywhere
You can choose from a host of convenient payment options only with Airtel. Walk into any
Airtel relationship centre and make your payments by cash or credit card. Drop a cheque at any
of the drop boxes for making payments or simply log on to My Airtel section and pay instantly
through your credit card. You can also opt for easy payment options like:

Standing Instructions
You can give us standing instructions to debit your credit card account for your monthly Airtel
bills. All you have to do is fill the Standing Instruction Form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any
of our relationship centres.

Electronic Clearing System
Fill an ECS form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship centres to directly debit
your bank account for your monthly Airtel bill.

Pay while roaming
Airtel has introduced 'Anywhere payment' that offers you the convenience of making payments
while you roam. Walk in to any Airtel Relationship Centre in the country, make payments by
cash or credit card and enjoy uninterrupted Airtel Services.

Credit limit
Your pre-set credit limit mentioned on your monthly bill helps you keep your mobile charges in
control, keeps track of your usage and ensures that your mobile phone is not misused. Should
you exceed your credit limit, you will be informed via a voice or a non-voice message to make
an interim payment and reduce your account balance below your credit limit. You may also
choose to pay us an additional refundable deposit to enhance your credit limit or opt for our
convenient payment method of Credit Card Standing instruction .You can also make use of ECS
facility.
34
Strong Network Coverage
Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel .It offers you world class technology and
unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23 circles across the country.

Long Distance Calling Facility
Call long distance calls in India and Overseas with STD / ISD facility on your Airtel phone.
Widest Roaming - National and International
Airtel's roaming service allows you to stay connected and use your mobile phone to make or
receive calls from almost anywhere in India and also over 160 countries, abroad.
GPRS - Roaming
Use Airtel Postpaid's GPRS services, while roaming, to access the internet and office mails (eg.
BlackBerry services), from almost anywhere in India and abroad.

Say it. In more than just words, with Services from Airtel
Airtel brings you a wide range of Services that will change the way you communicate. Try them
and discover a whole new world of fun and excitement.

Call management Services
Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification Presentation, help you do more
with your Airtel Postpaid connection!

Conference call
You can hold a teleconference with 5 people simultaneously with Call Conferencing service
from Airtel. In fact, you can set up a conference even when the other five are using a landline
phone. To know more, call customer service at 121.
Missed call alert

35
A missed call alert is a SMS that you will receive for all the calls that you missed. The SMS will
detail the CLI and the time when the call was made. To activate, dial *135*2# then press the call
button and wait for the request to be completed.

Voice Mail
When your handset is switched off, or you‘re too busy to answer the phone, Airtel Voicemail
will answer your calls and record a message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost
for setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service.

SMS (Short Messaging Service)
Send messages quickly and easily, using text, if it's too noisy to talk or you don't have much
time. It's the way to Share those interesting one-liners, important reminders and rib-tickling
jokes, with anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.

Subscription Alerts
Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel mobile phone with
Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ>
for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips to 3333.

MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service):
Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with MMS from Airtel! To
activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465 and save service settings.

Airtel Live!
Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings
you the latest in entertainment and information services, right on your phone!
36
Airtel Live! WAP Services: Download the latest ringtones, games, wallpapers, videos and much
more. You can also get news clips, watch live TV and download full songs on you phone! To get
Airtel Live! settings on your phone SMS 'Live' to 56465 and save the settings that you receive as
your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be accessed from you GPRS enabled phone,
by sending a SMS 'FUN' to 56465.
Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465 and say the name of the service. For e.g. say ‗Ring
tones‘ to download your favourite ring tones. You can also choose a variety of content options
like Live Cricket Commentary, latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock
Market Updates.
Airtel Live! SIM Services: Access loads of fun content and exciting services like cricket,
stocks, on your phone at the touch of a few buttons with Airtel Live! SIM based Services on your
SIM card menu. To download new services on your Airtel SIM, choose the "What's new" option
under the "Airtel services" menu.
Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by sending a keyword as an SMS
to 56465 ! Choose Astrology / Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring
tones. In case you need assistance SMS ‗Help‘ to 56465.

GPRS (General Packet Radio Services)
Log on to the internet, with GPRS that allows data transmission at a higher speed. Access emails and internet across Airtel's pan-India presence using 'Mobile Office' with your phone or a
phone and laptop both.

Get the EDGE
Browse the internet on your mobile phone with Airtel's EDGE services. Enjoy live TV, enhanced
WAP experience and Airtel Data Cards on our high speed network.

37
Hello Tunes
Tired of that boring old ‗tring tring‘ on your phone? Well now when a friend calls, you can make
them groove to the hottest new tracks burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel!
You get a wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are updated
regularly. What's more, you can directly call the number for your kind of music, e.g. call 678005
for ‗English New‘ and 678001 for ‗Hindi New‘. This would directly take you to your favourite
artist's Hello Tunes listing.

Copy a Hello Tunes
Like a tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the simple voice instructions to
copy your favourite Hello Tunes. Once inside the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel
mobile number you want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune assigned
to your number.

Gift a Hello Tunes
Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a song instead! Gift a Hello
Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055 and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow
the simple voice instructions and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want to gift
the Hello Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon successful receipt of that gift.

Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops
Buying your favourite Hello Tune or Ringtone is as simple as recharging your phone with
talktime. Simply walk into your nearest Airtel Shop and walk out with your favourite song.
Choose from Bollywood Hits to Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz,
Bhangra Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs.

38
3.1.2 MOBILE SERVICES

Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India. Its network is present in 5,121 census towns and
457,053 non-census towns and villages, covering approximately 86.6% of the country‘s
population as of September 2012.
Airtel is the 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand
Finance

and The Economic Times in 2010.

I 3G
On 18 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel paid the Indian
government 122.95 billion (US$2.3 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent
by an operator in that auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of
India: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, West
Bengal,

Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu & Kashmir. Airtel also operates

3G services in Maharastra & Goa and Kolkata circles through an agreement with Vodafone and
in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea. This gives Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles
in India.

On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it had given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia
Siemens Networks

(NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G

services in the country. These vendors would plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G–HSPA (third
generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company had
won 3G licences. While Airtel awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India,
NSN

would

manage

networks

in

three

circles.

Chinese

telecom

equipment

vendor Huawei Technologies was introduced as the third partner for three circles.

39
On 24 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnataka — its largest circle by
revenue. With this launch, Airtel became the third private operator (fifth overall) to launch its 3G
services in the country following Tata Docomo and Reliance Communications. On 27 January 2011,
Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. On 27 July 2011, 3G services were
launched in Kerala's 3 largest cities Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.
Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through intracircle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 5.4 million 3G customers of
which 4 million are 3G data customers as of September 2012.

II 4G
On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended.
Airtel

paid 33.1436 billion

(US$610 million)

for

spectrum

in

4circles: Maharashtra,

Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata. The company was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in

2.3 GHz

frequency

band.

Airtel's TD-LTE network

by ZTE inKolkata, Huawei in Karnataka, ZTE in Punjab and Nokia
Networks

is

built

and

operated
Siemens

in Maharashtra. On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology

in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services. The Kolkata launch was
followed by launches in Bangalore (7 May 2012), Pune (18 October 2012) and Chandigarh(25
March 2013).

Airtel plans to provide voice services for its TD-LTE subscribers through its existing GSM
network, which would make it the only operator in India to combine voice with TD-LTE services
through GSM network. Airtel selected Nokia Siemens Networks to deploy its Circuit
Switched

FallBack (CSFB) voice solution in Airtel‘s TD-LTE network in Pune. With CSFB, the

network can transfer customers to GSM platform to make and receive voice calls while retaining
the TD-LTE network for data services.

40
On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm Asia
Pacific (India). Qualcomm holds 4G spectrum and licenses in Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and
Mumbai. As per the agreement, by the end of 2014, Airtel will assume full ownership and
financial responsibility for 4G operations in these 4 circles.
Airtel had 3180 4G subscribers as of May 2012.

III WiFi
Airtel has plans to launch WiFI services in India. It intends to start offering WiFi services in Delhi
NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore in initial phase. All plans will be on secure wireless broadband
internet with unlimited usage and will be session or time based. Users can use the service by
finding a hotspot, selecting 'airtel WiFi Zone', activating the voucher and then login to start
browsing.
Airtel intends to partner with establishments to set up hotspots which will be termed WiFi
Hangout for an establishment owner and WiFi Partner for the cafe and restaurant owners. Airtel
WiFi Partners can offer services at zero investments and can earn commission on every WiFi
session sold.

IV Airtel Money
Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money in collaboration with Infosys
and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). The platform was launched on April 5, 2012, at
Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore. Using Airtel Money, users can transfer money, pay bills and
perform other financial transactions directly on the mobile phone.

41
V SmartDrive
SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features voice-based turn by
turn navigation,

real time information update on traffic, approximate time of the travel on the basis

of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see their location on the map and
plan the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an alternate route in case of traffic
congestion on the normal route. According to Airtel, SmartDrive calculates the traffic on the
basis of the number of GPS devices used on a particular road, their average speed, as well as
historical trends of traffic on that route. SmartDrive also allows users to search for points of
interest like restaurants, theatres and shopping malls. The app also allows users to keep a record
of all trips they make when using voice navigation for later reference through the 'Trip Recorder'
feature, Wikipedia information of places for which information is available and the ability to add
frequently visited locations to favorites, in addition to weather information about the place.

Airtel will offer navigation at 10 per day or 99 per month. Live traffic will be cost 3 per day
or 49 per month. Search and map viewer are available for free. The costs do not include data
charges. Airtel states in SmartDrive's FAQ that data is only used when the user performs searches
or calculates routes.

The app is developed by Wisepilot, a mobile navigation solutions provider and uses Navteq Maps
for location and traffic info. It was launched on 12 September 2012.[39] At the time of launch, it
was

available

only

in Bangalore, Mumbai and NCR.[40] Services

are

currently

available

in Chennai. Service will be expanded to Pune and Hyderabad by December 2012.

VI Network Experience Centre
Airtel has a Network Experience Centre (NEC) which observes end to end customer experience,
in near real time, along with the standard network elements on Airtel's operations. The NEC is
located in Manesar, Haryana and went live on 31 October 2012. It is the first such facility in India
42
and will be able to monitor Airtel's network performance across mobile, fixed line,
broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, enterprise services, International Cable Systems and internet
peering points from a single location. It will monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs. In case of an
emergency, the NEC will enable the operator to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce
resolution time.
The NEC houses a video wall with 3600 square feet of solid state LED screen to monitor Airtel's
telecom network. This is the world's biggest video wall for a telecom operator. Each cube in this
wall is 1.6mx1.2 m and there are 175 cubes arranged in a 25x7 matrix.[42] The clear span of the
roof is 49 m x 18 m and the beams, which are fireproof and about 8 feet deep, have been
specially designed to hold the structure without columns. The NEC was designed specifically to
be used as a command center in case of national emergencies and natural catastrophes. The
facility is earthquake proof and also provides for a single control of command and a fully
redundant technology layout.

43
3.1.3 DIGITAL TELEVISION SERVICES

I Airtel digital TV:Airtel digital TV is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider owned and operated
by Bharti Airtel. Its satellite service, launched on 2008, transmits digital satellite television and
audio to households in India. It uses MPEG-4 digital compression with DVB-S2 technology,
transmitting using the satellite SES-7 108.2°E. Airtel Digital TV service was launched on 8
October 2008.

