TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.

TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA

2.

GSM MARKET IN INDIA

11

3.

INTRODUCTION

23

4.

TARIFF STRUCTURE

39

5.

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

48

6.

MARKET SITUATION

50

7.

COMPETITIVE SITUATION

8.

MARKETING STRATEGY ADAPTED BY BHARTI

60

9.

OBJECTIVE

69

51

10. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

70

11. LIMITATION

71

12. SWOT ANALYSIS

79

13. CONCLUSION

81

14. QUESTIONNAIRE

86

15. BIBLIOGRAPHY

89

TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA

The

Indian

telecommunications

Network

with

250m

telephone

connections is the fifth largest in the world and is the second largest
among the emerging economies of Asia. Today it is the fastest growing
market in the world and represents unique opportunities for UK
companies in the stagnant global scenario. Tele-density, which was
languishing at 2% in 1999, has shown an impressive jump to 9.5% in
2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set to increase to 20% in the next five
years beating the Govt. target by three years. Accordingly, India
requires incremental investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five
years.
Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest growing
(over 164% p.a.) in India. With more than 33 million users (both CDMA
and GSM), wireless is the principal growth engine of the Indian telecom
industry. Given the current growth trends, cellular connections in India
will surpass fixed line by late 2004/early 2005. Intense competition
between the four main private groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and
Reliance and with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and MTNL has
brought about a significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost 74%
in cell phone charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges,
resulting in a boom time for the consumers.

The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and

liberalising the industry, ushering in competition and paving the way
for growth. While there were regulatory irregularities earlier, resulting
in litigation, these have all been addressed now. Customs duties on
hardware and mobile handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to
5 percent.
The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries to
speed up reforms and decision on the Communication Convergence Bill
to enable the common regulation of the Internet, broadcasting and
telecoms

will

be

taken

after

the

new

Government

assumes

responsibilities in may this year. An independent regulatory body

(TRAI) and dispute settlement body (TDSAT) is fully functional.

INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET

The Bharti Group, which operates in 23 circles, continues to be the
country's largest cellular operator, with 50 lakh subscribers. BSNL,
which operates in 22 circles, has a subscriber base of 37 lakh
subscribers. Thus BSNL stands second largest cellular operator in
terms of subscriber base at the end of the fiscal ending March 31,
2007, displacing Vodafone from the second position.
Vodafone, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest
operator with a subscriber base of 32 lakh. Unlike fellow public sector
undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL has
been a very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular operators who
expected BSNL to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise and did
not take effective steps to counter it, till it was too late in the day,"
said a telecom analyst.
Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell
club has reported a 7.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so
far, during March 2005. Year-on-year, the cellular subscriber base in
the country has almost doubled in March 2005, and is expanding at the
rate of 25% per year thereafter.
The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. This is
much higher than 5.9 lakh subscribers added in February 2005 and
2.13 lakh in January 2005. Idea, which operates in Seven circles, is the
4

fourth largest operator with a subscriber base of 17.80 lakh, higher

than BPL's 11.31 lakh subscribers across four circles. The subscriber
numbers per operator drop sharply with the sixth largest operator,
Spice Communications, having a subscriber base of 9.40 lakh, followed
by Reliance Telecom's 8.9 lakh subscribers. MTNL is the ninth largest
operator, with a base of 8.32 lakh subscribers.
While the subscriber base-jumped by 3.38% to 44.39 lakh in the
metros, subscriber base of category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu jumped by 10.18 % to
reach 43.64 lakh. Category B circles of Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
West Bengal recorded a jump of 10.69%, with a total base of 33.74
lakh subscribers. Circle C has reported 12.74 % growth with subscriber
numbers jumping to 5.08 lakh.
Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher
than the 1,58,646 added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base
of over 80 lakh is still higher than Mumbai's 66.89 lakh. While the
cellular industry has been on roll for the first three quarters of the
previous financial year with an average of 16.75 lakh monthly
additions in the third quarter, the first two months of 2007 had seen
the growth slowing down.

GSM MARKET IN INDIA

Regional Interest Groups - GSM India

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

India's telecommunications have undergone a steady liberalisation

since

1994

when

the

Indian

government

first

sought

private

investment in the sector. More significant liberalisation followed in

1996 with the licensing of new local fixed line and mobile service
providers. However, it has been the government's New Telecom Policy
6

(1999) that has had the most radical impact on the development of
GSM

services.

'The

policy's

mission

statement

is

'affordable

communications for all', There is a genuine commitment to creating a

modern and efficient communications infrastructure that takes account
of the convergence of telecom, IT and media. In addition, the policy
places significant emphasis on greater competition for both fixed and
mobile services.'

Competition in the mobile sector has already had a visible impact on

prices with calls currently costing less than 9 cents per minute. This
means that service costs have fallen by 60 per cent since the first GSM
networks became live in 1995. It also helps explain why a recent
Telecom Asia survey revealed that more than 70 per cent of Indian
mobile subscribers felt that prices were now at a reasonable level.
One of the challenges facing GSM operators in India is the diversity of
the coverage regions -from remote rural regions to some of the most
densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. India has more
than 40 networks, which cover the seven largest cities, over 7000
towns and several Lacs villages. Such depth of coverage has required
enormous investment from India's operators. It is estimated that more
than Rs200 billion had been invested in India's GSM industry by mid2000, a figure that is set to be supplemented by a further Rs. 300
billion over the next five years.

The good news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look healthy.

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

India fastest growing GSM mart

India is expected to have 145 million GSM (global system for mobile
communications) customers by 2007-08 compared to 26 million
subscribers as on March 2005, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers
Association. "For GSM, India is a success story. It is one of the fastest
growing markets with its subscriber base doubling in 2005. At this
pace, the target of 150 million subscribers by 2007-2008 is definitely
achievable," Alan Hadden, president of GSA, said at a news conference
in New Delhi. Globally, the GSM market reached 1 billion users in
February 2005, he said, adding GSM accounted for 80 per cent of the
new subscriber growth in 2005."Almost every Latin American operator
has chosen GSM. In North America GSM growth is bigger than CDMA
(code division multiple access)," he said. Commenting on the raging

debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile services arena, Hadden said:
"GSM is the world's most successful mobile standard with over 1 billion
users, and is an open mobile standard. It also supports automatic
international roaming, which is a major contributor to business plans."

