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A Study ontheconsumer buying behavior and theimpact of channel onconsumer
buying decisionfor data connectionof Aircel mobile.
A Project Report submitted for the partial
fulfillment of the requirement for awarding the
degree in
POST GRADUATE PROGRAME IN MANAGEMENT
Institute Of Management Technology,
Center for Distance Learning, Ghaziabad
Prepared For
Dishnet Wireless Limited

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Submitted By
Tarit Kumar Kundu
Roll : 0821001020
DECLERATION
I, Tarit Kumar Kundu, hereby declare that the Project Work titled “A Study on the
consumer buying behavior and theimpact of channel on consumer buying
decision for data connection of Aircel mobile” is the original work done by me
and submitted to the Institute of Management Technology – Center for Distance
Learning, Ghaziabad in partial fulfillment of requirements for the award of Post
Graduate Program in Management with major Subject as Marketing Management
and Minor subject as Operation Management is a record of original work done by me
under the supervision of Mr. Rahul DevSarma, Circle Device Head, Dishnet Wireless
Limited.
I have prepared this project on the basis of the answers provided by the respondents
to the questionnaires and secondarydata collected from various authentic sources. I
have done the project to the best of my knowledge.
Tarit Kumar Kundu

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PREFACE
The PGPM course is well structured and integrated course of business studies.
The main objective of practical training at PGPM level is to develop skill in
student by supplement to the theoretical study of business management in
general while working. Industrial training helps to gain real life knowledge
about the industrial environment and business practices. The PGPM course
provides student with a fundamental knowledge of business and organizational
functions and activities, as well as an exposure to strategic thinking of
management. In every professional course, training is an important factor.
Professors give us theoretical knowledge of various subjects in the college but
we are practically exposed of such subjects when we get the training in the
organization. It is only the training through which I come to know that what an
industry is and how it works. I have learn about various departmental
operations being performed in the industry, which would, in return, help me in
the future. Training is an integral part of PGPM and each and every student
has to undergo the research in a company and then prepare a project report on the
same after the completion of training. During this whole training I got a lot of
experience and came to know about the management practices in real that how
it differs from those of theoretical knowledge and the practically in the real life.
In todays globalize world, where cutthroat competition is prevailing in the
market, theoretical knowledge is not sufficient. Beside this one need to have practical
knowledge, which would help an individual in his/her carrier activities and it is
true that ´Experience is best teacher’.
I was assigned to work at Dishnet Wireless Limited, Agartala market and
worked on a project titled “A Study on the consumer buying behavior and
the impact of channel on consumer buying decision for data connection of
Aircel mobile”. The study focused on buying behavior of data customers in
Agartala market. The study also deals with the perception towards service
offered by the telecom operators. This project is assigned to access the above
recommended measures to be taken by Dishnet Wireless Limited to increase
data revenue.

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On the basis of the study, some recommendation been forwarded to the
organization. I hope the findings would help the organization to compare its
market position with the competitors and to identify the factors influencing the
consumer buying decision. I would feel greatly satisfied with the project if it
proves beneficial to the organization.
Tarit Kumar Kundu
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
An individual cannot do project of this scale. I take this opportunity to express
my acknowledgement and deep sense of gratitude to the individuals for
rendering valuable assistance and gratitude to me. Their inputs have played a
vital role in success of this project. I would like to express my sincere thanks to
all those instrumental in this project Work. First, I would like to thank Mr.
Rahul Dev Sarma, CDH, Assam & NE Circle, for giving me this opportunity to do
this project under his superior guidance and learn from it. I am thankful to
Dishnet Wireless Limited for giving me helpful information to complete this
project (Research).I express my sincere thanks to Mr. Pratik Bhowmick, Zonal
Business Manager, Mr. Arunabha Bhattacharjee, Zonal Sales Manager, Mr.
Soumen Bhattacharjee, TSM-Post paid, Mr. Baban Ghosh, TSM Prepaid, Mr.
Rahul Das, TRSM, Agartala Market, for helping me in giving me all relevant
information about the product and service. My heart full thanks to the whole staff
and customers of Aircel, who gave me continuous support in every possible manner to
gain practical knowledge in Industry. Last but not the least; I would like thank
all friends and my family for the kind of support and to all who directly or
indirectly helped me in preparing this project report without whom my project would not
be completed.

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Tarit Kumar Kundu

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CONTENTS
I. Introduction
1. Indian telecom industry: an overview.
2. Industry profile.
3. History
4. Circle & license areas.
5. TRAI & DOT
II. Company Profile.
1. About Dishnet Wireless Limited
2. Background
3. Trivia
4. Awards & Recognisitions.
5. Management Team
6. Organizational Chart
III. Five P’s of Dishnet Wireless Limited.
1. Competitors’ details.
2. Marketing strategies & practices.
IV. Executivesummary
1. Aims & objective
2. Ultimate goal.
3. Scope of the study
4. Limitation of the study
V. Methodology
1. Research design
2. Sources of data
3. Sampling plan
4. Field works
5. Research instruments.
VI. Data Analysis & interpretation
1. Analysis of the survey of the subscribers
2. Analysis of the survey of the channel
3. Analysis done to accomplish study objective.
VII. Major findings
VIII. Recommendations.
IX. Conclusion
X. Appendix 1 : Bibliography
XI. Appendix 2 : Questionnaires

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Introduction of Project
Telecom serviceshave been acknowledged globally as an essential tool for the socio-
economic development of a nation. India is currently the world’s second-largest
telecommunications market and has registered exceptional growth in the past few
years. The Indian mobile economy is growing rapidly and will contribute approximately
US$ 400 billion to India’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to report prepared
by GSMA in collaboration with BCG.
The rapid strides in the telecom sector have been facilitated by liberal policies of the
Government of India that provide easy market access for telecom equipment and a fair
regulatory framework for offering telecom services at affordable prices. The
deregulation of foreign direct investment (FDI) norms has made the sector one of the
fastest growing and a top five employment opportunity generator in the country.
The objective of the study is to understand the consumer’s pre, post behavior, during
perception of data connection, consumer buying behavior and attitude for Aircel data
connection. To understand the former part, the researcher created a questionnaire
and conducted a survey. The researcher analyzed the questionnaire and the survey to
create an extensive questionnaire understanding the buying behavior of consumers of
Aircel data card and other brands. The researcher had an analysis done on the 100
respondents from Agartala & surrounding markets to identify how much of buying
intension is due to attributes and how much due to influence by referrals. The
research analysis had revealed that the consumers are satisfied with the brand Aircel
data connection and its attributes. Aircel has performed well with the customers who
are considerably concerned about internet connection with its cost and tariff plans.
This following detailed analysis is presented in the project report.
Indian telecom industry : An overview
Telecommunications is one of the prime support servicesneeded for rapid growth and
modernization of various sectors of the economy. Driven by strong adoption of data
consumption on handheld devices, the total mobile services market revenue in India
will reach US$ 29.8 billion in 2015 and is expected to touch US$ 37 billion in 2017,
registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2 per cent, according to
research firm IDC.
According to a study by GSMA, it has been expected that Smartphone’s will account
for two out of every three mobile connections globally by 2020 and India is all set to
become the fourth largest Smartphone market. India is projected to have 213 million
mobile internet users by June 2015, a 23 per cent rise over a six month period,
according to Mobile Internet in India 2014 report. The broadband services user-base
in India is expected to grow to 250 million connections by 2017, according to the UK-
based GSM Association (GSMA).
India saw the fastest growth in new mobile-phone connections with 18 million net
additions in the third quarter of 2014, followed by China with 12 million new

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additions, according to a report by Swedish mobile network equipment maker
Ericsson.
The Indian telecom sector is expected to create four million direct and indirect jobs
over the next 5 years on the back of the government’s efforts to increase penetration in
rural areas along with the growth in the Smartphone numbers and internet usage,
according to estimates by Randstad India. “The telecom sector has been growing
aggressive at an average for 35 per cent a year for close to two decades,” said Mr. K
Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India.
Investment
With daily increasing subscriber base, there have been a lot of investments and
developments in the sector. The industry has attracted FDI worth US$ 16,994.68
million during the period April 2000 to January 2015, according to the data released
by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Some of the major developments in the recent past are:
 Sterlite Technologies Ltd has announced an annual seed fund of US$ 100,000 to
strengthenIndia’s investments in broadband technology research, by investing in
Indian start-ups, working on innovative broadband deployment technologies.
 Maxx Mobilink plans to start production of mobile handsets at its Haridwar plant,
beginning with assembling devices from April 2015. Maxx will invest over Rs 6
Crore (US$ 965,615.81) initially in setting up the R&D laboratory.
 Huawei Technologies has won two contracts worth a combined US$ 120 million
from Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to upgrade their wire line networks.
 Tata Communications has invested in acquiring capacity in Seabras-1, a submarine
cable being developed between the US and Brazil, seeking to increase services in
the Latin American region.
 Bharti Airtel and IHS Holding have signed an agreement under which latter will
acquire about 1,100 telecom towers across Zambia and Rwanda.
 Ericsson has won a seven-year deal worth more than US$ 1 billion to manage the
network of Reliance Communications across 11 service areas, making the Swedish
telecom gear maker the only service provider to manage the pan-India network of a
mobile phone operator.
Government Initiatives
The government has fast-tracked reformsin the telecom sector and plans to clear the
proposal allowing spectrum trading and sharing ahead of the year-end deadline as it
wants to lift the business sentiment for the forthcoming airwave auction. Some of the
other major initiatives taken by the government are as follows:
 The Government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has secured investment deals valued at Rs
5,000 Crore (US$ 804.64 million) for setting up mobile manufacturing units in the
state.
 The Government of India plans to roll out free high-speed Wi-Fi in 2,500 cities and
towns across the country over the next three years and the programme, involving
an investment of up to Rs 7,000 Crore (US$ 1.12 billion), will be implemented by
state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

