GROUP NO-5

TOPI C:- TELECOM AND ELECTRONI CS I NDUSTRY

Unit 1 : I ndustry Analysis Basics: TELECOM SECTOR

1. NATURE & PLAYERS IN INDUSTRY:-

NATURE OF TELECOM INDUSTRY-




The telecommunications industry is at the forefront of the information agedelivering voice,
data, graphics and video at ever increasing speeds and in an increasing number of ways. Whereas
wireline telephone communication was once the primary service of the industry, wireless
communication services and cable and satellite program distribution make up an increasing share
of the industry.
During the late 1990s, the telecommunications industry, experienced very rapid growth and
massive investment in transmission capacity. Eventually this caused supply to significantly
exceed demand, resulting in much lower prices for transmission capacity. The excess capacity
and additional competition led to either declining revenues or slowing revenue growth, which
has led to consolidation within the industry, as many companies merged or left the industry.
The largest sector of the telecommunications industry continues to be made up of wired
telecommunications carriers. Establishments in this sector mainly provide telephone service via
wires and cables that connect customers? premises to central offices maintained by
telecommunications companies. The central offices contain switching equipment that routes
content to its final destination or to another switching center that determines the most efficient
route for the content to take. While voice used to be the main type of data transmitted over the
wires, wired telecommunications service now includes the transmission of all types of graphic,
video, and electronic data mainly over the Internet.
These new services have been made possible through the use of digital technologies that provide
much more efficient use of the telecommunications networks. One major technology breaks
digital signals into packets during transmission. Networks of computerized switching equipment,
called packet switched networks, route the packets. Packets may take separate paths to their
destination and may share the paths with packets from other users. At the destination, the packets
are reassembled, and the transmission is complete. Because packet switching considers alternate
routes, and allows multiple transmissions to share the same route, it results in a more efficient
use of telecommunications capacity as packets are routed along less congested routes.
One way wired carriers are expanding their bandwidth is by replacing copper wires with fiber
optic cable. Fiber optic cable, which transmits light signals along glass strands, permits faster,
higher capacity transmissions than traditional copper wire lines. In some areas, carriers are
extending fiber optic cable to residential customers, enabling them to offer cable television,
video-on-demand, high-speed Internet, and conventional telephone communications over a
single line. However, the high cost of extending fiber to homes has slowed deployment. In most
areas, wired carriers are instead leveraging existing copper lines that connect most residential
customers with a central office, to provide digital subscriber lines (DSL) Internet service.
Technologies in development will further boost the speeds available through a DSL connection.
Wireless telecommunications carriers, many of which are subsidiaries of the wired carriers,
transmit voice, graphics, data, and Internet access through the transmission of signals over
networks of radio towers. The signal is transmitted through an antenna into the wireline network.
Other wireless services include beeper and paging services. Because wireless devices require no
wireline connection, they are popular with customers who need to communicate as they travel,
residents of areas with inadequate wireline service, and those who simply desire the convenience
of portable communications. Increasing numbers of consumers are choosing to replace their
home landlines with wireless phones.
Wireless telecommunications carriers are deploying several new technologies to allow faster data
transmission and better Internet access that should make them competitive with wireline carriers.
One technology is called third generation (3G) wireless access. With this technology, wireless
carriers plan to sell music, videos, and other exclusive content that can be downloaded and
played on phones designed for 3G technology. Wireless carriers are developing the next
generation of technologies that will surpass 3G with even faster data transmission. Another
technology is called ?fixed wireless service,? which involves connecting the telephone and/or
Internet wiring system in a home or business to an antenna, instead of a telephone line. The
replacement of landlines with cellular service should become increasingly common because
advances in wireless systems will provide data transmission speeds comparable to broadband
landline systems.
PLAYERS OF TELECOM INDUSTRY & YEAR OF ESTABLISHMENT-
1. Bharti Airtel-1985
2. BSNL-2000
3. Vodafone Essar-2007
4. Reliance Communications-1999
5. Idea Cellular-1995
6. Tata Communications-1986
7. Tata Teleservices-1996
8. Aircel-1999
9. MTNL-1986
10. TTML-1998




