Project Report By Abhi

Institute of Business Study And Research

Project On

“Market Survey And Sales Promotions For Loop Mobile” Master of Business Administration (Marketing) Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for award of Master of Business Administration of Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune. Submitted by ABHISHEK SHUKLA PRN: 07208015196

Institute of Business Studies and Research, Navi Mumbai Tilak Maharashtra University Gultekdi, Pune 411037. 1|Page Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The satisfaction of completion of any successful task is incomplete without mentioning the name of people who made it possible and whose constant guidance and encouragement crowned our efforts with success. I am feeling glad being the part of Project named as HAMALA which is nothing but to increase the consumer base by providing them better services. I have a pleasure in submitting the project report and I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have helped me in this organization. I express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Badrinath Agnihotri (Senior Manager – Enterprise), who gave the vital inputs and necessary information regarding the project and organization. I would also like to thank my project guide Mr. Santosh Ageskar (Senior Sales Manager), for giving me the opportunity constant encouragement, support and guidance and for imparting their views regarding growth of Project HAMALA which is basically aim to get more market share. I wish to place on record my sincere Thanks to LOOP MOBILE management staff. I'm also thankful to Mr. Akhilesh Bajpai (Senior Sales Executive), whose encouragement and never ending support made me relentlessly work hard towards the pursuit of preparing this report in a timely and efficient manner. This project report could not have been completed without the guidance of our Director Dr. Bhuril , Project Guide Mr. Deb Burman. Last but not the least , I also wish to express my gratitude to all those who have directly or indirectly given assistance in making this project easier

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The rapid growth in Indian telecom industry has been contributing to India‟s GDP a t large. Telecom industry in India started to set up in a phased approach. Privatization was gradually introduced, first in value - added services, followed by cellular and basic services. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), was established to regulate and deal with competition. This gradual and thoughtful reform process in India has favored industry growth. Upcoming services such as 3G and IMAX will help to further augment the growth rate. The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market . LOOP MOBILE is a well known company in telecommunication sector which only operates in Mumbai region of Maharashtra .In spite of all this, It manage to have the third place in Mumbai after Vodafone and Airtel, which are the Big market players. LOOP MOBILE starts its services in 1995, LOOP MOBILE currently operates in Mumbai city with than 2.4 million happy and satisfied subscribers. It not only have the wide network coverage which operates on 900 MHz frequency, resulting in better coverage superior voice quality and compatibility across all GSM handsets . It as an great idea of management to initiate an project named HAMALA, in which they were targeting to increase the customer base by giving the information regarding their products which were already in the market but output which should be, is not there in spite of having better plans and services than other competitors like Vodafone, Airtel, Idea and Reliance. Loop Mobile is now ISO 9001:2008 certified. The certificate is a testimony to the company‟s commitment to operational excellence. The certification was conducted in accordance with the TUV NORD CERT auditing and certification procedures.

Recently LOOP has got PAN License to expend its network in all over the India. In order to that LOOP starts its service in Kerala and Karnataka and plans of soft 3|Page Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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launch in five states that were scheduled for mid - June the sequence of circles launch is in sync with the sequence of the spectrum allocation The main objective of the project HAMALA was to enhance the numbers of customer base by giving the right information about the cheaper rate. In order to achieve that objective, they decided to conduct market survey. So Ex. C.E.O of Loop Mobile Mr. Sanjeev Chachodia introduced a project titled HAMALA. As we know that only telecom industry continue increase, while recession was already in market in spite of all these several problems new companies were introduced in market like Aircel , customer base was increasing above the acceptance of analysts of telecommunication. So it can be a golden opportunity for marketing guys to work under such research title HAMALA with such big brand name like LOOP MOBILE. If new companies are coming in spite of recession so it can be concluded that telecom industries have a lot to understand and analysis. And because of this decided to join Loop Mobile .We should be very careful in selection of choosing Internship Project. And especially at the starting level of my career I wanted to do my summer internship with any Brand Name in spite of doing any other sectors. In present scenario of market is not just about adding new customers while it‟s also important to maintained old customer as well? It is very easy to introduced new customer than retention of old customers. This was also a reason for introduction of this market survey. So it can be a good time to get into touch of market where I can know the pulses and Ups & Down of market. As this project was much more related to apply our practical Knowledge of dealing with people rather than theoretical one so it was bit of a challenging task also but the learning what we get from the Market as well as LOOP head office is quite a great opportunity

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Contents CHAPTER NO. 1

TITLES

PAGE NO.

Rationale of Study

06

Title of the Project

09

Objective of Study

11

Scope of the Project

12

3

Company Profile

14

4

Review of Literature

23

5

Research Methodology

36

Research Design

36

Data Collection Methods/Sources

37

6

Data Analysis & Interpretation

41

7

Findings

50

8

Limitations

51

9

Recommendation

52

Questionnaire

53

Bibliography

54

2

Appendix

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Chapter 1 Rationale of Study BPL Mobile, Mumbai‟s oldest and longest standing mobile service brand is now Loop Mobile, the newest telecom brand in the city. The new brand identity for BPL Mobile, which has been serving Mumbai for over 13 years, was unveiled today. It already caters to over 2 million subscribers. The new logo – Loop Mobile has been designed keeping in mind growth and re-enforces BPL Mobile as a fresh new brand.

Loop Mobile comes with a brand new network too. The company announced the completion of its network expansion and has now doubled its capacity by deploying the latest NGIP (Next Generation Internet Protocol) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technology. With this, they also pave the way for seamless execution of numerous innovative VAS as well as micro-segmented and value enhancing tariffs that Loop Mobile aims to roll out for their subscribers. I chose Loop Mobile for my Summer Internship Project and reasons are as follows; 

In India Telecom Industry is at the high pace.