As of 13 December 2012, Airtel has total 304 Channels and Services including 17 HD channels.
Its primary competitors are cable television and other DTH service providers—Reliance Big
TV, DD Direct+, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct,

and Videocon D2H. It has a total subscriber base of

7.9 million as of 31 January 2013.

Airtel Digital TV's standard definition broadcasts are in MPEG-4 with Interactive Service (ITV)
and 7-day EPG (electronic programme guide). Interactive Service (ITV) of Airtel Digital TV
includes an add-on service that allows a user to shop, book movie tickets etc. A universal remote
is included in the package that can, over IR frequencies, control both the TV and the DTH box.
Like other DTH service providers, it also provides a Pay Per View interactive service that includes
a catalogue of movies in Hindi, English and Regional languages.

44
Additional features:

Áirtel Digital TV Recorder
A premium DVR Digital Video Recorder allows 150 hours of recording live TV on a 160 GB
hard disk with MPEG 4 picture clarity. This product was discontinued after the launch of [HD]
Recorder.

II Airtel Digital TV [HD]
Airtel Digital TV HD provides channels in their native resolution of 1080i or 720p with 16:9
aspect ratio. The STB is compatible with 7.1 Channel Dolby Digital Plus surround sound as well
and is in fact the first HD STB in India to be compliant with Dolby digital Plus. Airtel Digital
TV HD+ is a recorder that records content on an external USB drive/ hard disk drive. It is
different from the Digital TV [HD] recorder that records content on an in-built hard disk drive.
HD+ offers potentially unlimited recording, as the capacity depends on that of the external hard
disk drive/ USB drive. However, it only has a single tuner and hence only a single channel can
be watched and recorded at the same time. This is in contrast to the [HD] recorder that enables
one to watch and record two different channels at a time and to also supports simultaneous
multiple channels recording.

Airtel Digital TV [HD] Recorder
On 4 May 2010, Airtel digital TV from bharti airtel announced the launch of its 3D ready High
Definition Personal Video Recorder (HD Recorder). Retaining its pioneering Remote Recording
feature, airtel digital TV's HD Recorder offers unique features of Automatic Favourites, Search

45
and Genre and Category sort and is 3D ready. It is also the first STB in India to support
compatibility for 1080p signals in future.

On 24 May 2011, Airtel announced that its digital TV HD and HD-DVR boxes are softwareenabled to view standard definition (SD) content upscaled to 1080i HD. Picture Quality: Airtel
Digital TV has DVD quality picture (We are not sure about HD yet though, but the picture
quality is flawless, looks amazing on TVs no matter what size) There was no pixelation and the
picture was perfect.

46
MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY BHARTI

Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone service, Airtel. Besides
print advertising, the company had put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi.
The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the ‗Airtel‘ services is to promote the
brand awareness and to build brand preferences.
It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand equity for Airtel. Since the
cellular phone category itself is too restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone is a high
involvement product, price doesn't qualify as an effective differentiator. The image of the
service provider counts a great deal. Given the Cell phone category, it is the network efficiency
and the quality of service that becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at is to get the
optimum price-performance package. This also serves as an effective differentiator
Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference through brand stature.
Airtel's campaign in the capital began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the city,' bearing
just the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was.

In the next phase the

campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti Cellular connection
brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out brochures about the

company

and its services to all consumers. About 50,000 direct callers were sent out. When the name was
well entrenched in the Delhiites‘s mind, the Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of
Cellphone. In the first four months alone Airtei's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores.
As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential or knowledgeable
consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service provider that is on the top of his/her mind
60% of them would name Airtel. As for aided it -is 100% (by giving clues and hints etc.).
Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the percentage score of the
brand on the above aided and the unaided tests. The figures show that Airtel is a healthy and a
thriving brand.

47
Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game plan with due regard
to Its competitor. Airtel 's campaign strategy is designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy.
The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of a market
leader in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a "first mover every
time" and that of a "market leader".
The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity stage in India. It
is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage.
The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users classified into heavy,
medium and low categories. The right hand side shows the revenue share earned from the three
types of users.
Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its heavy users the most
and constantly indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise only 15 - 20% of
the population the other segment cannot be neglected.
The population which has just realised the importance of cellular phones has to be roped in. It is
for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora of incentives and discounts. Concerts
like the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order to promote sales. The media
channel is chosen with economy in mind. The target segment is not very concrete but, there is an
attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print advertisements and hoarding are placed in
those strategic areas which most likely to catch the attention of those who need a cellular phone.
The product promise (which might cost different 1 higher) is an important variable in
determining the target audience.
Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are .
(i) People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive premiers of
blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on the
German airlines frequent flier's programs.
(ii)

There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch advertisements,
launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-ments,
attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements.
48
4.1PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
Airtel to “Touch Tomorrow” with a new brand vision
The Bharti Mobile promoted AirTel cellular service will go in for repositioning of its brand
image. The new brand ethos is portrayed in two distinct fashions - the tag line "Touch
Tomorrow", which underscores the leading theme for the new brand vision, followed by "The
Good Life", which underscores a more caring, more customer centric organization. Aimed at reengineering its image as just simply a cellular service provider to an all out information
communications services provider, Touch Tomorrow is meant to embrace the new generation of
mobile communication services and the changing scope of customer needs and aspirations that
come along with it
The new communication is about a new dimension in the cellular category that goes beyond the
Internet, SMS, roaming, IVRS, etc but which engulfs the whole gamut of wireless digital
broadband services that will constitute tomorrows cellular services. The new campaign is in two
phases - the first of which will communicate overall brand philosophy and the second products
and services. According to Mr. Jagdish Kini, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Mobile Limited,
Karnataka "We are adopting a new brand- platform - Touch Tomorrow - not only to reflect our
corporate ethos but also business strategy".
The new identity will have the logo in Red, Black and White colours along with lower case
typography to convey warmth. AirTel will incorporate the latest branding in all of its
communication and will soon be going in for an enhanced promotional drive to establish the
brand's presence.

4.2LIFE TIME PLAN
PRE-PAID card users need not worry anymore about recharging their coupons every month.
Company has launched a plan that allows users to take a pre-paid connection with lifetime
validity for a one time payment of Rs. 999. Subscribers availing themselves of this scheme will
also get full talk time for the recharge coupon they purchase and also have the option to buy
Taiwanese manufactured Bird mobile handsets for as low as Rs. 1,399.
The move is aimed at stopping the churn in the pre-paid subscriber base. Once a subscriber takes
this plan, he will always be an Airtel subscriber whether the mobile is being used or not.
49
4.3

MARKET SITUATION

At the time of launch
The first mover in the market was Airtel which launched its services in Delhi in Aug 1995
(Informal launch). Essar Cellphone followed by launching its services informally in Oct 95. At
this point of time, the market was at a nascent stage, awareness level was low and both operators
independently tried to spread awareness and educate the people
Once the networks were commercially launched, it became a number game with a multitude of
schemes being offered to woo customers Initially the cellphone was perceived as a status symbol
and utility took a back seat The target segment in Delhi were corporate and the high income
group. The average capacity installed was for 1.5 lakh subscribers. This coupled with the steep
license fee paid to DOT put pressure on the operators to break-even by rapidly expanding their
markets. In the first two years, this led to a number of schemes being offered and prices
crashing.

4.4COMPETITIVE SITUATION
Airtel launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market picking up the bulk of the high
usage premium clients.

This is a very competitive industry with the two companies

differentiating either on value-added services or price. Airtel is perceived as the high quality
provider and has a premium image. Essar, on the other hand, is perceived as the lower end
service provider. Airtel positions itself as the market leader on the basis of the number of
subscribers. Essar is trying to counter this by emphasising on the reach of its network and the
quality of its service. However, Essar is somewhat not been very successful largely due to the
inconsistency in advertising
To promote themselves, both the players have been dependent on tactical advertising However,
they have restrained from using comparative advertising Hoardings have been a very popular
medium for carrying the advertisements Airtel has also been advertising on television using the
Bharti Telecom name.

50
4.5 SALES DEPARTMENT AND STRATEGY
A.

Major Accounts (Direct Channel)
Handles corporate (named and famed) accounts
Forecasting of sales
Mapping the accounts
Providing after sales support to the subscribers.
Maintaining call reports for records.
Providing Feedback to the marketing department regarding the requirement of the
market.

B. IDC (indirect Channel)
Handling distribution
Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner
Liaisoning between the channel partner and the company.
Target achievement
Training the executives of the channel
C.

Distribution Support
1.

Logistics
Monitor handset and SIM card requirements of channel partners and co-ordinate
with stores
Settle areas of concerns such as incentive claims of channel partners

2.

Rental
Provide cellular services (SIM cards) on rent.
Provide cellular phones on rent
Useful for people visiting Delhi for a short interval.

3

Telesales
Call customers and generate sales lead.
Follow up with the customers, if they need any assistance
51
Pass on the sales lead to the channel department.
4

Audit
Consultant to the AirTel showrooms.
Monitor the operations at the AirTel distribution outlets Organize training.

5.

Retail
Locate shops to open retail counters.
Monitor the retail counters.

4.6 MARKET SEGMENTATION
Segmentation is beneficial because of better predictability of the target consumer group,
minimization of risk exposure, better ability to fine-tune a product / service to the requirement of
target buyer and the resultant ease in designing a proper designing marketing mix strategy In this
case segmentation is on the bade of income.
In evaluating different market segments the company looks at two factors The overall
attractiveness of the segments and the company's objectives & resources The present market for
Cellular phones, pagers and conventional phones is as follows
Premium

Middle

Economy

Upper

Lower

Upper

Lower

Upper

Lower

Cellular Phones

X

X

X

-

-

-

Pager

X

X

X

X

-

-

Conventional Phones

X

X

X

X

X

-

X Market Segment Targeted
52
4.7 TARGET MARKET SEGMENT
Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale behind it is that only those
segments should be targeted who value time and have the paying capacity. It Is also planning to
target the business tourists during their stay in the capital
About 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About 15% are foreign
organisations and the rest are professionals and small businessmen. During the introduction
stage there was intense pressure to get consumers across to hook up with their brand, because
getting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard
So far Airtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the business executive class but now
that the basic viable volumes has beer) built up and prices have declined to a certain extent they
are planning to venture further a field.

4.8 POSITIONING
The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency tool. a lifestyle revolution and a
status symbol The emphasis is to remove misconception that the cellphone is an expensive
means of communication and drive home the point that the cellphone is actually a day-to-day
utility

4.9 PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING
The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a product or a service
customers' needs cannot be satisfied.
The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main marketing strategy is to be a first
mover all the time. It has recognised the significance of making the first move-- because in the
field of Communication & Information Technology changes occur at a tremendous pace.
Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously because basic services can be
and will be copied and in time become expected component of the product. Airtel seeks to carry
53
out this segmentation through provision of new information services and making new facilities
available. The product policy and planning depends on the stage of the product life cycle. At
present the cellular phone market has reached the maturity stage. Since, the premium segment is
nearing saturation the company targeting the upper middle and middle-middle class. In order to
do so Airtel is trying to optimise the price performance package by offering suitable "product
bundling".
This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its software (its services.) with
reasonable price in order to deliver maximum price performance to its customers. In addition, it
offers free Airtime services and other concessions to make the prices and thus the product more
attractive. It has also opened a 24 hours customer service.
Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added services become the effective
differentiator.
The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:1). Voice Mail service
This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able to answer a call for some
reason the caller can leave messages in the voice mail box which can be later retrieved by the
user

ii) Short Message Service
The short message service is like a two-way pager. It gives an option of sending and receiving
text messages directly from one mobile phone to another without the intervention of an operator.

iii) Mobile Fax 1 Data Service
This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail, download computer
files from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the Internet.

