The document summarizes a market research study conducted in Jammu, India to evaluate the potential for Aircel to enter the public call office (PCO) market. The study found that 200 out of 478 existing PCO owners agreed to take on an Aircel PCO, but they demanded more attractive calling plans and assistance from Aircel. While the average daily income from individual PCOs was estimated, entering the saturated PCO market would be challenging for Aircel given the strong competition from established players like BSNL and Airtel. The document recommends strategies like specialized VAS offerings and prepaid SIMs for Aircel to successfully penetrate the PCO market in Jammu.

1. Establishing The Potential for PCO Market in Jammu Presented By: Dheeraj Anand Project Guide: Mr. PradeepMishra

2. INDUSTRY PROFILE

3. Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments: Fixed Service Provider and Cellular Services. Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The GSM sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodafone-Hutch, Tata Indicom, and Idea Cellular, while The CDMA sector is dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Telecom services are growing at an approximate rate of around 5 percent per year in terms of revenue and mere 10 % in terms of subscriber base in last five years.

4. Telecom industry growing at 8 Million subscriber / month (highest in the world)

6. Churn on rise – 2% increase in users who are likely to switch (18% - 20%)

7. Increase in grievances over Customer Care – concern area

8. Decrease in grievances over Billing issues – last 2 year’s concern areaOnly one operator crossing 95% satisfaction levels

9. Voice & Data Top 10 Service Providers (FY 2009-10)

10. Industry News 2nd September, 2010. The Indian government has finally decided to allot 3G spectrum to the winning bidders and that’s a big deal for us users waiting in the sidelines impatiently. The seven winners were – BhartiAirtel, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Vodafone Essar, Aircel, STel and Tata Teleservices.

11. With the spectrum being allotted to the winning bidders, we should expect 3G services to kick in by the end of this year. Within the next five years these providers and others, offering 3G services to customers will have to cover a minimum of 90% of the service areas in the metro areas. Even with an amount that reached the Rs 67,700 crore mark, none of the operators were able to get pan-India 3G coverage.

12. COMPANY PROFILE

13. Company Profile 5th Largest GSM player in INDIA. As on date, Aircel is present in 19 of the total 23 telecom circles.

14. J&K Circle Operations *Source : www.coai.com, all india GSM cell figures, MAY’10

15. *Source : www.coai.com, all india GSM cell figures, AUG’10 There is a sharp Decrease in Connections of all companies

16. ABOUT THE PROJECT

17. The survey was conducted on behalf of Aircel (Dishnet wireless ltd.) in the area of Jammu city in order to identify the future prospects of setting up of Aircel PCO in Jammu A Sample of about 450 PCO’s, all around the Jammu were visited and the PCO owner’s were asked several questions in order to probe into their minds to realize the level of acceptance for Aircel PCO’s and project success or failure of entering into PCO market were estimated Another aim was to identify the project viability in terms of revenue for launching PCO in Jammu.

18. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY RESEARCH PROBLEM In the project assigned to me, the problem was to analyze the market and establish the need of PCO’s and finally evaluate the potential of PCO market as a new product for the company

19. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE To find out general market scenario of PCO’s in Jammu To find out the number of competitors To find out the acceptance level of PCO owners for taking up an Aircel PCO in addition to their existing ones To find out the needs of PCO owners so that policies could be framed according to their need To find average income from individual PCO To find out the future prospects of entering into PCO market

20. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SOURCES OF INFORMATION PRIMARY DATA Interview method The various Questions asked are: How long you been running the business. How much is the daily sale. Which operator services they were using and reason of it. The problems they faced and their expectations from the service provider. The plan they would look forward if some new player comes in picture. Their contact details etc. SECONDARY DATA 1. Information was collected from websites (www.coai.com) 2. Internal Information as provided by our project guide.

21. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY RESEARCH DESIGN EXPLORATORY RESEARCH In this design the research is unstructured as main goal of the company is to know the unknown The research starts with an Exploratory Research Design in order to explore and evaluate the market and finally explore and predict the potential success of Aircel PCO in the market CLUSTER ANALYSIS This technique was used to divide the retailer into several clusters on various bases such as on the basis of demographic factors, income, and class of customers so that each can be studied in a better manner

22. OBSERVATION & PROJECTIONS

23. GENERAL MARKET SCENARIO

24. SWOT ANALYSIS FOR PCO MARKET

25. SWOT ANALYSIS FOR PCO MARKET

26. NUMBER OF COMPETITORS *Reliance, Vodafone, IDEA, Airtel PCO are using personnel sim and not PCO sim for Business

27. ACCEPTANCE LEVEL Nearly 200 out of 478 surveyed PCO owners agreed to take up an Aircel PCO

29. Rs.550 talk time on recharge of Rs 500.These plans were informed to the PCO owners. However they were not much motivated with the plans and demanded some extra margins so that they can also earn reasonable profits. 2. Secondly they wanted that certain assistance should be made available from the company side for the maintenance of the PCO in the form of hoardings or banner In conclusion we can say that if Aircel enters the PCO market without any value addition to PCO’s, it will have to survive tough competition from its competitors

30. AVERAGE INCOME

31. FUTURE PROSPECTS IN PCO MARKET From the survey, it was found that the future prospects for Aircel if it enters into the PCO market are not much bright. As per information there are 12000 PCO connections in J&K circle (Source: our project guide).out of which 4000 were issued by Airtel. Most of the 42% PCO owners who agree were having idle Airtel FWP phones. Or They want very attractive plans to go with Aircel PCO along with their BSNL(majority) phones.

32. RECOMMENDATIONS & SUGGESTIONS It is very hard to convenience BSNL PCO operators to switch to AIRCEL or any other operator because only BSNL provide option for FAX thus In order to penetrate and rule PCO market AIRCEL should capitalize on its VAS services and should Launch Aircel wireless Internet Phone (WIP) for PCO purpose. AIRCEL WIP PCO have the advantage of Phone with all the goodness of INTERNET – search PNR enquiry, check important mails, book tickets etc. Special branding of AIRCEL’s PCO should be done as they can be easily recognized by the consumer as “AIRCEL VALUE PCO” and not just another retail outlet

33. RECOMMENDATIONS & SUGGESTIONS PCO should be provided with some chart with country codes and respective tariff charges as to help operator charge accurately Prepaid SIM option can also encourage PCO operators to go for AIRCEL as recharge is very easy and convenient and many rural operators wish convenient recharge options than going especially to any outlet and waiting in queue to pay their due bills. Prepaid PCO connections helps for better penetration in the market.

34. SHORTCOMING & LIMITATIONS Time constraint Because of limited time period to conduct the study, it was not possible to cover the entire retailer or gather some extra information from the respondents/ retailer Distance and place constraint Jammu city is itself very large in area with significant distance between the places. So it was not possible to conduct study for the entire Jammu circle

35. SHORTCOMING & LIMITATIONS Uncooperativeness by respondents Some of the respondents/retailer was hesitant to share personal information such as information regarding their incomes or their mode of operation etc. Indirect Interview method/ personal conversation method Since an indirect interview or personal one to one personal conversation method was used rather than a questionnaire method. So responses from the respondent/ retailers may be biased

36. THANK YOU