Customer Satisfaction Towards Services of Vodafone

SHRI RAMSWAROOP MEMORIAL GROUP OF PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES LUCKNOW

PROJECT REPORT ON

“Customer satisfaction towards services of Vodafone” SUBMITED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIRMENT FOR THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION TO UTTAR PRADESH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW FOR THE SESSION 2014-15

Under the Guidance of Dr. Priyanka Srivastava Department of Management SRMGPC, LUCKNOW 1

SUBMITTED BY: Neeraj Kant Vishwakarma Roll No.: 1312270036 MBA IIIrd Sem.

2

DECLERATION

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The present work is an effort to throw some light on “Customer satisfaction towards services of Vodafone”. The work would not have been possible to come to the present shape without the able guidance, supervision and help to me by number of people.

With deep sense of gratitude I acknowledge the encouragement and guidance received by my organizational guide Dr. Priyanka Srivastava and other staff members.

I convey my heart full affection to all those people who helped and supported me during the course, for completion of my Project Report.

(Neeraj Kant Vishwakarma)

4

Preface The research project program is the integral part of MBA curriculum during the course of management; the research is expected to use and apply their academic knowledge and gain a valuable insight into corporate culture with all its environment operational complexities. The research offers a valuable opportunity to the researcher to meet their academic knowledge to the real world situation. I have undertaken commercial department to study about the various activities done in this department in the details, as the result of that I came out with the project title “Customer satisfaction towards services of Vodafone”. In this report I have put my finest efforts to compile the data with utmost accuracy and hope this report will give complete satisfaction regarding the various aspects of recruitment & selection activity.

(Neeraj Kant Vishwakarma)

5

TABLE OF CONTENT 1. Certificate

2

2. Declaration

3

3. Acknowledgement

4

4. Preface

5

5. Introduction

7-25

6. Company Profile

26-55

7. Research Methodology along with

56-65

objectives 8. Use and importance

66-67

9. Data Analysis

68-91

10. Findings 11. Recommendations 12. Conclusion 13. Limitation 14. Bibliography

92-94 95-96 97-98 99-100 101102

6

15. Annexure

103107

INTRODUCTIO N

7

iNTRODUCTION Customer satisfaction, as a construct, has been fundamental to marketing for over three decades. As early as 1960, Keith (1960) defined marketing as “satisfying the needs and desires of the consumer”. Hunt (1982) reported that by the 1970s, interest in customer satisfaction had increase to such an extent that over 500 studies were published. This

8

trend continued and by 1992, Peterson and Wilson estimated the amount of academic and trade articles on customer satisfaction to be over 15,000. Several studies have shown that it costs about five times to gain a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer (Naumann, 1995) and this results into more interest in customer relationships. Thus, several companies are adopting customer satisfaction as their operational goal with a carefully designed framework. Hill and Alexander (2000) wrote in their book that “companies now have big investment in database marketing, relationship management and customer planning to move closer to their customers”. Jones and Sasser (1995) wrote that “achieving customer satisfaction is the main goal for most service firms today”. Increasing customer satisfaction has been shown to directly affect companies’ market share, which leads to improved profits, positive recommendation, lower marketing expenditures (Reichheld, 1996; Heskett et al., 1997), and greatly impact the corporate image and survival (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Parker and Mathew (2001) expressed that there are two basic definitional approaches of the concept of customer satisfaction. The first approach defines satisfaction as a process and the second approach defines satisfaction as an outcome of a consumption experience. These two approaches are complementary, as often one depends on the other. Customer satisfaction as a process is defined as an evaluation between what was received and what was expected (Oliver, 1977, 1981; Olson and Dover, 1979; Tse and Wilton, 1988), emphasizing the perceptual, evaluative and psychological processes that contribute to customer satisfaction (Vavra, 1997, p. 4).

9

Parker and Mathews (2001) however noted that the process of satisfaction definitions concentrates on the antecedents to satisfaction rather than satisfaction itself. Satisfaction as a process is the most widely adopted description of customer satisfaction and a lot of research efforts have been directed at understanding the process approach of satisfaction evaluations (Parker and Mathews, 2001). This approach has its origin in the discrepancy theory (Porter, 1961), which argued that satisfaction is determined by the perception of a difference between some standard and actual performance. Cardozo (1965); and Howard and Sheth (1969) developed the contrast theory, which showed that consumers would exaggerate any contrasts between expectations and product evaluations. Olshavsky and Miller (1972); and Olson and Dover (1979) developed the assimilation theory, which means that perceived quality is directly increasing with expectations. Assimilation effects occur when the difference between expectations and quality is too small to be perceived. Anderson (1973) further developed this theory into assimilation-contrast theory, which means if the discrepancy is too large to be assimilated then the contrast effects occur. The assimilation-contrast effects occur when the difference between expectations and quality is too large to be perceived and this difference is exaggerated by consumers. According to Parker and Mathews (2001), the most popular descendant of the discrepancy theories is the expectation disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1977, 1981), which stated that the result of customers’ perceptions of the difference between their perceptions of performance and their expectations

10

of performance. Positive

disconfirmation leads to increased satisfaction, with negative disconfirmation having the opposite effect. Yi (1990) expressed that customers buy products or services with prepurchase expectations about anticipated performance, once the bought product or service has been used, outcomes are compared against expectations. If the outcome matches expectations, the result is confirmation. When there are differences between expectations and outcomes, disconfirmation occurs. Positive disconfirmation occurs when product or service performance exceeds expectations. Therefore, satisfaction is caused by positive disconfirmation or confirmation of customer expectations, and dissatisfaction is the negative disconfirmation of customer expectations (Yi, 1990). While several studies support the disconfirmation paradigm, others do not. For instance, Churchill and Surprenant (1982) found that neither disconfirmation nor expectations had any effect on customer satisfaction with durable products. Weiner (1980, and 1985); and Folkes (1984) proposed the attribution theory, which stated that when a customer purchases a product or service, if the consumption is below expectation, the customer is convinced that the supplier causes the dissatisfaction. The complaining customer is focused on restoring justice and the satisfaction outcome is driven by perceived fairness of the outcome of complaining. Westbrook and Reilly (1983) proposed the value-percept theory, which defines satisfaction as an emotional response caused by a cognitive-evaluative process, which is the comparison of the product or service to one's values rather than an expectation. So, satisfaction is a discrepancy between the observed and the desired.