54
iv) Cash Card
The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to buy air time in
advance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount. This is a useful service for people
who travel to Delhi often and those who want to control the expenses on their calls.
v) Caller ID
Displays calling person's number.
vi) Outgoing call restriction
To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible to exclude one or
several countries, or any geographical region, to permit only local calls, or to limit the outgoing
calls to a listed number.
viii) Call forward
Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone.
Besides these some other services provided by Airtel are - Call conferencing, Call Broadcast et
cetera.
It is in the operators -Interest that they not only get many subscribers but also get them to use the
mobile facility frequently. In the early stages getting increases to subscribe may be easier than
getting them to talk since they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone as compared to a
conventional phone [if is believed that initially cellphones would be used buy]
viii) Roaming Facility
Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. The billing is done in the home
network (Delhi). Roaming facility is available manually* as well as semi-automatically. Once a
subscriber is In any other city or country, where a GSM network is available, simply insert the
SIM card of the local operator Into your handset and start talking.
*

Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each city

**

Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for different cities.
55
4.10

AIRTEL'S MARKETING ORIENTATION.

Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has to fully take care of
the customers.
a)

They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem faced by the
customer

b)

They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to prevent them

c)

They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently.

d)

They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers.

e)

They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making the last 30 seconds
count.

Airtel realises that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them into loyal customers is hard,
hence emphasis is on maintaining a 'Smiling and a Friendly Atmosphere' to please and retain the
customer.

4.11

PRICE AND PRICING POLICY

AIRTEL has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it care of the has come
up with various innovative tariff schemes to take needs of different category of customersGenerally, the cellular services are more expensive than the land line based telephone services.
This is due to the reason that the operating companies are required to pay a fee to the government
for using airtime.

56
4.12

DISTRIBUTION
Company

Franchisee

Distributor

Dealer

Customer

Dealers

Customer

The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27 Franchisees and 15
Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters- Each franchises or distributor
can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved by the Airtel
authority. Each franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. to obtain a franchise and should
employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as an liaison between the company and
the franchises. The franchises can it any number of dealers as long as their territories do not
overlap. But unfortunately Airtel has not been very successful in controlling territorial overlaps
of dealers. The franchises can carry out his 1 her own promotional strategy. For this the.
company contributes 75% of the money and the franchises contributes 25% of the money. The
dealers under the franchisee receive the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain
the feedback from the customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day
basis to Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rupees. One Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer
of Airtel are not allowed to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per month. Hence the dealers
can also go for their own promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc. The dealer
provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase for the handset and
57
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel
Marketing strategy of airtel

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Marketing strategy of airtel