2. NATURE OF COMPETITION FROM ECONOMISTS PERSPECTIVE:-
The competitive nature of the telecommunications industry could adversely affect our revenues,
results of operations and profitability.The telecommunications industry is very competitive.
Increased competition could lead to price reductions, declining sales volumes, loss of market
share, higher marketing costs and reduced operating margins. Significant and potentially larger
competitors could enter our markets at any time. For example, wireless providers currently
compete in most of our rural markets. We expect this competition to continue, and likely become
more intense, in the future. We also compete, or may in the future compete, with companies that
provide other close substitutes for the traditional telephone services we provide, like cable
television, VoIP, high-speed fiber optic networks or satellite telecommunications services and
with companies that might provide traditional telephone services over nontraditional network
infrastructures, like electric utilities.
The economic theory behind competition issues
For a long time government regarded the telecommunication markets as natural monopolies.
Gradually, however, this concept was eroded. Governments came to realize that not all segments
of the telecommunications industry exhibited characteristics of a natural monopoly while at the
same time technological advancements reduced previously prohibitive fixed costs and increases
in demand required the installation of new capacity. The transition to competition Despite market
liberalization, certain characteristics of telecommunications markets have nevertheless favoured
the continued concentration of market power in the hands of incumbents. Some of these include:
Strong network effects that reflect the desire by customers to make and receive calls
from anyone (the value of any-to-any connectivity), causing customers to choose large
networks over smaller networks in the absence of interconnection;
Large sunk costs involved in the construction of essential facilities such as local
networks;
The long legacy of statutory public monopoly in telecommunications which has
afforded the incumbent:

1. Scale and scope economies;
2. Benefits of established networks such wide subscriber base, deep pockets and
market experience

In many cases, these barriers to competition are aggravated by the abusive behaviour of
incumbent operators that exploit their position in a market to prevent or reduce competition in
the market. Given the market imperfections and the risks to competition, most governments have
taken the decision to intervene directly in the market in order to guarantee access to essential
facilities and networks controlled by the incumbent so as to mitigate networks effect and large
sunk costs and to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.
3. MARKET SHARES OF TOP & BOTTOM 3 PLAYERS:-
TOP 3 TELECOM COMPANIES IN INDIA 2013
1) Airtel
189 Million Subscribers
With nearly 200 million subscribers in India, Bharti Airtel has been the number one operator
since a long time. With brand ambassadors from Bollywood to Cricket, to sponsoring the
prestigious Indian F1 Grand prix, Airtel is easily by far the leader in the Indian telecom market
2) Vodafone
153 Million Subscribers
Global giant Vodafone holds a strong position in the Indian telecom market. With various
sponsorships and pan-India network, Vodafone is a big telecom player. Also, the "ZooZoo" ad
campaigns have revitalised the brand and made these adorable characters as one of the most
prominent marketing campaigns ever
3) Reliance Communications
123 Million Subscribers
Reliance communications have a network spread over 25000 towns and 0.6 mn villages, and
over 190,000 km of optic fibre cable systems. Apart from telecom, the company also boasts of
Reliance Digital Big TV
BOTTOM 3 TELECOM COMPANIES IN INDIA-
Aircel and Loop(formerly BPL)

4.CLASSIFICATION OF PLAYERS:-
1. Market leader:-Airtel
2. Challengers:- Vodafone, BSNL
3. Followers:- Idea
4. Nichers:- Aircel,BPL


5.POSITIONING & DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES OF KEY
PLAYERS:-
Brand positioning by Bharti Airtel
Market segmentation
Geographical segment (metropolitans & cities India)
Demographic segment - middle income groups
People age group of 20 to 28 year
Target marketing
People who living in cities and towns.
Poor or middle income group people.
Youngsters in big cities.
Businessmen
Positioning
Creating brands (Sharukh khan & Sachin Tendulker)
Ads and promotions
Promotion for study of poor childrens.
Marketing mix
Price: low price strategy
Place: maximum outlets and service centers
Product: varieties available for various groups
Promotion: various schemes for pre-paid and post-paid
Brand positioning by Vodafone
Vodafone target the rural India
The main targeted customers of Vodafone are from rural India.
By offering cheap and light mobile sets Vodafone attracts most of the customers of small
villages
and towns.
Offering cheap handsets
Vodafone offers cheap and free connections to all customers.
The cost for these sets was Rs-799-849-1099\set and onward.


Free support and services
In every district and big towns Vodafone opens its service centers to provide better
support and
services.
Strong logistics and supply chain
Vodafone has a strong logistic and supply all over India.
In every small town the potential customers can easily purchase the Vodafone SIM &
Sets.
Targeting youngsters in metropolitans
Vodafone attracts youngsters by offering colorful handset at very low prices.
Market segmentation
Geographical segment (rural India)
Demographic segment - middle income groups
Target marketing
People living in small towns and villages.
Poor and middle income groups.
Youngsters in big cities.
Businessmen
Positioning
Creating brands
Ads and promotions
Marketing mix
Price : low price strategy
Place : maximum outlets and service centers
Product : varieties available for various groups
Promotion: various schemes for pre-paid and post-paid
Services provided by Bharti Airtel
Mobile services with GSM technology
Fixed-line connections
National and international long distance services
VSAT, Internet services and network solutions
Broadband services


Services provided by Vodafone .
mobile services with GSM technology
fixed-line telephone services
Universal Internetworking
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
Interactive Television
Visual Communication
Broadband Portal