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 Citizensof India are expected to get a minimum of 2 megabits per second (MBPS)
Wi-Fi speed at every government owned service point such as railways stations,
airports, bus stops, hospitals and all government departments that deal with the
public on a daily basis.
 The Union Cabinet of India has approved the largest ever telecom spectrumauction
that is targeted to fetch at least Rs 64,840 Crore (US$ 10.43 billion). The
government will sell 380.75 megahertz (MHz) of second generation (2G) spectrum in
three bands—the premium 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 800 MHz
 To speed up the national optical fiber network (NOFN) project, the Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) has advised officials to use public buildings such as post
offices, railway stations and schools.
 The Government of Kerala has decided to allow mobile telecom service providers to
set up towers on government land and buildings. This is the first time that a State
Government has opened its own land, buildings and offices to mobile companies.
Road Ahead
India will emerge as a leading player in the virtual world by having 700 million
internet users of the 4.7 billion global users by 2025, as per a Microsoft report. With
the government’s favorable regulation policies and 4G services hitting the market,
rapid growth is expected in the data market of Indian telecommunication sector in the
next few years. Also, with developmentsin this sector, services such as security and
surveillance, remote monitoring of ATM machines, home automation, traffic
management,retail, logisticsand grid energy could eventually facilitate optimization of
resources.
India is the world's second-largest telecommunications market, with 964 million
subscribers as of November 2014. With 164.81 million internet subscriptions, India
also stood third-highest in terms of total internet users in 2013. The number of
internet subscribers increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52 per
cent to 243 million in 2014 from 8.6 million in 2006. The wireless segment (97 per
cent of total telephone subscriptions) dominates the market, while the wire line
segment accountsfor the rest. During FY07-14, wireless subscriptions increased at a
CAGR of 27.5 per cent to 904.51 million. Telecom penetration in the nation's rural
market is expected to increase from 41 per cent as of March 2013 to 70 per cent by
2017. Availability of affordable smart phones, along with a rise in the security level of
mobile transactions,is expected to boost growth of transactions conducted via phones,
with the overall transaction value being tripled in 2014 from last year. In addition, the
mobile value added services (MVAS) industry forecast to expand at a CAGR of 30.9 per
cent to US$ 9.5 billion by 2015 from US$ 1.1 billion in 2007. To boost local research
and manufacturing of telecom products, the government has proposed an investment
of US$ 32.2 billion in three phases during the 12th Five Year Plan. The government
has been proactive in its efforts to transform India into a global telecommunication
hub; prudent regulatory support has also helped. The National Telecom Policy 2012
proposes unified licensing, full mobile number portability (MNP) and free roaming.

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Industry Profile
Wireless and wire line revenues & Wirelessmarket share in terms of total
subscribers in India in India As on March’2015
Wireless and wire line revenue increased at a CAGR of Bharti Airtel is the market leader, with a
10.4 per cent to US$ 39.1 billion over FY06-13. Followed by Vodafone (18.4 per cent
share).
22.7 per cent share of total subscription,
Operators, Technology, Subscriber base, FDI status & market share in India :
Rank Operator's Name Technology
Subscribers
in Crores (10m)
Ownership Market Share
1 Bharti Airtel
GSM
EDGE
HSPA+
TD-LTE
22.82
(September
2014) [1]
1Bharti Enterprises (64.76%)
SingTel (32%)
Vodafone (4.4%)
22.74% (September 2014)
2 Idea Cellular
GSM
EDGE
HSPA
16.15
(September
2014)[1]
Aditya Birla (49.05%)
Axiata Group Berhad (19.96%)
15.95% (September 2014)
3
Reliance
Communications
CDMA2000
EVDO REV. B
GSM
EDGE
HSDPA
HSPA+
WiMAX
13.4 (September
2014)
Reliance ADAG (67%)
Public (26%)
11.44% (September 2014)
4 BSNL
GSM
EDGE
HSDPA
HSPA+
CDMA2000
EVDO REV. 0
WiMAX
WiFi
8.67 (September
2014)[1]
State-owned 9.32% (September 2014)
5 Aircel
GSM
EDGE
HSDPA
TD-LTE
7.58 (September
2014)[1]
Maxis Communications (74%)
Apollo Hospital (26%)
8.15% (September 2014)

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Rank Operator's Name Technology
Subscribers
in Crores (10m)
Ownership Market Share
6 Tata DoCoMo
CDMA2000
EVDO REV. B
GSM
EDGE
HSPA+
6.42 (September
2014)[1]
Tata Teleservices (74%)
NTT DoCoMo (26%)
6.91% (September 2014)
7 MTS India
CDMA2000
EVDO REV. B
0.91 (September
2014)[1]
Sistema (73.71%)
Shyam Group (23.79%)
0.98% (September 2014)
8 Videocon
GSM
GPRS
EDGE
0.59 (September
2014)[1]
Videocon 0.64% (September 2014)
9 MTNL
GSM
HSDPA
CDMA2000
0.33 (September
2014)[1]
State-owned 0.37% (September 2014)
History
The history of Indian telecom can be started with the introduction of telegraph. The
Indian postal and telecom sectors are one of the world’s oldest. In 1850, the first
experimental electric telegraph line was started betwe en Calcutta and Diamond
Harbour In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. The
Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works
Department, at that time.
The construction of 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of telegraph lines was started in November
1853. These connected Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north; Agra,
Mumbai (then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the
south; Ootacamund and Bangalore. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the
telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and
worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period. A separate
department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public.
In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and
The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to
establish telephone exchanges in India. The permission was refused on the grounds
that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the
Government itself would undertake the work. In 1881, the Government later reversed
its earlier decision and a license was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company
Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and
Ahmadabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country. On
28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council
declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The
exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange" had a total of 93 subscribers in
its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone
exchange.
Further developments and milestones :
 Pre-1902 – Cable telegraph
 1902 – First wireless telegraph station established between Sagar Island and
Sandhead.
 1907 – First Central Battery of telephones introduced in Kanpur.

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 1913–1914 – First Automatic Exchange installed in Shimla.
 1927 – Radio-telegraph system between the UK and India, with Imperial
Wireless Chain beam stationsat Khadki and Daund. Inaugurated by Lord Irwin
on 23 July by exchanging greetings with King George V.
 1933 – Radiotelephone system inaugurated between the UK and India.
 1953 – 12 channel carrier system introduced.
 1960 – First subscriber trunk dialling route commissioned between Lucknow
and Kanpur.
 1975 – First PCM system commissioned between Mumbai City and Andheri
telephone exchanges.
 1976 – First digital microwave junction.
 1979 – First optical fiber system for local junction commissioned at Pune.
 1980 – First satellite earth station for domestic communications established at
Sikandarabad, Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) Noida Sector 62SCMS.
 1983 – First analogue Stored Programme Control exchange for trunk lines
commissioned at Mumbai.
 1984 – C-DOT established for indigenous development and production of digital
exchanges.
 1995 – First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis on 15
August 1995 in Delhi.
 1995 – Internet Introduced in India starting with Laxmi nagar Delhi on 15
August 1995
In 1985, the Department of Telecom (DoT) was separated from Indian Post &
Telecommunication Department. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire
country until 1986 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh
Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) were carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of
metro cities (Delhi and Mumbai) and international long distance operations
respectively.
The demand for telephones was ever increasing and in the 1990s Indian government
was under increasing pressure to open up the telecom sector for private investment as
a part of Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation policies that the government had to
accept to overcome the severe fiscal crisisand resultant balance of payments issue in
1991. Consequently,private investment in the sector of Value Added Services (VAS)
was allowed and cellular telecom sector were opened up for competition from private
investments. It was during this period that the Narsimha Rao-led government
introduced the National Telecommunications policy (NTP) in 1994 which brought
changes in the following areas: ownership, service and regulation of
telecommunications infrastructure. The policy introduced the concept of
telecommunication for all and its vision was to expand the telecommunication facilities
to all the villages in India. Liberalization in the basic telecom sector was also envisaged
in this policy. They were also successful in establishing joint ventures between state
owned telecom companies and international players. Foreign firms were eligible to
49% of the total stake.The multi-nationals were just involved in technology transfer,
and not policy making.
During this period, the World Bank and ITU had advised the Indian Government to
liberalize long distance services to release the monopoly of the state owned DoT and
VSNL and to enable competition in the long distance carrier business which would
help reduce tariff's and better the economy of the country. The Rao run government
instead liberalized the local services, taking the opposite political parties into

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confidence and assuring foreign involvement in the long distance business afte r 5
years. The country was divided into 20 telecommunication circles for basic telephony
and 18 circles for mobile services. These circles were divided into category A, B and C
depending on the value of the revenue in each circle.The government threw open the
bids to one private company per circle along with government owned DoT per circle.
For cellular service two service providers were allowed per circle and a 15 years license
was given to each provider. During all these improvements, the government did face
oppositions from ITI, DoT, MTNL, VSNL and other labor unions, but they managed to
keep away from all the hurdles.
In 1997, the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which
reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The
political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadershipof Atal
Bihari Vajpayee was more pro-reformsand introduced better liberalization policies. In
2000, the Vajpayee government constituted the Telecom Disputes Settlement and
Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) through an amendment of the TRAI Act, 1997. The
primary objective of TDSAT's establishment was to release TRAI from adjudicatory and
dispute settlement functions in order to strengthen the regulatory framework. Any
dispute involving parties like licensor, licensee, service provider and consumers are
resolved by TDSAT. Moreover, any direction, order or decision of TRAI can be
challenged by appealing in TDSAT. The government corporatized the operations wing
of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it as Department of Telecommunication Services
(DTS) which was later named as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The proposal
of raising the stake of foreign investorsfrom 49% to 74% was rejected by the opposite
political parties and leftist thinkers. Domestic businessgroups wanted the government
to privatize VSNL. Finally in April 2002, the government decided to cut its stake of
53% to 26% in VSNL and to throw it open for sale to private enterprises. TATA finally
took 25% stake in VSNL.
This was a gateway to many foreign investors to get entry into the Indian Telecom
Markets. After March 2000, the government became more liberal in making policies
and issuing licenses to private operators. The government further reduced license fees
for cellular service providers and increased the allowable stake to 74% for foreign
companies. Because of all these factors,the service fees finally reduced and the call
costs were cut greatly enabling every common middle-class family in India to afford a
cell phone. Nearly 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real
potential for growth of the Indian mobile market. Many private operators, such as
Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, Loop Mobile, Airtel, Idea, Aircel
etc., successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom market.
In March 2008 the total GSM and CDMA mobile subscriber base in the country was
375 million, which represented a nearly 50% growth when compared with previous
year. As the unbranded Chinese cell phones which do not have International Mobile
Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers pose a serious security risk to the country, Mobile
network operators therefore suspended the usage of around 30 million mobile phones
(about 8% of all mobiles in the country) by 30 April. Phones without valid IMEI cannot
be connected to cellular operators. 5–6 years the average monthly subscribers
additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base
in December 2002 stood at 10.5 millions. However, after a number of proactive
initiatives taken by regulators and licensors, the total number of mobile subscribers
has increased rapidly to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012.