  • 1. INTRODUCTION MARKETING Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. It is a critical business function for attracting customers. From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society‘s material requirements and its economic patterns of response. Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long term relationships. The process of communicating the value of a product or service through positioning to customers. Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers, and managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its shareholders. Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing superior customer value. There are five competing concepts under which organizations can choose to operate their business; the production concept, the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing concept, and the holistic marketing concept. The four components of holistic marketing are relationship marketing, internal marketing, integrated marketing, and socially responsive marketing. The set of engagements necessary for successful marketing management includes, capturing marketing insights, connecting with customers, building strong brands, shaping the market offerings, delivering and communicating value, creating long-term growth, and developing marketing strategies and plans. MARKETING STRATEGY Marketing strategy is defined as a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its resources on the optimal opportunities with the goals of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing strategy includes all basic and long-term activities in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial situation of a company 1
  • 2. and the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented strategies and therefore contributes to the goals of the company and its marketing objectives. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as multi-year plans, with a tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the current year. Time horizons covered by the marketing plan vary by company, by industry, and by nation, however, time horizons are becoming shorter as the speed of change in the environment increases. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. See strategy dynamics. Marketing strategy needs to take a long term view, and tools such as customer lifetime value models can be very powerful in helping to simulate the effects of strategy on acquisition, revenue per customer and churn rate. Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments. Internal environmental factors include the marketing mix and marketing mix modeling, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints. External environmental factors include customer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement. Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail implementation. A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the plan. Marketing Mix Modeling is often used to help determine the optimal marketing budget and how to allocate across the marketing mix to achieve these strategic goals. Moreover, such models can help allocate spend across a portfolio of brands and manage brands to create value. Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions. When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. An Ansoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's 2
  • 3. strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing plan to pursue a defined strategy. Marketing is often used to simulate different strategic flexing go the 4Ps. Customer lifetime value models can help simulate long term effects of changing the 4Ps, e.g.; visualize the multi-year impact on acquisition, churn rate, and profitability of changes to pricing. MARKETING MIX The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketing professionals. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's offering, and is often synonymous with the four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place; in service marketing, however, the four Ps have been expanded to the Seven Ps or eight Ps to address the different nature of services. 4Ps PRODUCT:A product is seen as an item that satisfies what a consumer needs or wants. It is a tangible good or an intangible service. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry, the hotel industry and the financial industry. Tangible products are those that have an independent physical existence. Typical examples of mass-produced, tangible objects are the motor car and the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass-produced service is a computer operating system. Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by a maturity phase and finally an eventual period of decline as sales falls. Marketers must do careful research on how long the life cycle of the product they are marketing is likely to be and focus their attention on different challenges that arise as the product moves through each stage. The marketer must also consider the product mix. Marketers can expand the current product mix by increasing a certain product line's depth or by increasing the number of product lines. Marketers should consider how to position the product, how to exploit the brand, how to exploit the company's resources and how to configure the product mix so that each product complements the other. The marketer must also consider product development strategies. 3
  • 4. PRICE:The amount a customer pays for the product. The price is very important as it determines the company's profit and hence, survival. Adjusting the price has a profound impact on the marketing strategy, and depending on the price elasticity of the product, often it will affect the demand and sales as well. The marketer should set a price that complements the other elements of the marketing mix. When setting a price, the marketer must be aware of the customer perceived value for the product. Three basic pricing strategies are: market skimming pricing, market penetration pricing and neutral pricing. The 'reference value' (where the consumer refers to the prices of competing products) and the 'differential value' (the consumer's view of this product's attributes versus the attributes of other products) must be taken into account. PROMOTION:All of the methods of communication that a marketer may use to provide information to different parties about the product. Promotion comprises elements such as: advertising, relations, personal and sales promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet advertisements through print media and billboards. Public relations is where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word-of-mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and public relations. DISTRIBUTION (PLACE):Refers to providing the product at a place which is convenient for consumers to access. Various strategies such as intensive distribution, selective distribution, exclusive distribution and franchising can be used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of the marketing mix. 4
  • 5. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To study the importance and development of tele – communication industry in today‘s scenario. To understand the various Marketing Strategies which Airtel has adopted to survive in highly competitive cell phone industry. To make a comparative study of the major players in Indian Service Provider. To study the consumer trend in telecommunication sector. 5
  • 6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Market research is often needed to ensure that we offer what customer really want and not what we think they want. Collection of data:There are two sources for data collection. They are as follows:1. Primary Data:It involves collecting the information from its origin. Primary data is the first hand data information collected by the marketer. This method of data collection is expensive and time consuming. 2. Secondary Data:It involves using the information that other have already put together. When we collect information through published sources, it is known as secondary data collection. Primary as well as secondary data will be used in this project. Data has been largely collected from internet and books Types of research:There are three types of research:1. Descriptive:A form of conclusive research that aims to describe a product or market or identify association among variables 2. Explanatory:In the explanatory research each and every thing is well explained. A style of research in which the primary goal is to understand the nature or mechanism 6
  • 7. of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. 3. Exploratory:It is conducted into an issue or problem where there are few or no earlier studiesto refer to. The focus is on gaining insight and familiarities for later investigation . Secondly, descriptive research describes phenomena as they exist. Here data isoften quantitative and statistics applied. It is used to identify and obtain to explain information on a particular problem or issue. Finally casual or predictive researcher seeks what is happening in a particular situation. This project has evolved a descriptive study. Descriptive research in the sense as it involves describing about consumer buying behaviour. Analysis of data:The data collected from primary and secondary source is analysed in the theoretical manner and diagram are used in the project. 7
  • 8. COMPANY PROFILE OF BHARTI AIRTEL VISION:-"As we spread wings to expand our capabilities and explore newhorizons, the fundamental focus remains unchanged: seek out thebest technology in the world and put it at the service of our ultimateuser: our customer."These are the premise on which Bharti Enterprises has based itsentire plan of action.Bharti Enterprises has been at the forefront of technology and hasrevolutionized telecommunications with its world-class products andservices.Established in 1985, Bharti has been a pioneering force in thetelecom sector. With m any firsts and innovations to its credit,ranging from being the first mobile service in Delhi, first privatebasic telephone service provider in the country, first Indian companyto provide comprehensive telecom services outside India inSeychelles and first private s ector service provider to launchNational Long Distance Services in India. Bharti had approximately3.21 million total customers – nearly 2.88 million mobile and334,000 fixed line customers Its services sector businesses include mobile operations in Andhra Pradesh , Chennai, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh circle, Maharashtra circle, Mumbai, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (West) circle.In addition, it also has a fixed-line operations in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and nationwide broadband and long distance networks.Bharti has recently launched national long distance services byoffering data transmission services and voice transmission services for calls originating and terminating on most of India's mobilenetworks.The Company is also im plementing a submarine cable project connecting Chennai Singapore for providing international bandwidth.Bharti Enterprises also manufactures and expors telephoneterminals and cordless pho nes. Apart from being the largestmanufacturer of telephone instruments, it is also the first telecom company to export its products to the USA.Bharti Tele-Ventures' strategic objective is ―to capitalize on the growth opportunities that the Company believesare available in the Indian telecommunications market andconsolidate its position to be t he leading integratedtelecommunications services provider in key markets in India, with a focus on providing mobile services‖. The Company has developed the following strategies to achieve its strategic objective: • Focus on maximizing revenues and margins; • Capture maximum telecommunications revenue potential withminimum geographical coverage; 8
  • 9. • Offer multiple telecommunications services to providecustomers with a "one-stop shop" solution; • Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data services; • Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring highlevel of customer satisfaction; • Leverage strengths of its strategic and financial partners; and • Emphasize on human resource development to achieveoperational efficiencies. 9
  • 10. 2.1 TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA The Indian telecommunications Network with 250m telephone connections is the fifth largest in the world and is the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for UK companies in the stagnant global scenario. Tele-density, which was languishing at 2% in 1999, has shown an impressive jump to 9.5% in 2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set to increase to 20% in the next five years beating the Govt. target by three years. Accordingly, India requires incremental investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five years. Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest growing (over 164% p.a.) in India. With more than 33 million users (both CDMA and GSM), wireless is the principal growth engine of the Indian telecom industry. Given the current growth trends, cellular connections in India will surpass fixed line by late 2004/early 2005. Intense competition between the four main private groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and Reliance and with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and MTNL has brought about a significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost 74% in cell phone charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges, resulting in a boom time for the consumers. The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and liberalising the industry, ushering in competition and paving the way for growth. While there were regulatory irregularities earlier, resulting in litigation, these have all been addressed now. Customs duties on hardware and mobile handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent. The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries to speed up reforms and decision on the Communication Convergence Bill to enable the common regulation of the Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be taken after the new Government assumes responsibilities in may this year. An independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement body (TDSAT) is fully functional. INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET The Bharti Group, which operates in 23 circles, continues to be the country's largest cellular operator, with 50 lakh subscribers. BSNL, which operates in 22 circles, has a subscriber base of 37 lakh subscribers. Thus BSNL stands second largest cellular operator in terms of subscriber 10
  • 11. base at the end of the fiscal ending March 31, 2007, displacing Vodafone from the second position. Vodafone, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest operator with a subscriber base of 32 lakh. Unlike fellow public sector undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL has been a very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular operators who expected BSNL to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise and did not take effective steps to counter it, till it was too late in the day," said a telecom analyst. Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell club has reported a 7.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so far, during March 2005. Year-on-year, the cellular subscriber base in the country has almost doubled in March 2005, and is expanding at the rate of 25% per year thereafter. The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. This is much higher than 5.9 lakh subscribers added in February 2005 and 2.13 lakh in January 2005. Idea, which operates in Seven circles, is the fourth largest operator with a subscriber base of 17.80 lakh, higher than BPL's 11.31 lakh subscribers across four circles. The subscriber numbers per operator drop sharply with the sixth largest operator, Spice Communications, having a subscriber base of 9.40 lakh, followed by Reliance Telecom's 8.9 lakh subscribers. MTNL is the ninth largest operator, with a base of 8.32 lakh subscribers. While the subscriber base-jumped by 3.38% to 44.39 lakh in the metros, subscriber base of category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu jumped by 10.18 % to reach 43.64 lakh. Category B circles of Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal recorded a jump of 10.69%, with a total base of 33.74 lakh subscribers. Circle C has reported 12.74 % growth with subscriber numbers jumping to 5.08 lakh. Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher than the 1,58,646 added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base of over 80 lakh is still higher than Mumbai's 66.89 lakh. While the cellular industry has been on roll for the first three quarters of the previous financial year with an average of 16.75 lakh monthly additions in the third quarter, the first two months of 2007 had seen the growth slowing down. 11
  • 12. 2.1.2GSM MARKET IN INDIA Regional Interest Groups - GSM India With a population of around 1.1 billion growing at roughly 1.7 per cent a year, India is potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world. After two rather difficult years, the past 12 months have seen the region's promise beginning to come to fruition. Much of this success can be attributed to the stabilisation of the licensing and regulatory environment. India's telecommunications have undergone a steady liberalisation since 1994 when the Indian government first sought private investment in the sector. More significant liberalisation followed in 1996 with the licensing of new local fixed line and mobile service providers. However, it has been the government's New Telecom Policy (1999) that has had the most radical impact on the development of GSM services. 'The policy's mission statement is 'affordable communications for all', There is a genuine commitment to creating a modern and efficient communications infrastructure that takes account of the convergence of telecom, IT and media. In addition, the policy places significant emphasis on greater competition for both fixed and mobile services.' Competition in the mobile sector has already had a visible impact on prices with calls currently costing less than 9 cents per minute. This means that service costs have fallen by 60 per cent since the first GSM networks became live in 1995. It also helps explain why a recent Telecom Asia survey revealed that more than 70 per cent of Indian mobile subscribers felt that prices were now at a reasonable level. One of the challenges facing GSM operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions from remote rural regions to some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. India has more than 40 networks, which cover the seven largest cities, over 7000 towns and several Lacs villages. Such depth of coverage has required enormous investment from India's operators. It is estimated that more than Rs200 billion had been invested in India's GSM industry by mid-2000, a figure that is set to be supplemented by a further Rs. 300 billion over the next five years. The good news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look healthy. With India's low PC penetration and high average Internet usage -at 14-20 hours a month per user it is comparable to 12