PRICING POLICIES:-
To start with, Airtel reviews and monitors its network on a weekly basis. With many
consumers complaining about not having signed up for VAS and still getting their
balance deducted, Airtel has driven the practice of double consent which has resulted in
the number of complaints dropping by 50 per cent. The practice has also led to some
decrease in the revenue figures but as Gopalan explains, "We'd rather if that drop ensures
a reduction in the churn as well. We want to keep our customers." Their single-minded
focus on improving Airtel's network, services and charging over the last 12 months has
indeed led to a significant drop in the churn rate, he says.
After years of youth oriented ads, Airtel came up with both a proposition and a campaign
that addressed its large user base, trying to get lower income consumers, a hitherto
untapped segment to sample its internet offering at a Rs 1 price point. In the meantime,
its youthful appeal has also yielded results among the younger demographic.
Even Vodafone has been making efforts to prove that it really is 'Happy to Help.' It
claims to have added over 10,000 cell sites to the 2G network, and over 6000 to 3G. "We
have substantially improved our voice call experience by reducing call drop rates by over
25 per cent in the last two years," adds Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer at
Vodafone India.
Leveraging on its social media popularity, Vodafone has used its online presence to
address consumer grievances. "We reply within 20 minutes and resolve the issue in about
five hours," Mathur mentions.
Reliance Communications, or RCom, has announced a partnership with social media firm
Twitter to offer 90 days of free Twitter access to all its prepaid GSM subscribers, with an
eye on cricket enthusiasts who keep track of IPL and its participants through Twitter.
Once the pack is activated, the app will work on any GPRS-enabled phone and users will
not have to pay data charges for the three months of the promotional offer. Charges will
apply when external links that appear on the tweets are viewed.

"We are hoping this offer to trigger a significant shift of cricket enthusiasts using
smartphones to our network," Nilanjan Mukherjee, chief revenue officer, wireless, at
Reliance Communications, said. The dual-technology telecom firm had earlier offered
unlimited use of messaging app Whatsapp for Rs 16, aimed largely at college students.
If RCom looks to woo IPL fans, rival Vodafone is targeting people set for summer
holidays by slashing national roaming rates for its pre-paid customers. Vodafone on
Tuesday cut roaming incoming rates to 30 paise per minute for pre-paid customers on its
network and has priced all outgoing local and STD calls at 1.5 paise per second, while
roaming or at home. The roaming plans vary from state to state ranging between Rs 26
and Rs 47 for one month.
"The new national roaming plan has been specially created for those who tend to travel a
lot on a regular basis. They can now talk more without worrying about high roaming
costs," Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer at Vodafone India, said. However, the
new roaming plans are not available for Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and J&K.
Vodafone is the second after Aircel to have slashed roaming rates. Aircel introduced one-
nation one-roaming back in January, offering incoming calls while on roaming on Aircel
network for free, and charging local and national voice calling at 1 paisa per second. The
offer price varies from state to state, for instance, a Delhi a user pays Rs 39 a month to
subscribe while a Mumbai user pays Rs 32. Vodafone is also pushing mobile phone users
to try out internet through trial packs that it offers for 2G, at Rs 25, and 3G, for Rs 49. It
launched a high-decibel campaign featuring the Zoozoos during the Indian Premier
League to promote this offer.
The country's largest telco by subscribers and revenue, Bharti Airtel has launched internet
video for Re 1. It offers internet users thousands of videos spanning various genres like
movies, cricket, comedy, devotional, health in Hindi, English and regional languages
through Airtel
Live. Customers will be charged Re 1 per video download and will not have to pay any
data charges. In one of the TV campaigns, a taxi driver shows a video of a Bollywood
song to a customer instead of return `1 in change. Aircel introduced a pocket internet
pack costing Rs 24 valid for a month that allows its customers to experience internet,
apps and social media at less than Re 1 per day.
New entrant Uninor is offering customised recharges to its subscribers who can also avail
additional talktime as bonus whenever they recharge. Called Rocket Recharge, the
scheme uses a system that analyses every individual customer's usage pattern and then
recommends an ideal recharge amount with an additional bonus ranging from extra talk
time, extra SMSes or a discounted VAS service



TOTAL CAPACITY OF THE INDUSTRY:-
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total
number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone).
[3]
It has one of the lowest call tariffs in
the world enabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-competition among them. It has
the world's third-largest Internet user-base. According to the Internet And Mobile Association of
India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at 190 million at the end of June,
2013.
[4]
Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephony, internet and
television broadcasting.
Telephone Industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of transforming into next
generation network, employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital
telephone exchanges, mobile switching centres, media gateways and signalling gateways at the
core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using fibre-optics or Microwave
radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly
diversified with different copper-pair, optic-fibre and wireless technologies.DTH, a relatively
new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The
introduction of private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in India.
Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the INSAT system of the country,
one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified
communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio,
television and satellite.
[5]

Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalisation and growth since the
1990s and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom
markets.
[6][7]
The Industry has grown over twenty times in just ten years, from under 37 million
subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011.
[1]
India has the
world's second-largest mobile phone user base with over 929.37 million users as of May 2012.
[5]