11

Fisk and Young (1985); Swan and Oliver (1985) proposed the equity theory, which stated that individuals compare their input and output ratios with those of others and feel equitable treated. Equity judgement is based on two steps; first, the customer compares the outcome to the input and secondly, performs a relative comparison of the outcome to the other party. Pizam and Ellis (1999) reported that there are two additional distinct theories of customer satisfaction apart from the seven aforementioned ones and these include: 1. Comparison-level 2. Generalized negativity; and The outcome approach of the customer satisfaction is defined as the end-state satisfaction resulting from the experience of consumption. This post- consumption state can be an outcome that occurs without comparing expectations (Oliver, 1996); or may be a cognitive state of reward, an emotional response that may occur as the result of comparing expected and actual performance or a comparison of rewards and costs to the anticipated consequences (Vavra, 1997, p. 4). Furthermore, Parker and Mathews (2001) expressed that attention has been focused on the nature of satisfaction of the outcome approach which include: 1. Emotion - Satisfaction is viewed as the surprise element of product or service purchase and or consumption experiences (Oliver, 1981), or is an affective response to a specific consumption experience (Westbrook and Reilly, 1983). This acknowledges the input of

12

comparative cognitive processes but goes further by stating that these may be just one of the determinants of the affective “state” satisfaction (Park and Mathews, 2001). 2. Fulfillment –The theories of motivation state that people are driven by the desire to satisfy their needs (Maslow, 1943) or by their behaviour aimed at achieving the relevant goals (Vroom, 1964). However, satisfaction can be either way viewed as the end-point in the motivational process. Thus “consumer satisfaction can be seen as the consumer's fulfillment response” (Rust and Oliver, 1994, p. 4). 3. State – Oliver (1989) expressed that there are four framework of satisfaction, which relates to reinforcement and arousal. “Satisfaction-as-pleasure” results from positive reinforcement, where the product or service is adding to an aroused resting state, and “satisfaction-as-relief” results from negative reinforcement .In relation to arousal, low arousal fulfillment is defined as “satisfaction-as contentment”, a result of the product or service performing adequately in an ongoing passive sense. High arousal satisfaction is defined as “satisfaction as either positive (delight) or negative surprise” which could be a shock (Rust and Oliver, 1994). The other customer satisfaction definitions include: Satisfaction is “the cognitive state of the buyer about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the reward received in exchange for the service experienced (Howard and Seth, 1969, pp. 145); the evaluation of emotions (Hunt, 1977, p. 460); the favorability of the individual's subjective evaluation (Westbrook, 1980, p. 49); a positive outcome from the outlay of scarce resources (Bearden and Teel, 1983a, p. 21); an overall customer attitude towards a service provider (Levesque and McDougall, 1996, pp.14); is a judgment that a product or service feature,

13

or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, included levels of under- or overfulfillment (Oliver,1997, p. 13); is an experience-based assessment made by the customer of how far his own expectations about the individual characteristics or the overall functionality of the services obtained from the provider have been fulfilled (Homburg and Bruhn, 1998); the fulfillment of some need, goal or desire (Oliver, 1999); an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they receive (Zineldin, 2000); is based on a customer’s estimated experience of the extent to which a provider’s services fulfill his or her expectations (Gerpott et al. 2001)”. For this study, customer satisfaction definition used is that of Homburg and Bruhn (1998) which is “an experience-based assessment made by the customer of how far his own expectations about the individual characteristics or the overall functionality of the services obtained from the provider have been fulfilled”. The relevance of this definition to this study is that it indicates that customers assess the mobile services based on experience of use and the rating is done in accordance with the mobile services attributes. In this study, customer satisfaction with the Nigerian mobile services will be evaluated based on customers experience of network quality, billing, validity period and customer care support.

The Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) is a second-generation digital technology, which was originally developed in Europe and in less than ten years after the

14

commercial launch, it developed into world’s leading and fastest growing mobile standard (GSM Assoc., 2006). Lonergan et al. (2004) reported that at the beginning of 2004, there were over 1.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide and by 2007, the demand for mobile services would have grown at an average annual rate of 9.1%. The GSM Association estimates that the GSM technology is used by more than one in five people of the world's population, representing approximately 77% of the world’s cellular market and is estimated to account for 73% of the world’s digital market and 72% of the world’s wireless market (GSM Assoc., 2006). This growth principally results from the establishment of new networks in developing countries rather than from an increase in mobile access lines in developed countries (Serenko and Turel, 2006). African countries are actively involved in the establishment of the mobile services and specifically, Nigeria is the focus of this study. Gerpott et al. (2001) wrote that since 1990s, the telecommunications sector has become an important key in the development of the economy of developed countries. This results from the saturated markets, de-regulation of telecommunications industry (removal of monopoly rights, especially enjoyed by state-owned telecoms networks), increasing number of mobile service providers, enormous technical development and intense market competition. Szyperski & Loebbecke (1999) wrote that this increasing economic importance and benefits of telecommunications firms motivated many management scholars (especially marketing experts) to devote attention to this sector. Wilfert (1999); Gerpott (1998); and Booz. Allen and Hamilton (1995) pointed out that marketing strategies are very important in telecommunications services because once customers have subscribed to a particular telecommunications service provider, their long-term link