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India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile
communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologiesin the mobile
sector. In addition to landline and mobile phones, some of the companies also provide
the WLL service. The mobile tariffs in India have also become lowest in the world. A
new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only.
In 2005 alone additions increased to around 2 million per month in 2003–04 and
2004–05.
In August 1995, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Jyoti Basu ushered in the cell
phone 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 stabilized 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.
The Total Revenue of Indian Telecom Services company is likely to exceed 2000 billion
(US$32 billion) (US$44 Bn approx) for FY 11–12 based on FY 10–11 nos and latest
quarterly results. These are consolidated numbers including foreign operation of
Bharti Airtel. The major contributions to this revenue are as follows:
 Airtel : 65060 (US$1,000)
 Reliance Communications: 31468 (US$500)
 Idea : 16936 (US$270)
 Tata Communications : 11931 (US$190)
 MTNL : 4380 (US$70)
 TTML : 2248 (US$36)
 BSNL : 32045 (US$510)
 Vodafone India : 18376 (US$290)
 TataTeleservice : 9200 (US$150)
 Aircel : 7968 (US$130)
 SSTL : 600 (US$9.50)
 Uninor : 660 (US$10)
 Loop : 560 (US$8.90)
 Stel : 60 (95¢ US)
 HFCL : 204 (US$3.20)
 Videocon Telecom : 254 (US$4.00)
 DB Etisalat/ Allianz : 47 (75¢ US)
 Grand Total : 2019 billion (US$32 billion)
Circle & license areas
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. The rates are supposed to go down further with new

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measuresto be taken by the Information Ministry. In September 2004, the number of
mobile phone connectionscrossed the number of fixed-line connectionsand 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 retaintheir mobile telephone numbers when changing from
one mobile network operator to another. India is divided into 23 telecom circles:
Telecom circle
Wireline subscriber base
in million(May 2012)
Wireless subscriber
base in million(May
2012)
Teledensity
(September 2014)
Andhra Pradesh 2.33 66.6 81.06
Assam 0.20 14.6 50.41
Bihar & Jharkhand 0.56 62.97 47.66
Delhi 2.9 42.95 232.22
Gujarat & Daman & Diu 1.82 54.32 93.34
Haryana 0.59 23.00 80.31
Himachal Pradesh 0.30 7.41 109.55
Jammu and Kashmir 0.20 6.57 69.98
Karnataka 2.48 56.63 94.20
Kerala & Lakshadweep 3.18 34.51 95.96
Kolkata(including West Bengal ) 1.18 25.25 73.0
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh 1.13 53.30 57.04
Maharashtra & Goa (including Mumbai ) 2.64 71.00 92.20 *
Mumbai* 3.0 35.93 Not available *
North East 0.25 8.76 72.00
Orissa 0.40 26.27 63.41
Punjab 1.44 31.17 103.49
Rajasthan 1.14 49.52 76.18
Tamil Nadu(including Chennai since 2005) 3.16 78.96 114.71
Uttar Pradesh(East) 1.20 77.74 58.09(Combined)*

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Telecom circle
Wireline subscriber base
in million(May 2012)
Wireless subscriber
base in million(May
2012)
Teledensity
(September 2014)
Uttar Pradesh(West) & Uttarakhand 0.79 55.12 58.09(Combined)*
West Bengal(including Kolkata) 0.62 46.79 73.40 *
Internet & Data :
The history of the Internet in India started with launch of services by VSNL on 15
August 1995. They were able to add about 10,000 Internet users within 6 months.
However,for the next 10 years the Internet experience in the country remained less
attractive with narrow-band connections having speeds less than 56 kbit/s (dial-up).
In 2004, the government formulated its broadband policy which defined broadband as
"an always-on Internet connection with download speed of 256 kbit/s or above.” From
2005 onward the growth of the broadband sector in the country accelerated, but
remained below the growth estimatesof the government and related agencies due to
resource issuesin last-mile accesswhich were predominantly wired-line technologies.
This bottleneck was removed in 2010 when the government auctioned 3G spectrum
followed by an equally high profile auction of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a
competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market. Now Internet access in India
is provided by both public and private companies using a variety of technologies and
media including dial-up (PSTN), xDSL, coaxial cable, Ethernet, FTTH, ISDN, HSDPA
(3G), WiFi, WiMAX, etc. at a wide range of speeds and costs. As per IAMAI India will
have the world's second largest number of Internet users with over 300 million by
December 2014.
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. As of October, 2013
report, it is over 205 million. The number of broadband subscribers at the end of May
2013 was 15.19 million. Cumulative Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of broadband during
the five-year period between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per cent. DSL, while
holding slightly more than 75% of the local broadband market, was steadily losing
market share to other non-DSL broadband platforms, especially to wireless
broadband.
There were 161 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in India
as of 31 May 2013. The top five ISPs in terms subscriber base were BSNL (9.96
million),Bharti Airtel (1.40 million), MTNL (1.09 million), Hathway (0.36 million) and
You Broadband (0.31 million). Cyber cafesremain the major source of Internet access.
In 2009, about 37 per cent of the users access the Internet from cyber cafes, 30 per
cent from an office, and 23 per cent from home. However, the number of mobile
Internet users increased rapidly from 2009 on and there were about 274 million
mobile users at the end of September 2010, with a majority using 2G mobile networks.
Mobile Internet subscriptions as reported by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) in March 2011 increased to 381 million.
One of the major issues facing the Internet segment in India is the lower average
bandwidth of broadband connections compared to that of developed countries.
According to 2007 statistics, the average download speed in India hovered at about 40
KB per second (256 kbit/s), the minimum speed set by TRAI, whereas the

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international average was 5.6 Mbit/s during the same period. In order to attend this
infrastructure issue the government declared 2007 as "the year of broadband". To
compete with international standards of defining broadband speed the Indian
Government has taken the aggressive step of proposing a $13 billion national
broadband network to connect all cities,towns and villages with a population of more
than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013. The network was
supposed to provide speeds up to 10 Mbit/s in 63 metropolitanareas and 4 Mbit/s in
an additional 352 cities. Also, the Internet penetration rate in India is one of the
lowest in the world and only accounts for 8.4% of the population compared to the rate
in OECD counties, where the average is over 50%. Another issue is the digital divide
where growth is biased in favor of urban areas; according to 2010 statistics, more
than 75 per cent of the broadband connections in the country are in the top 30 cities.
Regulators have tried to boost the growth of broadband in rural areas by promoting
higher investment in rural infrastructure and establishing subsidized tariffs for rural
subscribers under the Universal service obligation scheme of the Indian government.
Network neutrality
As of 2015, India had no laws governing net neutrality and there have been violations
of net neutrality principlesby some service providers. While the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) guidelinesfor the Unified Access Service license promote net
neutrality, they are not enforced. The Information Technology Act, 2000 does not
prohibit companies from throttling their service in accordance with their business
interests.
In March 2015, the TRAI released a formal consultation paper on Regulatory
Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services, seeking comments from the public. The
consultation paper was criticized for being one sided and having confusing statements.
It was condemned by various politicians and internet users. By 18 April 2015, over
800,000 emails had been sent to TRAI demanding net neutrality.
Wireless Internet
2nd Generation Internet is the most prevalent in India in the Past Decade. Wireless
ISPs in India use both CDMA and Edge technologies for 2G.
India's wireless Internet frequencies are
 2G : GSM 900 MHz, GSM 1800 MHz
 3G : UMTS 2100 MHz
 4G : TD-LTE 2300 MHz , FD-LTE 1800 MHz
International
 Nine satellite earth stations – 8 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian
Ocean region).Microwave
 Nine gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai,
Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad and Ernakulam.

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Submarine cables
 LOCOM linking Chennai to Penang, Malaysia
 India-UAE cable linking Mumbai to Al Fujayrah, UAE.
 SEA-ME-WE 2 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 2)
 SEA-ME-WE 3 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3) – Landing sites at
Cochin and Mumbai. Capacity of 960 Gbit/s.
 SEA-ME-WE 4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4) – Landing sites at
Mumbai and Chennai. Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s.
 Fibre-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG-FEA) with a landing site at Mumbai
(2000). Initial design capacity 10 Gbit/s, upgraded in 2002 to 80 Gbit/s,
upgraded to over 1 Tbit/s (2005).
 TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System), also known as TIC (Tata
Indicom Cable), Chennai to Singapore. Capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s.
 i2i – Chennai to Singapore. Capacity of 8.4 Tbit/s.
 SEACOM From Mumbai to the Mediterranean,via South Africa. It joins with SEA-
ME-WE 4 off the west coast of Spain to carry traffic onward to London (2009).
Capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s.
 I-ME-WE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) with two landing sites at Mumbai
(2009). Capacity of 3.84 Tbit/s.
 EIG (Europe-India Gateway), landing at Mumbai (due Q2 2010).
 MENA (Middle East North Africa).
 TGN-Eurasia (Announced) Landing at Mumbai (due 2010), Capacity of 1.28
Tbit/s
 TGN-Gulf (Announced) Landing at Mumbai (due 2011), Capacity Unknown.
TRAI & DOT
Provisioning of Telecommunications Services in India is governed by the Indian
Telegraph Act, 1885 ("Act"). This Act governs the setting up of telecommunications
network and the use of telecommunications services in India. The Act also prohibits
anyone from providing, running or maintaining a telecommunication network in India
without a valid license issued by the Department of Telecommunications, Government
of India.
The services provided by Pioneer Elabs Limited as a licensed service provider to a
customer in India cannot be resold by the customer, since such resale would
constitute running a telecommunication network in India without a license and would
be punishable by a fine and imprisonment.In such a case Pioneer would also be held
responsible for abetting such illegal practice. There are national security concerns
since illegal telecommunications network operators would not be subject to security
monitoring as the licensed operators are.
Leased line servicesare the critical infrastructure and have a potential to be used for
illegal telecommunications network and services. Therefore, the use of leased line is
strictly regulated.
Connecting a leased line to public network is prohibited

20. 20 | P a g e
The Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951 prohibit interconnection of a leased line to the
public telecommunications network, such as Public Switched Telephone (PSTN),
Integrated ServicesDigital Network (ISDN) & Public Land Mobile Networks. Carryingof
traffic from Private Network to Public Network and vice versa results in a flow of
unmonitored traffic from a private network to the public network bypassing the
authorized gateways and can thus result in a security threat to the nation.
Leased Linescan be connected to create a Private network between company offices
for exchange of voice and data to facilitate Inter Office Communications. Leased lines
can also be connected to an EPABX to facilitate voice and data traffic from user desks
to facilitate genuine users provided the private voice and data traffic is completely
isolated from the public voice and data traffic through Logical Partitioning feature
available with most advanced EPABX.
The telecommunicationsservices cannot be used for carrying objectionable, obscene,
unauthorized or any other content, messagesor communications infringing copyright
& intellectual property in any form.
Under the rules governing telecommunications in India, the customer is obliged to
provide, without any delay, access to authorized officers of Service Provider,
Department of Telecommunications, Intelligence Department officers when such
access or information is required for investigations or detection of crimes and in the
interest of national security.
The use of the network for anti-national activities would be construed as an offence
punishable under the Indian Penal Code or other applicable laws. The networks
cannot be used in such a manner as to endanger or make vulnerable a networked
infrastructure.Acts such as break-ins or attempted break-ins of Indian networks shall
be regarded as an anti-national act and shall be dealt with in accordance with the
Indian Penal Code.
A lease line customer needs to maintain a complete network diagram, of the private
network set up, at each location where a leased line is terminated along with details of
connectivity available at the site. The same should be made available on demand at
the time of inspection as required by law.
The above information is for the purpose of giving an overview to the readers and
cannot be in any manner construed to be exhaustive description of the restrictions
under the Act, applicable Rules and licenses.
Company profile : About Dishnet Wireless Limited
Aircel is one of India's fastest growing GSMmobile service providers with a subscriber
base of 65.1 million. It started off as a regional company in Chennai in 1999. In 2006,
Aircel was acquired by Malaysia's biggest integrated communications service provider
Maxis (Maxis Communication Berhard) and is a joint venture (JV) with Sindya
Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd. Maxis holds 74 per cent equity in the company.
Presently, it is a pan-India operator with a presence across 23 circles. The company
offers voice and data services ranging from postpaid and prepaid plans, 2G and 3G
services,Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), and Long Term Evolution (LTE) to Value -
Added-Services(VAS). In addition to providing premium internet access solutions to
facilitate data intensive live streaming applications, the company has also paved the
way to be among the first to offer 3G and 4G LTE services to customers.