India is the fourth largest telecom market in Asia after China, Japan and South Korea.



The Indian telecom network is the eighth largest in the world and the second largest among emerging economies.



And even the existence of recession, this was only the field which was on its own pace.

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

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Loop Mobile is at the first place in terms of overall Customers satisfaction which was almost 99% which is itself higher than any other telecom service providers in Mumbai circle.



Loop Mobile has third place in customer base which was 2.2 million, after Vodafone and Airtel both are national players.

As a management student, we should be very careful in choosing title because its directly related to your future career. So we should choose our project as per our interest. I was searching a project in which I am able to apply my theoretical as well as I can learn that how to understand corporate problems and how to draw a solutions. The company was doing in every field but they want to increase the customer base by giving the better services at lower cost which is basic motive of Loop Mobile, because for expanding customer base is not enough for any company . Because it‟s very easy for any organization to add new customers but it is very difficult to retain old and loyal customers.

As company‟s product were already in the market but the revenue which should be there was not generating. So company decided to conduct a survey so that they get to know the real need of customers.

It was also important that company change its brand name from LOOP MOBILE to BPL MOBILE so they want to increase the brand image of newly change LOOP MOBILE.

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BPL Mobile has consistently met and exceeded the TRAI Quality of Services standards. BPL Mobile ranked No 1 in overall satisfaction amongst the GSM operators as per the new TRAI report on Quality of Service and Customer Satisfaction Survey of telecom services in Mumbai. BPL Mobile also topped in the Voice & Data – SAARC Mobile User satisfaction Survey (2008) in network services category with 98.2% users of BPL Mobile voting in its favour. I am so glad to done my project with LOOP MOBILE because it was a very learning experience. All the management staff was very supportive.

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Chapter-2 TITLE OF PROJECT “market Survey and SaleS promotionS of loop mobile”

It can be an great opportunity for marketing students who want to feel the real sense of marketing scenario especially in present time where recession is going on. Anyways I got the chance to grab opportunity by working with LOOP MOBILE under the project title HAMALA, which is introduced by Ex. C.E.O. of LOOP MOBILE Mr. Sanjeev Chachondia.

As word has its own meaning same here the literal meaning of the project title HAMALA is to „Attack‟. The basic idea behind giving this name is to increase the customer base which is very important aspect for any organization for regulating in market because without customers any organization cannot competite.

In project HAMALA we are in the Sale Department which was further divided into sub – Departments which are as follows 

Large Scale Industry



Medium Scale Industry



Small Medium Enterprise (SME)

I was in Small Scale Medium Enterprise( SME ). In this department we usually go to the Small Scale Private industries where we ask the different questions regarding telecommunication operator which they were using as like which operator they are using ?, Is that connection is company paid or individual paid ? How many connection lines are there? How many employees are working over there? and After 9|Page Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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taking all valuable and required information we give information from our side if they are showing interest.

Every question which I ask means a lot and have its own importance. As we ask question like The connection which is using by company, is company paid or individual paid because if connection is company paid only then we take it into consideration only reason behind it that we are in postpaid connection department and if that is individual then we give full detail of our product and suggest them to take it into consideration if they are planning for changing connection lines and also informed that we can customized our products according to your requirement so that customer get better service at a low cost in comparison to other operators .

Overall it was a learning experience by working with LOOP MOBILE under the project title HAMALA. All management staff was very supportive but strict to rules and regulations.

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OBJECTIVE OF STUDY The main objective of study was to add value to products of Loop mobile and to

increase the customer base by providing them better services. For the better understanding of objective of study it can be divided into two parts which are as follows:

Objective

Primary



Secondary

Primary Objective –

i.

To study the brand awareness and the market potential of loop mobile.

ii.

To give the real and right information regarding our product.

iii.

Being as the part of organization I tried to follow organization culture and rules and regulation. 

Secondary Objective : These objectives can be define in following way : i.

Try to drag out all required information which is very basic before arriving at the conclusion ,

ii.

TO know about actual market potential.

iii.

To know that whether company is using LOOP connection.

iv.

To know that is connection is Company paid or Individual Paid because we are targeting those connection which are company paid . 11 | P a g e

Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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v.

By that data , try to predict that whether company is satisfied with operator which is already in that company,

vi.

If not then from here we can create a good image of LOOP MOBILE by telling them that according to Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) we means LOOP MOBILE has 98.5 % customer satisfaction which is higher than any other service provider.

Scope of Study

The data which is collected during project is very important from LOOP MOBILE as well as from our point of view because by this data they were doing a kind of mapping of MUMBAI Telecom operators in SMEs, by which they predict what the customer base , what‟s customer base of other operators , what kind of service they are providing , what are those fields where LOOP MOBILE lacks behind and many more. The project was useful for me being a management trainee because I can learn there a lot like, what‟s organization culture is all about? , how to behave while entering in any organization, etc . Overall it was a golden opportunity for the marketing people to know market pulses. And various scopes are as follows: 

As per areas which is already decided by Senior Sales Executive Mr. Santosh Ageskar and as we are the part of corporate sales unit so they usually chose those areas where the maximum number of SMEs are there. So I have got three areas which are C.S.T., Masjid and Charni Road .The basic idea is to increase market share by giving required knowledge about our products.

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

After that if any company person is willing to change their connection because of some problems like Billing System so we take appointment from them to meeting with our any Sales Executives for offering them fare deal.



If I fix an appointment with Sales Executive then we call it Prospect. In we got 5 points for this which was very useful to get an Excellent Certificate which will be provided if you achieve 500 points.