15

with this provider is of greater importance to the success of the company than they are in other industry sectors. Hence, service providers need to form a continous lasting relationship with their customers to know them better and satisfy their needs adequately. Studies conducted to explore factors affecting satisfaction, loyalty and retention in mobile telecommunications industry include: Gerpott et al. (2001) investigated customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention in the German mobile telecommunications among 684 respondents and reported that customer retention can not be equated with customer loyalty and/or customer satisfaction, rather a two-stage causal link can be assumed in which customer satisfaction drives customer loyalty which in turn has impacts on customer retention. However, these three factors are important for superior economic success among telecommunication service providers. Kim et al. (2004) investigated the effects of customer satisfaction and switching barrier on customer loyalty among 350 respondents in Korea and reported that call quality, value-added services and customer support have significant impact on customer satisfaction. Thus, to maximize customer satisfaction, focus should be on service quality and customer-oriented services. Switching barrier on the other hand is affected by switching costs (e.g. loss cost, move-in cost, and interpersonal relationships) and was revealed to have an adjustment effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Serenko and Turel (2006) investigated customer satisfaction with mobiles services in Canada and reported that perceived quality and perceived value are the key factors influencing satisfaction with mobile services. Customer care is reported to be negatively related to customer satisfaction, which means that a more satisfied customer is less prone to complain. Hence, they concluded that customer satisfaction is the only single measure that better capture the range of services,

16

prices and quality and moreso, this measure is an important performance indicator useful for both regulators and mobile service providers. In summary, these studies support the theory that highly satisfied customers stay longer, buy more, less sensitive to price increases from their providers or price decreases from competitors. Nigeria, a developing country, in 1992 introduced its first mobile phone services, through the

joint

venture

between

NITEL and DSL of Canada

to form

Mobile

Telecommunications Service (MTS), (Ndukwe, 2005, pp 26). In January 2001, the regulatory body NCC, modernised and expanded the mobile telecommunications network and services by granting GSM license to three service providers; MTN Nigeria, Econet Wireless (now Vmobile), and the first national carrier, NITEL (initially MTS, privatised to form Mtel). In 2002, the second national carrier, Globacom was also granted license to commence operation. Since the launch of the GSM, the number of subscribers in Nigeria has greatly increased. Ndukwe (2005, pp 37-38, 40) reported that between 1998 and 2000, the number of mobile lines was 35,000 but grew to over 11 million as of March 2005, with a growth rate of more than a million lines annually since 2002. This translated to an increase from the total density of 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants in 1998 to 9.47 lines per 100 inhabitants currently. Additionally, this sector has attracted an investment of over US $8 billion and has greatly increased the number of employed people directly (those working with the GSM companies) or indirectly (this includes various levels of dealerships, cell phone vendors, repair shops, suppliers of accessories, fixed and mobile call shops and street recharge card hawkers) (Hoff, 2006). The number of the employed people is reported to be over 300,000 Nigerians in 2005 (Ndukwe, 2005). Other benefits include easy, affordable and quick access to phone by different categories of the

17

population, reduced frequency of travelling, etc (Adomi, 2003), and all these benefits contribute to the socio- economic development of the country. Based on the annual growth rate of the subscribers, and increasing teledensity, Nigeria is one of the fastest growing telecoms market in Africa (Hoff, 2006). Additionally, the population count of over 130 million people and GDP per capita and PPP valuation of US $1,776 (estimated in 2005) (OECD, 2006) presents a massive growth potential for the mobile telecoms sector and the customer base is estimated to reach 23 million subscribers in 2007 and 32 million subscribers in 2009 (Hoff, 2006). This anticipated increase in the customer base will translate into better social and economic development, resulting from more financial investments from the service operators. Despite the economic and social benefits of the mobile telecommunications to Nigerian economy and market, unlike the developed countries, there is no marketing or management research attention to this sector. However, it is probable that the mobile operators conduct satisfaction surveys and other marketing research but contact with the mobile operators for any useful information yielded no response 1. This limitation affected this study in that there are currently no literature materials on customer satisfaction of the Nigerian mobile telecoms industry to consult. The majority of literature available (few in number) focuses on the study of the impact and development of the telecommunications, mobile telephony, communications, etc. This lack of adequate research in the mobile telecoms sector may prevent it from acquiring knowledge useful for development. According to Serenko and Turel (2006), customer satisfaction measurement addresses both users and public interests and such

18

studies can assist in economic and social development. Therefore, there is need to gain more understanding in the area of customer satisfaction. Jackson et al. (1996), Platow et al. (1997), and Homburg and Giering (2001) expressed that customer behaviours and attitudes are greatly influenced by demographic, situational, environmental and psychological factors and these factors can be used by companies and policy makers to develop strategies to meet different needs of the different customer segments. Hence, there is need to gain more understanding of the influence of these factors on customer satisfaction. Consumers normally implement preferences when they go for comparing different alternatives and choices. Preference based on scientific evaluation is always a reasonable one. Real-life marketing primarily revolves around the application of a great deal of common-sense dealing with a limited number of factors, in an environment of flawed information and limited resources complicated by vagueness. Use of traditional marketing techniques, in these circumstances, is inevitably partial and unequal.Now a day the role of marketing has becoming an essential part for any product. Marketing plays the pivotal role after establishing target specifications, concept generation, and concept selectionthrough concept screening matrix and concept scoring matrix, and finally testing of concept selection. Marketing has been comprehensively classified into two categories such as product selling and concept selling. The marketing of any product might be reached only because of concept selling. The role of the concept selling is to sell the concept to the customers after getting their feedbacks through face to face interactions, Electronic mails, panel discussions, interaction with extreme users, end users, lead users, written survey and word of mouth advertising. Above described methods might be

19

congruous and helpful for concept generation too. It will help the marketers to market the product more gullible, notable and plausible.

Introduction: The telecom network in India is the fifth largest network in the world meeting up with global standards. Presently, the Indian telecom industry is currently slated to an estimated contribution of nearly 1% to India’s GDP. The Indian Telecommunications network with 110.01 million connections is the fifth largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for U.S. companies in the stagnant global scenario. The total subscriber base, which has grown by 40% in 2005, is expected to reach 250 million in 2007. According to Broadband Policy 2004, Government of India aims at 9 million broadband connections and 18 million internet connections by 2007. The wireless subscriber base has jumped from 33.69 million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY2004- 2005. In the last 3 years, two out of every three new telephone subscribers were wireless subscribers. Consequently, wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40% in 2003. Wireless subscriber growth is expected to bypass 2.5 million new subscribers per month by 2007. The wireless technologies currently in use are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are primarily 9 GSM and 5 CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19 telecom circles and 4 metro cities, covering 2000 towns across the country.