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Aircel has positioned itself as a data led telecom player with a focus on young Indians
and has addressed the multi-functionality of a mobile phone in many innovative ways
which are industry firsts.
Aircel commenced operations in 1999 by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and today is
the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Odisha, North-East India and
Chennai. It is India's fifth-largest GSMmobile service provider, with a subscriber base
of over 80.01 million. It has a market share of 8% among wireless operators in the
country.
Aircel also obtained permissionfrom the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to
provide international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) telephony
services. It also has the largest service in Tamil Nadu.
Aircel became 5th largest telecom service provider in January 15 after the
announcement of telecom minister that public operator BSNL lost so many customers
and became 6th largest.
Aircel 79.62 million BSNL 78.12 million Tata Docomo 68 million (January 15)
Background & history
Aircel started as a regional player in Tamil Nadu in 1999. Soon, it became the leading
operator in Tamil Nadu. At one time, Aircel was the fastest growing operator in India.
Because of this, it attracted foreign investments and Malaysian operator Maxis
Communications bought a 74 percent stake in the company in 2005 from its Indian
owner Chinnakannan Sivasankaran.
In 2010, the company bought 3G and wirelessbroadband (BWA) spectrum in 13 and 8
circles respectively in the 2010 spectrum auction. It paid US$1.44 billion (79.1 billion)
for the 3G spectrum and US$0.76 billion (49.76 billion) for BWA. Of this, the company
raised $0.88 billion (48.3 billion) from Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank,
HSBC and Barclays. It also took a $0.44 billion (24.2 billion) one-year bridge loan from
HSBC, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank. The company, as of November 2012, has
around 5 million 3G customers. Aircel launched its 4G LTE the first quarter of 2015 in
5 Circles out of 8 circles where it has license to provide 4G LTE on 2300 MHz band
but it is still available to Business users and not for personal users.
AIRCEL also bagged 15 MHz on 1800 band to provide future use (4G on 1800 MHz) for
Tamil Nadu.
Core business
3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid 65,000 million
for spectrum in 13 circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir,
Karnataka, Kolkata,Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, North East, Orissa, Punjab,
Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East) & Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

22. 22 | P a g e
Aircel has introduced new price plans for its consumers and are termed to be the
cheapest in the country. Following the key players in 3G, Aircel also slashed its 3G
tariff.
4G
On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction in India
ended. Aircel paid 34380 million for spectrum in eight circles: Andhra Pradesh,
Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It
also has 3G spectrum in all these circles.
Aircel has launched 4G services in Tamil Nadu, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir in
August 2014, becoming the only private telecom operator to offer all the three existing
technologies of 2G, 3G and 4G in these markets.
Chinese equipment maker ZTE announced on 30 December 2013, that it had won a
contract to deploy a 4G broadband network based on LTE technology for Aircel. The
LTE network will be launched in Tamil Nadu, and expand to a few other business
critical circles in the first stage. On 16 July 2014, it launched 4G services in four
circles Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Odisha.
Aircel Business Solutions
Aircel Business Solutions (ABS), part of Aircel, sells enterprise solutions such as
Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS VPNs), Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) and managed video services on wireless platforms including
WiMAX.
Other businessinitiatives
Aircel on 27 May 2011 launched the Apple iPhone 4 apart from Bharti Airtel, which is
one of the most popular Smartphone in the contemporary world.
Telecom operator Aircel announced that its partnershipwith Wikimedia Foundation to
offer free mobile Wikipedia access to its customers. The alliance is aimed at making
knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all Aircel customers in both rural and
urban areas for free. This initiative is a part of the foundation’s Wikipedia Zero
Programme to reach mobile internet users around the World. But from 2 March 2015,
subscribers of Aircel no longer can access Wikipedia Zero.
Cost cutting
As a part of a major re-organization in its operations, the company decided to halt
operations in five telecom circles, namely Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala
and Punjab. In 2015 April 15 Aircel re launched its service in Kerala
It also decided to cut 600 jobs. This is part of a series of steps to cut costs and thereby
make the company more efficient in the highly competitive Indian telecom market. As
of November 2012, Aircel has closed down dealerships in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana,
UP west and Gujarat. Only online recharge facility is available in these circles. Aircel
still continues its operations in Rajasthan and Punjab as of November 2012. It has

23. 23 | P a g e
more than 2.6 million customers in Rajasthan circle and is adding about 140,000
customers per month in this circle.
As per the January 2015 subscription data published by TRAI, Aircel had a subscriber
base stood at 79 million.
Sponsorships and brand ambassadors
Aircel is one of the sponsors of the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super
Kings, principal sponsor for Atlético de Kolkata FC of the Indian Super League and I-
League side Shillong Lajong FC. It is also the major sponsors for the Chennai Open
(the only ATP tennis tournament in India) and the Professional Golf Tour of India.
Aircel also spearheads the Save the Tiger campaign for protecting India's tigers.
The brand ambassadors of Aircel include the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra
Singh Dhoni and Tamil actor Suriya. Aircel is also engaging with Mary Kom, the
female boxer, Dhanush, another Tamil actor and Sameera Reddy, a Bollywood actress
for their Celebrity Chat series.
Share-holders
Maxis, Aircel's majority stake holder at that time, raised 11.2 billion (USD 3.36 billion)
for its shareholders(UTSB), making it the largest IPO in Malaysia, Southeast Asia and
Latin America. Maxis has 74% stake and the remaining 26% is owned by Apollo
Hospitals.
Trivia
Aircel is being investigated by CBI for alleged irregularities in the Maxis takeover.
According to CBI, Aircel's previous owner C. Sivasankaran was forced to sell his stake
to Maxis by the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in 2005. As a result, Maxis
did a quid pro quo investment of Rs. 5 billion in a DTH company owned by the Maran
family.
There were also rumors in September 2012 that the Russian company Sistema was in
talks to acquire Aircel. However, that hasn't been confirmed by either of the
companies. Sistema is the parent company of MTS, which is a CDMA operator in
India.
Aircel was one among seven operators to receive notices from the Department of
Telecommunications for not meeting radiation norms in their base tower stations in
September 2012.
As a part of its cost cutting practices, Aircel started scaling down services in five
circles. However, Aircel also shut down many cell sites which left many of its
customers without coverage. Users had to travel to areas covered by Aircel in order to
obtain a porting code.
Source: http://www.aircel.com/AircelWar/

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Awards & Recognisitions
Aircel: Leading Player in Providing Overall Mobile Satisfaction
Since its inception, Aircel has continuously strived to provide the best products and
services to its valuable customers.It is this passion and enthusiasm that has helped
us grow leaps and bounds from what started as a one state operation in Tamil Nadu in
1999, to a pan-India presence across 22 circles today. Aircel has been recognized for
its consistent and innovative approach, receiving the highest rating for overall
customer satisfaction and network quality by Voice and Data in 2006, an accolade
given only to a select few.Aircel was recognized for the same award by IDC in 2007 for
being successful in fulfilling our promises to our customers.
Aircel also emerged as the top mid-size utility company in Business world's 'List of
Best Mid-Size Companies' in 2007. Additionally,the company has also been awarded
as the best regional operator by the Tele.net publication in 2007 and has been
honored by CMAI INFOCOM for excellence in marketing of new telecom service in
2009.
Aircel's commitment to provide the best and the most innovative products and services
will be an ongoing endeavor.
2014 Enters into first-of-its-kind strategic partnership with ASKME to
empower SME segment
2013 Forms strategic partnership with Micromax to drive data growth and
ICICI Bank to launch Mobile Money in India
2012 Forms strategic partnership with Magicon to offer 3G Android smart
phones at smart prices
2010 Receives Best Employer Award at the 4th Employer Branding Awards
2009-10
2009 Receives the honor of Excellence in Marketing of New Telecom Service, by
CMAI INFOCOM
Updated: August, 2014
MANAGEMENT TEAM (SLT MEMBERs ONLY)
Sl. NO NAME DESIGNATION
1 Mr. Nilaj Mahalanavis Circle Business Head

25. 25 | P a g e
2 Mr. Awadesh Gupta Sales Head
3 Mr. Trevor Franci Lyngwa Marketing Head
4 Mr. Satish Bhansali Finance Head
5 Mr. Rahul Dev Sarma Data Head
6 Mr. Nitin Sharma HR Head
7 Mr. Arup Chaliha Commercial Head
8 Mr. Ajit Kumar Pathak Network Head
9 Mr. Baijoyonta Barooah Legal & Regulatory
10 Mr. Bikram Dash CSD Head
ORGANIZATION CHART
CBH
Sales Head
ZBM ZONE 1
ZBM ZONE 2
ZBM ZONE 3
POST PAID LEAD
DISTRIBUTION HEAD
Marketing Head
PRODUCT
MARCOM
CLM
OBR & UM
COMMERCIAL HEAD
PROCUREMENT
DESPATCH & DELIVERY
HR HEAD
NETWORK HEAD
ONM
RF
PROJECT HEAD
ROLLOUT TEAM
CUSTOMER SERVICE
DELIVERY
ACTIVATION
COMPLIANCE
AVCV
LEAGAL & REGULATORY