And if that prospect turns into fix deal then we get 10 points plus 2 points per connections. And there were also other points system as if we collect visiting cards of any Administrative Person then we get 1 point for per visiting card. It was not just about to collect data and get certificate ,but also we get interact with admin person so we were creating personal contacts which is very important being an management student.

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Chapter-3 COMPANY PROFILE COMPANY OVERVIEW BPL Mobile Communications Limited provides cellular services in Mumbai, India. The company offers prepaid, post paid, roaming, multimedia messaging, and mobile browsing services, as well as mobile tracker services and Java based mobile games. It also offers BlackBerry Curve 8300 Smartphone to individuals and businesses. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Mumbai, India. BPL Mobile Communications Limited was a subsidiary of BPL Communications. As of January 17, 2006, BPL Mobile Communications limited is a subsidiary of Vodafone Essar, Ltd. 'B' Wing 4th floor Eureka Towers Mind space, Link Road, Malad (West) Mumbai, 400 064 India Phone: 91 22 2844 0800 Fax: 91 22 2431 0331 www.bplmobile.com

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KEY EXECUTIVES Mr. Sandip Basu Chief Executive Officer Mr. K. A. Mohd Saleem Chief Operating Officer of Kerala & Tamil Nadu Circles Mr. G. Sambasivan Chief Operating Officer of Kerala Operations Mr. R. Suresh Kumar Chief Operating Officer of Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry Operations Mr. A. J. Ishwar Kumar Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Compensation as of Fiscal Year 2009

. KEY DEVELOPMENTS FOR LOOP MOBILE (INDIA) LIMITED



Loop Mobile (India) Limited Launches 'epaid' 09/2/2009

Loop Mobile (India) Limited launched `epaid`. `epaid` entitles subscribers all benefits of a postpaid and a prepaid connection bundled together. Enriching the mobile 15 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

Institute of Business Study And Research

phone service offering to an all new level, Loop Mobile (now) revolutionizes the Indian market in

introducing `epaid` (after prepaid and postpaid). With an

introductory offer of a free monthly itemized usage e-statement and the convenience of online purchase of credits, `epaid` aims to provide a new alternative to subscribers. With `epaid` Loop Mobile subscribers can enjoy 3 year validity, low Local & STD tariffs and roam across 550 networks worldwide. E-paid comes along with pre-activated CLIP, ISD, STD, call-conference and call-forwarding. In addition, the superior NGIP network of Loop Mobile backs the service making it congestion free and without call drops.



Loop Mobile (India) Limited Announces Executive Changes 08/18/2009

Loop Mobile Executive

(India)

Limited

announced that

Mr. Sanjeev Chachondia, Chief

Officer has been replaced by Mr.Sandip Basu, who was the CEO and

Executive Director of BPL Mobile till 2005. Mr. Basu will be in charge of the national launch of Loop Telecom.



BPL Mobile Communications Limited has Changed its Name to Loop Mobile 03/20/2009

BPL Mobile Communications Limited changed its name to Loop Mobile BPL Mobile has had the privilege of serving the communications needs of the financial capital of India for the last 13 years. It gives us great pleasure to inform you, that BPL Mobile is being rebranded as Loop Mobile in Mumbai. 

Loop Mobile introduces ‘karaoke messaging’ in India

Mumbai-based Loop Mobile today announced the launch of a new VAS initiative which it has branded as „Karaoke messaging‟ allowing subscribers to sing a song 16 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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with music accompaniment and exact lyrics. Users can then listen to recording and dedicate it to their loved ones.

The services is interactive voice response (IVR) based and the portal 54999 hosting the service has over 500 tunes of Bollywood music from categories such as Retro, Romantic and Ghazals. Subscribers will be charged Rs 2 per minute while the song can be dedicated for free.

We being a telecom company say that the service banks on the surprise quotient associated with the service by the recipient who receives the dedicated song as a call.

Commenting on this trendy new service, Mr. Joseph George, Marketing Head, said, “‟Karaoke messaging‟ is the upshot of research in consumer trends which reflected the popularity that Karaoke enjoys. Karaoke is being accepted both as a fun and trendy activity across age-groups, and as a cool way of expressing yourself to loved ones. With approximately 85% acceptability amongst prospects in the target group of youth 18-24 years, the need for a handy Karaoke as the most preferred means of expressing oneself was clearly visible in the test group‟s approval ratings. Being aligned with our overall commitment to delivering engaging & trendy services, we at Loop Mobile are tuned in to identify such trends of high acceptability and usability and convert them into a service that‟s more exciting & enjoyable as an experience.”

Competitors In Present Market:

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Being a telecom service with in limited areas, gave a tough competition to other service provider which are national telecom service provider. We maintain our third position in Mumbai circle. There are several competitors which are as follows;

Experience the Change; Our new identity, Loop Mobile, represents growth with continuity. While we constantly work towards giving our subscribers a better network, innovative products and a superior mobile telephony experience, our subscribers can be assured of the same focus and commitment

in providing the best network coverage, billing

accuracy, and an unmatched personalized customer service. It is our firm belief that our customers deserve the best we have to offer, be it in terms of network or customer service experience. In line with this commitment, we have invested over Rs 300 crores to upgrade to NGIP (Next Generation IP) network. 18 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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This highly efficient network upgrade enables us to offer unmatched voice clarity and extensive coverage along with high-speed data services. I am happy to inform you that we are the only GSM network in Mumbai that has met all the TRAI benchmarks on network and service quality parameters again this year. We have also been rated as the best network by Voice & Data, leading Telecom magazine, in their SAARC Mobile Users' Satisfaction Survey 2008. We have gained a significant market share of incremental subscriber addition in Mumbai Circle for the last several months. The emphasis on growth is clearly reflected in our growing subscriber base - we crossed the 2-Million subscriber mark in Mumbai Circle in January 2009.