  • 13. the US -the market for mobile data and m-commerce looks extremely promising. WAP services have already been launched in the subcontinent and the first GPRS networks are in the process of being rolled out. In the year ahead, GSM India will work with its members to realise the potential of early packet services in anticipation of the award of 3GSM licences. INDIA FASTEST GROWING GSM MART India is expected to have 145 million GSM (global system for mobile communications) customers by 2007-08 compared to 26 million subscribers as on March 2005, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. "For GSM, India is a success story. It is one of the fastest growing markets with its subscriber base doubling in 2005. At this pace, the target of 150 million subscribers by 2007-2008 is definitely achievable," Alan Hadden, president of GSA, said at a news conference in New Delhi. Globally, the GSM market reached 1 billion users in February 2005, he said, adding GSM accounted for 80 per cent of the new subscriber growth in 2005."Almost every Latin American operator has chosen GSM. In North America GSM growth is bigger than CDMA (code division multiple access)," he said. Commenting on the raging debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile services arena, Hadden said: "GSM is the world's most successful mobile standard with over 1 billion users, and is an open mobile standard. It also supports automatic international roaming, which is a major contributor to business plans." INDIA’S GSM MOBILE FIRMS’ REVENUE UP 30 PCT India‘s private telecoms firms offering GSM-based mobile services reported a 24 percent rise in revenue in the year to March 2007 but said future growth rates could slow because of heavy taxes on the nascent industry. Although India‘s mobile sector is the world‘s fastest growing major wireless market, it is amongst the highest taxed industries in the country. Mobile carriers pay as much as 25 percent of their revenue as licence fee, spectrum charges and other taxes. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said revenue for fiscal 2003/04 stood at 83.08 billion rupees ($1.86 billion) compared with 64 billion rupees a year earlier. According to T.V. Ramachandran, director general at COAI, ―These revenue growth rates cannot be maintained unless there is a concerted effort by the government to cut excessive levies and allow sharing of infrastructure‖ ―But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge demand in the sector.‖ Ramachandran said the sector was still losing money but declined to elaborate. Sales jumped because of a doubling of the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) user base as more people entered the flourishing market thanks to one of the lowest call rates in the world. 13
  • 14. But the monthly average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability, declined 17.4 percent to 432 rupees in the fourth quarter compared with 523 rupees in the first quarter due to a cut in tariffs and excessive competition among companies. Growth slowing, demand untapped: The association has not included the financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Ramachandran said. There are 150 million GSM customers and more than 96 million users of the rival CDMA-based mobile services in the country. The pace of growth in monthly additions is slowing after just 1.25 million users took up the service in April compared with 1.9 million in the previous month and 1.63 million in February. Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a majority of small GSM operators being unable to expand networks into rural swathes where demand remained largely untapped. ―Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and financing charges on loans. We are making money only to cover operating expenses,‖ he said. Carriers are now subsidising handset costs to woo users into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have more than 250 million customers by 2007. Roughly three percent of Indians own a mobile phone compared with about 20 percent in China. About a dozen firms such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, 28 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian GSMunit of Vodafone group battle in the hotly competitive sector. 14
  • 15. 2.1.3 DOES GSM HAVE THE EDGE? GSM operators are not the only ones who are worried about the rapid strides made by CDMA mobile players Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom in the Indian cellular market? The GSM suppliers – both handset and equipment - who incidentally also have their other foot firmly placed in the CDMA pie, are beginning to lose some sleep over what was earlier termed as `niche‘ and `minuscule‘ data carriage market by the operators Apart from the strong success of the two CDMA operators whose networks are based on code division multiple access (CDMA), the miserable showing of the four global standard for mobile (GSM) based networks that launched general packet radio service (GPRS) service for data connectivity in last three years, has the vendors worried. Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) now believes that even though India will primarily remain a voice traffic-led market in next two-three years, the data traffic component will grow by 25-30 per cent, an optimism that it‘s trying to make GSM operators feel as well. 2.1.4 THE CDMA CHALLENGES CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1X-based networks, which can give hi-speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet, and other data services. GSM operators, on the other hand, have had to migrate from the frustrating experience of WAP (wireless application protocol) to GPRS, which has not significantly improved the subscriber‘s experience of surfing the Net on/from mobile. The top brass of GSA, an organisation comprising Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies - met on Tuesday in the capital to persuade the operators to adopt EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and leave GPRS behind as a dream gone sour. Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched GPRS, but the data transfer speeds of GPRS have been abysmal. The field trials gave a speed of around 54 kbps, but the actual speeds have not exceeded 14-18 kbps, a major reason why GPRS growth has been so slow. As against the total GSM cellular base of 5.61 crore, the country has between 2,80,000 lakh GPRS users only. In comparison, the two CDMA operators have about 120 lakh connections. All these sets are data compliant. Though no figures are available as to how many 15
  • 16. use these for data services, the figure is believed to be respectable as a percentage ratio for CDMA. BHARTI IS ALMOST THERE But first, the EDGE! Bharti Cellular is close to commercially launching its EDGE service in Delhi and Mumbai by end May or early June, sources said. The company was the first to conduct field trials in November with its equipment supplier Ericsson. Idea too held EDGE field trials in February this year with its vendor Nokia. Vodafone and BPL are yet to hold the trials. The two companies would eventually migrate to EDGE, but perhaps after seeing the response to Bharti‘s service. EDGE holds the promise of delivering data speeds of around 170-180 kbps (as against the theoretical speed of around 380 kbps) which, if achieved, promises the launch of many data applications. The scalable cost of migrating from GPRS to EDGE is not too high and mainly comprises software upgrades in case of a modern network such as Bharti and Hutch, claimed chairman of GSA India chapter Rakesh Malik. WILL GSM MAINTAIN ITS HEADSTART? At the GSM Evolution Forum held in New Delhi, GSA president Alan Hadden predicted that GSM growth will far outstrip CDMA as was happening globally. He felt India could have as many as 200 million GSM subscribers by 2007-2008, up from nine million in December 2004. According to GSA, there are over 1.1 billion GSM subscribers worldwide as against 250 million CDMA customers. The revenue of top 25 global operators from data averages 18 per cent and 22 of these operators run GSM networks. Overall, there are 76 operators in 50 countries that have committed to deploy EDGE. Almost every country has a GSM-based network and even those US operators, which operated on now-defunct TDMA technology, were migrating gradually to GSM, not CDMA, pointed out Hadden at the GSM Evolution Forum. The Forum is a global GSA program to assist the operators for evolution to third generation (3G) technologies. ―People are using their phones for much more than voice. Fifteen networks have commercially launched EDGE as it can run 3G like services in the existing spectrum for the operators without needing a 3G license. Even the 16
  • 17. migration to a full-fledged 3G level of Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) will be smooth with EDGE,‖ said Hadden. ―Besides, the automatic roaming provided by GSM networks in almost 200 countries is a power that CDMA doesn‘t give you. We know for sure that almost 20-25 per cent of the revenue for some GSM operators comes from roaming customers,‖ he added. But CDMA is no pushover with Korea and Philippines as the shining jewels in its crown. The first CDMA 2000 1X was commercially deployed in October 2000. Already, 81 operators have launched 77 CDMA 2000 1X networks whereas nine have launched services based on 1xEV-DO platform across Asia, the Americas and Europe. At least, 16 new 1X and six 1xEV-DO networks are scheduled to be deployed in 2004, according to CDMA Development Group. EV-DO and EV-DV are the next level of evolution on the CDMA 2000 1X platform, capable of delivering services comparable to 3G WCDMA. WHERE ARE THE MODELS? What will matter a lot in this war will be the availability of EDGE compliant handsets at affordable rates. While the two CDMA operators have been giving out handsets that can give hispeed data transfer, same has not been the case with GSM. Even now, GPRS handsets have not become commonplace and GPRS feature is found only in mid and high-end segment handsets. END SUM GAME When the networks deploy EDGE, subscribers can expect the delivery of advanced mobile services such as easy downloading of video and music clips, full multimedia messaging, besides high-speed Internet and e-mail access, provided their handset supports all this. But the real cruncher will be the migration at a later stage to 3G technologies such as WCDMA, EV-DO or EV-DA as and when the government decides what to do with the 3G licences. WCDMA for example promises delivery of a phenomenal 2 megabytes per second (mbps), equivalent to what a leased line in many middle level corporates gives. More importantly, WCDMA will spawn a whole new range of full motion audio-video applications, including video telephony. GSM lobby may continue to remain gung ho over the future of their technologies over that boosted by the American firms Qualcomm and Motorola, but Indian market could well throw an interesting scenario that industry experts will do well to watch. In the coming months, Reliance plans to offer its CDMA subscribers much more than what GSM players intend to deliver through their EDGE for their subscribers. 17
  • 18. Who succeeds in this battle for mobile customer‘s eyeballs is most difficult to predict. A Korea and Japan may not be waiting to happen in India, but India will probably be more like the Chinese market with both standards co-existing. For now, GSM rules! 2.2 Airtel (Bharti Airtel Ltd.) Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which constitute, 44.6 million mobile and 5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31, 2007. Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel 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 has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23 states covering all four metros and more than 50 million satisfied customers. Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which constitute, 44.6 million mobile and 5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31, 2007. 18
  • 19. Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel 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 has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23 states covering all four metros and more than 50 million satisfied customers. Bharti Airtel Ltd is one of the world's leading providers of telecommunication services with presence in 19 countries including India & South Asia and Africa. The company is the largest wireless service provider in India, based on the number of customers. The company offers an integrated suite of telecom solutions to its enterprise customers, in addition to providing long distance connectivity both nationally and internationally. The Company also offers Digital TV and IPTV Services. All these services are rendered under a unifi ed brand 'airtel' either directly or through subsidiary companies. The company operates in four strategic business units, namely Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos. The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under their subsidiary Bharti Infratel Ltd. Bharti Infratel Ltd own 42% of Indus Towers Ltd. Bharti Infratel Ltd and Indus Towers Ltd are the largest passive infrastructure service providers for telecom services in India. Bharti Airtel Ltd was incorporated in the year 1995 with the name Bharti TeleVentures Ltd. The company was promoted by Bharti Telecom Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of India. The name of the company was changed from Bharti Tele-Ventures to Bharti Airtel Ltd with effect from April 24, 2006 in order to reflect their brand essence, objective and the nature of their business activities. During the year 1995-96, the company launched mobile services under the brand name 'Airtel' for the first time in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. 19
  • 20. During the year 1997-98, the company became the first private telecom operator to obtain a license to provide basic telephone services in the state of Madhya Pradesh. They incorporated Bharti BT VSAT Ltd and Bharti BT Internet Ltd during the year. During the year 1999-2000, the company acquired JT Mobiles for providing cellular services operator in Punjab, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Also, they acquired Skycell, Chennai and thus, they expanded their South Indian footprint. During the year 2001-02, they launched IndiaOne, India's first private sector national and international long distance service. They acquired licenses for eight new circles across India. In July 2001, the company acquired 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel Ltd (erstwhile Spice Cell Ltd), which provided mobile services in the Kolkata circle. During the year 2002-03, the company launched cellular mobile services in the circle of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana and Gujarat, fixed line services in the circles of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and International Long Distance Services. They also commenced commercial operations for their submarine cable landing station. During the year 2003-04, the company obtained the new licenses for providing the Unified Access Services, which include telecom circles of West Bengal (including Andaman & Nicobar and Sikkim), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir and UP (East). They also acquired interest in the telecom circles of Rajasthan and North Eastern States, through the acquisition of 67.5% equity stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd. During the year 2004-05, Bharti Cellular Ltd and Bharti Infotel Ltd, subsidiaries of the company, merged with the company with effect from April 1, 2004. Prior to merger of Bharti Cellular Ltd with the company, Bharti Mobile Ltd operated in circles of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab merged with Bharti Cellular Ltd. The company acquired an additional stake of 1% from Fouad M T Al Ghanim Trading & Cont Co Kuwait one of the shareholder of Bharti Hexacom Ltd. During the year, the company and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd entered into an agreement to share the company's national long distance network for a period of 15 years for a consideration of Rs 5,000 million. They entered into a regional mobile services agreement with six other leading mobile operators, namely Globe Telecom, Philippines; Maxis, Malaysia; Optus, Australia; SingTel, Singapore; Taiwan Cellular Corporations, Taiwan and Talkomsel, Indonesia and formed a regional alliance, namely Bridge Alliance. In April 2005, the company through their erstwhile 100% subsidiary Bharti Infotel Ltd, which was merged with the company acquired 100% equity stake in Bharti Broadband Ltd (formerly known as Comsat Max Ltd) by acquiring their holding company 20