20

Evolution of the Industry - Important Milestones: Year

Description

1851

First operational land lines were laid by the govt. near Calcutta(seat of British Power)

1881

Telephone Service introduced in India

1883

Merger with the postal system

1923

Formation of Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT)

1932

Merger of ETC and IRT into the Indian Radio and Communication Company(IRCC)

1947

Nationalization of all foreign telecommunication companies to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph(PTT), a monopoly run by the government’s Ministry of Communication

1985

Department of Telecommunications (DOT) established, an exclusive provider of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system)

1986

Conversion of DOT into two wholly government-owned companies: the Videsh

Sanchar

Nigam

Limited

(VSNL)

for

international

telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in metropolitan areas. 1997

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India created

1999

Cellular Services are launched in India. New National Telecom Policy is adopted.

2000

DoT becomes a corporation, BSNL

21

(Source: The Indian Telecom Industry by consulting club, IIM Calcutta)

Major Players: There are three types of players in telecom services:  State owned companies (BSNL and MTNL)  Private Indian owned companies (Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices)  Foreign invested companies (Vodafone-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications) India's mobile telecom sector is one of the fastest growing sectors. Unlike in the 1990s when the mobile phone was an elitist product, mobile operators now tap a mass market with mass marketing techniques. "Unified licensing" rules allow basic and mobile operators into each other’s territory, and have ushered in perhaps the final phase of industry consolidation.

It seems that only companies with deep pockets can effectively compete as primary operators mobile markets. Economies of scale, scope, and end-to-end presence in longdistance as well as local telecom, are desirable.

There are, besides, new challenges. Operators have to find new growth drivers for the

22

wire line business. There are problems of getting broadband to take off, of technology choice, of when to introduce new technologies, and of developing a viable business model in an era of convergence.

Growth of mobile technology:

India has the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. The mobile services were commercially launched in August 1995 in India. In the initial 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 the number of proactive initiatives taken by regulator and licensor, the monthly subscriber additions increased to around 2 million per month in the year 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Although mobile telephones followed the New Telecom Policy 1994, growth was tardy in the early years because of the high price of hand sets as well as the high tariff structure of mobile telephones. The New Telecom Policy in 1999, the industry heralded several pro consumer initiatives. Mobile subscriber additions started picking up. The number of

23

mobile phones added throughout the country in 2003 was 16 million, followed by 22 millions in 2004, 32 million in 2005 and 65 million in 2006. The only countries with more mobile phones than India with 156.31 million mobile phones are China – 408 million and USA – 170 million.

India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in the mobile sector.

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$ 5 only. In 2005 alone 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile market.

Cellular Service Providers:

As on Apr 2007 India has 167 million mobile phone subscribers. Out of this 125 million are GSM users and 41 million CDMA users. BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Hutch, Idea, Aircel, Spice and MTNL are the main GSM providers in India. Reliance Communications and Tata Indicom are the main CDMA providers in India.

Bharti Airtel

24

Airtel is providing cellular services in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, UP and West Bengal. Airtel is the No.1 cellular service provider in India using GSM technology. Airtel has 23% market share in India with a total subscriber base of 38 million.

Reliance Communications

Reliance has both CDMA and GSM networks and total subscriber base of 29 million or 17% market share. It has GSM network in Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, North East, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. Reliance has CDMA networks in other states and cities.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

BSNL is a state owned telecom company which has GSM presence in almost every cities and towns. BSNL has 27 million subscribers with a market share of 16%.

Vodafone

Vodafone is another emerging GSM provider in India with coverage in Kerala, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab with a total subscriber base of 27 million.

25

Tata Indicom Tata Indicom is a main CDMA provider in India with 16 million subscribers all over India. Tata Indicom has presence in almost every state and cities in India.

26

27

Introduction: Vodafone is a mobile network operator headquartered in Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and has a market value of about £75 billion (August 2008). Vodafone currently has operations in 25 countries and partner networks in a further 42 countries. The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones."

28

As of 2006 Vodafone had an estimated 260 million customers in 25 markets across 5 continents. On this measure, it is the second largest mobile telecom group in the world behind China Mobile. In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless.

Mission: Vodafone is primarily a user of technology rather than a developer of it, and this fact is reflected in the emphasis of our work program on enabling new applications of mobile communications, using new technology for new services, research for improving operational efficiency and quality of our networks, and providing technology vision and leadership that can contribute directly to business decisions.

Vision: Our Vision is to be the world’s mobile communication leader – enriching customers’ lives, helping individuals, businesses and Communities be more connected in a mobile world.

History: In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK cellular telephone network licenses. The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985. Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985. On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB£110 million. In September 1988 the company was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB£1.7 billion On 16 September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.

29

In July 1996 Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million. On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for £77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network. In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores. In 1997 Vodafone introduced its Speech mark logo, as it is a quotation mark in a circle; the O's in the Vodafone logotype are opening and closing quotation marks, suggesting conversation. On 29 June 1999 Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. Trading of the new company commenced on 30 June 1999. To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in EPlus Mobilfunk. The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.

Vodafone’s original logo used until the introduction of the speech mark logo in 1998.