Loop Mobile (Formerly BPL Mobile)

Type

Private

Founded

2009

Headquarters

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Key people

CEO Sanjay Basu

Industry

Telecom

Products

Website

Mobile Telecommunication operator

http://www.loopmobile.in/

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BPL Mobile Communications, the country‟s oldest mobile telecom service provider, has changed its name to Loop Mobile, following the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the TPG Nambiar-owned BPL Group. Loop Mobile will also have the latest NGIP (Next Generation Internet Protocol) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technology. The operator is hoping to leverage these technologies to introduce innovative VAS, as well as microsegmented tariffs for subscriber.

Having started its services in 1995, BPL Mobile distinguishes itself as the longest serving telecom brand in the country. It currently operates in Mumbai with over 2 million happy and satisfied subscribers. With customer focus at its core, BPL Mobile has consistently excelled and led the industry and continues to prove how well they understand customer service. BPL Mobile has consistently met and exceeded TRAI benchmarks according to Report on the Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators, over the past several years. BPL Mobile also credits itself as the first operator in the country to offer GPRS/MMS, Caller Ring Tunes and also launch IN (Intelligent Network). BPL Mobile, Mumbai‟s oldest and longest standing mobile service brand is now Loop Mobile, the newest telecom brand in the city. The new brand identity for BPL Mobile, which has been serving Mumbai for over 13 years, was unveiled today. It already caters to over 2 million subscribers. The new logo – Loop Mobile has been designed keeping in mind growth and reenforces

BPL

Mobile

as

a

fresh

new

brand.

Loop Mobile comes with a brand new network too. The company announced the completion of its network expansion and has now doubled its capacity by deploying the latest NGIP (Next Generation Internet Protocol) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technology. With this, they also pave the way for seamless execution of numerous innovative VAS as well as micro-segmented and value enhancing tariffs that Loop Mobile aims to roll out for their subscribers.

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Elaborating on the rationale behind the rebranding, Sanjeev Chachondia, CEO, Loop Mobile (India) Limited (formerly BPL Mobile Communications Ltd.) said, “The change of the brand name to Loop Mobile is a well thought out conclusion of a journey that had begun some time back. For a Telco brand that is Mumbai‟s oldest, we understand the pulse & rhythm of the Mumbaikar. Our dedication towards our subscribers and our efforts in continuing to maintain the high performance standards and service delivery has always been acknowledged by various surveys including that done by the regulator. Mumbai‟s oldest network is now also its newest one and already commands a healthy 2 million customers and rapidly growing”

Market Share:

Source: www.telenor.com

As LOOP MOBILE only operates in Mumbai but if we talk about national wise market share in GSM operates then Bharti Airtel having First place ahead of Vodafone and other operators as shown in above Pie Chart . 21 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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Loop Telecom Private Limited is excited to announce that we will be commencing mobile operations across 21 circles shortly. Founded on the pillars of positivity, passion and perseverance we promise to offer customers an unmatched quality of experience across the length and breadth of India as well as when they are travelling internationally. With an untiring resolve, we commit to alleviate our customers' pain points and elevate their expectations as we stretch our own performance standards and strive to create new quality benchmarks. We envision a world of uninterrupted, uncomplicated and ubiquitous communication where customers can count on simple competitive plans, superior coverage and stellar service. For further information on Marketing - Contact [email protected] Business/Distributor/Retailer queries - Contact [email protected] Customer Care - Contact [email protected] (all circles except Mumbai), [email protected] (Mumbai circle) Investor relations - Contact [email protected]

Corporate Office : Loop Telecom Private Limited 127, Manmala Tank Road , Taikalwadi, Mahim (West) Mumbai – 4000

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Chapter-4 REVIEW OF LITRETURE India is the fourth largest telecom market in Asia after China, Japan and South Korea. The Indian telecom network is the eighth largest in the world and the second largest among emerging economies. At current levels, telecom intensiveness of Indian economy measured as the ratio of telecom revenues to GDP is 2.1 percent as compared with over 2.8 percent in developed economies (CRISIL, www.ibef.com). Indian telecom sector has undergone a major process of transformation through significant policy reforms. The reforms began in 1980s with telecom equipment manufacturing being opened for private sector and were later followed by National Telecom Policy (NTP) in 1994 and NTP'1999. Historically, the telecom network in India was owned and managed by the Government considering it to be a natural monopoly and strategic service, best under state's control. However, in 1990's, examples of telecom revolution in many other countries, which resulted in better quality of service and lower tariffs, led Indian policy makers to initiate a change process finally resulting in opening up of telecom services sector for the private sector. Policy reforms can be broadly classified in three distinct phases 

"The

Decade

of

1980's

saw

private

sector

being

allowed

in

telecommunications equipment manufacturing. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) were formed and a Telecom Commission was set up to give focus to telecommunications policy formation. 

"In 1990s, telecommunications sector also benefited from the general opening up of the economy. NTP 1994 was the first attempt to give a comprehensive roadmap for the Indian telecommunications sector.

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Availability of telephones on demand (targeted by 1997) Universal service covering all villages and one PCO per 500 persons in urban areas at the earliest (targeted to be achieved by 1997) Telecom services at affordable and reasonable prices World standard quality of services 

NTP 1999 brought in the third generations of reforms in the Indian telecommunications sector.