26. 26 | P a g e
Five P’s of Dishnet Wireless Limited
Products : Dishnet Wireless Limited offers mobile service by the name of
Aircel, broadly classified the connections into prepaid & postpaid. These products can
be classified as a mixture of ‘Shopping products’ & ‘Ultra FMCG products’. For prepaid
customers,the recharge frequency as well as the type of recharges, both are having a
wide range. Here customer buying pattern goes up to 5/6 times a day even with the
same denomination, where in Postpaid, purchase is less frequent – once in a month
also these customers changes their ‘plan’ very rarely. Its prepaid product is widely
available in the market and the postpaid business is having certain geo limitation in
operation and retailerstoo. However the introduction of ‘Pocket internet’, ‘One India
One Rate- ONOR’, has given the organization its unique identity in national level and
in local level ‘Footbolopedia’, ‘Unlimited 299’ has given its valued customer the feeling
of ‘ Face value products’ which gives the customers satisfaction of ‘value for money’.
Apart from regular recharges,all STVs, Special Tariff Vouchers, are well appreciated
by its valued customers.
Aircel is more focused for its data service. This company is well appreciated for
its innovation by ‘Pocket Internet’ – to make customer tech shabby or ‘Smart
Recharges’ – here customer will gate mix of voice tariff, SMS, STD calls, with data as a
common ladder. All its 3G products are having unique ‘unified data’ feature, thus once
3G recharge is done, customer can use 2G data without any recharge. That helps
Aircel having an edge on competitors. The company also offers some seasonal
shopping tie ups with Big Bazar for the mutual benefits of the both organization.
Packaging & labeling : In case of mobile connection, it is more considered as
‘service’ than a ‘product’. The two major products are packaged as ‘Prepaid’ &
‘Postpaid’ with the base tariff, MSISDN, ICCID nos, PUK1/2 nos etc with a welcome
note. All paper RCVs/STVs are having written benefits as well having pull SMS/ call
center helpline for product feature updates.
Place : Aircel product are available for sale at various retail points being
classified as normal retailers , ‘APP – Aircel Preferred Partners’ , ‘ Xpress outlet’ ,
‘COFO – Company Owned Franchisee Operated’ touch points or walk-in points.
Normally its service is available from traditional telecom outlets to non conventional
pan shops, groceries, handset outlets and retailers dealing with laptop/computers too.
Price : Pricing strategy of Aircel is an effective tool that helps the company to
gain competitive edge over its rivals especially in case of STVs. It’s all data products
has differentiates its presence even though with low reach of 3G network than
competitors as all the 3G or data products are ‘unified’ which allows to browse data
customers,in 2G areas too, who have done 3G recharges without any 2G data pack.
It’s the only flexible as well the most important e lement of marketing mix that
produces revenue. This company always offers its customer ‘Value For Money’
products. It also offers special product mixes like ‘LUT products’, ‘Do a little Extra’,’
Smart FRs’ in national or local Circle level too.
Promotion : Promotion is the most important marketing tool for telecom, be it
market communication through hoarding/branding/wall painting, retail visibility/
branding, or customer centric activities as road shows/canopy activities/sales
promotion at joints/colleges etc. The key feature of Aircel’s promotion strategy is such

27. 27 | P a g e
that they have designed all of their promotional activitieskeeping in mind the culture
& tradition of the company as well as the sentimental attachment with its valued
customers specially the local behavioral attitudes. The company does its promotion
through the use of both electronic as well as print Medias especially during IPL/ISL
season for both inbound & outbound customers too.
People : Aircel is proud of its highly motivated team, be it sales or marketing or
network or finance or HR. People from various parts of India are working with
excellent cohesiveness. It has very structured approach of ‘people development’
through ‘Aircel Academy’. Recently it has launched its graduation course for non
graduate field staffs of distributors or off roll employees across the country, which is
the first of its kind initiative in the industry.
Competitors’ details
North East is one of fastest growing market in India. Mobile subscriber base of North
East has increased by 5.19% during FY2013 to reach 8.96 million. North East is the
2nd fastest growing market in India in terms of total wireless subscriber’s addition
Active wireless subscriber base in North East is 79.33% resulting in 7.11 million active
mobile users. Active subscriber base in North East increased by 9.45% during FY2013
compared with national average of 5.86%, 2nd fastest in the country. By March 2016,
North East is 20th largest wireless telecom market in India accounting for 0.98% of
total active subscriber base.
In North East wireless telecom market, Airtel leads with 30.5% share in terms of total
subscriber base followed by Aircel (25.9%), BSNL (19.6%) and Vodafone (11.1%).In
terms of active subscriber base, Bharti Airtel tops with 37.0% share followed by Aircel
(24.2%) and BSNL (12.8%).Airtel has 96.4% active users compared with 74.2% for
Aircel and BSNL (51.7%) top 5 players’ accounts for 96.2% of North East’s active
mobile subscriber base.
Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications Services
Company headquartered in New Delhi,India. It operates in 20 countries across South
Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands. Airtel provides GSM, 3G and 4G LTE mobile
services, fixed line broadband and voice services depending upon the country of
operation. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 192.22 million
subscribers as of August 2013. Airtel is the largest mobile operator in South Asia and
the fourth largest in the world by subscriber base. Airtel was named India's second
most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.

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Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its
business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes
factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been adopted by
several operators. Airtel's telecom equipment is provided and maintained by Ericsson
and Nokia Solutions and Networks whereas IT support is provided by IBM. The
transmission towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of
Bharti including Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers in India. Ericsson agreed for the
first time to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment
rather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of
1/minute (US$0.02/minute)
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (abbreviated BSNL) is an Indian state-owned
telecommunications company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was incorporated
on 15 September 2000 and took over the business of providing of telecom services and
network management from the erstwhile Central Government Departments of Telecom
Services (DTS) and Telecom Operations (DTO), with effect from 1 October 2000 on a
going concern basis. It is the largest provider of fixed telephony, largest broadband
services provider with more than 60% Market share, and fifth largest mobile telephony
provider in India. However, in recent years the company's revenues and market share
have plummeted into heavy losses due to intense competition in the Indian
telecommunications sector.
BSNL is India's oldest and largest communication service provider (CSP). It had a
customer base of 117 million as of January 2014. It has footprints throughout India
except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi, which are managed by
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL).
Vodafone India Limited, formerly Vodafone Essar Limited, is the second largest
mobile network operator in India by subscriber base, after Airtel. It is headquartered
in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has approximately 173 million customers as of September
2014. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout
India with better presence in the metros.
Vodafone India provides 3G services on basis of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital
GSM technology and launched 3G services in the country in the January–
March quarter of 2011 and plans to spend up to $500 million within two years
on its 3G networks. Vodafone added maximum subscribers in July 2014, with
13.6 lakh new users joining its network to take its base to 17.12 Crore.
Vodafone is the second largest player in telecom operator in India after Airtel,
with a market share of 22.95%.
Reliance Communications Ltd. (commonly called RCOM) is an Indian
Internet access (commonly called "broadband") and telecommunications
company headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. RCOM is India's largest 4th
telecom operator .It is the 15th largest mobile phone operator with over 150
million subscribers. Established in 2002, it is a subsidiary of Reliance Anil
Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

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Idea Cellular, commonly referred to as Idea, is an Indian mobile network
operator based in Mumbai, India. Idea is a pan-India integrated GSM operator
offering 2G and 3G services, and has its own NLD and ILD operations, and ISP
license. With revenue in excess of $4 billion; revenue market share of nearly
15%; and subscriber base of over 121 million in FY 2013, Idea is India’s third
largest mobile operator. Idea ranks among the top 10 country operators in the
world with a traffic of over 1.5 billion minutes a day.
Marketing strategies & practices
Aircel's Promotional Strategy; Differentiating through Innovation : Aircel entered
the highly competitive Indian telecom market in the year 1999. It adopted innovation
as its key branding strategy and communicated with customers through simple and
thoughtful advertising campaigns. The case discusses the various marketing strategies
adopted by a relatively late entrant into the Indian market and how it increased its
subscriber base. Aircel was one of the first mobile operators to introduce its
advertising campaign on Facebook. The case explainshow Aircel promoted its services
through several media like TV, print, out-of-home (OOH), and radio. It used celebrity
endorsement as well as cause-related marketing. Within a short time of its launch,
Aircel had become one of the top mobile operators in India. According to experts, the
company's unique promotional strategies helped it survive and grow in the highly
competitive telecom sector. The case concludes by highlighting the challenges Aircel
could face as a relatively new player in the highly competitive and fast-saturating
Indian mobile phone market. This case is aimed at MBA/MS level students as part of
the Brand Management/ Marketing Communication/ Marketing Management
curriculum.
Aircel expansion and marketing strategy : India’s cricket captain and youth icon
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been extolling the virtues of Aircel mobile services on
television, billboards and newspapersacross the country. If media planners are to be
believed, in the last few weeks, ever since it launched in Delhi, the mobile services
company has forked out over Rs 35 Crore to newspapers, magazines and television
channels to promote its products. The company says that Dhoni’s brand image fits in
well with what Aircel stands for simplicity and the ‘boy next door’ image which
underlines consumer trust. The company feelsthere is no better way to connect with
customers in India than cricket. It has sponsored the Chennai Super Kings team in
the Indian Premier League, principal sponsor for Atlético de Kolkata FC of the Indian
Super League and I-League side Shillong Lajong FC. It is also the major sponsors for
the Chennai Open (the only ATP tennis tournament in India) and the Professional Golf
Tour of India. Aircel also spearheads the Save the Tiger campaign for protecting India's
tigers and has now taken on board Dhoni as the brand ambassador. Dhoni according
to the company was chosen very carefully. Because he is like a common user of mobile
services and reflects unpretentious values in many ways, besides being the best
symbol of modern emerging India.