On 21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000. In November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator. Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic struggle" which

30

saw Mannesmann resists Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of £112bn, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the merger in April 2000. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off. On 28 July 2000 the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc. In April 2001 the first 3G voice call was made on Vodafone United Kingdom's 3G network. In 2001 the Company took over Eircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and rebranded it as Vodafone Ireland. It then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator JPhone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan. On 17 December 2001 Vodafone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks" by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved the introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.) In February 2002 Finland was added into the mobile community, as Radiolinja is signed as a Partner Network. Radiolinja later changed its named to Elisa. Later that year the Company rebranded Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as Vodafone live! and on 3 December 2002 the Vodafone brand was introduced in the Estonian market with signing of a Partner Network Agreement with Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti) later changed its name to Elisa. On 7 January 2003 the Company signed a group-wide Partner agreement with mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia were added to the community. In April 2003 Og Vodafone was introduced in the Icelandic market and in May 2003 Vodafone Italy (Omnitel Pronto-Italia) was rebranded Vodafone Italy. On 21 July 2003 Lithuania was added to the community, with the signing of a Partner Network agreement with Bitė.

31

In February 2004 Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with Luxembourg's LuxGSM and a Partner Network Agreement with Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its mobile phone operations to Cytamobile-Vodafone. In April 2004 the Company purchased Singlepoint airtime provider from John Caudwell (Caudwell Group) and approx 1.5million customers onto its base for £405million, adding sites in Stoke on Trent (England) to existing sites in Newbury (HQ), Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury. In November 2004 Vodafone introduced 3G services into Europe. In June 2005 the Company increased its participation in Romania's Connex to 99% and also bought the Czech mobile operator Oskar. On 1 July 2005 Oskar of the Czech Republic was rebranded as Oskar-Vodafone. Later that year on 17 October 2005 Vodafone Portugal launched a revised logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and a 3D version of the Speech mark logo, but still retaining a red background and white writing (or vice versa). Also, various operating companies started to drop the use of the SIM card pattern in the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-Vodafone and ConnexVodafone also does not use the SIM card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on their font family InterFace) formed part of the new identity. On 28 October 2005 Connex in Romania was rebranded as Connex-Vodafone and on 31 October 2005 the Company reached an agreement to sell Vodafone Sweden to Telenor for approximately €1 billion. After the sale, Vodafone Sweden became a Partner Network. In December 2005 Vodafone won an auction to buy Turkey's second-largest mobile phone company, Telsim, for $4.5 billion. In December 2005 Vodafone Spain became the second member of the group to adopt the revised logo: it was phased in over the following six months in other countries. In 2006 the Company rebranded its Stoke-on-Trent site as Stoke Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company dealing with Customer Care for its higher value customers, technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations and upgrades started to be dealt with by this call centre. On 5 January 2006 Vodafone announced the completion of the sale of Vodafone Sweden to Telenor. On February 2006 the Company closed its Birmingham Call Centre. In 1 February 2006 Oskar Vodafone became

32

Vodafone Czech Republic, adopting the revised logo and on 22 February 2006 the Company announced that it was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria group. On 12 March 2006 former chief, Sir Christopher Gent, who was appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quits following rumours of boardroom rifts. In April 2006 the Company announced that it has signed an extension to its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its Latvian subsidiary "BITE Latvija" to become the latest member of Vodafone's global partner community. Also in April 2006 Vodafone Sweden changed its name to Telenor Sverige AB and Connex-Vodafone became Vodafone Romania, also adopting the new logo. On 30 May 2006 Vodafone announced the biggest loss in British corporate history (£14.9 billion) and plans to cut 400 jobs; it reported one-off costs of £23.5 billion due to the revaluation of its Mannesmann subsidiary. On 24 July 2006 the respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedly and on 25 August 2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for €2 billion. After the deal, Proximus was still part of the community as a Partner Network. On 5 October 2006 Vodafone announced the first single brand partnership with Og Vodafone which would operate under the name Vodafone Iceland and on 19 December 2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Switzerland's Swisscom for CHF4.25 billion (£1.8 billion). After the deal, Swisscom would still be part of the community as a Partner Network. Finally in December 2006 the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK, signaling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the ICT marketplace. Early in January 2007 Telsim in Turkey adopted Vodafone dual branding as Telsim Vodafone and on 1 April 2007 Telsim Vodafone Turkey dropped its original brand and became Vodafone Turkey. On 1 May 2007 Vodafone added Jersey and Guernsey to the community, as Airtel was signed as Partner Network in both crown dependencies. In June 2007 the Vodafone live! Mobile Internet portal in the UK was relaunched. Front page was now charged for and previously "bundled" data allowance was removed from existing

33

contract terms. All users were given access to the "full" web rather than a Walled Garden and Vodafone became the first mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its newly launched mobile Internet portal in the UK. On 1 August 2007 Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. On 17 April 2008 Vodafone extended its footprint to Serbia as VIP mobile was added to the community as a Partner Network and on 20 May 2008 the Company added VIP Operator as a Partner Network thereby extending the global footprint to Macedonia. In May 2008 Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone Faroe Islands. On 30 October 2008, the company announced a strategic, non-equity partnership with MTS group of Russia. The agreement adds Russia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to the group footprint.

34

VODAFONE ESSAR

Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 21 telecom circles in India. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are

35

simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India and is especially strong in the major metros. Vodafone Essar provides 2G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 22 of the country's 23 licence areas.

Ownership: Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals, 15%. On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on May 8, 2007.

36

Previous brands: In December 2006, Hutch Essar re-launched the "Hutch" brand nationwide, consolidating its services under a single identity. The Company entered into agreement with NTT DoCoMo to launch i-mode mobile Internet service in India during 2007. The company used to be named Hutchison Essar, reflecting the name of its previous owner, Hutchison. However, the brand was marketed as Hutch. After getting the necessary government approvals with regards to the acquisition of a majority by the Vodafone Group, the company was rebranded as Vodafone Essar. The marketing brand was officially changed to Vodafone on 20 September 2007. On September 20, 2007 Hutch becomes Vodafone in one of the biggest brand transition exercises in recent times.