Telecommunication Services Telecommunication services include Basic service, Cellular service, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services. Government of India plans to introduce a unified license for all telecommunication services in India, and has already allowed full mobility to wireless in local loop (WLL) operators as a first step. 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. Partly the result is due to negative growth in NLD market (-14% Rs 51,410 million from Rs 59,880 million) and ILD market (-13% Rs 43,460 million from Rs 50,010 million) in 2003-04. Amongst telecom services, cellular services are the fastest

growing,

with

CAGR

of

40

percent

over

the

past

four

years.

Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) expects that the total number of cellular connections would bypass the total number of fixed line connections by late 2004 and early 2005. (As on March 2004 subscriber base of cellular operators is 33 million and basic operator is 42.84 million) During the past three years, in terms of subscriber base telecommunications services have been growing at a CAGR of nearly 22%, owing largely to the rapid increase in cellular service subscribers. Telecommunication sector in India is primarily subdivided into two segments, which are Fixed Service Provider (FSPs) and Cellular Services. Telecom industry in India constitutes some essential telecom services like telephone, radio, television and 24 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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Internet. Telecom industry in India is specifically emphasizing on latest technologies like GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), PMRTS (Public Mobile Radio Trunking Services), Fixed Line and WLL (Wireless local Loop). India has a prospering market specifically in GSM mobile service and the number of subscribers is growing very fast.

Quick Facts:

Total telecom subscribers :

429.72 million (March 2009)

Wireless subscribers :

391.76 million

Wire line subscribers :

37.94 million

Tele density :

36.98 per cent

India‟s service providers revenue in Q1 (2009): India‟s Rural Mobile Phone Users :

$8.2 billion 100 Million

Source : www.trai.gov.in

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Growth Avenues

Managed services: is another segment that is attracting telecom companies. On account of the rapidly growing subscriber base, service providers find it difficult to manage their infrastructure and network management operations. In such cases, they completely or partially outsource their infrastructure or network management operations

.  To reduce their network deployment costs, many service providers are considering

infrastructure sharing offers the following advantages:

 Improved service quality  Increased affordability for customers 26 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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 Faster roll out of services in rural and remote areas  Significant reduction in initial set up costs  Increased environmental aesthetics  Lower operating costs for service providers 

Enterprise Telecom Services includes key services, such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), dedicated telecom communication systems; IT infrastructure enabled unified communication services, etc. Telecom services providers are increasingly targeting enterprises by providing dedicated services and is expected to witness major developments in near future.



Virtual Private Network: is a private data network that provides connectivity within closed user groups via public telecommunication infrastructure. Competition is likely to heat up in the VPN segment as Dot has relaxed the norms for private players.



3G: The Indian government plans to auction the spectrum for 3G services by inviting bids from domestic as well as foreign players, and creating a competitive environment that offers better services to consumers. Therefore, the 3G spectrum is among the major investment opportunities and growth drivers of the telecom industry.  The immense potential for 3G is reflected by the 30–40 percent annual growth in Value-Added Services.  Cell phone manufacturers are striving to develop USD 100 priced 3G handsets for the Indian market.

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

WiMAX has been one of the most significant developments in wireless communication in the recent past. Since this mode of communication provides network access in inaccessible locations at a speed of more than 4 Mbps, it is expected to be a major factor in driving telecom services in India, especially wireless services. Thus, it will lead to the increased use of telecom services, Internet, value-added services and enterprise services. WiMAX is expected to accelerate economic growth and assist in providing better education, healthcare and entertainment services.

 It is estimated that India will have 13 million WiMAX subscribers by 2012.

 The state-owned player, BSNL, aims to connect 74,000 villages through WiMAX.

 Bharti, Reliance and VSNL have acquired licenses in the 3.3GHz range to utilize the opportunities offered by this domain.



Value Added Services: The VAS industry was worth USD 632 million in 2006–07. The industry is estimated to grow by 60 percent in 2007–08 and become an USD 1,011 million opportunity.

The VAS industry is currently focusing on the entertainment sector, such as the Indian film industry and cricket; however, there is scope for growth in other avenues as utility-based services, such as location information and mobile transactions.

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

Rural Telephony: As the government targets to increase rural teledensity from the current 2 percent to 25 percent by 2012, rural telephony will require major investments. This segment will boost the demand for telecom services, equipment, Internet services and other value-added services; thereby, offering great market opportunities for telecom player

Industry Revenue (2002-2010):

According to a Frost & Sullivan industry analyst, by 2012, fixed line revenues are expected to touch US$ 12.2 billion while mobile revenues will reach US$ 39.8 billion in India. India has become the second country in the world to have more than 100 million CDMA-based (code division multiple access) mobile phone subscribers after the US, which has 157 million CDMA users.

The Indian telecommunications industry is on a growth trajectory with the GSM operators adding nearly 9 million new subscribers in April 2009, taking the total user base to 297 million, a growth of 3.11 per cent over the additions made the previous month. The figures, however, do not include the GSM subscriber additions made by Reliance Telecom.

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Years

Revenue (US$ billions )

2002-03

9

2003-04

10

2004-05

11

2005-06

15

2006-07

20

2008-09

32

2009-10 (Forecasted )

43

Revenue ( US$ billions ) 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2008-09

2009-10 (forecasted )

www.trai.gov.in

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Subscriber Growth : India added 130 million new customers in 2008-09, the largest globally. The country‟s cellular base witnessed close to 50 per cent growth in 2008, with an average 9.5 million customers added every month. By April 2009, the total number of telephone connections reached 441.47 million. With this growth, the overall tele-density reached 37.94 at the end of April 2009. According to Business Monitor International, India is currently adding 8-10 million mobile subscribers every month. It is estimated that by mid 2012, around half the country's population will own a mobile phone. This would translate into 612 million mobile subscribers, accounting for a tele-density of around 51 per cent by 2012.