It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base with over 137 million as of June 2012.
[8][9]

The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 2832 billion (US$45 billion) for
201011 financial year, while revenues from telecom equipment segment stood at 1170 billion
(US$19 billion).
[10]

Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a
significant role to narrow down the rural-urbandigital divide to some extent. It also has helped to
increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in India. The
government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver mass
education programmes for the rural folk of India.
Telephony[edit]







The telephony segment is dominated by private-sector and two state-run businesses. Most
companies were formed by a recent revolution and restructuring launched within a decade,
directed by Ministry of Communications and IT, Department of Telecommunications and
Minister of Finance. Since then, most companies gained 2G, 3G and 4G licences and engaged
fixed-line, mobile and internet business in India. On landlines, intra-circle calls are considered
local calls while inter-circle are considered long distance calls. Foreign Direct Investment policy
which increased the foreign ownership cap from 49% to 74%.Now it is 100%. Currently
Government is working to integrate the whole country in one telecom circle. For long distance
calls, the area code prefixed with a zero is dialled first which is then followed by the number (i.e.
To call Delhi, 011 would be dialled first followed by the phone number). For international calls,
"00" must be dialled first followed by the country code, area codeand local phone number. The
country code for India is 91. Several international fibre-optic links include those to Japan, South
Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany. Some major telecom operators in India include Airtel,
Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications, TATA Teleservices, Infotel,
MTS, Uninor, TATA DoCoMo, Videocon, Augere, Tikona Digital.
Fixed Telephony
Until the New Telecom Policy was announced in 1999, only the Government-owned BSNL and MTNL
were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper wire in India with MTNL
operating in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL servicing all other areas of the country. Due to the
rapid growth of the cellular phone industry in India, landlines are facing stiff competition from
cellular operators. This has forced land-line service providers to become more efficient and
improve their quality of service. Land-line connexions are now also available on demand, even
in high density urban areas. India has over 31 million main line customers.
Mobile Telephony
In August 1995, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Jyoti Basu ushered in the cellphone
revolution in India by making the first call to Union Telecom Minister Sukhram. Sixteen years
later 4th generation services were launched in Kolkata.
[

With a subscriber base of more than 929 million, the Mobile telecommunications system in India
is the second largest in the world and it was thrown open to private players in the 1990s. GSM
was comfortably maintaining its position as the dominant mobile technology with 80% of the
mobile subscriber market, but CDMA seemed to have stabilised its market share at 20% for the
time being. By May 2012 the country had 929 million mobile subscribers, up from 350 million
just 40 months earlier. The mobile market was continuing to expand at an annual rate in excess
of 40% coming into 2010.
According to data provided by Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora, as of
30 November 2012, India has 736,654 base transceiver stations (2G GSM & CDMA, and 3G).
Of those, 96,212 base transceiver stations provide 3G mobile and data services. Out of India's
640 districts, 610 districts are covered by 3G services as of 30 November 2012.
The country is divided into multiple zones, called circles (roughly along state boundaries).
Government and several private players run local and long distance telephone services.
Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest in the
world.
[31]
The rates are supposed to go down further with new measures to be taken by the
Information Ministry.
[32]
In September 2004, the number of mobile phone connexions crossed
the number of fixed-line connexions and presently dwarfs the wireline segment by a ratio of
around 20:1. The mobile subscriber base has grown by a factor of over a hundred and thirty,
from 5 million subscribers in 2001 to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012. India
primarily follows the GSM mobile system, in the 900 MHz band. Recent operators also operate
in the 1800 MHz band. The dominant players are Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Vodafone, Idea
cellular and BSNL/MTNL. There are many smaller players, with operations in only a few states.
International roaming agreements exist between most operators and many foreign carriers. The
government allowed Mobile number portability (MNP) which enables mobile telephone users to
retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to
another.
[33]
India is divided into 22 telecom circles:

Telecom circle Wireline subscriber base
in million(May 2012)
Wireless subscriber base
in million(May 2012)
Teledensity
(May 2012)
Andhra Pradesh 2.33 66.6 80.46
Assam 0.20 14.6 47.7
Bihar & Jharkhand 0.56 62.97 48.37
Delhi 2.9 42.95 239.91
Gujarat & Daman & Diu 1.82 54.32 92.56
Haryana 0.59 23.00 90.86
Himachal Pradesh 0.30 7.41 112.29
Jammu and Kashmir 0.20 6.57 56.92
Karnataka 2.48 56.63 98.22
Kerala & Lakshadweep 3.18 34.51 107.85
Kolkata 1.18 25.25 Not available
*

Madhya Pradesh &
Chhattisgarh
1.13 53.30 55.38
Maharashtra & Goa 2.64 71.00 96.71
*