Indias GSM mobile firms revenue up 30 pct

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

But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge

demand in the sector. Ramachandran said the sector was still losing
money but declined to elaborate. Sales jumped because of a doubling

of the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) user base as

more people entered the flourishing market thanks to one of the lowest
call rates in the world. But the monthly average revenue per user, a
key measure of profitability, declined 17.4 percent to 432 rupees in the
fourth quarter compared with 523 rupees in the first quarter due to a
cut in tariffs and excessive competition among companies.

Growth

slowing, demand untapped: The association has not included the

financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar
Telephone Nigam Ltd, Ramachandran said. There are 150 million GSM
customers and more than 96 million users of the rival CDMA-based
mobile services in the country.
The pace of growth in monthly additions is slowing after just 1.25
million

users

took

up

the

service

in

April

compared

with

1.9 million in the previous month and 1.63 million in February.

Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a majority of small GSM
operators being unable to expand networks into rural swathes where
demand remained largely untapped.
Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion
and financing charges on loans. We are making money only to cover
operating expenses, he said. Carriers are now subsidising handset
costs to woo users into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have
more than 250 million customers by 2007. Roughly three percent of

10

Indians own a mobile phone compared with about 20 percent in China.

About a dozen firms such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, 28 percent owned by
Singapore Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian
GSM-unit of Vodafone group battle in the hotly competitive sector.

DOES GSM HAVE THE EDGE?

GSM operators are not the only ones who are worried about the rapid
strides made by CDMA mobile players Reliance Infocomm and Tata
Indicom in the Indian cellular market?
The GSM suppliers both handset and equipment - who incidentally
also have their other foot firmly placed in the CDMA pie, are beginning

11

to lose some sleep over what was earlier termed as `niche and
`minuscule data carriage market by the operators
Apart from the strong success of the two CDMA operators whose
networks are based on code division multiple access (CDMA), the
miserable showing of the four global standard for mobile (GSM) based
networks that launched general packet radio service (GPRS) service for
data connectivity in last three years, has the vendors worried. Global
mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) now believes that even though
India will primarily remain a voice traffic-led market in next two-three
years, the data traffic component will grow by 25-30 per cent, an
optimism that its trying to make GSM operators feel as well.

12

THE CDMA CHALLENGE

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

13

Bharti is almost there

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

EDGE holds the promise of delivering data speeds of around 170-180

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

Will GSM maintain its headstart?

At the GSM Evolution Forum held in New Delhi, GSA president Alan
Hadden predicted that GSM growth will far outstrip CDMA as was
happening globally. He felt India could have as many as 200 million
GSM subscribers by 2007-2008, up from nine million in December

14

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

15

Already, 81 operators have launched 77 CDMA 2000 1X networks

whereas nine have launched services based on 1xEV-DO platform
across Asia, the Americas and Europe. At least, 16 new 1X and six
1xEV-DO networks are scheduled to be deployed in 2004, according to
CDMA Development Group. EV-DO and EV-DV are the next level of
evolution on the CDMA 2000 1X platform, capable of delivering
services comparable to 3G WCDMA.

Where are the models?

What will matter a lot in this war will be the availability of EDGE
compliant handsets at affordable rates. While the two CDMA operators
have been giving out handsets that can give hi-speed data transfer,
same has not been the case with GSM. Even now, GPRS handsets have
not become commonplace and GPRS feature is found only in mid and
high-end segment handsets.

End sum game

When the networks deploy EDGE, subscribers can expect the delivery
of advanced mobile services such as easy downloading of video and
music clips, full multimedia messaging, besides high-speed Internet
and e-mail access, provided their handset supports all this.
But the real cruncher will be the migration at a later stage to 3G
technologies such as WCDMA, EV-DO or EV-DA as and when the

16

government decides what to do with the 3G licences. WCDMA for

example promises delivery of a phenomenal 2 megabytes per second
(mbps), equivalent to what a leased line in many middle level
corporates gives.

More importantly, WCDMA will spawn a whole new range of full motion
audio-video applications, including video telephony. GSM lobby may
continue to remain gung ho over the future of their technologies over
that boosted by the American firms Qualcomm and Motorola, but
Indian market could well throw an interesting scenario that industry
experts will do well to watch. In the coming months, Reliance plans to
offer its CDMA subscribers much more than what GSM players intend
to deliver through their EDGE for their subscribers.

Who succeeds in this battle for mobile customers eyeballs is most

difficult to predict. A Korea and Japan may not be waiting to happen in
India, but India will probably be more like the Chinese market with both
standards co-existing. For now, GSM rules!

17

INTRODUCTION

Airtel (Bharti Airtel Ltd.)

Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting

investments in telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate
telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel is India's leading private
sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong
customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which
constitute, 44.6 million mobile and 5.4 million fixed line customers, as
of March 31, 2007.
Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel Limited - a part of the biggest
private integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti
provides a range of telecom services, which include Cellular, Basic,

18

Internet and recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also

manufactures and exports telephone terminals and cordless phones.
Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone instruments in
India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA.
Bharti has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in
collaboration with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular
service provider, with a footprint in 23 states covering all four metros
and more than 50 million satisfied customers.
SERVICES
Airtel Prepaid
Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtel comes to you from
Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service provider.
Going mobile with Airtel Prepaid is a new way of life. With a host of
great features, also simple to use, Airtel Prepaid makes everything that
you dreamt and believed, possible.
Total Cost Control
You can control your Airtel Prepaid like never before. No more rentals
or deposits simply recharge as much as you need to from as low as
Rs. 10, to as high as Rs. 10,000/-.
Pre activated STD/ISD without deposits or rentals
You can now enjoy a pre-activated STD/ISD on your Airtel Prepaid. No

19

more paying deposits or having a minimum balance in your account to

make an STD/ISD call. Hassle-free calls are here to stay!
Strong Network Coverage
Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtels world-class technology
and unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23 circles across
the country.
Instant Balance and Validity Enquiry
Your account balance is updated on the screen of your handset at the
end of each chargeable call. You can also call 123 from your mobile
phone and listen to the voice announcement or simply dial *123#,
press 'OK' or 'YES' button and your account balance will be displayed
on the screen of your handset.