450 400 350

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Jan-04

Jan-05

Jan-06

Jan-07

Jan-08

Jan-09

Source: www.trai.gov.in

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Exploring the rural telecom opportunity: It is believed that of the next 250 million people expected to go mobile; at least 100 million will come from rural areas. Though the rural mobile penetration is highest in Punjab (20.69 per cent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (17.09 per cent), Kerala (10.63 per cent) and Haryana (10.20 per cent), most companies are now sweating it out by hard selling their products and services in the rural areas of the region. As a result, the geographical coverage of mobile telephony in India has gone up from 13 percent, a couple of years ago, to 39 percent now.

Source: www.trai.gov.in

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI):

Mission To ensure that the interests of consumers are protected and the same time to nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications, broadcasting and cable services in a manner and at a pace which will enable India to play a leading role in the emerging global information society.

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Role of TRAI:

One of the main objectives of TRAI is to provide a fair and transparent policy environment which promotes a level playing field and facilitates fair competition. In pursuance of above objective TRAI has issued from time to time a large number of regulations, orders and directives to deal with issues coming before it and provided the required direction to the evolution of Indian telecom market from a Government owned monopoly to a multi operator multi service open competitive market. The directions, orders and regulations issued cover a wide range of subjects including tariff, interconnection and quality of service as well as governance of the Authority. The functions of TRAI can be divided as : Recommendatory function and Mandatory Function.

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Recommendatory Functions:



Need and timing for introduction of new service provider



Terms and conditions of licence to a service provider



Revocation of license for non-compliance of terms and conditions of license



Measures to facilitate competition and promote efficiency in the operation to facilitate growth in industry



Technological improvement in services by service providers



Inspection of type of equipment used by service provider

Mandatory Function:



Ensure compliance of terms and conditions of license



Fix the terms and conditions of their inter connectivity between service providers



Ensure Technical compatibility and effective inter-connection between different service providers 34 | P a g e

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

. Regulate arrangements for sharing of revenues amongst service providers



Maintain inter-connect agreement register



Ensure compliance of USO(universal service obligation)

Other functions: 

Levy fees and other charges as determined by regulations



Perform administrative functions as entrusted to it by Central government or as per TRAI act



Notify in Official Gazette the service rates and message rates within and outside India

Snapshot of TRAI function 35 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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Chapter-5 RESEARCH METHOLOGY

Business Research is a systematic way to collect information and get knowledge out of it with a methodology so that derived knowledge can be used to make decisions related to welfare of any organization. Usually, organization face major issues like ongoing complaints among customers, unmet need among customer, to need to polish internal process. Research helps organization decide rationally. It is a very important tool for an organization in order to reduce risk in managerial decision making.

All points were important in order to excel in future. As LOOP MOBILE was a famous telecom service provider in spite of all this company was not able to generate accepted revenue, so that they introduced market survey name HAMALA. Research methodology consists of several steps and processes which cannot be skipped for the fulfillment of the objective behind conducting survey. Those processes are as follows:

Research Design:

Research design is basically is the plan and structure of investigation so convinced as to obtain answers to research questions. The plan is an overall scheme or program of the research. It includes an outline of what the investigator will do from written hypothesis and their operational implications to the final analysis.

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LOOP MOBILE wanted to increase their revenue so that they made full outlines which can hurdle in progress of plan so made all detail that which program is performed by whom, what will be suitable time for implement the conclusions of whole study. There are several types of research design but according to me, only one will fulfill all criteria of their presence which can be explained as follows;

Explorative Studies: This study tends toward loose structure with the objective of discovering future research tasks. The immediate purpose of exploration is usually to develop hypothesizes or questions for future research. The management of LOOP MOBILE firstly explored all fields where improvement was very necessary in order to attract new customers as well as to retain old customers which cannot be done without having any knowledge of requirements and existing problems of customers.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS: Data refers to a collection of natural phenomena descriptors, including the results of experience, observation or a set of premises. This may consist of numbers, words or images, particularly as measurements or observations of variables. It can be classified in two sources of data which are as follows:

Sources of Data

Primary Source

Secondary Source 37 | P a g e

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Primary Source: Primary source of data is used to collect initial material during the research process. Primary data is that data that the researcher collects himself using methods such as survey, direct observations, interviews as well as logs. So that for LOOP MOBILE primary data is collected by us mean management trainees. We were visited several Small Medium Enterprise (SME) for collecting different required answers of questionnaire which were prepared by us. There are sources of Primary data which helps us in making any future prediction, are as follows: 1. Surveys:-

Survey Research is one of the most important areas of

measurement in applied research. The broad area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve questions of respondents. 2. Questionnaire:

Questionnaire is usually in written format that the

respondent completes.

Secondary Data : Secondary Data is data which is already in drawn and we use it in order to reach at conclusion. The sources of this type can be company journals, annual reports, Internet news paper. They already have data just we visit all those places in order to drawn required solutions. In questionnaire we put those questions which were related to our research means that answers of those questions made us comfortable to predict for the future prospect. In our project I use two types of Questionnaires; first one was Open-Handed Questionnaire and second one was Close-Handed Questionnaire having limitations means just direct answers.

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I used first one at the starting level of survey mean we ask several questions and they gave the straight and realistic answers. If the respondent was showing interest towards our products and planning to change existing service provider then we used second one which was Closed-Handed and asked about all detail of that questionnaire in addition we tried to know about reasons behind throwing away service of existing telecom service provider.