(excluding Mumbai )
Mumbai* 3.0 35.93 Not available
*

North East ^** 0.25 8.76 64.74
Orissa 0.40 26.27 64.73
Punjab 1.44 31.17 110.22
Rajasthan 1.14 49.52 73.26
Tamil Nadu(including
Chennai since 2005)
[35]

3.16 78.96 118.29
Uttar Pradesh(East) 1.20 77.74 62.65(Combined)
*

Uttar Pradesh(West) &
Uttarakhand
0.79 55.12 62.65(Combined)
*

West Bengal(excluding
Kolkata)
***

0.62 46.79 80.56
*


PLANNED FUTURE CAPACITY ADDITIONS:-
The Government approved National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, which addresses the vision,
strategic direction, and the various medium- and long-term issues related to the telecom sector,
on 31 May 2012. NTP-2012 is aimed at maximizing public good by making affordable, reliable,
and secure telecommunication and broadband services available across the country. The
objectives of NTP-2012 include the following:
Provide secure, affordable, and high-quality telecommunication services to all citizens.
Strive to create One Nation-One Licence across services and service areas.
Achieve One Nation-Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation-Free
Roaming.
Increase rural tele-density from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and
100 by the year 2020.
Recognize telecom, including broadband connectivity, as a basic necessity like education
and health and work towards 'Right to Broadband'.
Provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by the year 2015 and to achieve
175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at
minimum 2 Mbps download speed and make available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps
on demand.
Provide high-speed and high-quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a
combination of technologies by the year 2014 and progressively to all villages and
habitations by 2020.
Recognize telecom as an infrastructure sector to realize the true potential of information
communication technology(ICT) for development
Address right-of-way (RoW) issues in setting up of telecom infrastructure.
Mandate an ecosystem for ensuring setting up of a common platform for interconnection
of various networks for providing non-exclusive and non-discriminatory access.
Strive for enhanced and continued adoption of green policy in telecom and incentivize
use of renewable resources for sustainability
Achieve substantial transition to the new Internet Protocol (IPv6) in the country in a
phased and time-bound manner by 2020 and encourage an ecosystem for provision of a
significantly large bouquet of services on the IP platform.

Airtel is the one of the largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a
commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands.

Its area of operations include:
The Indian Subcontinent:
Airtel Bangladesh, in Bangladesh
Airtel, in India
Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka
Airtel Africa, which operates in 17 African countries:
Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey, under the brand
name Airtel-Vodafone, through an agreement with Vodafone.



Airtel operates in the following countries:
Country Site Remarks
Bangladesh
Airtel
Bangladesh
Airtel Bangladesh had about 8 million customers as on
Sep 2013.
[18]

Burkina Faso
Airtel
Burkina Faso
Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player with
1,433,000 customers representing 50% market share.
[19]

Chad
Airtel Chad Airtel Chad is the #1 operator with 69% market
share.
[19]

Democratic
Republic of the
Congo
Airtel DRC Airtel is the market leader with almost 5 million
customers at the end of 2010.
[citation needed]

Gabon
Airtel Gabon Airtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its market
share stood at 61%.
[20]

Ghana
Airtel Ghana Airtel Ghana had about 1.76 million customers at the
end of 2010.
[21]

India
Airtel Airtel is the market leader with almost 193.4 million
customers as on Sept 30, 2013.
[22]

Kenya
Airtel Kenya Airtel Kenya is the second largest operator and has 4
million customers.
[23]

Madagascar
Airtel
Madagascar
Airtel holds second place in the mobile telecom market
in Madagascar, has a 39% market share and over 1.4
million customers.
[19]

Malawi
Airtel
Malawi
Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a market share
of 72%.
[19]

Niger
Airtel Niger Airtel Niger is the market leader with a 68% market
share.
[19]

Nigeria
Airtel
Nigeria

Republic of the
Congo
Airtel Congo
B
Airtel Congo is the market leader with a 55% market
share.
[19]

Rwanda
Airtel
Rwanda
Airtel launched services in Rwanda on 30 March
2012.
[24]

Seychelles
Airtel
Seychelles
Airtel is the leading comprehensive
telecommunications services providers with over 55%
market share of mobile market in Seychelles.
[25]

Sierra Leone
Airtel Sierra
Leone

Sri Lanka
Airtel Sri
Lanka
Airtel Sri Lanka commenced operations on 12 January
2009. It had about 1.8 million mobile customers at the
end of 2010.
[21]

Tanzania
Airtel
Tanzania
Airtel Tanzania is the market leader with a 38% market
share.
[19]

Uganda
Airtel
Uganda
Airtel Uganda stands as the #2 operator with a market
share of 38%.
[19]

Zambia
Airtel
Zambia
Airtel Zambia is the market leader with 69% market
share.
[citation needed]

Channel Islands

: Airtel Airtel operates in the Channel Islands under the brand

Jersey
Guernsey
Vodafone name AirtelVodafone through an agreement with
Vodafone.
Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries.
Therefore, Airtel's countries of operation is considered to be 20.




Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Majority-owned Minority-
owned
Partner
networks
DR Congo
1
Egypt Kenya Kuwait
Ghana Lesotho
1
Bahrain
Mozambique
1
Qatar
2
Libya
Tanzania
1
South Africa
1
UAE
1
Majority stakes held through majority-
owned Vodacom Group
2
Effective ownership is not majority, but
full control exercised by the group.



Networks in the Americas
Minority-owned Partner
networks

USA
1
Chile
2

1
Verizon Wireless
2
Entel PCS (Partner)









Networks in Asia-Pacific
Majority-
owned
Minority-
owned
Partner networks
Australia Fiji Afghanistan Armeni
a
India Azerbaijan Hong
Kong
New
Zealand
Malaysia Samoa
Singapore Sri
Lanka
Taiwan Thailan
d
Turkmenistan Uzbeki
stan


Networks in Europe

Majority-
owned
Partner networks
Albania Austria Belgium
Czech
Republic
Bulgaria Channel
Islands
Germany Croatia Cyprus
Greece Denmark Estonia
Hungary Finland Faroe
Islands
Ireland Iceland Latvia
Italy Lithuania Luxembour
g
Malta Macedonia Norway
Netherlands Russia Serbia
North
Cyprus
Slovenia Sweden
Portugal Switzerland Ukraine
Romania
Spain
Turkey
UK


TRENDS IN DEMAND-SUPPLY:-
Demand Analysis:
The majority of the Indian population is in the age group of 15-64 years. Mostly users of
mobile phones belong to this category of age. Hence, Indian holds a great potential
market for telecom service providers. Even young generation of India is attracted more
and more towards cell phones and this has become a trend and need of even small
children in India. This assures a high growth in this industry in future.
Most of the service providers have covered majority of the urban population of India. But
many far fledged villages of India still need to be connected through mobile phones. The
untapped rural population of India is a huge proportion of the 72.2% total rural
population of India. Also, the demand for telecom service in rural people is increasing
day by day. This further ensures growth in the industry.
Indian telecom continues to register a significant growth each year. This has been due to
the impact of economic reforms and pro-active policies of the government. The growth of
wireless services has been phenomenal, with wireless subscribers growing at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87.7 per cent per annum since 2003. The share of private
sector in total telephone connections is now 77% per cent as per the latest statistics
available for Year 2011 as against a meager 5% in 1999.
It is also envisaged that internet and broad-band subscribers will increase to 50 million
and 25 million, respectively, by 2014. As per the latest available statistics for September
2010, about 12% villages have broadband coverage.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the important sources to meet the huge funds
that are required for rapid network expansion. The FDI policy provides an investor-
friendly environment for the growth of the telecom sector. The policy of the Government
of India is to strive to maximize the developmental impact and spin-offs of FDI. At
present, 74% to 100% FDI is permitted for various telecom services. The total FDI equity
inflows in telecom sector have been 1451 million USD during 2009-10.
Supply Analysis
Degree of Concentration : The telecommunications industry is a vast one with a large
number of private players who are constantly bringing down the cost to consumers
thereby making services more affordable and helping improve life in general and
business in particular. On the Indian business scene are successful government owned
institutions like MTNL and BSNL on the one hand, and even more successful and
aggressive players like the Tatas and Reliance on the other. Competition has just begun
and is heating up every day with either lowering of tariffs or introduction of newer and
improved services to keep a larger share of the market. Reliance, for instance, has been
one of the recent, more aggressive players in the telecom business when it introduced a
wireless phone in the market for as low as Rs. 500.
Ease of entry: Friction exists between existing players and the newer entrants, as also
between the providers of services based on different technologies (CDMA Vs Cellular).
The same needs to be resolved with government intervention through the regulator in
order to further improve the services. The telecom sector today is not a small one and
covers various services and many players within each service. One of the most vibrant
developments in telecommunications has been Cellular telephony a technology that
gives us the power to communicate anytime and anywhere. This segment, a part of the
broader telecommunications industry, has today spawned an entire industry in mobile
telecommunication. Mobile phones today are an integral part of growth, success and
economic efficiency of businesses.
The government in India has today recognized, providing world-class
telecommunications infrastructure as the key to rapid economic and social development
of the country. Although the industry requires huge capital investments and due to high
entry barrier the sector is monopolized by small number of players.

Industry capacity: Conservative estimates put a tag of a 3% increase in the growth of
GDP for every 1% rise in the tele-density in the nation. Accordingly, this sector has
received a great thrust from the government for investments and development.