  • 21. Satcom Broadband Equipment Ltd (formerly known as CMax Infocom Ltd). Also, Satcom Broadband Equipment Ltd and Bharti Broadband Ltd were amalgamated with the company with effect from October 1, 2005. During the year 2005-06, the company signed a managed capacity expansion contract with Ericsson for providing managed services and expands their GSM /GPRS network into rural India in 15 circles. Also, they entered into an agreement with Nokia to expand their managed GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE networks in eight circles. The company and IBM launched Managed Services under their joint go-to-market program. During the year, Vodafone acquired 10% economic interest in the company by way of subscription of convertible debentures in Bharti Enterprises Ltd. Also, the company entered into strategic partnership outsourcing agreements for their customer care call center operations with four international BPOs - Hinduja TMT (HTMT), IBM Daksh, Mphasis and TeleTech Services. During the year 2006-07, the company incorporated seven wholly owned subsidiaries namely Bharti Airtel (USA) Ltd, Bharti Airtel (UK) Ltd, Bharti Airtel (Hong Kong) Ltd and Bharti Airtel (Canada) Ltd, Bharti Infratel Ltd, Bharti Telemedia Ltd and Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. They received letter of offer from Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka for providing 2G and 3G mobile services in Sri Lanka. During the year, the company entered into agreement with Microsoft to offer software and services for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market in India and to offer Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile 5.0 technology to its customer. They entered into agreement with Google to offer search services on Airtel Mobile. Also, they entered agreement with Adani Group to connect Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone and with IBM to deliver India's first 'Service Delivery Platform'. In July 2006, the company launched 'Airtel Mega' Fixed Wireless Phone (FWP) services. In September 14, 2006, they acquired 43,750 thousand shares of Bharti Hexacom Ltd for an aggregate consideration of Rs 875,000 thousand thereby increasing their stake from 68.5% to 68.89%. In December 2006 the company announced their foray into USA with the launch of Airtel CallHome service for Non-Resident Indians. In March 2007, they introduced BlackBerry 8800TM business phone. In April 3, 2007, Bharti Airtel (Singapore) Pvt Ltd, Singapore, was incorporated for providing Voice Interconnection, Prepaid International Calling Services, International Private Leased Circuits and VSAT Trading. During the year 2007-08, Bharti Airtel Services Ltd (erstwhile Bharti Comtel Ltd), the wholly owned subsidiary of the company, sold their entire shareholding in Bharti Telemedia Ltd to the company and Bharti Enterprise Ltd in the ratio of 40% and 60%, respectively. The company acquired 2% stake 21
  • 22. in a subsidiary of IFFCO Ltd called IFFCO Kissan Sanchar Ltd at a consideration of Rs 50,125 thousand. Also, they invested USD 1,200 thousand towards 1,200 thousand shares, of Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd, Singapore (Bridge Mobile). During the year, the company entered into a joint venture agreement with Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd and formed an independent tower company namely, Indus Towers Ltd for providing passive infrastructure services in 16 circles of India. In September 7, 2007, the company acquired 49% of the equity in Bharti Aquanet Ltd, India, at a consideration of Rs 159,549 thousand making Bharti Aquanet Ltd a 100% subsidiary of the company. In September 28, 2007, they acquired 100% of the equity in Network i2i Ltd, Mauritius, at a consideration of USD 133,400 thousand. In October 1, 2007, the company incorporated a new company namely, Bharti Airtel Holding (Singapore) Pte Ltd in Singapore as an investment holding company of the company. In January 2008, the company transferred the passive telecom infrastructure business of the company to Bharti Infratel Ltd. During the year 2008-09, the company made their foray into media and television by redefining home entertainment with Airtel digital TV. They launched their virtual calling card service 'Airtel CallHome' in UK, Singapore and Canada. The service is targeted at the huge Indian Diaspora, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Indian students in these markets. The company launched their mobile services in Sri Lanka under the Airtel brand. They expanded their footprint by launching their Mobile Services in Lakshadweep. They also launched VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Services for their enterprise customers in India in partnership with VeriSign. In February 19, 2009, the company increased their stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd by 1.11% through acquisition of 2,780,306 equity shares for an aggregate consideration of Rs 166,818 thousand. In March 4, 2009, the company subscribed 1,470,000 equity shares (49% stake) in Bharti Teleports Ltd for an aggregate consideration of Rs.14,700 thousand. In October 2009, the company launched live mobile comic service on their mobile entertainment portal, Airtel Live. In October 23, 2009, they acquired an additional 55% equity stake in their subsidiary, Bharti Telemedia Ltd for a consideration of Rs 7.38 crore. Consequently, the total equity interest of the company in Bharti TelemediaLtd increased to 95%. In January 12, 2010, the company agreed to acquire 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group. Warid Telecom is offering mobile services across all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. As of January 2010, the company had an aggregate of over 131 million customers in South Asia, including 121.7 million mobile customers in India. In March 11, 2010, the company made their debut into 22
  • 23. Media & Entertainment with the launch of the Airtel Digital Media Business. With this, the company is able to offer Content Delivery Solutions for media and entertainment sector. In June 2010, the company acquired Zain Group's mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa for an enterprise valuation of USD 10.7 billion. With this, the company has become the first Indian brand to go truly global with a footprint that covers over 1.8 billion people. Also, the company has become a major Indian MNC with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa with a customer base of over 180 million. During the year 2010-11, the company introduced a completely new, fresh and vibrant brand logo and identity.Apart from India and Sri Lanka, the brand also started to offer its services to consumers in Bangladesh making the Company a powerhouse across South Asia. Across the seas, the Company established a strong presence in the 16 countries across the African continent. During the year, Airtel won the 'Most Preferred Cellular Service Provider Brand' award in the CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards 2010 for the 6th year in a row. The CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards were based on an extensive consumer survey done by Nielsen, wherein the customers rated brands across different categories which delivered true value for money. During the year, the company launched 3G Services in 9 of 13 circles with 3G spectrum, empowering all 3G customers to manage their data usage and avoid 'bill shock' with proactive, personalised and timely data usage alerts coupled with introduction of easy-to-understand intuitive tariffs with personalised data usage limits. They launched various new and innovative products and services, such as airtel money, airtel call manager, airtel voice blog, airtel world SIM, Live Aarti, LearnNext, IPTV, airtel broadband TV, Unified Service Management Centre (uSMC), Global Data Services, airtel digital TV recorder, MAMO (My Airtel My Offer) and i-Care directly and through its subsidiaries, which enabled it to strengthen their leadership in an intensely competitive market. During the year, the company launched their New Vision for India and South Asia 'By 2015, airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the lives of millions' inspiring and directing all stakeholders for the next stage of growth. Also, they launched their vision for Africa 'By 2015 airtel will be the most loved brand in the daily lives of African people'. In August 27, 2010, the ccquired the 100% interest in Telecom Seychelles Ltd, a telecom operator of Seychelles, for an enterprise value of USD62 million. In September 2011, the company choose Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as network partners to launch 3G Services in India. These partners will plan, design, deploy and maintain a 3G HSPA Network in Bharti Airtel 3G license circles. In January 2011, the company 23
  • 24. and State Bank of India (SBI) entered into a Joint Venture (JV) agreement to make available banking services to India's unbanked millions. The newly formed entity, will harness the power of State Bank's strengths and airtel's mobile telephony to add value to the banking and financial services sector and empower millions of financially excluded in the country to enhance their livelihood and quality of life. The Joint Venture will become the Business Correspondent of SBI and offer banking products and services at affordable cost to the citizens in unbanked and other areas. 2.3 COMPETITORS OF AIRTEL BSNL On October 1,2000 the department of telecom operations and government of india became a corporation and was renamed bhart sanchar nigam limited(bsnl).BSNL is now india‘s leading telecommunication company and the largest public sector undertaking.it has a network of over 45 million lines covering 5000 towns with over 35 million telephone connections. The state-controlled bsnl operates basic,cellular (gsm and cdma) mobile, internet and long distance services throughout india(except delhi and mumbai). BSNL, which became the third operator of gsm mobile service in most circles, is now planning to overtake bharti to become the largest GSM operator in the country.BSNL is also the laegest operator in the internet market, with a share of 21 per cent of the entire subscriber base. MTNL MTNL was set up on 1st april 1986 by government of india to upgrade the quality of telecom services, expand the telecom network, and introduce new services and to raise revenue for telecom development needs of india‘s key metros-delhi and Mumbai. In the past 17 years, the company has taken rapid strides to emerge as india‘s leading and one of asia‘s largest telecom operating companies. The company has also been in the forefront of technology induction by converting 100% of its telephone exchange network into the state-of-the-art digital mode. The govt. of india currently holds 56.25% stake in the company. MTNL has over 5 million subscribers and 329,374 mobile subscribers. 24
  • 25. RELIANCE INFOCOMM Reliance is a $16 billion integrated oil exploration to refinery to power and textiles conglomerate. It is also an integrated telecom service provider with licences for mobile , fixed, domestic lond distance and international services. Reliance infocomm offers a complete range of telecom services, covering mobile and fixed line telephony including broadband, national and international long distance services. Data services and a wide range of value added services and applications. However, it has now acquired a unified access licence for 18 circles that permits it to provide the fill range of mobile services. It has rolled out its CDMA mobile network and enrolled more than 6 million subscribers in one year to become the country‘s largest mobile operator. IDIA CELLULAR India regional operator IDIA Cellular Ltd.has a new ownership structure and grant designs to become a national player, but in doing so is likely to become a thorn in the side of reliance communications Ltd. IDEA operates in eight telecom‖circles‖, or regions,in western india,and has received additional GSM licenses to expand its network into three circles in eastern india— the first phase of a major expansion plan that it intends to fund through a ipo, according to parent company aditya birla group. VODAFONE ESSAR Vodafone Essar,previously Hutchison essor is a cellular operator in india that covers 23 telecom circles in india. Dispite the official name being Vodafone essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid gsm cellular phone coverage throught india with good presence in the metros. Vodafone essar provides 2.75G services based on 900MHz and 1800MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 23 of the country‘s 23 license areas. It is among the top three GSM mobile operators of india. Vodafone essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, essar group33% and other Indian nationals 15%. 25
  • 26. On February 11, 2007,Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by li ka shing holdings in hutch essar for us$11.1 billion, piping reliance communications, hinduja group, and essar group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at usd 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on may 8,2007. 26
  • 27. 2.4 SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTHS Cost advantage Current leaders in quality service Largest distribution network Ability to constantly innovate Highly skilled workforce Entrepreneurial zeal Airtel‘s increased equity and market cap. WEAKNESSES To prove credibility Price pressures Need for Government support Awareness Sales and Marketing 27
  • 28. OPPORTUNITIES To sustain passion and commitment Airtel‘s market share increasing at other service provider expense. Thus opportunity to wipe it out. 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 28
  • 29. 3.1 SERVICES PROVIDED BY AIRTEL 3.1.1 GSM SERVICES. I Airtel Prepaid:Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtel comes to you from Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service provider. Going mobile with Airtel Prepaid is a new way of life. With a host of great features, also simple to use, Airtel Prepaid makes everything that you dreamt and believed, possible. Total Cost Control You can control your Airtel Prepaid like never before. No more rentals or deposits – simply recharge as much as you need to from as low as Rs. 10, to as high as Rs. 10,000/-. Pre activated STD/ISD without deposits or rentals You can now enjoy a pre-activated STD/ISD on your Airtel Prepaid. No more paying deposits or having a minimum balance in your account to make an STD/ISD call. Hassle-free calls are here to stay! Strong Network Coverage Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel‘s world-class technology and unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23 circles across the country. Instant Balance and Validity Enquiry Your account balance is updated on the screen of your handset at the end of each chargeable call. You can also call 123 from your mobile phone and listen to the voice announcement or simply dial *123#, press 'OK' or 'YES' button and your account balance will be displayed on the screen of your handset. 29
  • 30. Recharge your Airtel Prepaid Recharging is Easy. The calling value on your card keeps reducing as you make calls or use any other chargeable service. Choose the Airtel Prepaid Recharge Coupon that‘s right for you, from a variety of tailor– made recharge coupons with different denominations, which are available at a number of outlets across your city. Simply follow the procedure mentioned below, to recharge your phone. Prepaid Roaming Airtel Prepaid comes preactivated with 'National Roaming', so you stay connected no matter wherever you are. You can also send or receive MMS, check your email and access other GPRS services while roaming in India as you would in your own city. While traveling abroad you can receive calls & send or receive SMS. Other Services Airtel brings you, a wide range of Services that will change the way you communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun and excitement. Call management Services Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification Presentation – all with your Airtel prepaid connection. Voice Mail When your handset is switched off, or you‘re too busy to answer the phone, Airtel Voicemail will answer your calls and record a message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service. 30
  • 31. SMS (Short Messaging Service) Send messages quickly and easily using text, if it's too noisy to talk or you don't have much time. It's the way to share those interesting one-liners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world. Subscription Alerts Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel mobile phone with Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> to 3333 for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ> for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips. MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service): Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with MMS from Airtel! To activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465 and save service settings. Airtel Live! Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings you the latest in entertainment and information services, right on your phone! Airtel Live! WAP Services: Download the latest ring tones, games, wallpapers, videos and much more. You can also get news clips, watch live TV and download full songs on you phone. To get Airtel Live! settings on your phone, SMS 'Live' to 56465 and save the settings that you receive as your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be accessed from you GPRS enabled phone, by sending a SMS 'FUN' to 56465. Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465, and name the service. For e.g. say ring tones to download your favorite ring tones. You can also choose a variety of content options like Live 31
  • 32. Cricket Commentary, latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates. Airtel Live! SIM Services: Access loads of fun content and exciting services like cricket, stocks, on your phone at the touch of a few buttons with Airtel Live! SIM based Services on your SIM card menu. To download new services on your Airtel SIM, choose the "What's new" option under the "Airtel services" menu. Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by sending a keyword as an SMS to 56465! Choose Astrology / Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring tones. In case you need assistance SMS, Help to 56465. Hello Tunes Tired of that boring old ‗tring tring‘ on your phone? Well now when a friend calls, you can make them groove to the hottest new tracks burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel! You get a wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are updated regularly. What's more you can directly call the number for your kind of music, e.g. call 678005 for English New and 678001 for Hindi New. This would directly take you to your favorite artist's Hello Tunes listing. Copy a Hello Tune Get the tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the simple voice instructions to copy your favorite Hello Tunes. Once inside the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number you want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune assigned to your number. Gift a Hello Tune Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a song instead! Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055 and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow 32