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At the moment, the trick seems to be working. Media planners agree that the
advertising blitz with Dhoni has worked. The recall value of the advertising to its
intended users has gone up significantly, despite the fact that competitors like
Vodafone and Airtel have spend nearly equal amounts on their brand with the IPL
season in full swing now. But will Dhoni be able to catapult Aircel into a pan-India
mobile service company of substance? After all, in 10 years of its launch, Aircel has
remained a relatively small player which depends for over 57 per cent of its
subscribers on just one state Tamil Nadu (including Chennai). With 18 million
subscribers and a 6.41 per cent share (without including Reliance Communication) of
the GSM mobile market, it is way behind big players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone,
BSNL and Idea Cellular in the pecking order. Aircel, on its part, is on overdrive these
days. And it means serious business. It has committed almost $2 billion over the next
18 months to augment its network capacity. Its target is double-digit market share in
the next one or two years. Maxis have invested in India and Indonesia because it
estimates that in the next five years, over half a billion phone connections will be
added in these two geographies.
But how will Aircel catch up with far bigger rivals in India? Its market share is a
quarter of market leader Bharti Airtel (32.5 per cent) and half of its nearest rival, Idea
Cellular (14.92 per cent). Worse, in key markets like De lhi and Mumbai, where it
recently launched, it will be the sixth or seventh mobile service operator. At least one
of these markets, Delhi, is known to be saturated mobile penetration has hit 100 per
cent. Aircel does not have a unique selling proposition. Aircel, of course, is aware of
some of the challenges. But it does not believe it doesn’t have a USP. Their fresh
networks,simplified tariff plans, refreshing value additionsand customer services are
a powerful package in a market suffering from a lot of sameness.
Aircel India has adopted an aggressive data-centric approach to enhance its market
share in the country. With 3G spectrum in 13 circles, the company has recently
rolled-out innovative data offerings. A few months back, also launched ‘One Nation,
One Rate’ roaming plan that offers users one rate for voice, SMS and data in home
circles and on roaming. The company also possessesBWA spectrum in 8 circles. Like
other operators, Aircel has also adopted a precautionary approach and is in no hurry
to roll out its 4G network.
Aircel Strategiesfor survival : In light of severe margin pressures, Aircel is looking
for ways to cut costs. It plans to prune its operations in five circles – Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab – and reallocate its resources to more
profitable zones. However, it does not plan to shut down operations completely in any
circle. It is in the process of revamping its business model to reduce the cost to serve
without compromising on customer service or network experience. This step was
necessitated in the backdrop of the telecom industry facing severe margin pressures
as the voice market is maturing. Also, the data segment is still at a nascent stage.
Moreover, operational costs for new players are prohibitive.
Recently, Aircel announced its plans to opt out of the 2G spectrum auction. This is a
reluctant decision on Aircel’spart. Given the full cost-benefit analysis of the decision,
more spectrums would have certainly helped coverage and increased flexibility for the
operator. However, the price of the spectrum was not good value for money.
Aircel’s SAP business intelligence strategy to transform marketing : During the
last few years, organizations in the telecom and BFSI sectors began adopting and

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utilizing business intelligence (BI) solutions for more than just basic financial
reporting and dashboard features. Established organizations scurried to consolidate
the vast amounts of historical data they had accumulated over the years. Meanwhile,
Aircel, a three-year old telecom company, deployed business intelligence from SAP at
the founding stage itself, along with an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) project.
The deployment of BI was part of projects initiated for the pan-India launch of Aircel in
2008, with the first release being deployed in September 2009, and followed by
additional releases every quarter. “We knew that the operational systems were to be
built and stabilized on an enterprise platform before the data was brought and
processed in EDW,” says SanjeevChoudhury, Head - BI, Aircel.While big telcos had to
traverse the learning curve, Aircel leapfrogged right onto the BI bandwagon.
Social Media Strategy : Aircel has positioned itself as a data led telecom player and
has addressed the multi-functionality of a mobile phone in many innovative ways
which are Industry firsts, be it the Aircel Pocket Internet, Pocket Internet Games and
Facebook Voice Updates on Aircel.
Aircel’s Social Media strategy too circles around its alliance with Chennai Super King
and Dhoni. Aircel is leveraging its association with Chennai Super Kings, one of the
most successful teams in IPL, in its overall marketing strategy. It has launched a
unique plan with Chennai Super Kings named ‘Extra Talk Time with CSK’. With its
full talk time of Rs 164, Aircel will offer extra talk time whenever CSK scores above
164 runs. For instance,in a match, if CSK scores 190 runs, the customers will get an
extra talk time of Rs 26.Aircel’s Social Media strategy too circles around its alliance
with Chennai Super King and Dhoni.
It is clear that Aircel has been proactive in its approach towards handling and
managing social media. The association with IPL is natural due to their brand
ambassador and their use of Facebook as a pure marketing channel rather than CRM
is also interesting. They do a quick and responsive job on twitter by answering
customer queries.
The blogger engagement activities also showcase their commitment and seriousness
towards the social medium. I feel though the next level for Aircel would be a social
only campaign which does not draw from IPL. Now with IPL ending it will be
interesting how Aircel switchesits campaign on Facebook to my mind Aircel needs to
stand for something beyond just Dhoni and IPL. Much like Vodafone and Airtel have
made their brand positioning much focused with ‘Zoozoos’ and ‘Har Friend zaroori’.
Aircel needs talking points on social and shareable content as well.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Estimating the market or market potential for a new business or business expansion
is critical in determiningthe economic feasibility of a venture. Estimating the market
potential will determine if the market is large enough to support the businesses. This
checklist will address a number of questions that need to be answered before an
estimate can be calculated. What type of customer will buy the product or service?
Where are these customers located? How often do they use it? What is the

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competition? What are people paying? What is the potential for the market to develop?
What is my share of the market?
Estimating the market potential for a business is critical in evaluating its viability and
provides an estimate of the maximum total sales potential for a given market. Once
the estimated market potential has been calculated, it is possible to determine if the
market is large enough to sustain the proposed business or sustain an addition
competitor in the marketplace. It is important to remember that the estimated market
potential sets an upper boundary on the market size and can be expressed in either
units and/or sales. Unlesstherearenodirector indirect competitors, a business will capture a
share of thetotal estimated market potential not all of it. The following provide the steps
and data necessary to estimate the market potential. These will be discussed in detail
later.
3 Key Steps in Estimating Market Potential:
1. Defining of target market and market segments.
2. Defining of the geographic boundaries of the target market.
3. Determination of the average annual or monthly consumption.
Growth on the data connection especially happens when business travelers,
academician’s as well as other professionals need to access emails and corporate
applications as well as personal requirements during urgent trips and travels. The
cutthroat competition in the telecommunication sector of India posed a great threat to
the development of Aircel.The project aims to identify the market potential of Aircel in
the internet data card in Agartala and its adjacent markets.
Aims & Objective
The major objective of the study are :
1. To access the market performance of Aircel in Agartala market.
2. To trace the core impact of the ‘channel’ in case of new data activation.
3. To know the actual needs & wants of the customers and customer’s
behavior about different offerings from Aircel.
4. To access the channel participation towards product/services offered by
various operators.
5. To make the competitive study of the service/product offered by other
telecom operators in data.
Ultimate Goal
The ultimate goal of conducting the survey extends to determine the market
performance of Aircel mobile service in the field of ‘data’. This survey will also create
some fabulous way or what new things could be put in place through which the
company can make more ‘ satisfied ’ customers in their VLR.

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Scope of the study
Scope is restrained to only Dishnet Wireless Limited or Aircel, though it can be,
however,extended to other operators in the region and the information of the study
can be used to gather various aspects of the mobile service sectors of other operators.
This is assessed by taking into account the factors the consumers’ considers before
making a purchase decision of a new data connection. This study will also help the
company to formulate efficient strategy to counter the competition. The study is
conducted in North East Telecom Circle and around Agartala area. There is further
scope of conducting the study in other markets of for North East Circle in particular
and India’s other telecom Circles too.
Limitation of the study
 The study is confined to Agartala City, which is urban. When the findings are of
the study are applied to rural markets, socio-cultural adjustments are to be
made.
 Utmost care has been taken to reduce response bias, even then, sincerely and
honestly, the respondents in imparting information may sometimes produce
slightly inaccurate results.
 As consumer behavior is a dynamic phenomenon, findingsof the present study
may not be applicable over a long time.
 During the survey it was not possible the access the subscribers’ reaction
correctness. As most of the users have an unprofessional attitude and were not
very enthusiastic about covering the quotations since they felt that it would not
be of any use to them. Hence the authenticity of the information could be
doubted.
 Finally the study was covered within a short span of just one and half month.
Thus due to scarcity of time and resources, a more detailed study could not be
undertaken.
Due to these limitations, the conclusions which have been drawn are subject to
criticism at every stage of its analysis and presentation. The report may not provide
the best possible picture of the market scenario and the work done here can alwaysbe
made better and improved.
Methodology
Research design :
A. Exploratory Research : Initially an exploratory research was
conducted to understand the general nature of the research problem and
objectives. This was done by interacting with the retailers and
distributors of the different TSPs ( Telecom Service Provider ) in Agartala.
Descriptive research was undertaken in the form of field study with the
help of questionnaire and data was analyzed to arrive at conclusion and
make recommendations.
B. Questionnaire : All variables and alternatives that are
found to be relevant are considered during questionnaire design. The

34. 34 | P a g e
study requires assessing the factors that the customers consider before
making purchase decision. Also survey of retailers and customer service
points become important as they are the channel members who deal
directly with the customers.
There were three sets of questionnaire for subscribers, retailers
and customer walk in points respectively. Questionnaires consisted of
both open & close questions and were personally administered.
Sources of data :
A. Primary data : Primary data were collected from
prepaid/postpaid data subscribers, retailers selling data recharges and
customer walk in points by conducting survey method.
B. Secondary data : Secondary data were collected from the
websites and tariff leaflets of different TSPs operating in Agartala.
Sampling plan : The reason for sampling is that if the whole population is
considered, the researcher can’t come to consensus within the stipulated time. Also
the cost of generating information will be very high. The study objectives require
primary data to be collected from different points of subscribers, retailers and
customer walk in points. Samples were chosen as follows.
I. Population : Target population consists of all prepaid /
postpaid data customers, retailers dealing with data recharges and
customer walk in points of different TSPs in Agartala.
II. Sampling Element : Subscribers of data service, retailers dealing
with data recharges and concerned person in customer walk in points of
different TSPs in Agartala market.
III. Sampling Unit : At first I have taken a sample size of 100
customers where each customer has represent 50 nos of customers.
Aircel prepaid/postpaid data customers with more than 90 days AON
(Age On Network) of the Agartala city with ARPU ( Average Recharge Per
User) is more than Rs 500/-. Subscribers were being interviewed at
home/office, retail points and customer walk in points.
IV. Contact Method : Subscribers & retailers were called before the
interview to fix appointments according to their convenience and that of
the researcher.
Field Works : Initially field work was in form of on the spot
conclusion with the industry people like CSDs of different TSPs. Later data
subscribers of different TSPs, the retailers dealing with data recharge/activation and
concerned persons in customer walk in points of TSPs operational in Agartala were
interviewed with the help of questionnaires.
Research Instrument :