In spite to huge demand matched up by the service providers there is mismatch between
demand and supply in telecom industry are:
The demand for 3G and 4G spectrum is more among mobile phone service providers in
many states of India but the supply of spectrum by the Government is not meeting the
demand of the service providers.
The supply for landline telephones are more but the demand for landline telephones are
getting reduced as a result extensive use of mobile phones and internet calling.
There is a demand for hi-speed internet connection in different parts of the country but
those demands are not met by the service providers in telecom industry and the supply of
broadband connection by service providers are not meeting the demand in market.
The supply of mobile connection by different mobile phone service providers is not
meeting the demand generated by the people in the market.
The demand for manufacturing mobile phones by many mobile phone manufactures is
increasing in India but the various policy of Indian government and restricted supply of
raw materials is not meeting the demand of mobile phone manufacturers.
The supply of radio service is more in the country is more but the demand for radio
services has decreased as a result of the involvement of visual media and other forms of
communication.
PROFESSIONAL TRADE BODIES OF THE INDUSTRY:-
A number of positive regulatory changes have driven growth in the sector. The key feature
of Indias regulatory regime is transparency in industry information, an open approach and
encouragement of consultation with stakeholders. The key stakeholders as a part of the
regulatory environment in the telecom ecosystem include the Ministry of Communications
& Information Technology (MICT), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Telecom
Commission, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Telecom Dispute
Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

MICT
The MICT is part of the Indian Government. The key departments of the ministry include the
Department of Telecommunications, the Department of Information Technology, and the
Department of Posts
The MICT formulates policies with respect to telecom, post, telegraph and other means of
communication
The laws governing the telecom sector include the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885; the Indian
Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933; and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997
DoT
The DoT is a part of the MICT. Its key responsibilities include:
Policy, licensing and coordination matters relating to telegraphs, telephones, wireless, data,
facsimile and telematic services and other like forms of communications
International cooperation
Promotion of standardization and R&D
Promotion of private investment
Telecom Commission
The Telecom Commission was set up in 1989 by the GoI to deal with various aspects of
telecommunications
The commission consist of four full-time members that are ex-officio Secretary to the GoI in
the DoT, and four part-time members that are secretaries to the GoI of the concerned
departments
The Telecom Commission is responsible for policy formulation, licensing, wireless spectrum
management, administrative monitoring of public sector undertakings (PSUs), R&D and
standardization and validation of equipment, among other matters
TRAI
TRAI was established as an independent statutory regulatory authority under the TRAI Act in
1997. The key powers and functions of the authority include:
Recommending the need for a new service provider, and the terms and conditions of license to
a service provider
Ensuring technical compatibility and effective inter-connection between different service
providers
Regulating revenue-sharing arrangements among service providers
Ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of license
Setting and enforcing the time frames for providing local and long-distance telecommunication
circuits
Recommending revocation of licenses for non-compliance of their terms and conditions
Facilitating competition and promoting efficiency in the operation of telecommunication
services
Protecting the interests of the consumers
Monitoring the quality of service and conducting periodical surveys
Inspecting the equipment used in the network and recommending the type of equipment to be
used by service providers
Settling disputes between service providers
Advising the central government in matters related to the development of telecommunication
technology and the telecom industry
Levying fees and other charges
Ensuring compliance with universal service obligations
Performing other functions, such as administrative and financial functions, that may be
entrusted to TRAI by the central government, or as may be necessary to carry out the provisions
of the TRAI act

TDSAT
In April 2000, the GoI established the Telecom Dispute Settlement & Appellate Tribunal
(TDSAT), as an authority separate from the TRAI to handle disputes in the telecom sector
The functions of TDSAT are to adjudicate any dispute between a licensor and licensee,
between two or more service providers, and between a service provider and a group of
consumers; and to hear and dispose of appeals against any decision or order of TRAI
The appellate tribunal consists of a chairperson and two other members

ONLINE PRESENCE:-
Community Building
You would be living under a rock if you were not aware that Tata Docomo has the largest
community on Facebook for an Indian brand. With more 13 million likes, it is almost three
times ahead of its nearest competitor Idea Cellular, which has close to 4.5 million people in its
community.



Following them are Aircel (4.1m), Airtel (2.3m), Reliance (1.2m) etc.
Interestingly, if you look at the actual subscriber stats, Airtel and Vodafone are the biggest
players in the mobile industry but they dont have as many Facebook fans as their competitors.
Amongst these telcos, the fastest to grow is Loop Mobile and is one of the smallest as well. It
went on to add 116k people in the last 30 days, displaying a growth of 78%! Guess the brand has
started to realize the importance of social media and is pulling out all stops to expand itself?
How have they attracted so many users? Without inside info its difficult to tell but a sustained
strategic advertising campaign on Facebook could explain the sudden increase in fans. On
Twitter, Tata Docomo again holds reign with 68k followers. However, unlike Facebook,
Vodafone and Airtel have a following better than the rest. They boast of 64k and 32k followers
respectively.