Recharge your Airtel Prepaid

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

20

Prepaid Roaming
Airtel Prepaid comes preactivated with 'National Roaming', so you stay
connected no matter wherever you are. You can also send or receive
MMS, check your email and access other GPRS services while roaming
in India as you would in your own city. While traveling abroad you can
receive calls & send or receive SMS.
Other Services
Airtel brings you, a wide range of Services that will change the way you
communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun and
excitement.
Call management Services
Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification
Presentation all with your Airtel prepaid connection.
Voice Mail
When your handset is switched off, or youre too busy to answer the
phone, Airtel Voicemail will answer your calls and record a message.
The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for setting up
Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service.

21

SMS (Short Messaging Service)

Send messages quickly and easily using text, if it's too noisy to talk or
you don't have much time. It's the way to share those interesting oneliners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with anyone,
anytime, anywhere in the world.
Subscription Alerts
Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your
Airtel mobile phone with Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> to
3333 for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ> for Business News,
<SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips.
MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service):
Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with
MMS from Airtel! To activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465
and save service settings.
Airtel Live!
Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with
Airtel Live! Airtel brings you the latest in entertainment and
information services, right on your phone!
Airtel Live! WAP Services: Download the latest ring tones, games,
wallpapers, videos and much more. You can also get news clips, watch
live TV and download full songs on you phone. To get Airtel Live!

22

settings on your phone, SMS 'Live' to 56465 and save the settings that
you receive as your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be
accessed from you GPRS enabled phone, by sending a SMS 'FUN' to
56465.
Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465, and name the service.
For e.g. say ring tones to download your favorite ring tones. You can
also choose a variety of content options like Live Cricket Commentary,
latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market
Updates.
Airtel Live! SIM Services: Access loads of fun content and exciting
services like cricket, stocks, on your phone at the touch of a few
buttons with Airtel Live! SIM based Services on your SIM card menu. To
download new services on your Airtel SIM, choose the "What's new"
option

under

the

"Airtel

services"

menu.

Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by

sending a keyword as an SMS to 56465! Choose Astrology / Horoscope,
Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring tones. In case you need
assistance SMS, Help to 56465.
Hello Tunes
Tired of that boring old tring tring on your phone? Well now when a
friend calls, you can make them groove to the hottest new tracks
burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel! You get a
wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are
23

updated regularly. What's more you can directly call the number for
your kind of music, e.g. call 678005 for English New and 678001 for
Hindi New. This would directly take you to your favorite artist's Hello
Tunes listing.
Copy a Hello Tune
Get the tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the
simple voice instructions to copy your favorite Hello Tunes. Once inside
the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number you
want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune
assigned to your number.
Gift a Hello Tune
Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a
song instead! Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055
and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow the simple voice
instructions and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want
to gift the Hello Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon
successful receipt of that gift.
Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops
Buying your favorite Hello Tune or Ring tone is as simple as recharging
your phone with talk time. Simply walk into your nearest Airtel Shop
and walk out with your favorite song. Choose from Bollywood Hits to

24

Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra

Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs.
Reach us Anytime Anywhere
In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number,
accessible from anywhere in the country, even while roaming. You can
also send us an SMS to 121 or mail us at [email protected].
*In case of email, mention your mobile no. like, 9810012345, in the
subject of the mail for a quicker response.

Airtel Postpaid
Airtel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities. More
exciting, innovative yet simple new ways to communicate, just when
you want to, not just through words but ideas, emotions and feelings.
To give you the unlimited freedom to reach out to your special people
in your special way.
Easy Billing
Enjoy a host of rich features only with Airtel e-bill. Register free on My
Airtel section and view your monthly bill with call details for last three
months. Sort your calls between personal and official or analyze your
usage, at the click of a button. To change your tariff plan call our IVR at
121 and leave a request.

25

26

Easy Payment Options. Anytime Anywhere

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

options

like:

Standing Instructions
You can give us standing instructions to debit your credit card account
for your monthly Airtel bills. All you have to do is fill the Standing
Instruction Form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship
centres.
Electronic Clearing System
Fill an ECS form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship
centres to directly debit your bank account for your monthly Airtel bill.
Pay while roaming
Airtel has introduced 'Anywhere payment' that offers you the
convenience of making payments while you roam. Walk in to any Airtel
Relationship Centre in the country, make payments by cash or credit
card and enjoy uninterrupted Airtel Services.

27

Credit limit
Your pre-set credit limit mentioned on your monthly bill helps you keep
your mobile charges in control, keeps track of your usage and ensures
that your mobile phone is not misused. Should you exceed your credit
limit, you will be informed via a voice or a non-voice message to make
an interim payment and reduce your account balance below your
credit limit. You may also choose to pay us an additional refundable
deposit to enhance your credit limit or opt for our convenient payment
method of Credit Card Standing instruction .You can also make use of
ECS facility.
Strong Network Coverage
Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel .It offers you world class
technology and unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23
circles across the country.
Long Distance Calling Facility
Call long distance calls in India and Overseas with STD / ISD facility on
your Airtel phone.
Widest Roaming - National and International
Airtel's roaming service allows you to stay connected and use your
mobile phone to make or receive calls from almost anywhere in India
and also over 160 countries, abroad.