37

Vodafone Essar is spending somewhere in the region of Rs 250 crores on this high-profile transition being unveiled today. Along with the transition, cheap cell phones have been launched in the Indian market under the Vodafone brand. There are plans to launch cobranded handsets sourced from global vendors as well. A popular daily quoted a Vodafone Essar director as saying that "the objective is to leverage Vodafone Group's global scale in bringing millions of low-cost handsets from across-the-world into India." While there is no revealing the prices of the low-cost Vodafone handsets, the industry is abuzz that prices might start at Rs 666, undercutting Reliance Communications' muchhyped 'Rang Barse' with cheap handsets beginning at Rs 777. Meanwhile, Vodafone Essar sources said there would be no discounts or subsidized handset offers -- rather handset-bundled schemes for customers. Incidentally, China's ZTE, which is looking to set-up a manufacturing unit in the country, is expected to provide several Vodafone handsets in India. Earlier this year, Vodafone penned a global low-cost handset procurement deal with ZTE

"Telecommunications is the backbone of our future economy. International competitiveness increasingly depends on the development of a telecommunications infrastructure that is compatible with international standards" The cellular industry all over the world has been witnessing very high growth rates in subscriber base in recent years. For developing countries in particular, cellular services are becoming a very significant proportion of the overall telecom infrastructure. The mechanics of competition within this market involve complex feedback effects

38

between

individual

service

providers

and

with

their

operating

environment, and these forces play an important role in governing the growth of this industry. The Indian telecommunications sector has undergone a major process of transformation because of significant Government policy reforms during the recent years. The New Telecom Policy, 1999 focused on creating an ideal environment for investment, leveraging

establishing on

communication

technological

infrastructure

development

and

by

providing

affordable telecom services to all. These objectives of the policies have resulted in rapid growth of subscribers and lower tariffs. We believe that with these major initiatives of the Government, the mobile market in India will have a promising future. In a country like India which is not yet telephone-saturated and the ongoing changes in related areas are resulting in a rapidly changing profile of users, providers and their respective needs, continuous revision of the telecom policy is imperative. Given the emerging new technologies and the integrating economies there must be fairness among competitors. The tele-density in India is about four per hundred people in respect of the fixed telephones and a little less than one in respect of the mobile telephony. The low densities are not because there is no need for a telephone but because of its high cost that many

39

cannot afford that one. The situation here is nothing but holding true of the “law of demand”. Isn’t it?

The cost for the companies can come down if the revenue share imposed on them as a condition of license is abolished or drastically reduced. Today every telephone company is bound to pay a share out of its revenue to the exchequer. These costs are, however, not to be scheduled to take a step further in the development of the telecom. In addition when we go through the telephone bill there is a 5 to 8% service charge. This amount also does not go for the telecom development. If these external cost are removed there can be seen a spurt in demand of not less then 40% as expected. While taking the side of suppliers a lot of new companies are coming into the battlefield resulting in reduction of prices and hence a little less burdensome on to the customer. The cost of interconnection with the incumbent is proving to be contributory to the high cost of services provided by the competitors. The delay in the interconnection disregards the quality of service and high cost will detract from affordability. This is an area in which no consumer body can knowledgeably contribute unless it has the assistant of experts or economists who alone can discover all the relevant fact of all the contesting companies. It indicates the pre-eminent domain of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). As the driven down of the prices for long distance including international services reduces the amount available for subsidizing the local service, the rental for local services

40

are being increased. Considering that about 90% of the long distance calls are made by less than 20% of customers, 80% of customers are having to pay higher rental this depresses the demand for telephones and affordability. The urban business subscribers will be bearing the bond of the subsidies to be given to the rural private consumers.

History of Cellular Telephony in India: The technology that gives a person the power to communicate anytime, anywhere - has spawned an entire industry in mobile telecommunication. Mobile telephones have become an integral part of the growth, success and efficiency of any business / economy. The most prevalent wireless standard in the world today, is GSM. The GSM Association (Global System for Mobile Communications) was instituted in 1987 to promote and expedite the adoption, development and deployment and evolution of the GSM standard for digital wireless communications. The GSM Association was formed as a result of a European Community agreement on the need to adopt common standards suitable for cross border European mobile communications. Starting off primarily as a European standard, the Groupe Speciale Mobile as it was then called, soon came to represent the Global System for Mobile Communications as it achieved the status of a world-wide standard. GSM is today, the world's leading digital standard accounting for 68.5% of the global digital wireless market. The Indian Government when considering the introduction of cellular services into the country, made a landmark decision to introduce the GSM standard, leapfrogging obsolescent technologies / standards. Although cellular licenses were made technology neutral in September 1999, all the private operators are presently offering only GSM

41

based mobile services. The new licensees for the 4th cellular licenses that were awarded in July 2001 too, have opted for GSM technology to offer their mobile services.

Cellular Industry in India The Government of India recognizes

that the provision of a world-class

telecommunications infrastructure and information is the key to rapid economic and social development of the country. It is critical not only for the development of the Information Technology industry, but also has widespread ramifications on the entire economy of the country. It is also anticipated that going forward, a major part of the GDP of the country would be contributed by this sector. Accordingly, it is of vital importance to the country that there be a comprehensive and forward looking telecommunications policy which creates an enabling framework for development of this industry.

Cellular Market Structure in India As in other countries, in India, the Cellular Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs) are licensed to operate in designated geographical operating areas. The service areas include four metro areas and 18 circles categorized as A, B and C. (The categorization is based on the revenue Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences). The potential with category C circles in the lower end of the scale. For example the metros account for 40% of the subscriber population, with Category-A, B and C accounting for 33%, 23% and 4% respectively. The CMSPs had to pay an entry fee and