Reliance Mobile (16k) and Aircel (19k) are the fastest growing telcos on Twitter as they have
gained 78% and 50% of their followers in the last 30 days we looked at. The poorest performers
on Twitter are Loop Mobile, BSNL, Uninor and MTS India. But any social media marketer
worth his salt will tell you how important Twitter is for a telecom brand. Twitter is like the
venting channel where people crib about bad service and more often than not in India, it is a
telco at the receiving end!
So if you dont have a good enough presence over there, you are doing yourself a great
disservice.
As far as YouTube is concerned, only the big players are getting the most views. The smaller
players like Loop and Uninor are failing terribly at building a good YouTube subscriber base.
Community Engagement
In my observation, self-promotional updates received the lowest engagement from the
community. While updates about celebs and brand ambassadors or even random funny updates
received a good number of traction.

Source: Unmetric Social Media Analytics Tool
As expected, Tata Docomo has the maximum engagement in terms of Likes, Comments and
Shares for its updates, but that is natural considering how big its community is. From this data,
what surprised me was that Aircel managed to get almost the same traction with a community
third the size of Docomos given their content strategy, it appears Indias obsession with
cricket will never wane.
Maybe Aircel is promoting the updates to increase the reach of its IPL-centric updates. I am
assuming this because all the updates about Chennai Super Kings is getting phenomenal
reception.
Well, if you look at the graph and think why no other brands have any engagement, then you will
be mistaken. They do have some engagement but since the graph is relative in nature, the data
for Docomo has dwarfed everyone. Except BSNL Mobile, which is seeing no engagement at all.
Its Facebook page is almost dead, which a cynic might add much like its network.
Customer Service
It is nice to see brands with Facebook pages open for posts from others. Not many do, especially
when youre in the service industry, like we saw with the BFSI report. On Facebook, I have
noticed Airtel being super quick with responses and so is Reliance and Tata Docomo.
But for some weird reason, I failed to see fan posts on the wall of Idea and Vodafone even
though both of them allow it perhaps they are somehow hiding the fan posts?
On Twitter, Airtel and Vodafone are the most active ones interacting with people. Earlier in this
article, I had discussed how Airtel and Vodafone are the biggest players in the field but dont
have a community as big as Tata Docomo. You can see the difference shining through this graph.

Source: Unmetric Social Media Analytics Tool
You can see how many queries Airtel and Vodafone handled and compare that with the ones
handled by Tata Docomo. The difference is huge!
Almost all the interaction on Twitter is pertaining to customer service, where a huge majority of
the replies are looking to take the discussion to a different platform, like Email, DM or Phone.
Telcos prefer to solve the problem privately.

But you have to look at the response time stats to see how effective their customer service
channel is. As you can see in the chart below, Airtel and Vodafone again trump everyone else
here by a long shot. While Vodafone takes a little over 13 hours, Airtel responds within 30
minutes!

Responding quickly is one thing, but I have seen people often complain about the bot-like
nature of @airtel_presence, lets not forget that a reply isnt necessarily a resolution.
It is disappointing to see Tata Docomo faring below average here. Having the biggest
community amounts to nothing if you are not good at servicing your customers.
However, the biggest culprit here are BSNL Mobile and Loop. Both are scraping the bottom of
the barrel here with not a single reply to customers. They just dont like being on Twitter or have
the budget and strategy to make it work, I guess.
Sentiment
On Twitter, sentiment is evaluated by the replies of brands to the tweets. MTS India seems to be
responding to a lot of positive tweets as almost 80% of its replies are to positive tweets.

While Uninor, Aircel and Airtel are the top 3 brands facing negative reaction from Twitter.
Uninor faces the worst here as 40% of the tweets it replies to are negative in nature.
The scenario on Facebook is completely different however. Evaluating the sentiment of fan
posts, it has come to the fore that Airtel and Vodafone face a barrage of abuse and upset
customers from its community, almost 30% of posts are classed as negative.


There is very little positivity on both Facebook and Twitter for telcos, which some would say is
pretty understandable for the service sector, although few would say that its acceptable. People
dont often mention brands when they are very ecstatic but are quick to voice their displeasure at
the slightest bit of annoyance.



Some insights
Since most of the posts recorded on Social media platforms are complaints and customer
related issues, out of which maximum complaints are negative, it is important that these posts get
noticed and replied to as and when they are posted.
It is seen that most of these comments get a reply from the CC team to register their number at
a link after which an executive contacts that particular number. However, customers would
prefer if their complaint was addressed to with a solution or a relevant piece of information. In
this way customers will feel that the CC team not only understands their issue but also is readily
helpful.
Apart from offers and posts by customers the FB page has nothing much to offer.
Also, there were 2 posts mentioning the lack of visibility of information on Vodafones
website. The website needs to be updated regularly and information needs to be posted in a way
that customers do not find it difficult to search and understand what they are looking for.
Twitter is only a platform where customers post queries and complaints and CC reply to these.
From all the social media channels under consideration it is observed that Vodafone does not
engage in customer communication readily, its presence on these channels is more about
addressing customer complaints.