28

GPRS - Roaming
Use Airtel Postpaid's GPRS services, while roaming, to access the
internet and office mails (eg. BlackBerry services), from almost
anywhere in India and abroad.
Say it. In more than just words, with Services from Airtel
Airtel brings you a wide range of Services that will change the way you
communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun and
excitement.
Call management Services
Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification
Presentation, help you do more with your Airtel Postpaid connection!
Conference call
You can hold a teleconference with 5 people simultaneously with Call
Conferencing service from Airtel. In fact, you can set up a conference
even when the other five are using a landline phone. To know more,
call customer service at 121.
Missed call alert
A missed call alert is a SMS that you will receive for all the calls that
you missed. The SMS will detail the CLI and the time when the call was
made. To activate, dial *135*2# then press the call button and wait for
the request to be completed.

29

Voice Mail
When your handset is switched off, or youre too busy to answer the
phone, Airtel Voicemail will answer your calls and record a message.
The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for setting up
Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service.
SMS (Short Messaging Service)
Send messages quickly and easily, using text, if it's too noisy to talk or
you don't have much time. It's the way to Share those interesting oneliners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with anyone,
anytime, anywhere in the world.
Subscription Alerts
Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your
Airtel mobile phone with Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS>
for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ> for Business News, <SUB
SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips to 3333.
MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service):
Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with
MMS from Airtel! To activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465
and save service settings.

30

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

31

Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by

sending a keyword as an SMS to 56465 ! Choose Astrology /
Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring tones. In
case you need assistance SMS Help to 56465.
GPRS (General Packet Radio Services)
Log on to the internet, with GPRS that allows data transmission at a
higher speed. Access e-mails and internet across Airtel's pan-India
presence using 'Mobile Office' with your phone or a phone and laptop
both.
Get the EDGE
Browse the internet on your mobile phone with Airtel's EDGE services.
Enjoy live TV, enhanced WAP experience and Airtel Data Cards on our
high speed network.
Hello Tunes
Tired of that boring old tring tring on your phone? Well now when a
friend calls, you can make them groove to the hottest new tracks
burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel! You get a
wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are
updated regularly. What's more, you can directly call the number for
your kind of music, e.g. call 678005 for English New and 678001 for
Hindi New. This would directly take you to your favourite artist's Hello
Tunes listing.

32

Copy a Hello Tunes

Like a tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the
simple voice instructions to copy your favourite Hello Tunes. Once
inside the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number
you want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune
assigned to your number.
Gift a Hello Tunes
Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a
song instead! Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055
and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow the simple voice
instructions and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want
to gift the Hello Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon
successful receipt of that gift.
Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops
Buying your favourite Hello Tune or Ringtone is as simple as
recharging your phone with talktime. Simply walk into your nearest
Airtel Shop and walk out with your favourite song. Choose from
Bollywood Hits to Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba,
Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of
more than 18000 songs.

33

Reach us, Anytime Anywhere

In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number,
accessible from anywhere in the country, even while roaming. *In case
of email, mention your mobile no. like 9810012345 in the subject of
the mail for a quicker response.

34

TARIFF STRUCTURE
Prepaid Tariffs

Airtel Prepaid Ready Cellular Card and Recharge Cards are available,
all over the city at over retail outlets including 24-hour outlets. Airtel
Prepaid Ready Cellular Card and Recharge Cards are available, all over
the city at over retail outlets including 24-hour outlets.

35

Airtel Prepaid Regular

449
SUK
Pulse Rate

60 sec

Price of Pack (Rs.)

Rs.449

Free Airtime on Pack (Rs.)

Nil

Incoming Calls (Rs.)

Free while in home network

Airtel

GSM / CDMA
(10 Digit)

Landline / WLL

LOCAL RATES (Rs./min)

Rs.1.20

Rs.2.00

Rs.2.40

STD RATES (Rs./min)

Rs.2.75

Rs.2.75

Rs.2.75

ISD (Rs./min)
USA, Canada, Europe (Fixed
Line), Australia, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia, New Zealand.

Rs.6.40

Gulf, Europe (Mobile), SAARC

countries, Africa & Rest of the
world

Rs.9.20

Cuba, Sao Tome & Principe,

Guinea Bissau, Diego Garcia,
Nauru, Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tuvalu,
Tokelau, Norfolk Island,
Sakhalin

Rs.40.00

SMS (Rs.)
Local

Rs.1.20

National

Rs.2.00

International

Rs.5.00

Other Details

*Rs 50 Local Airtel-Airtel Mobile talktime per month for 6 months

* First month Airtel-Airtel credit within 72hrs of activation & balance credit by 1st week of eve
month)
*The SMS charge as applicable is per 160 characters
* Validity- 24 months.

36

POSTPAID
Airtel Postpaid allows you to choose from a variety of affordable talk
plans, convenient payment options and host of rich features. So get set
to enjoy a world of limitless possibilities!
Reference Tarif Packages (RTP)
ON TIME CHARGES
Activation Charges
Rs. 600
Membership Fee
NA
Security Deposit
Rs. 1000
MONTHLY CHARGES (FIXED)
Rs. 524
Bill plan Charge
Rs. 425
Monthly Rental
Rs. 99
Clip
NA
MONTHLY CHARGES (OPTIONAL)
Clip
Rs. 99
Airtel

GSM

/ Landline /

CDMA (10 WLL

Local Rates
Rs. 1.99
STD RATES
50 200 Km
200 500 Km
500 + Km
ISD
USA, Canda, Europe (Fixed Line), Rs. 7.20
Austalia, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, new
Zealand
Gulf, Europe

(Mobile),

SAARC Rs 9.99

Countries, Africa & Rest of the

world
Cuba,
Guinea

Sao

tome

Bissau,

&
Diego

Principle, Rs. 40.00

Garcia,

Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,

37

Digit)
Rs 1.99

Rs 1.99

Cook

Island,

Tuvalu,

Tokelau,

Norfolk Island, Sakhalin

SMS
Local
National
International
Value Added Services (Rs.)

Rs.
Rs.
Rs.
Rs.