42

subsequently annual license fee as a percentage of their revenue to the Department of Telecommunications. The entry and license fees varied according to the service area, highest for metros and lowest for Category-C circles. Some of the CMSPs could not fulfill their licensing obligations and their licenses were revoked leading to a monopoly situation in certain areas. Apart from these charges, each CMSP has to share the revenue with the long distance operators for carrying inter-service area calls. In profitable metros and circles, the competition is severe and the market is split between the two operators. In a price-cap regulated market, the operators use appropriate pricing strategy to win customers and win market share. In highly price-elastic markets, such as in India, as the service provider reduces the price, the subscriber base increases considerably, and so is the network traffic. The increased network traffic decreases the performance and the quality of service, inviting customers to switch. Being a new entrant in a metro area, the government operator reduced the airtime charges to such an extent that the subscriber base increased suddenly leading to poor network performance. The operator did not have enough network capacity to handle calls leading to blocking of calls, with frustrated customers switching over immediately to competitors. The operators also have to resort to non-pricing competition strategies to win customers. In India, CMSPs offer a variety of service plans as a means to attract new customers. Different service plans include: pre-paid calling card schemes, discounted airtime rates

43

for evening and night time calls, discounted roaming charges, no or minimum activation fees, and reduced mobile to mobile long distance call rates. The service providers incur additional advertising and infrastructure cost for implementing these plans. Short Message Service (SMS) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) service are fast catching up. For example, in India, about 500,000 SMS messages are being carried by a service provider in one metro area alone. When the sector moves over to an oligopoly market, the operators have to provide improved quality of service and value added services in order to survive and gain market share. Larger operators who have experience and infrastructure may be able to provide a higher quality of service and other value-added service at a lower price. They also have access to larger project financing for enlarging their networks and services. For example, a single large operator now has license to operate in 14 service areas in the country with the largest footprint to cover most of the areas of the country. Mergers and acquisitions are commonplace as the operators are consolidating their revenues to survive in the market places. Cellular subscribers and those with a propensity to go mobile in Delhi have never had it so good. They now have four service providers to choose from, each offering an array of both pre- and post-paid schemes. More importantly, average tariffs across plans have, by some reckoning, dropped by at least 50 per cent in the last six months. The entry of Vodafone saw a further drop in tariffs and the operators have come out with new schemes to retain their subscribers and attract fresh ones.

44

What does this mean for subscribers and for the cellular industry in Delhi? All the four operators Essar Mobile Services Ltd., Bharti Celluar Ltd, MTNL and Idea Cellular services are convinced that the market will only expand and the subscribers will benefit even more. Their reasoning is that cellular penetration in Delhi, which traditionally occupies the third position in other areas, is less than fifty per cent. Therefore, entry of new players will only increase awareness about the facility, the companies say. Moreover, the state-owned MTNL has also been playing with its cellular service for quite some time. that, with the imminent launch of limited mobility using CDMA (code division multiple access) technology by companies like Tata Tele Services will only add to the subscriber base, probably result in further reduction of tariffs, and an even greater widening of the cellular market, according to officials in four cellular companies now servicing Delhi. However, the companies also sound a note of caution — any further drop in tariffs will be harmful to the companies, points out one of the officials taking care of the — Sales & Marketing division of the, Essar Mobile Services Ltd, average tariffs in Delhi across different plans have fallen by 30 per cent since December with launching of the CDMA services. Besides the fall in tariffs, what has really happened with the entry of CDMA is a heightened awareness in the market. Mobile penetration in Delhi and its suburbs is estimated to be less than twenty-five percent of the population and the cellular operators believe that this number should definitely go up.

45

It is here that Vodafone decided to target the customers with what it believes are unique products and features. Its emphasis has been on value proposition and brand building. Mobility is not only about carrying voice, as per the reports from the marketing department and adds that the unified messaging system for the post-paid customers of (now Vodafone) is one such unique product. Accordingly, Vodafone signed in its subscribers in lakhs from the year onwards it has been launched in Delhi. Industry analysts say that a majority of them will be pre-paid customers, whose loyalty to a particular brand is always in doubt. However, pre-paid for the cellular is nothing but the engine for growth and there is always a possibility that most of them will shift to post-paid once they are convinced of the quality of service provided. On the other hand the entry of a new operator lends more visibility to the service and there is also increased trade activity — that is the number of dealers will increase and more people will be on the road trying to sell the service and product. There is also greater consumer awareness of what cellular service can deliver and expectations go up in terms of pricing or service standards or network availability.

The Churn in the Cellular Industry: As like the other products Cellular industry has not been left untouched from the Churn (switching over). During the survey this fact comes to the fore. According to the cellular operators, there is a normal seven to eight percent churn in the customers, especially in the pre-paid category. Among the post-paid customers, the Churn is much lower about two-three percent.

46

They say that one significant change that has happened in the last few months, more so since lowering of the tariffs, is that the bias in favour of incoming calls as far as call charges are concerned — incoming calls has been set free while they are charging reasonably only for the outgoing ones — has changed. A tariff re-balancing has definitely taken place. This means that the cellular operators are encouraging their subscribers to not just receive calls, but also make calls — increasing the usage of the service. With falling tariffs, cellular operators are convinced that increasing usage is one way to ensure that average revenue per user (ARPU) does not fall very low. The industry figure for ARPU is believed to be about Rs.1,100 while it may vary from operator to operator. The operators are also concentrating on introducing more value added services to the customers. Valueadded services have not really taken off. Only the SMS (short messaging service) has really caught on, but operators like Bharti are bringing in services like music messaging and concierge facility for its subscribers.

47

MOBILE SUBSCRIBER STATISTICS Recently, mobile phone connections in India have crossed the 400-million mark, which means over forty in 100 Indians have a phone. Adding on to this benevolent and happy information, telecom companies are anticipating the number will nearly treble in the next two years. According to a survey, by 2010, the cellular networks are expected to cover 4,50,000 (out of 6,07,000) villages, covering 550 million people.

Figure 1 Market Share of both mobile and wire line Service Providers in India

GSM Subscribers The cumulative All India GSM subscriber base rose to 72.12 million in April 2006 from 69.19 million in March 2006 which is a growth of 4.23% for a month under review [4]. Table I shows the subscribers growth rate for one month along with market share of each provider with coverage

48

CDMA Mobile Subscribers

The total cumulative all India CDMA subscriber base rose by 0.97 million from 23.25 million in March 2009 to 24.22 million in April 2009, representing a growth of 4.2% in the month under review. A summary picture of the company wise performance is given in Table II.