After that I tried to take appointment with my Senior Sales Executives who can give the information regarding LOOP MOBILE‟s product and services.

One important aspect is that we made Close-Handed Questionnaires because we want the real answers in spite of confused one, but in some cases we gave freedom to respondent to answer freely. And another reason for preparing Close-Handed Questionnaires because every time it not possible to get answer of every questions due to shortage of time.

3. Interviews: Interviews are personal form of research than Questionnaires. Some time it happened during survey that company did not want to fulfillment of Questionnaires just because of time shortage. But in interviews , answers which you will get that will more realistic in comparison to Questionnaires means if we are confused about any answer then we can go into depth for the clarification .



Personal Interviews: In personal interview, the interviewer works directly with

the respondent. I observed that during personal interviews, interviewee find it easy to give answers because if interviewees find difficulty or confused then they make it clear from us.

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 Telephone

Interview:

Telephone

Interview

enables

a

researcher to gather information rapidly. We found it that Telephone Interviews were less time consuming in comparison to Personal Interviews. In present market where major public opinion polls are based on it.

As it can be cheaper than questionnaire, It also has its limitations as everyone don‟t like the intrusion of a call to their homes or in offices. It can be possible that respondent is responding just for formalities.

Sample Units: Sales Department was divided in two parts which were Pre-Paid Department and Postpaid Department. I was in Postpaid Department and Postpaid Department was also divided into three part depending on the company size which were Large Enterprises, Medium Enterprises and Small Enterprises. And I was the part of Small Enterprises.

So my sample unit was Small Enterprise which has workforce of at least 15-20 employees. Because of this reason we chose those areas which have the maximum number of SME. So I chose to cover the areas of C.S.T.,Masjid Bander and Charni Road.

Sample Size: I visited almost 350 SME‟s in the project duration of Two months. And by the Tele Calling I collected information almost of 50 companies

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Chapter-6 Interpretation-1

Awareness

18%

Yes No

82%

During the project HAMALA, I ask several questions in order to reach at the conclusion by which we can predict the future requirements and needs of customers. I always asked first question regarding awareness of LOOP MOBILE. The responses which I got it can be saying that most of the companies were aware of service of LOOP MOBILE. Total 80% companies were aware of it while out of 82% only 25% companies just heard about it while 50% of companies were using it as it‟s telecom service provider. And 18% companies were not aware of it. So we were trying to know what was that reasons that other 18% companies did not know about LOOP MOBILE.

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Interpretation No.2 From the data which we collected doing survey by questionnaires as well as by Telephonic Interviews so that it can be concluded that we were being a telecom service provider in Mumbai circle, able to maintain third place after Vodafone and Airtel. We were not include Tata as much because it provide Telecom service as well as Internet Services. We wanted to increase awareness, visibility and availibity of our product by giving them better services .

Market Shares

10%

3% 30%

13%

Vodafone Airtel LOOP Relince Tata Others

21% 23%

Figure 1

Being national telecom service providers Vodafone and Airtel were not able to increase their market share just because whatever suggestions & complaints we take them seriously and entertained them as soon as possible, to kept customer satisfied. We always tried to keep our promise as per TRAI we have 98.5% customers who are satisfied just because of our services. 42 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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Interpretation No.3

Work Force 155 160

134

140

99

120 100

87

80 60

25

40 20 0 Oct-20

20-30

30-40

40-50

More than 50

I was the part of Small Medium Enterprise (SME) which was part of sale department. According to the definition that having at least 10 employees and maximum 50 employees.

The areas which were assigned to us were as per their survey schedule. They assigned those areas where maximum numbers of SMEs exist in huge numbers.

The areas which I got were C.S.T., Masjid Bunder, Malad Pear and Charni Road. In area of Masjid Bunder, there was maximum number of Shipping and Forwarding Companies while in area of C.S.T., there was maximum number of Tax Consulting companies. 43 | P a g e Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune

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Interpretation-04

Awareness Of Corporate Plan

31% Yes No 69%

This is again similar field depending upon the employee‟s strength as well as the revenue of the companies. If the companies were high then it is quite obvious that they have big number of employees and for they have to have communication service at lower price so that they can save more money in order to increase exact profit. In today market where recession is at the high pace, so cost cutting is an major issues for the top level of management. They always be in the search of areas where they can save company‟s money. So the companies where I visited they often have corporate plans in order to increase. The companies having employees range from 20-30 to more than 50, they usually have corporate plans.

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Interpretation-05

Billing System 68% 70% 60% 50% 40%

32% No. of Companies

30% 20% 10% 0%

Company Paid Individual Paid

As I was the part of Corporate Sales so we just take consider only those companies where company was paying all telecommunication Bills. The most of company where work force ranging from 30-40 to more than 50, were paying whole bills of telecommunications while work force ranging from 20-30 they were semi-company paid means that they were paying only for higher level of staff persons. And the employee‟s strength ranging from 10-20, they were not paying any bills for their employees that simple means that they were purely Individual Paid.

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Interpratation-06

Connections Lines 180 160 140 120

100 Connections Lines

80 60 40 20 0 Oct-20

20-30

30-40

More than 40

As employees are the strength for any organizations because they are the main regulator for daily services which takes place in an organization in order to achieve the main objective of organization. And success will not come with communicate the problems and solutions between them and for that company have to take in consideration for any communication medium. The number of connections lines is depending upon the total number of employees working over there. For a company transaction of the information is very important because information is the soul for any company. And as the number of connection lines will be more then more accuracy will be there. So here I can conclude that in an organization, more the number of employees more the requirement of connection lines in order to work in accurate manner which automatically increase the success rate of company performance.