1.50
2.00
5.00
3.00

Airtel One Standard 150

ONE TIME CHARGES
Activation Charges
Membership Fee

Rs 250
Rs 250 (Converts into security

after 24 months)
Security Deposit
NA
MONTHLY CHARGES (FIXED)
Rs. 150
Bill Plan Charge
Rs. 51
Monthly Rental
Rs. 99
Clip
NA
MONTHLY CHARGES (OPTIONAL)
Clip
Rs. 50
Bissau, Diego Garcia, Nauru,
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Cook
Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Norfolk
Island, Sakhalin
SMS
Local
National
Intentional
VAS

Rs 1.50
Rs 2.00
Rs. 5.00
Rs. 3.00

This Bill Plan is also available under Advance Rental of Rs. 900 for 2
years.

Local Pack
Airtel to other local mobiles (non Airtel) At Rs 1 / min

Monthly rental Rs 25 per months/-

STD Pack

38

Airtel to other mobiles (non Airtel) & fixed lines nos. at Rs 2 / min.

Monthly rental Rs 75 per month/-

Special offer for Airtel Telephone service customers for

availing Airtel Mobile services
If you already have Airtel Telephone service, you can buy a new
Airtel Mobile connection under Airtel One Standard 150 Plan.

Benefits:

Non security deposit.

No membership / activation fee

Enjoy calls to your Airtel fixed line no. at just 60 P / min.

Monthly rent of Rs 25 for reduced call rates to your Airtel fixed line
has been waived off for 1 year.

For details, call us 516-12345

Advance Rental benefits (1year scheme)
Pay an advance rent of Rs 999 and enjoy Airtel One Standard 150 plan
at Zero monthly rental for one year.
Advance rental of Rs 999 gives you a rental discount of Rs 150 every
month for the next 2 months. All other options and charges are as per
the existing Airtel One Standard 150 Plan.

39

Airtel one Standard 249

ONE TIME CHARGES
Activation Charges
Membership Fee

Rs 250
Rs 250 (Converts into security
after 24 months)
NA
Rs. 249
Rs. 150
Rs. 99
NA

Security Deposit
MONTHLY CHARGES (FIXED)
Bill Plan Charge
Monthly Rental
Clip
MONTHLY CHARGES (OPTIONAL)
Clip
Rs. 50
Airtel

GSM

/ Landline /

CDMA (10 WLL

LOCAL RATES
STD RATES
50-200Km
200 500 Km
500 + Km
ISD
USA, Canda, Europe (Fixed Line),

Re. 1.00

Digit)
Rs. 1.25

Rs. 1.25

Rs. 2.00
Rs. 2.00
Rs. 2.00

Rs. 2.40
Rs. 2.40
Rs. 2.40

Rs. 2.40
Rs. 2.40
Rs. 2.40

Rs. 7.20

Austalia, Singapore, Hong Kong,

Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, new
Zealand
Gulf, Europe

(Mobile),

SAARC Rs 9.99

Countries, Africa & Rest of the

world
Cuba,
Guinea

Sao

tome

Bissau,

&

Principle, Rs. 40.00

Diego

Garcia,

Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,

Cook

Island,

Tuvalu,

Tokelau,

Norfolk Island, Sakhalin

SMS
Local
National
International
Value Added Services (Rs.)

Rs.
Rs.
Rs.
Rs.

40

1.50
2.00
5.00
3.00

You also enjoy 25 FREE local mobile to mobile SMS

41

Senior Citizen Plan

ONE TIME CHARGES
Activation Charges
Membership Fee

Rs. 250
Rs. 250 (Concerts into security
deposit after 24 months)
NA
Rs. 150
Rs. 51
Rs. 99
NA

Security Deposit
MONTHLY CHARGES (FIXED)
Bill Plan Charge
Monthly Rental
Clip
Cuba, Sao Tome & Principle,
Guinea

Bissau,

Diego

Garcia,

Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,

Cook

Islands,

Tuvalu,

Tokelau,

Norfolk Island, Sakhalin

SMS
Local
National
International
VAS

Rs. 1.50
Rs. 2.00
Rs. 5.00
Rs. 3.00

With Senior Citizen Plan

42

You can take 3 Friends and Family numbers:

Airtel to Airtel (1local no.) Rs. 0.5 / min.

Airtel to Airtel (1 STD no.) Rs 1.5 / min

ISD calls to US / Canada / South East Asia / Australia / New Zealand)

Rs. 9.99 / min

You also get FREE alert subscription worth Rs 30 / alert or 3 months

on:

News

Astrology

Health Tips

The SMS charges as applicable is per 160 Characters.

43

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
Airtel to Touch Tomorrow with a new brand vision
The Bharti Mobile promoted AirTel cellular service will go in for
repositioning of its brand image. The new brand ethos is portrayed in
two distinct fashions - the tag line "Touch Tomorrow", which
underscores the leading theme for the new brand vision, followed by
"The Good Life", which underscores a more caring, more customer
centric organization. Aimed at re-engineering its image as just simply a
cellular service provider to an all out information communications
services provider, Touch Tomorrow is meant to embrace the new
generation of mobile communication services and the changing scope
of customer needs and aspirations that come along with it
The new communication is about a new dimension in the cellular
category that goes beyond the Internet, SMS, roaming, IVRS, etc but
which engulfs the whole gamut of wireless digital broadband services
that will constitute tomorrows cellular services. The new campaign is in
two phases - the first of which will communicate overall brand
philosophy and the second products and services. According to Mr.
Jagdish Kini, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Mobile Limited, Karnataka
"We are adopting a new brand- platform - Touch Tomorrow - not only
to reflect our corporate ethos but also business strategy".

44

The new identity will have the logo in Red, Black and White colours
along with lower case typography to convey warmth. AirTel will
incorporate the latest branding in all of its communication and will
soon be going in for an enhanced promotional drive to establish the
brand's presence.
LIFE TIME PLAN
PRE-PAID card users need not worry anymore about recharging their
coupons every month. Company has launched a plan that allows users
to take a pre-paid connection with lifetime validity for a one time
payment of Rs. 999. Subscribers availing themselves of this scheme
will also get full talk time for the recharge coupon they purchase and
also have the option to buy Taiwanese manufactured Bird mobile
handsets for as low as Rs. 1,399.
The move is aimed at stopping the churn in the pre-paid subscriber
base. Once a subscriber takes this plan, he will always be an Airtel
subscriber whether the mobile is being used or not.