  • 33. the simple voice instructions and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want to gift the Hello Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon successful receipt of that gift. Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops Buying your favorite Hello Tune or Ring tone is as simple as recharging your phone with talk time. Simply walk into your nearest Airtel Shop and walk out with your favorite song. Choose from Bollywood Hits to Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs. Reach us Anytime Anywhere In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number, accessible from anywhere in the country, even while roaming. You can also send us an SMS to 121 or mail us at 121@airtelindia.com. *In case of email, mention your mobile no. like, 9810012345, in the subject of the mail for a quicker response. II Airtel Postpaid:Airtel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities. More exciting, innovative yet simple new ways to communicate, just when you want to, not just through words but ideas, emotions and feelings. To give you the unlimited freedom to reach out to your special people in your special way. Easy Billing Enjoy a host of rich features only with Airtel e-bill. Register free on ‗My Airtel‘ section and view your monthly bill with call details for last three months. Sort your calls between personal and official or analyze your usage, at the click of a button. To change your tariff plan call our IVR at 121 and leave a request. 33
  • 34. Easy Payment Options. Anytime Anywhere You can choose from a host of convenient payment options only with Airtel. Walk into any Airtel relationship centre and make your payments by cash or credit card. Drop a cheque at any of the drop boxes for making payments or simply log on to My Airtel section and pay instantly through your credit card. You can also opt for easy payment options like: Standing Instructions You can give us standing instructions to debit your credit card account for your monthly Airtel bills. All you have to do is fill the Standing Instruction Form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship centres. Electronic Clearing System Fill an ECS form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship centres to directly debit your bank account for your monthly Airtel bill. Pay while roaming Airtel has introduced 'Anywhere payment' that offers you the convenience of making payments while you roam. Walk in to any Airtel Relationship Centre in the country, make payments by cash or credit card and enjoy uninterrupted Airtel Services. Credit limit Your pre-set credit limit mentioned on your monthly bill helps you keep your mobile charges in control, keeps track of your usage and ensures that your mobile phone is not misused. Should you exceed your credit limit, you will be informed via a voice or a non-voice message to make an interim payment and reduce your account balance below your credit limit. You may also choose to pay us an additional refundable deposit to enhance your credit limit or opt for our convenient payment method of Credit Card Standing instruction .You can also make use of ECS facility. 34
  • 35. Strong Network Coverage Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel .It offers you world class technology and unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23 circles across the country. Long Distance Calling Facility Call long distance calls in India and Overseas with STD / ISD facility on your Airtel phone. Widest Roaming - National and International Airtel's roaming service allows you to stay connected and use your mobile phone to make or receive calls from almost anywhere in India and also over 160 countries, abroad. GPRS - Roaming Use Airtel Postpaid's GPRS services, while roaming, to access the internet and office mails (eg. BlackBerry services), from almost anywhere in India and abroad. Say it. In more than just words, with Services from Airtel Airtel brings you a wide range of Services that will change the way you communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun and excitement. Call management Services Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification Presentation, help you do more with your Airtel Postpaid connection! Conference call You can hold a teleconference with 5 people simultaneously with Call Conferencing service from Airtel. In fact, you can set up a conference even when the other five are using a landline phone. To know more, call customer service at 121. Missed call alert 35
  • 36. A missed call alert is a SMS that you will receive for all the calls that you missed. The SMS will detail the CLI and the time when the call was made. To activate, dial *135*2# then press the call button and wait for the request to be completed. Voice Mail When your handset is switched off, or you‘re too busy to answer the phone, Airtel Voicemail will answer your calls and record a message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service. SMS (Short Messaging Service) Send messages quickly and easily, using text, if it's too noisy to talk or you don't have much time. It's the way to Share those interesting one-liners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world. Subscription Alerts Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel mobile phone with Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ> for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips to 3333. MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service): Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with MMS from Airtel! To activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465 and save service settings. Airtel Live! Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings you the latest in entertainment and information services, right on your phone! 36
  • 37. Airtel Live! WAP Services: Download the latest ringtones, games, wallpapers, videos and much more. You can also get news clips, watch live TV and download full songs on you phone! To get Airtel Live! settings on your phone SMS 'Live' to 56465 and save the settings that you receive as your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be accessed from you GPRS enabled phone, by sending a SMS 'FUN' to 56465. Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465 and say the name of the service. For e.g. say ‗Ring tones‘ to download your favourite ring tones. You can also choose a variety of content options like Live Cricket Commentary, latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates. Airtel Live! SIM Services: Access loads of fun content and exciting services like cricket, stocks, on your phone at the touch of a few buttons with Airtel Live! SIM based Services on your SIM card menu. To download new services on your Airtel SIM, choose the "What's new" option under the "Airtel services" menu. Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by sending a keyword as an SMS to 56465 ! Choose Astrology / Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring tones. In case you need assistance SMS ‗Help‘ to 56465. GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) Log on to the internet, with GPRS that allows data transmission at a higher speed. Access emails and internet across Airtel's pan-India presence using 'Mobile Office' with your phone or a phone and laptop both. Get the EDGE Browse the internet on your mobile phone with Airtel's EDGE services. Enjoy live TV, enhanced WAP experience and Airtel Data Cards on our high speed network. 37
  • 38. Hello Tunes Tired of that boring old ‗tring tring‘ on your phone? Well now when a friend calls, you can make them groove to the hottest new tracks burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel! You get a wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are updated regularly. What's more, you can directly call the number for your kind of music, e.g. call 678005 for ‗English New‘ and 678001 for ‗Hindi New‘. This would directly take you to your favourite artist's Hello Tunes listing. Copy a Hello Tunes Like a tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the simple voice instructions to copy your favourite Hello Tunes. Once inside the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number you want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune assigned to your number. Gift a Hello Tunes Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a song instead! Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055 and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow the simple voice instructions and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want to gift the Hello Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon successful receipt of that gift. Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops Buying your favourite Hello Tune or Ringtone is as simple as recharging your phone with talktime. Simply walk into your nearest Airtel Shop and walk out with your favourite song. Choose from Bollywood Hits to Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs. 38
  • 39. 3.1.2 MOBILE SERVICES Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India. Its network is present in 5,121 census towns and 457,053 non-census towns and villages, covering approximately 86.6% of the country‘s population as of September 2012. Airtel is the 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010. I 3G On 18 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel paid the Indian government 122.95 billion (US$2.3 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent by an operator in that auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of India: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu & Kashmir. Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharastra & Goa and Kolkata circles through an agreement with Vodafone and in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea. This gives Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India. On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it had given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G services in the country. These vendors would plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G–HSPA (third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company had won 3G licences. While Airtel awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies was introduced as the third partner for three circles. 39
  • 40. On 24 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnataka — its largest circle by revenue. With this launch, Airtel became the third private operator (fifth overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Tata Docomo and Reliance Communications. On 27 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. On 27 July 2011, 3G services were launched in Kerala's 3 largest cities Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through intracircle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 5.4 million 3G customers of which 4 million are 3G data customers as of September 2012. II 4G On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid 33.1436 billion (US$610 million) for spectrum in 4circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata. The company was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. Airtel's TD-LTE network by ZTE inKolkata, Huawei in Karnataka, ZTE in Punjab and Nokia Networks is built and operated Siemens in Maharashtra. On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services. The Kolkata launch was followed by launches in Bangalore (7 May 2012), Pune (18 October 2012) and Chandigarh(25 March 2013). Airtel plans to provide voice services for its TD-LTE subscribers through its existing GSM network, which would make it the only operator in India to combine voice with TD-LTE services through GSM network. Airtel selected Nokia Siemens Networks to deploy its Circuit Switched FallBack (CSFB) voice solution in Airtel‘s TD-LTE network in Pune. With CSFB, the network can transfer customers to GSM platform to make and receive voice calls while retaining the TD-LTE network for data services. 40
  • 41. On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm Asia Pacific (India). Qualcomm holds 4G spectrum and licenses in Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai. As per the agreement, by the end of 2014, Airtel will assume full ownership and financial responsibility for 4G operations in these 4 circles. Airtel had 3180 4G subscribers as of May 2012. III WiFi Airtel has plans to launch WiFI services in India. It intends to start offering WiFi services in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore in initial phase. All plans will be on secure wireless broadband internet with unlimited usage and will be session or time based. Users can use the service by finding a hotspot, selecting 'airtel WiFi Zone', activating the voucher and then login to start browsing. Airtel intends to partner with establishments to set up hotspots which will be termed WiFi Hangout for an establishment owner and WiFi Partner for the cafe and restaurant owners. Airtel WiFi Partners can offer services at zero investments and can earn commission on every WiFi session sold. IV Airtel Money Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money in collaboration with Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). The platform was launched on April 5, 2012, at Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore. Using Airtel Money, users can transfer money, pay bills and perform other financial transactions directly on the mobile phone. 41
  • 42. V SmartDrive SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features voice-based turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic, approximate time of the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see their location on the map and plan the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an alternate route in case of traffic congestion on the normal route. According to Airtel, SmartDrive calculates the traffic on the basis of the number of GPS devices used on a particular road, their average speed, as well as historical trends of traffic on that route. SmartDrive also allows users to search for points of interest like restaurants, theatres and shopping malls. The app also allows users to keep a record of all trips they make when using voice navigation for later reference through the 'Trip Recorder' feature, Wikipedia information of places for which information is available and the ability to add frequently visited locations to favorites, in addition to weather information about the place. Airtel will offer navigation at 10 per day or 99 per month. Live traffic will be cost 3 per day or 49 per month. Search and map viewer are available for free. The costs do not include data charges. Airtel states in SmartDrive's FAQ that data is only used when the user performs searches or calculates routes. The app is developed by Wisepilot, a mobile navigation solutions provider and uses Navteq Maps for location and traffic info. It was launched on 12 September 2012.[39] At the time of launch, it was available only in Bangalore, Mumbai and NCR.[40] Services are currently available in Chennai. Service will be expanded to Pune and Hyderabad by December 2012. VI Network Experience Centre Airtel has a Network Experience Centre (NEC) which observes end to end customer experience, in near real time, along with the standard network elements on Airtel's operations. The NEC is located in Manesar, Haryana and went live on 31 October 2012. It is the first such facility in India 42
  • 43. and will be able to monitor Airtel's network performance across mobile, fixed line, broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, enterprise services, International Cable Systems and internet peering points from a single location. It will monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs. In case of an emergency, the NEC will enable the operator to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time. The NEC houses a video wall with 3600 square feet of solid state LED screen to monitor Airtel's telecom network. This is the world's biggest video wall for a telecom operator. Each cube in this wall is 1.6mx1.2 m and there are 175 cubes arranged in a 25x7 matrix.[42] The clear span of the roof is 49 m x 18 m and the beams, which are fireproof and about 8 feet deep, have been specially designed to hold the structure without columns. The NEC was designed specifically to be used as a command center in case of national emergencies and natural catastrophes. The facility is earthquake proof and also provides for a single control of command and a fully redundant technology layout. 43
  • 44. 3.1.3 DIGITAL TELEVISION SERVICES I Airtel digital TV:Airtel digital TV is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. Its satellite service, launched on 2008, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in India. It uses MPEG-4 digital compression with DVB-S2 technology, transmitting using the satellite SES-7 108.2°E. Airtel Digital TV service was launched on 8 October 2008. As of 13 December 2012, Airtel has total 304 Channels and Services including 17 HD channels. Its primary competitors are cable television and other DTH service providers—Reliance Big TV, DD Direct+, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, and Videocon D2H. It has a total subscriber base of 7.9 million as of 31 January 2013. Airtel Digital TV's standard definition broadcasts are in MPEG-4 with Interactive Service (ITV) and 7-day EPG (electronic programme guide). Interactive Service (ITV) of Airtel Digital TV includes an add-on service that allows a user to shop, book movie tickets etc. A universal remote is included in the package that can, over IR frequencies, control both the TV and the DTH box. Like other DTH service providers, it also provides a Pay Per View interactive service that includes a catalogue of movies in Hindi, English and Regional languages. 44
  • 45. Additional features: Áirtel Digital TV Recorder A premium DVR Digital Video Recorder allows 150 hours of recording live TV on a 160 GB hard disk with MPEG 4 picture clarity. This product was discontinued after the launch of [HD] Recorder. II Airtel Digital TV [HD] Airtel Digital TV HD provides channels in their native resolution of 1080i or 720p with 16:9 aspect ratio. The STB is compatible with 7.1 Channel Dolby Digital Plus surround sound as well and is in fact the first HD STB in India to be compliant with Dolby digital Plus. Airtel Digital TV HD+ is a recorder that records content on an external USB drive/ hard disk drive. It is different from the Digital TV [HD] recorder that records content on an in-built hard disk drive. HD+ offers potentially unlimited recording, as the capacity depends on that of the external hard disk drive/ USB drive. However, it only has a single tuner and hence only a single channel can be watched and recorded at the same time. This is in contrast to the [HD] recorder that enables one to watch and record two different channels at a time and to also supports simultaneous multiple channels recording. Airtel Digital TV [HD] Recorder On 4 May 2010, Airtel digital TV from bharti airtel announced the launch of its 3D ready High Definition Personal Video Recorder (HD Recorder). Retaining its pioneering Remote Recording feature, airtel digital TV's HD Recorder offers unique features of Automatic Favourites, Search 45