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Interpretation-7 Satisfaction Level

5 25

26

Very Good Good Average Poor

44

Loop Mobile is only operate in Mumbai and having almost 2.2 million customer base who are fully satisfied with the service of Loop Mobile . As it have third position in customer base but it has First position in the matter of overall performance of service. All these data is not given by company, its all given by Indian institution which takes care of all legal aspect named “TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITHY OF INDIA (TRAI) “. The survey which was conducted by them said that Loop Mobile have 98.5% fully satisfied customer which is itself an achievement for Loop Mobile. So just to make this data relevant they decided to conduct a survey which will not only take information from customers regarding their satisfaction level , their problem and their suggestions if they have, as well as to increase the brand image of the Loop Mobile and to increase visibility and availability of Loop Mobile.

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Inteprtation-08

Billing Satisfaction 5% 17%

34% Very Good Good Average Poor

44%

This is very important aspect for the telecom service users because most of the time it has found in several study conducted by several institutions including TRAI, the company left service provider and switch to another service provider. I ask personally from many companies admin manager who takes care of all such services as internet, reason behind to switching from one telecom service provider to another, they told me several problems like some hidden costs, additional bills of previous months while they paid it in last month, making several useless calls to company by which they destructed. In this field Loop is far ahead from other telecom service provider in Mumbai. Here also we have almost 99% satisfied customer. There is not any hidden cost for any products, whatever we said we satirically follow in order to give satisfaction to service users.

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Interpretation-09

Voice Clearity

7%

20% 41%

Very Good Good Average Bad

32%

During conversation it‟s very important that voice quality should be good in order to communicate and to interpret information correctly. Loop Mobile take it seriously in order keep customer happy and satisfied because its very difficult to retain customers comparison to make new customers. So that Loop decided to operate on 900 MHz frequency, which resulting in better coverage, superior voice quality and compatibility across all GSM handset. While other operators have maximum 700 MHz frequency towers. Loop Mobile made its core competency. It‟s quite costly to go for 900 MHz frequency towers. It‟s almost takes one and half times more money more than to install 600700 MHz frequency towers. And because this level of satisfaction given by customers, Loop Mobile decided to go for PAN License means they decided to launch of Loop Mobile in all over India.

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Chapter-7 Findings In the project title HAMALA, I found several important points which are as follows; 

Loop Mobile is a well known telecom service provider in Mumbai circle.



There is big opportunity for this organization to grab more and more market share.



They are in first position in customers satisfaction which is almost 99%,ahead of Vodafone and Airtel which have their network in all over India.



Now Loop Mobile got the PAN LICENCE which simply means that they are planning to expend their network nation wise.

 

Loop Mobile is known for its better service at a very low cost. They firstly sense the market requirements, after they go for produce the products which can fulfill customers mostly requirement.



Loop Mobile is world largest roaming service provider. With over 550 networks worldwide, the loop mobile offers customers the widest coverage while roaming.

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Chapter-8 Limitation 

Loop Mobile has its network service only in Mumbai.



In some of places were there where the people don‟t want to talk about Loop Mobile because there was no service. But this not happening with Loop Mobile, other telecom network providers‟ service was not there.



As I was in corporate sales, many SMEs do not know that we are also providing better corporate plans at low cost.

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Chapter-9 Recommendation As Loop Mobile is performing very well but there are still some fields where if they will work then defiantly they we market leader in Mumbai and those field are as follows; 

Advertisement:- According to me Loop Mobile is advertising but they are not communicating as per plans. As I visited some of good companies but they did not know that we are also providing corporate plan which is basically for companies.



Retention Of Customers:- Every company want to increase their customer base but not by loosing old customers. During project I met some of company persons who were using Loop services but due to some reasons they left it. So here we should go those companies in order to solve those problems.



Solve Customers Problems:- As per TRAI, we have almost 99% satisfied customers but they should try to satisfied those 1% remaining customers because they can be obstacle in making new customers.



Conduct Survey On Regular Basis:- For continuous growth, any company should come up with new product. And products should fulfill the requirement of customers neither it will just wastage of money as well as company image and this will come out just by conducting regular survey.

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Appendix

QUESTIONNNAIRE 1. Are you aware of LOOP MOBILE and its services? i.

Yes

ii.

No.

2. What is name of Telecom service provider in your company? i. LOOP ii. Airtel iii. Vodafone iv. Reliance v. Any other ( Give Name ) 3. How many employees are working in company? i. 10-20 ii. 20-30 iii. 30-40 iv. 40-50 v. More than 50 4. Is company is know about any corporate plans? i. Yes ii. No 5. What is billing system of the company? i. Company Paid ii. Individual Paid

6. How many connection lines are in company? i. 10-20 ii. 20-30 iii. 30-40 iv. More than 40

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7. What is satisfaction level of company regarding network availability? i. Very Good ii. Good iii. Average iv. Poor 8. Is company is satisfied with Billing of Telecom service provider? i. Very Good ii. Good iii. Average iv. Poor 9. Voice Quality of network is …….. i. Very Good ii. Good iii. Average iv. Poor

Bibliography:

Sites Visited



www.google.com



www.wikipedia.com



www.trai.gov.in



www.yahoo.com



www.pdfcoke.com



www.coai.com



www.telenor.com



www.loopmobile.com

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Books referred: 

Marketing management by Phillip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Koshy, Mithileshwar Jha.(2008 edition)



Survey Methodology by ICFAI



Business research methodology by J.K Sachdeva.(2008 edition)

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