45

MARKET SITUATION

At the time of launch

The first mover in the market was Airtel which launched its services in
Delhi in Aug 1995 (Informal launch).

Essar Cellphone followed by

launching its services informally in Oct 95. At this point of time, the
market was at a nascent stage, awareness level was low and both
operators independently tried to spread awareness and educate the
people
Once the networks were commercially launched, it became a number
game with a multitude of schemes being offered to woo customers
Initially the cellphone was perceived as a status symbol and utility took
a back seat The target segment in Delhi were corporate and the high
income group.

The average capacity installed was for 1.5 lakh

subscribers. This coupled with the steep license fee paid to DOT put
pressure on the operators to break-even by rapidly expanding their
markets. In the first two years, this led to a number of schemes being
offered and prices crashing.

46

COMPETITIVE SITUATION
Airtel launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market
picking up the bulk of the high usage premium clients. This is a very
competitive industry with the two companies differentiating either on
value-added services or price. Airtel is perceived as the high quality
provider and has a premium image.

Essar, on the other hand, is

perceived as the lower end service provider. Airtel positions itself as

the market leader on the basis of the number of subscribers. Essar is
trying to counter this by emphasising on the reach of its network and
the quality of its service. However, Essar is somewhat not been very
successful largely due to the inconsistency in advertising
To promote themselves, both the players have been dependent on
tactical

advertising

However,

they

have

restrained

from

using

comparative advertising Hoardings have been a very popular medium

for carrying the advertisements Airtel has also been advertising on
television using the Bharti Telecom name.
SALES DEPARTMENT AND STRATEGY
A.

Major Accounts (Direct Channel)

Handles corporate (named and famed) accounts

Forecasting of sales

Mapping the accounts

Providing after sales support to the subscribers.

Maintaining call reports for records.

47

Providing Feedback to the marketing department regarding the

requirement of the market.

B. IDC (indirect Channel)

Handling distribution

Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner

Liaisoning between the channel partner and the company.

Target achievement

Training the executives of the channel

C.

Distribution Support
1.

Logistics

Monitor handset and SIM card requirements of channel

partners and co-ordinate with stores

Settle areas of concerns such as incentive claims of

channel partners

2.

Rental

Provide cellular services (SIM cards) on rent.

Provide cellular phones on rent

Useful for people visiting Delhi for a short interval.

Telesales

Call customers and generate sales lead.

Follow up with the customers, if they need any assistance

Pass on the sales lead to the channel department.

48

Audit

Consultant to the AirTel showrooms.

Monitor the operations at the AirTel distribution outlets Organize

training.

5.

Retail

Locate shops to open retail counters.

Monitor the retail counters.

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

Premium
Upper Lower
X
X
X
X
X
X

Cellular Phones
Pager
Conventional
Phones
X Market Segment Targeted

49

Middle
Upper
X
X
X

Lower
X
X

Economy
Upper Lower
X
-

TARGET MARKET SEGMENT

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

POSITIONING
The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency tool. a
lifestyle revolution and a status symbol The emphasis is to remove
misconception

that

the

cellphone

is

an

expensive

means

of

communication and drive home the point that the cellphone is actually
a day-to-day utility

50

PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING

The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a
product or a service customers' needs cannot be satisfied.
The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main marketing
strategy is to be a first mover all the time.

It has recognised the

significance of making the first move-- because in the field of

Communication

&

Information

Technology

changes

occur

at

tremendous pace.
Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously
because basic services can be and will be copied and in time become
expected component of the product. Airtel seeks to carry out this
segmentation through provision of new information services and
making new facilities available.

The product policy and planning

depends on the stage of the product life cycle. At present the cellular
phone market has reached the maturity stage.

Since, the premium

segment is nearing saturation the company targeting the upper middle

and middle-middle class. In order to do so Airtel is trying to optimise
the price performance package by offering suitable "product bundling".
This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its
software (its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver
maximum price performance to its customers.

In addition, it offers

free Airtime services and other concessions to make the prices and

51

thus the product more attractive.

It has also opened a 24 hours

customer service.
Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added
services become the effective differentiator.
The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:1). Voice Mail service
This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able
to answer a call for some reason the caller can leave messages in the
voice mail box which can be later retrieved by the user

ii) Short Message Service

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

iii) Mobile Fax 1 Data Service

This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access Email, download computer files from other systems and remotely log on
to another computer and surf the Internet.

iv) Cash Card

The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the
buyers to buy air time in advance. All it requires is the payment of an

52

initial amount. This is a useful service for people who travel to Delhi
often and those who want to control the expenses on their calls.
v) Caller ID
Displays calling person's number.
vi) Outgoing call restriction
To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours.

Also

possible to exclude one or several countries, or any geographical

region, to permit only local calls, or to limit the outgoing calls to a
listed number.
viii) Call forward
Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone.
Besides these some other services provided by Airtel are - Call
conferencing, Call Broadcast et cetera.
It is in the operators -Interest that they not only get many subscribers
but also get them to use the mobile facility frequently. In the early
stages getting increases to subscribe may be easier than getting them
to talk since they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone as
compared to a conventional phone [if is believed that initially
cellphones would be used buy]
viii) Roaming Facility
Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling.
billing is done in the home network (Delhi).

The

Roaming facility is

available manually* as well as semi-automatically. Once a subscriber

53

is In any other city or country, where a GSM network is available,

simply insert the SIM card of the local operator Into your handset and
start talking.
*

Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each

city

**

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

AIRTEL'S MARKETING ORIENTATION.

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

They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any

problem faced by the customer

b)

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

prevent them

c)

They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly &

efficiently.

d)

They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with

customers.

e)

They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making

the last 30 seconds count.