  • 46. and Genre and Category sort and is 3D ready. It is also the first STB in India to support compatibility for 1080p signals in future. On 24 May 2011, Airtel announced that its digital TV HD and HD-DVR boxes are softwareenabled to view standard definition (SD) content upscaled to 1080i HD. Picture Quality: Airtel Digital TV has DVD quality picture (We are not sure about HD yet though, but the picture quality is flawless, looks amazing on TVs no matter what size) There was no pixelation and the picture was perfect. 46
  • 47. MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY BHARTI Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone service, Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi. The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the ‗Airtel‘ services is to promote the brand awareness and to build brand preferences. It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand equity for Airtel. Since the cellular phone category itself is too restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone is a high involvement product, price doesn't qualify as an effective differentiator. The image of the service provider counts a great deal. Given the Cell phone category, it is the network efficiency and the quality of service that becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at is to get the optimum price-performance package. This also serves as an effective differentiator Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference through brand stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the city,' bearing just the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was. In the next phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti Cellular connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out brochures about the company and its services to all consumers. About 50,000 direct callers were sent out. When the name was well entrenched in the Delhiites‘s mind, the Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cellphone. In the first four months alone Airtei's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores. As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential or knowledgeable consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service provider that is on the top of his/her mind 60% of them would name Airtel. As for aided it -is 100% (by giving clues and hints etc.). Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the percentage score of the brand on the above aided and the unaided tests. The figures show that Airtel is a healthy and a thriving brand. 47
  • 48. Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game plan with due regard to Its competitor. Airtel 's campaign strategy is designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy. The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of a market leader in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a "first mover every time" and that of a "market leader". The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity stage in India. It is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage. The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users classified into heavy, medium and low categories. The right hand side shows the revenue share earned from the three types of users. Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its heavy users the most and constantly indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise only 15 - 20% of the population the other segment cannot be neglected. The population which has just realised the importance of cellular phones has to be roped in. It is for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora of incentives and discounts. Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order to promote sales. The media channel is chosen with economy in mind. The target segment is not very concrete but, there is an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print advertisements and hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch the attention of those who need a cellular phone. The product promise (which might cost different 1 higher) is an important variable in determining the target audience. Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are . (i) People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive premiers of blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on the German airlines frequent flier's programs. (ii) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch advertisements, launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-ments, attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements. 48
  • 49. 4.1PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY Airtel to “Touch Tomorrow” with a new brand vision The Bharti Mobile promoted AirTel cellular service will go in for repositioning of its brand image. The new brand ethos is portrayed in two distinct fashions - the tag line "Touch Tomorrow", which underscores the leading theme for the new brand vision, followed by "The Good Life", which underscores a more caring, more customer centric organization. Aimed at reengineering its image as just simply a cellular service provider to an all out information communications services provider, Touch Tomorrow is meant to embrace the new generation of mobile communication services and the changing scope of customer needs and aspirations that come along with it The new communication is about a new dimension in the cellular category that goes beyond the Internet, SMS, roaming, IVRS, etc but which engulfs the whole gamut of wireless digital broadband services that will constitute tomorrows cellular services. The new campaign is in two phases - the first of which will communicate overall brand philosophy and the second products and services. According to Mr. Jagdish Kini, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Mobile Limited, Karnataka "We are adopting a new brand- platform - Touch Tomorrow - not only to reflect our corporate ethos but also business strategy". The new identity will have the logo in Red, Black and White colours along with lower case typography to convey warmth. AirTel will incorporate the latest branding in all of its communication and will soon be going in for an enhanced promotional drive to establish the brand's presence. 4.2LIFE TIME PLAN PRE-PAID card users need not worry anymore about recharging their coupons every month. Company has launched a plan that allows users to take a pre-paid connection with lifetime validity for a one time payment of Rs. 999. Subscribers availing themselves of this scheme will also get full talk time for the recharge coupon they purchase and also have the option to buy Taiwanese manufactured Bird mobile handsets for as low as Rs. 1,399. The move is aimed at stopping the churn in the pre-paid subscriber base. Once a subscriber takes this plan, he will always be an Airtel subscriber whether the mobile is being used or not. 49
  • 50. 4.3 MARKET SITUATION At the time of launch The first mover in the market was Airtel which launched its services in Delhi in Aug 1995 (Informal launch). Essar Cellphone followed by launching its services informally in Oct 95. At this point of time, the market was at a nascent stage, awareness level was low and both operators independently tried to spread awareness and educate the people Once the networks were commercially launched, it became a number game with a multitude of schemes being offered to woo customers Initially the cellphone was perceived as a status symbol and utility took a back seat The target segment in Delhi were corporate and the high income group. The average capacity installed was for 1.5 lakh subscribers. This coupled with the steep license fee paid to DOT put pressure on the operators to break-even by rapidly expanding their markets. In the first two years, this led to a number of schemes being offered and prices crashing. 4.4COMPETITIVE SITUATION Airtel launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market picking up the bulk of the high usage premium clients. This is a very competitive industry with the two companies differentiating either on value-added services or price. Airtel is perceived as the high quality provider and has a premium image. Essar, on the other hand, is perceived as the lower end service provider. Airtel positions itself as the market leader on the basis of the number of subscribers. Essar is trying to counter this by emphasising on the reach of its network and the quality of its service. However, Essar is somewhat not been very successful largely due to the inconsistency in advertising To promote themselves, both the players have been dependent on tactical advertising However, they have restrained from using comparative advertising Hoardings have been a very popular medium for carrying the advertisements Airtel has also been advertising on television using the Bharti Telecom name. 50
  • 51. 4.5 SALES DEPARTMENT AND STRATEGY A. Major Accounts (Direct Channel) Handles corporate (named and famed) accounts Forecasting of sales Mapping the accounts Providing after sales support to the subscribers. Maintaining call reports for records. Providing Feedback to the marketing department regarding the requirement of the market. B. IDC (indirect Channel) Handling distribution Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner Liaisoning between the channel partner and the company. Target achievement Training the executives of the channel C. Distribution Support 1. Logistics Monitor handset and SIM card requirements of channel partners and co-ordinate with stores Settle areas of concerns such as incentive claims of channel partners 2. Rental Provide cellular services (SIM cards) on rent. Provide cellular phones on rent Useful for people visiting Delhi for a short interval. 3 Telesales Call customers and generate sales lead. Follow up with the customers, if they need any assistance 51
  • 52. Pass on the sales lead to the channel department. 4 Audit Consultant to the AirTel showrooms. Monitor the operations at the AirTel distribution outlets Organize training. 5. Retail Locate shops to open retail counters. Monitor the retail counters. 4.6 MARKET SEGMENTATION Segmentation is beneficial because of better predictability of the target consumer group, minimization of risk exposure, better ability to fine-tune a product / service to the requirement of target buyer and the resultant ease in designing a proper designing marketing mix strategy In this case segmentation is on the bade of income. In evaluating different market segments the company looks at two factors The overall attractiveness of the segments and the company's objectives & resources The present market for Cellular phones, pagers and conventional phones is as follows Premium Middle Economy Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower Cellular Phones X X X - - - Pager X X X X - - Conventional Phones X X X X X - X Market Segment Targeted 52
  • 53. 4.7 TARGET MARKET SEGMENT Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale behind it is that only those segments should be targeted who value time and have the paying capacity. It Is also planning to target the business tourists during their stay in the capital About 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About 15% are foreign organisations and the rest are professionals and small businessmen. During the introduction stage there was intense pressure to get consumers across to hook up with their brand, because getting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard So far Airtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the business executive class but now that the basic viable volumes has beer) built up and prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning to venture further a field. 4.8 POSITIONING The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency tool. a lifestyle revolution and a status symbol The emphasis is to remove misconception that the cellphone is an expensive means of communication and drive home the point that the cellphone is actually a day-to-day utility 4.9 PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a product or a service customers' needs cannot be satisfied. The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main marketing strategy is to be a first mover all the time. It has recognised the significance of making the first move-- because in the field of Communication & Information Technology changes occur at a tremendous pace. Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously because basic services can be and will be copied and in time become expected component of the product. Airtel seeks to carry 53
  • 54. out this segmentation through provision of new information services and making new facilities available. The product policy and planning depends on the stage of the product life cycle. At present the cellular phone market has reached the maturity stage. Since, the premium segment is nearing saturation the company targeting the upper middle and middle-middle class. In order to do so Airtel is trying to optimise the price performance package by offering suitable "product bundling". This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its software (its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver maximum price performance to its customers. In addition, it offers free Airtime services and other concessions to make the prices and thus the product more attractive. It has also opened a 24 hours customer service. Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added services become the effective differentiator. The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:1). Voice Mail service This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able to answer a call for some reason the caller can leave messages in the voice mail box which can be later retrieved by the user ii) Short Message Service The short message service is like a two-way pager. It gives an option of sending and receiving text messages directly from one mobile phone to another without the intervention of an operator. iii) Mobile Fax 1 Data Service This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail, download computer files from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the Internet. 54
  • 55. iv) Cash Card The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to buy air time in advance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount. This is a useful service for people who travel to Delhi often and those who want to control the expenses on their calls. v) Caller ID Displays calling person's number. vi) Outgoing call restriction To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible to exclude one or several countries, or any geographical region, to permit only local calls, or to limit the outgoing calls to a listed number. viii) Call forward Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone. Besides these some other services provided by Airtel are - Call conferencing, Call Broadcast et cetera. It is in the operators -Interest that they not only get many subscribers but also get them to use the mobile facility frequently. In the early stages getting increases to subscribe may be easier than getting them to talk since they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone as compared to a conventional phone [if is believed that initially cellphones would be used buy] viii) Roaming Facility Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. The billing is done in the home network (Delhi). Roaming facility is available manually* as well as semi-automatically. Once a subscriber is In any other city or country, where a GSM network is available, simply insert the SIM card of the local operator Into your handset and start talking. * Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each city ** Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for different cities. 55
  • 56. 4.10 AIRTEL'S MARKETING ORIENTATION. Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has to fully take care of the customers. a) They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem faced by the customer b) They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to prevent them c) They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently. d) They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers. e) They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making the last 30 seconds count. Airtel realises that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them into loyal customers is hard, hence emphasis is on maintaining a 'Smiling and a Friendly Atmosphere' to please and retain the customer. 4.11 PRICE AND PRICING POLICY AIRTEL has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it care of the has come up with various innovative tariff schemes to take needs of different category of customersGenerally, the cellular services are more expensive than the land line based telephone services. This is due to the reason that the operating companies are required to pay a fee to the government for using airtime. 56
  • 57. 4.12 DISTRIBUTION Company Franchisee Distributor Dealer Customer Dealers Customer The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27 Franchisees and 15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters- Each franchises or distributor can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved by the Airtel authority. Each franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. to obtain a franchise and should employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as an liaison between the company and the franchises. The franchises can it any number of dealers as long as their territories do not overlap. But unfortunately Airtel has not been very successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers. The franchises can carry out his 1 her own promotional strategy. For this the. company contributes 75% of the money and the franchises contributes 25% of the money. The dealers under the franchisee receive the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain the feedback from the customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis to Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rupees. One Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer of Airtel are not allowed to provide any other operators' service. Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per month. Hence the dealers can also go for their own promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc. The dealer provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase for the handset and 57