35. 35 | P a g e
Questionnaire Method : Questionnaire is formed to collect
information about the buying behavior of people residing in Agartala towards data
services, the factors that influence their buying decision process and their relative
importance in the buying decision.
Face to face interview method : The respondentswere interviewed with
the help of questionnaires. Interviews were personally administered. The
questionnaires are included in the appendix of the project.
Data Analysis & Interpretation
Analysis of the survey of the customers :
Analysis of the survey of the consumers was done to find out various factors
and reasons that influence their buying behavior and awareness level among the
mobile service subscribers of different operators. Also it served the purpose of knowing
the perception of the subscribers on the TSPs in Agartala.
1. Subscriber’s profile : The following figures show respondent’s
profile according to their age income level & profession.
Age Group
18 to 25 29
25 to 35 36
35 to 55 23
Above 55 12
Total 100
From figure 1 it is observed that most of the data subscribers belong to the age
group of 18 to 35 years.
Monthly Income
Less than 10000/- 32
10000/- to 15000/- 25
15000/- to 25000/- 18
25000/- to 35000/- 16
Less than
10000/-
32%
10000/- to15000/- to
25000/- to
35000/-
16%
More than
35000/-
9%
Monthly Income
Less than 10000/-
10000/- to 15000/-
15000/- to 25000/-
25000/- to 35000/-
More than 35000/-
18 to 25,
29, 29%
25 to 35,
36, 36%
35 to 55,
23, 23%
Above 55,
12, 12%
Age Group
18 to 25
25 to 35
35 to 55
Above 55
Figure 1

36. 36 | P a g e
More than 35000/- 9
Total 100
From the adjacent figure it
is observed that, most data
user belongs to the income
group up to 25000/-
2. Profession * Operator choice : Cross tabulation was done between
profession & the choice of telecom operators (question 6 of the
questionnaire for subscriber’s end). Two subscribers felt into the category
of private tutor/ job seekers category being mentioned as ‘other’. They
were missing value to enable the cross tabulation.
Chi-square test was performed on the basis of the following hypothesis.
Null Hypothesis (H0) : There is no relation between profession &
choice of the service providers.
Alternate Hypothesis (H1) : There is relation between profession and
choice of the service providers.
Significance value : 0.00 which is less than 0.05
Profession*telecom operator cross tabulation
Profession
Count &
% Age
Telecom operators
Aircel Airtel BSNL Vodafone Reliance Idea Total
Govt
employee
Count 8 4 2 3 2 1 20
% Age 40% 20% 10% 15% 10% 5% 100%
Businessman
Count 10 3 4 2 4 2 25
% Age 40% 12% 16% 8% 16% 8% 100%
Private
employee
Count 9 6 2 4 1 2 24
% Age 38% 25% 8% 17% 4% 8% 100%
Student
Count 12 1 1 2 6 2 24
% Age 50% 4% 4% 8% 25% 8% 100%
House wife
Count 1 2 0 1 1 0 5
% Age 20% 40% 0% 20% 20% 0% 100%
other
Count 1 0 1 0 0 0 2
% Age 50% 0% 50% 0% 0% 0% 100%
Total
Count 41 16 10 12 14 7 100
% Age 41% 16% 10% 12% 14% 7% 100%
Interpretation : From the above table it is observed that Aircel is mostly preferred
by all across the profession groups for data connection with score of 41% followed by
Airtel 16% & Reliance 14% respectively.
Figure 2

37. 37 | P a g e
Figure 3
3. Subscriber’s profile : Reason of data affection & gadget used ( Question
9/10 of subscriber questionnaire )
REASON & DEVICE USED FOR BROWSING Interpretation : It’s revealed
that 75% of the subscriber uses
data majorly for social
networking or entertainment
purpose and thus 91% of them
prefer mobile devices like cell
phone/tab/phablets as a
preferred gadget.
News 12 MOBILE 63
ENTERTAINMENT 34 LAPTOP/PC 9
SOCIAL NETWORKING 41 TAB/PHABLET 28
KNOWLEDGE 5
OFFICIAL USE 8
TOTAL 100 TOTAL 100
4. Customer buying behavior influential factors.
I. To determine the ISP’s service satisfaction level & brand awareness level (
Question 5 & 7) :
WHY THIS SERVICE PROVIDER BRAND AWERENESS
Reasonable pricing 32 Adv in local Media 3
Brand 14 Market Decoration 17
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
CMS BY PROFESSION
Govt employee
Businessman
Private employee
Student
House wife
other
News, 12
ENTERTAIN
MENT, 34
SOCIAL
NETWORKI
NG, 41
KNOWLED
GE, 5
OFFICIAL
USE, 8
News
ENTERTAINMENT
SOCIAL
NETWORKING
KNOWLEDGE
MOBILE,
63
LAPTOP/
PC, 9
TAB/PHA
BLET, 28
MOBILE
LAPTOP/PC
TAB/PHABLET
Figure 5
Figure 4

38. 38 | P a g e
Better Service 17 Friends 23
Better Offer 29 Family Members 12
Better relation with POA
8
Peer group 9
(Point Of Availability) Won Decision 36
Total 100 Total 100
Interpretation : Figure shows that 32% of subscribers are availing this service for
reasonable pricing and 29% of them for better offer. Also buying decision being
influenced by self is 36% and friends’ influence 23% of their buying behavior.
II. To determine the reference group of the respondents ( Questions 6, 8, 9, 10
) :
NEED FOR THE SERVICE
Self 19
Family 16
Friends 42
Peer group 9
Business/Office 14
Total 100
REFERENCE GROUP
Media 11
Family 32
Friends 28
Peer group 9
Retailers 20
Total 100
DECISION FOR TARIFF
Self 11
Children 32
Reasonable
pricing, 32
Brand, 14
Better
Service,
17
Better
Offer, 29
Better
relation w ith
POA (Point
Of
Availablity),
8
WHY THIS
SERVICE
PROVIDER
Reasonable pricing
Brand
Better Service
Better Offer
Adv in
local
Media, 3 Market
Decoration
, 17
Friends, 23
Family
Members,
12
Peer
group, 9
Won
Decision,
36
BRAND
AWERENESS
Adv in local
Media
Market
Decoration
Friends
Family
Members
Peer group
Won Decision
Self, 19
Family, 16
Friends, 42
Peer group, 9
Business/Offic
e, 14
NEED FOR THE SERVICE
Self
Family
Friends
Peer group
Business/Office
Media, 11
Family,32Friends,28
Peer group, 9
Retailers,20 REFERENCE GROUP
Media
Family
Friends
Peer group
Retailers
Self, 11
Children,
32
Friends, 23
Retailers,
17
Touchpoin
ts, 8
DECISION FOR
TARIFF
Self
Children
Husband/wife
Friends
Figure 6 Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9

39. 39 | P a g e
Husband/wife 9
Friends 23
Retailers 17
Touch points 8
Total 100
WHO PURCHASE THE
CONNECTION FOR YOU
Self 96
Children 0
Husband/wife 1
Friends 3
Total 100
Interpretation : From the above figures it’s visible that 42% subscribers is feeling
need of data connection for their friends. But 28% references are coming from friends,
32% from family and 20% being influenced by retailers. Though tariff plan is being
influenced by children at 32% and friends by 23% subscribers own choice and
retailers helps 17% of them. However 96% subscribers purchase the connection of
their own.
III. Customer satisfaction & solvent attitude of the TSP ( Questions
11,12,13,14 & 15) :
POINT OF PURCHASE/SERVICE
Nearby retailer 74
Customer touch point 26
Total 100
CUSTONER SATISFACTION LEVEL
Very satisfied 39
Satisfied 33
It's okay 21
Not satisfied 7
Total 100
Self, 96
Children, 0
Husband/w
ife, 1 Friends, 3
WHO PURCHASE THE
CONNECTION FOR YOU
Self
Children
Husband/wife
Friends
Near by
retailer,
74, 74%
Customer
touch
point, 26,
26%
POINT OF
PURCHASE/SERVICE
Near by retailer
Customer touch point
Very
satisfied,
39, 39%
Satisfied,
33, 33%
It's okay,
21, 21%
Not
satisfied, 7,
7%
CUSTONER
SATISFACTION
LEVEL
Very satisfied
Satisfied
It's okay
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 13
Figure 12

40. 40 | P a g e
DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE TSP
YES 32
NO 66
NOT DECIDED 2
Total 100
Interpretation : It’s needless to say that data customers are very much satisfied
with the services offered by the operators & 66% customers are not even thinking for
changing the service provider in Agartala market. This also indicated the retailer’s
education level by the field staffs as 74% of new customers are getting on boarded
through retailers.
IV. Customer Usage pattern :
RECHARGE/BILLING
VALUE FOR DATA
< Rs 100/- 3
Rs 100/- to Rs 300/- 18
Rs 300/- to Rs 500/- 42
Rs 500/- to Rs 700/- 23
> Rs 700/- 14
Total 100
USAGE PATTERN
CALLS 23%
SMS 10%
DATA 65%
OTHERS 2%
Interpretation : This is fact that all the customers are high ARPU ( Average
Recharge Per User ) customers average recharge is ~ > Rs 500/- and thus key RGS (
YES, 32,
32%
NO, 66,
66%
NOT
DECIDED,
2, 2%
DO YOU WANT TO
CHANGE THE TSP
YES
NO
NOT DECIDED
< Rs 100/-,
3
Rs 100/- to
Rs 300/-, 18
Rs 300/- to
Rs 500/-, 42
Rs 500/- to
Rs 700/-, 23
> Rs 700/- ,
14
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
CALLS,
23%
SMS, 10%
DATA, 65%
OTHERS,
2%
CALLS
SMS
DATA
OTHERS
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16

41. 41 | P a g e
Revenue Generating Subscriber) for the operator. Hence need special care for a long
cohesiveness. It is also observed that 23% of the subscribers also use the connection
for calls/SMSs but this is little costlier service from this activation. Hence operator
needs to focus for new type of plan where customerscan avail the services at nominal
cost. However this may be a new product composition for market strategy.
V. To determine the overall experience by customers from different TSPs
(Question 21):
SERVICE TYPE Customer Service
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 23% 16% 22% 12% 10% 12% 5%
AIRTEL 12% 18% 20% 16% 12% 19% 3%
BSNL 5% 9% 17% 19% 18% 20% 12%
VODAFONE 20% 17% 23% 10% 9% 17% 4%
RELIANCE 7% 11% 23% 18% 22% 10% 9%
IDEA 7% 10% 29% 18% 12% 17% 7%
SERVICE TYPE Billing/Tariff system
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 22% 20% 17% 12% 17% 8% 4%
AIRTEL 10% 12% 15% 10% 20% 17% 16%
BSNL 6% 10% 17% 20% 17% 12% 18%
VODAFONE 11% 15% 17% 8% 17% 15% 17%
RELIANCE 20% 17% 17% 9% 12% 15% 10%
IDEA 9% 17% 14% 17% 19% 12% 12%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Excellent Good Average No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
Customer Service
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Excellent Good Average No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
Billing/Tariff system
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
Figure 17