54

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

55

PRICE AND PRICING POLICY

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

56

MARKETING STRATEGY
ADOPTED BY BHARTI
Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile
phone service, Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had put
up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi.
The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the Airtel
services is to promote the brand awareness and to build brand
preferences.
It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand
equity for Airtel.

Since the cellular phone category itself is too

restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone is a high involvement

product, price doesn't qualify as an effective differentiator. The image
of the service provider counts a great deal.

Given the Cell phone

category, it is the network efficiency and the quality of service that

becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at is to get the
optimum price-performance package. This also serves as an effective
differentiator
Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand
preference through brand stature.

Airtel's campaign in the capital

began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the city,' bearing just
the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was. In the
next phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter
was the Bharti Cellular connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos
57

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

Airtel 's campaign

strategy is designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy. The tone,

tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the
image of a market leader in terms of its market share.

It tries to

portray the image of being a "first mover every time" and that of a
"market leader".
The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the
maturity stage in India. It is still on the rising part of the product life
cycle curve in the maturity stage.

58

The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users
classified into heavy, medium and low categories. The right hand side
shows the revenue share earned from the three types of users.
Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention,
values its heavy users the most and constantly indulges in service
innovation.

But, since heavy users comprise only 15 - 20% of the

population the other segment cannot be neglected.

The population which has just realised the importance of cellular
phones has to be roped in.

It is for this reason that the service

provider offers a plethora of incentives and discounts. Concerts like

the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order to
promote sales. The media channel is chosen with economy in mind.
The target segment is not very concrete but, there is an attempt to
focus on those who can afford. The print advertisements and hoarding
are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch the
attention of those who need a cellular phone.

The product promise

(which might cost different 1 higher) is an important variable in

determining the target audience.
Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are .
(i)

People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to

exclusive premiers of blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with
Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on the German airlines
frequent flier's programs.

59

(ii)

There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre

launch advertisements, launch advertisements, congratulatory
advertisements,

promotional

advertise-ments,

advertisements and tactical advertisements.

60

attacking

DISTRIBUTION
Company

Franchisee

Distributor

Dealers

Dealer

Customer

Customer

The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi.

It 27 Franchisees and 15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access
cash card counters- Each franchises or distributor can have any
number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved by the
Airtel authority. Each franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. to
obtain a franchise and should employ an officer recruited by Airtel.
This person acts as an liaison between the company and the
franchises.

The franchises can it any number of dealers as long as

their territories do not overlap. But unfortunately Airtel has not been
very successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers.

The

franchises can carry out his 1 her own promotional strategy. For this
the. company contributes 75% of the money and the franchises

61

contributes 25% of the money.

The dealers under the franchisee

receive the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain
the feedback from the customers and they are sent through the liaison
officer on a day-to-day basis to Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rupees.
One Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer of Airtel are not allowed
to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per
month. Hence the dealers can also go for their own promotions like
banners and discounts on festivals etc.
promptly.

The dealer provides service

The consumer on providing the bill of purchase for the

handset and proof of residence has only to wait an hour before getting
connected. The staff of the dealers and the franchisees are provided
training by the Airtel personnel.
The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are either
handset being non-functional or the SIM Card not getting activated.
Anything more complicated is referred to the main Airtel office in Delhi.

62

WHAT DOES AIRTEL OFFER?

With Airtel, the subscriber wouldn't just get a personal phone that lets
him/her be in touch, always, but also gets a host of benefits that let
him/her manage his/her time like never before.
An Airtel subscriber is provided with a Subscriber Identity Module Card
(SIM card) - that is the key to operating his/her cellular phone. His card
activates Airtel cellular services and contains a complete microcomputer chip with memory to enable one to enjoy one's cellular
phone thoroughly. Each SIM card contains a PIN code (Personal Identity
Number) which may be entered by one. Just plug your SIM card into
your cellular phone, enter the PIN code and it becomes 'your' personal
phone'.
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
The pattern of cellphone subscriber growth observed elsewhere in the
world reveals that the growth in the market is Initially slow followed by
a sharp acceleration, but so far that has not happened in India. As far
as the Product Life Cycle is concerned. Indians are at the beginning of
the maturity stage.

63

Introduction

Growth

Maturity

MARKETING OBJECTIVES
Create product

Maximise market

Maximise profits

awareness and trial

share

whole defending
market share

Strategies
Product

Offer a basic

Offer value

Increase in

product/

added services

number of

service.

value added
services.

Price

Distribution

Charge cost-

Price to

Price to match

plus

penetrate

or best

market

competitors

Build selective

Build Intensive

Build more

distribution

distribution.

intensive
distribution.

Advertising

Build product

Build

Stress brand

awareness

awareness and

differences and

among early

interest in the

benefits.

adopters and

mass market

dealers.
Sales

Use heavy sales Increase to

64

Increase to

Promotion

promotion to

build and

encourage

entice people

maintain

brand-

to subscribe.

relationships

switching.

with customers.

65

66

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology adopted for this project is exploratory in nature since
there is no hypothesis that has to be tested. The conclusions have
been drawn by exploratory research work.
There have been two sources of information collected:
a) Primary Sources
I have met retailers of the Airtel of the company and have been able to
get first hand information regarding the product, its features and the
buying patterns of the product. Their input has been valuable.
b) Secondary Sources
Secondary source has played a vital role to play in this report. A good
amount of data has been collected from various published articles and
reports found in magazines and journals. Another vital source has been
the Internet and particularly the companies own website.

67

LIMITATIONS
Every attempt will be taken to obtain the error free and meaningful
result but as nothing in this world is 100% perfect I believe that there
will still the chance for error on account of following limitations(1)

Respondents unavailability.

(2)

Time pressure and fatigue on the part of respondents and

interviewer.

(3)

Courtesy bias.

68

FINDINGS
1. Do you believe that India is potentially one of the most
exciting mobile service providers in the world?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes
4
4
4
4

No
1
1
1
1

As according to the above table 16 (80%) out of the total 20

interviewed people in all the above four specified Indian mobile service
providers are of belief that India is potentially one of the most exciting
mobile service providers in the world, whereas some 4 (20%) of them
do not agree to this view.

8
AirTel

Vodafone

69

10
Idea

Yes

No

12
MTNL

14

16

18

2. Do you find that the governments telecom policy has had

the most radical impact on the development of mobile service
providers?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes
4
3
3
5

No
1
2
2
--

As according to the above table 15 (75%) out of the total 20

interviewed people in all the above four specified Indian mobile service
providers find that the governments telecom policy has had the most
radical impact on the development of mobile service providers,
whereas some 5 (25%) of them deny this.

5
4.5
4
3.5

AirTel

Vodafone

2.5

Idea

MTNL

1.5
1
0.5
0
Yes

No

70

3. Do you believe that one of the challenges facing mobile

operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes
2
3
3
2

No
3
2
2
3

As according to the above table 10 (50%) out of the total 20

interviewed people in the mobile service providers are of belief that
one of the challenges facing mobile operations in India is the diversify
of the coverage regions, whereas interestingly another 10 (50%) of
them deny this.

3
2.5
AirTel

Vodafone
1.5

Idea
MTNL

1
0.5
0
Yes

No

4. To what extent, does you find that mobile service providers

is a very complex standard?

71

Company

To some extent

To great extent

Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

(1-5)
3
2
2
3

(6-10)
2
3
3
2

As according to the above table 10 (50%) out of the total 20

interviewed people in all the above four major the mobile service
providers in Indian Cellular industry find only to some extent that GSM
is

very

complex

standard,

whereas

the

another

10

(50%)

respondents find to great extent that mobile service providers is a very

complex standard.

3
2.5
AirTel

Vodafone
1.5

Idea
MTNL

1
0.5
0

To some extent

To great extent

CONSUMER LEVEL
1. Do you believe that mobile service providers comes close to
fulfilling

the

requirements

for a personal

system?
72

communication

Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes
9
8
8
5

No
1
2
2
5

As the above shows 30 (75%) out of total 40 respondents are of the

belief that mobile service providers comes close to fulfilling the
requirements for a personal communication system, whereas 10 (25%)
of them are in no way to this belief.

3
2

No

2
MTNL

Idea
Vodafone
2

AirTel
3

Yes

3
3

73

2. Do you find that mobile service providers as the most

exciting and satisfying mobile standard?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes
9
7
8
8

No
1
3
2
2

As the above shows 32 (80%) out of total 40 respondents find that

mobile service providers as the most exciting and satisfying mobile
standard, whereas the remaining 8 (10%) respondents deny this.

10

15
AirTel

Vodafone

74

Yes

No

20
Idea

25
MTNL

30

35

3. Do you believe that your service provider has a genuine

commitment

to

creating

modern

and

efficient

communications?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes
10
8
10
8

No
-2
-2

As the above shows 36 (90%) out of total 40 respondents are of the

belief that their service providers have a genuine commitment to
creating

modern

and

efficient

communications

whereas

the

remaining 4 (10%) respondents deny this.

2
No

0
2
0

MTNL
Idea
Vodafone
AirTel

8
10

Yes

8
10

SWOT ANALYSIS

75

STRENGTHS

Cost advantage

Current leaders in quality service

Largest distribution network

Ability to constantly innovate

Highly skilled workforce

Entrepreneurial zeal

Airtels increased equity and market cap.

WEAKNESSES

To prove credibility

Price pressures

Need for Government support

Awareness

Sales and Marketing

76

OPPORTUNITIES

To sustain passion and commitment

Airtels market share increasing at other service provider expense.

Thus opportunity to wipe it out.

Attain higher value services

Collaborative business needs to be explored

Vertical repeatable solutions.

Low penetration level in rural markets.

THREATS

Foreign investment

Global trends moving from GPS to WLL.

Lack of global parity in telecom tariff

Other competition

77

CONCLUSION

From above the details I conclude that 70% Airtel users preferred
to remain with Airtel. Also good no. of users who were willing to switch
from their respective subscribers showed interest in Airtel. Hence,
these statistics imply a bright future for the company. Also the
company is now providing more services like the door to door services
which is you dial the Airtel customer care and would like to send
someone flowers the Airtel company delivers those flowers to the
person concerned. Also Airtel is providing free text messaging service
and free voice mail service. Call conferencing is also another feature
Airtel provides.

78

79

QUESTIONNAIRE
NAME: ____________________________________
ADDRESS: ____________________________________
OCCUPATION: ____________________________________

1. Do you believe that India is potentially one of the most

exciting mobile service providers in the world?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes

No

2. Do you find that the governments telecom policy has had

the most radical impact on the development of mobile service
providers?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes

No

3. Do you believe that one of the challenges facing mobile

operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes

No

80

4. To what extent, does you find that mobile service providers

is a very complex standard?
Company

To some extent

To great extent

(1-5)

(6-10)

Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

81

CONSUMER LEVEL
1. Do you believe that mobile service providers comes close to
fulfilling

the

requirements

for a personal

communication

system?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes

No

2. Do you find that mobile service providers as the most

exciting and satisfying mobile standard?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes

No

3. Do you believe that your service provider has a genuine

commitment

to

creating

modern

and

communications?
Company
Airtel
Vodafone
Idea
MTNL

Yes

No

82

efficient

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernard J. T. Mallinder. Specification Methodology Applied to the GSM
System. In EUROCON 88, June 2005.

Seshadri Mohan and Ravi Jain. Two User Location Strategies for
Personal Communication Services. IEEE Personal Communications.
1(1), 1994.

Moe

Rahnema.

Overview

of

the GSM

System

and Protocol

Architecture. IEEE Communications Magazine. April 1993.

C. Watson. Radio Equipment for GSM. In D.M. Balston and R.C.V

Macario, editors, Cellular Radio Systems, Artech House, Boston,
1993.

Robert

G.

Winch.

Telecommunication

McGrawHill New York, 1993.

Vodafone

Airtel

Idea

MTNL
NEWS PAPAR
83

Transmission

Systems.

 HINDUSTAN TIMES

84