42. 42 | P a g e
SERVICE TYPE Network coverage
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 14% 22% 23% 10% 16% 9% 6%
AIRTEL 22% 27% 23% 6% 9% 4% 9%
BSNL 5% 12% 17% 22% 16% 12% 16%
VODAFONE 15% 21% 25% 8% 11% 8% 12%
RELIANCE 5% 12% 17% 11% 22% 17% 16%
IDEA 11% 15% 21% 17% 14% 12% 10%
SERVICE TYPE Clarity/Speed
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 35% 29% 17% 7% 6% 3% 3%
AIRTEL 32% 31% 18% 4% 4% 5% 6%
BSNL 26% 29% 21% 7% 3% 7% 7%
VODAFONE 29% 31% 19% 7% 5% 6% 3%
RELIANCE 27% 28% 24% 5% 3% 7% 6%
IDEA 27% 33% 24% 3% 3% 6% 4%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
Network coverage
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
Figure 18
Figure 19

43. 43 | P a g e
SERVICE TYPE ValueAdded Services (VAS)
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 20% 25% 27% 16% 5% 3% 4%
AIRTEL 12% 21% 23% 19% 10% 7% 8%
BSNL 17% 15% 27% 26% 12% 2% 1%
VODAFONE 19% 23% 25% 14% 9% 6% 4%
RELIANCE 19% 27% 12% 19% 11% 9% 3%
IDEA 18% 21% 26% 17% 10% 5% 3%
SERVICE TYPE Roamingfacility
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 23% 21% 19% 17% 8% 9% 3%
AIRTEL 12% 19% 23% 18% 10% 9% 9%
BSNL 27% 16% 19% 18% 7% 8% 5%
VODAFONE 20% 24% 22% 15% 7% 6% 6%
RELIANCE 13% 27% 25% 10% 10% 9% 6%
IDEA 21% 20% 17% 18% 12% 9% 3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
Value Added Services (VAS)
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
Figure 20
Figure 21

44. 44 | P a g e
SERVICE TYPE Offers
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 29% 22% 16% 12% 8% 7% 6%
AIRTEL 21% 22% 23% 16% 9% 5% 4%
BSNL 19% 17% 21% 19% 10% 8% 6%
VODAFONE 26% 24% 19% 8% 9% 8% 6%
RELIANCE 22% 21% 21% 16% 9% 7% 4%
IDEA 24% 23% 12% 21% 9% 6% 5%
Interpretation : It is being depicted that in customer service front Aircel, Airtel &
Vodafone is the first preference however both Aircel & Reliance is having value for
money proposition in their tariff/billing plans. All the operators except Reliance &
BSNL are having good network perception in customer’s mind. In clarity/speed, VAS
products, offers part all the operators are equally good and customers are carrying a
feel good factor with their existing TSPs. But Reliance & BSNL and to some extent Idea
needs to think on their innovation & CSD part for having more edge on competitive
advantage.
Analysis of the survey of the channel:
The following figures will show the retailer’s motivation/ behavioral
attitudes towards various TSPs.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
Offers
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
Figure 22
Figure 23

45. 45 | P a g e
I. Average footfall, billing per day & data product salience per day (
Questions 2, 3 ,4 of retailer’s end ) :
AVERAGE FOOTFALL
< 10 Customers 3
10 to 50 customers 12
50 to 100 Customers 9
> 100 Customers 1
TOTAL 25
AVERAGE BILLING/RECHARGE
< Rs 1000/- 8
Rs 1000/- to Rs 2000/- 7
Rs 2000/- to Rs 5000/- 5
Rs 5000/- to Rs 10000/- 4
> Rs 10000/- 1
TOTAL 25
PERCENTADE OF DATA SALE
< 10% 5
10% to 20% 12
20% to 40% 6
> 50% 2
TOTAL 25
Interpretation : Most of the retailers having more than 25 data customer’s footfall
on daily basis with average recharge/billing value ranging from Rs 1000/- to Rs
5000/- of 52% retailers’. Also 70% of the retailers are sailing 10% to 40% data
products of their total sale value. This indicates Agartala is having high data
customer’s concentration.
< 10
Customers
, 3, 6%
10 to 50
customers,
12, 24%
50 to 100
Customers
, 9, 18%
> 100
Customers
, 1, 2%
TOTAL,
25, 50%
AVERAGE
FOOTFALL
< 10 Customers
10 to 50
customers
50 to 100
Customers
> 100 Customers
< Rs 1000/-,
8, 32%
Rs 1000/- to
Rs 2000/-,
7, 28%
Rs 2000/- to
Rs 5000/-,
5, 20%
Rs 5000/- to
Rs 10000/-,
4, 16%
> Rs
10000/-,1,
4%
AVERAGE
BILLING/REC
HARGE
< Rs 1000/-
Rs 1000/- to Rs
2000/-
Rs 2000/- to Rs
5000/-
< 10%, 5,
20%
10% to
20%, 12,
48%
20% to
40%, 6,
24%
> 50%, 2,
8% PERCENTAD
E OF DATA
SALE
< 10%
10% to 20%
Figure 24
Figure 25
Figure 26

46. 46 | P a g e
II. Most competitive data operator ( Question 3 ):
MOST COMPETITIVE DATA
PRODUCTS
AIRCEL 83%
AIRTEL 20%
BSNL 32%
VODAFONE 24%
RELIANCE 76%
IDEA 21%
Interpretation : It’s the competitive edge of both Aircel & Reliance that retailers are
pushing these operator’s activation as well as recharges too. However Reliance is
having less coverage than Aircel and hence dominates data market in Agartala market.
Also activitiesdone by company representative, quick resolutions of issues also gain
the confidence of retailers in Aircel front. It’s also suggestion from retailers that Aircel
should expand their network reach at the earliest.
III. Retailers’ perception about different TSPs ( Question 12) :
SERVICE TYPE Incentiveoffered for activation /DataPromotion Activities
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 22% 23% 22% 13% 9% 6% 5%
AIRTEL 12% 18% 20% 16% 12% 19% 3%
BSNL 5% 9% 17% 19% 18% 20% 12%
VODAFONE 16% 17% 28% 9% 14% 10% 6%
RELIANCE 27% 22% 20% 9% 12% 6% 4%
IDEA 16% 18% 20% 11% 12% 14% 9%
AIRCEL, 83%
AIRTEL, 20%
BSNL, 32%
VODAFONE,
24%
RELIANCE,
76%
IDEA, 21% MOST
COMPETITIVE
DATA
PRODUCTS
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
Figure 27

47. 47 | P a g e
Figure 28
SERVICE TYPE Datatariff/ DataCommission margin /Billing/Tariff system
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 33% 32% 18% 5% 7% 3% 2%
AIRTEL 8% 10% 15% 10% 24% 17% 16%
BSNL 6% 10% 17% 20% 17% 12% 18%
VODAFONE 9% 15% 17% 10% 15% 16% 18%
RELIANCE 20% 17% 17% 9% 12% 15% 10%
IDEA 9% 17% 14% 17% 19% 12% 12%
Figure 29
SERVICE TYPE Network coverage/quality /Clarity/Speed
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
Incentive offered for activation / Data Promotion Activities
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
Data tariff/ Data Commission margin /Billing/Tariff system
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA

48. 48 | P a g e
RATING Excellent Good Average
No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 14% 22% 23% 10% 16% 9% 6%
AIRTEL 29% 27% 22% 6% 9% 4% 3%
BSNL 17% 12% 17% 10% 16% 12% 16%
VODAFONE 22% 19% 25% 12% 9% 8% 5%
RELIANCE 5% 12% 17% 11% 22% 17% 16%
IDEA 25% 20% 17% 17% 8% 7% 6%
Figure 30
SERVICE TYPE Customer complain handling / Customer Service
RATING Excellent Good Average No comment Bad Poor Worse
AIRCEL 20% 25% 27% 16% 5% 3% 4%
AIRTEL 12% 21% 23% 19% 10% 7% 8%
BSNL 17% 15% 27% 26% 12% 2% 1%
VODAFONE 19% 23% 25% 14% 9% 6% 4%
RELIANCE 19% 27% 12% 19% 11% 9% 3%
IDEA 18% 21% 26% 17% 10% 5% 3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Excellent Good Average No
comment
Bad Poor Worse
Network coverage/quality / Clarity/Speed
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA

49. 49 | P a g e
Figure 31
Interpretation : Almost 60%+ retailers feels that Aircel & Reliance are paying good
incentive for new acquisitionas well as organizing promotional activities for customer
education. And thus they feel more comfortable in dealing with data activation with
these two TSPs. Also their billing/tariffplans are customer friendly that gives edge on
customer’s ‘value for money’ feel good factors. Hence market is dominated with these
two operators. On the other hand, Vodafone/ Airtel/ Idea are having good spread of
their data (3G) networks across the state / region and hence customers forced to
chose these TSPs. Thus Aircel/Reliance has to think on their expansion rollout of their
3G network witha high priority to retain the same customer’s confidence about their
reach across their service area. Again Aircel is the operator who is more customer
centric regarding issues/services and hence they are maintaining their leadership in
market wherever they are present with 3G network.
A comparative study of customer’s purpose of visiting retail point & customer
touch points :
AVERAGE FOOTFALL Retail
Touch
Points
Tariff Enquiry 20% 16%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Excellent
Good
Average
Nocomment
Bad
Poor
Worse
Customer complain handling / Customer Service
AIRCEL
AIRTEL
BSNL
VODAFONE
RELIANCE
IDEA
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Retail
Touch Points

50. 50 | P a g e
Data Recharge 24% 26%
SIM/Connectivity related problem 8% 10%
Activation problem 7% 12%
Apply for new connection 29% 19%
Offers 12% 17%
Interpretation : In Agartala market only Aircel, Vodafone & Airtel is having their
customer’s walk-in points. Though it’s very limited availability but customers are
equally confident about retailers’ service. This indicates the hard works of the field
staffs & CSD department together. However, extension of such points will help
customers in a more structured way for customers’ quarries also market will gain
confidence about the TSP, after all telecom service is more a service oriented industry.
Major findings
1. During the study it has been found that, all across the profession and income
group, Aircel is the most preferred data TSP in Agartala market.
2. As in today’s world we are in process of ‘digitization’, many banks, service
companies, even government departments have launched their ‘App’ to ensure
their presence to their valued customers at 24 X 7 round the clock, and Aircel
is having more data customer on ‘mobility gadgets’ like mobile/tab/phablets.
Figure 32