TELECOM IN RURAL INDIA Table I. GSM Subscribers growth rate Company Bharti BSNL Vodafone IDEA Aircel Reliance Spice MTNL BPL Total

No of Subscribers (in million) March 2009 April 2009 19.57 17.16 15.36 7.37 20.61 1.90 1.93 1.94 1.34 69.19

20.68 17.59 16.06 7.64 2.83 2.01 1.98 2.02 1.31 72.12

% Share 28.7% 24.4% 22.3% 10.6% 3.9% 2.8% 2.7% 2.8% 1.8% 100%

Market Service Areas 23 21 16 11 7 8 2. 2 1

India has an urban population of about 26.8% and rural population is about 73.2%. And there are over 600,000 villages in India. But a vast section of the rural sector is still cut off from the benefits of telecom services. The rural population of around 700 million is waiting for its share of economic growth. Initially the big telephone companies focused only on urban centres, which they felt were more profitable. However, this

49

mindset is gradually changing with the realisation that there is equal, if not bigger money in rural areas. Table II. CDMA Subscribers growth rate Company

Reliance TATA HFCl Shyam Total

(No.of

(%

Subscribers,per

Market Areas

million) March April

Share)

2009 18.307 4.851 0.062 0.027 69.19

2009 18.809 5.323 0.062 0.028 72.12

in Service

77.65% 21.98% 0.26% 0.11% 100%

20 20 1 1

It is estimated that a one per cent increase in rural connectivity can generate 0.5 per cent economic growth. Thus a well-planned 10 per cent increase in rural connectivity can propel India into double-digit growth and unprecedented prosperity. Rural India possesses enormous potential in terms of economy and human resources. Recent experiments have confirmed that ICT (information and communication technology) helps improve the timeliness and efficiency of rural farm operations and enhance income through producer-oriented markets. Hence the communication ministry has requested the finance ministry for higher allocations from the USO Fund for executing rural telephony network. The finance ministry has made a budgetary allocation of 15 billion from the USO Fund. The rural telephony targets include, providing 50 million telephones by 2009(i.e. one phone per three rural households) and 80 million by

50

2012 (i.e. one phone per two rural households) and provisioning mobile access to all villages with population more that 5,000 by 2009 and more than 1,000 by 2010.The Government is confident that the Bharat Nirman Programme target of providing coverage to remaining 41,000 villages would be met by March 2010 which will be much earlier than a schedule of November 2010. India plans to establish 0.25 million, village knowledge centres. The ICT industry can establish rural call centres modelled on the Kisan Call Centre established by the Ministry of Agriculture to provide domain knowledge in the services, agriculture and manufacturing sectors. This spread will increase the volume of users and automatically bring down bandwidth cost, with a spiralling effect on efficiency and economy. Advanced telecom services are no longer considered a luxury but a necessity for all. Thus, providing telecom services to every individual in a country like India is a huge challenge, and at the same time holds immense opportunities for those in the telecom industry.

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms.

51

Measuring customer satisfaction Organizations are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry, Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined ten 'Quality Values' which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Interdepartmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the "confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance

52

according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured.

Vodafone had highest customer satisfaction index in 2007 Lisbon, 25 August 2008 - Vodafone obtained the highest customer satisfaction index in the telecommunications sector in 2007, according to annual results published by Anacom. Vodafone achieved a satisfaction index of 74.4 (on a scale of 0 to 100), the highest score of all the companies in the Portuguese telecommunications market and considerably above the sector average of 67.6. In the report published by Anacom, Vodafone is ranked in first place in all the indicators included in the survey: Satisfaction with the operator, Image that customers have of the operator, Customer Expectations, Perceived Quality of the operator's network and services, Perceived Value for Money, Complaints received and their handling, and Loyalty of customers to their operator. In the Perceived Quality indicator, Vodafone obtained a score of 8.3 points for overall quality, way ahead of the scores of the other two operators (both obtained 7.7 points). Vodafone comes top in all the indicators for perceived quality of network and services: technical quality of the network (8.2 points); customer service and advice capability (7.6 points); quality (8.2 points), diversity (8.0 points) and reliability (7.9 points) of products and services offered; clarity and transparency of information supplied (7.8 points); network coverage (7.9 points) and clarity and transparency of price plans (7.9 points). Similarly, in the indicators measuring the Image of mobile operators, Vodafone comes top in the five categories analyzed (on a scale of 1 to 10): 'It is a reliable company in terms of

53

what it says and what it does' (8.1 points); 'It is stable and well established in the market' (8.8 points); 'It contributes positively to society' (7.5 points); 'It cares about its customers' (7.6 points); and 'It is innovative and forward looking' (8.5 points). The methodology used in the ECSI Portugal 2007 survey (ECSI – European Customer Satisfaction Index) is similar to that used by the European Commission to survey customer satisfaction in 25 Member States, enabling comparisons to be made between the results obtained in each country. The ECSI Portugal 2007 Communications survey was carried out by the Higher Institute of Statistics and Information Management at Lisbon's New University in partnership with the Portuguese Quality Institute and the Portuguese Quality Association, with sponsorship from Anacom.

54

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a research project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.

Strengths Leadership Position Global Brand Strength

Internal

High Geographical reach

Weaknesses Centralized Control – Low Flexibility High Consumer churn rates

Opportunities

External

Expanding marketing boundaries

Increased Competition

Growth through 3G

Market saturation in Europe

Strategic Alliances

Emergencies of Low cost Brands

SWOT analysis of Vodafone

55

Threats

Strengths: The main strength of Vodafone within the telecommunications market lies in its brand image and recognition. Vodafone, having established a global presence and having invested highly in marketing a differentiated image by promoting a Vodafone life style, currently enjoys a differentiating advantage that, if exploited properly, can offer a lead in competition. The presence of Vodafone in numerous countries within Europe as well as in all part of the world enhances this image. It allows customers to travel and enjoy easily the services of their home country operator. In the few countries that Vodafone is not physically present (e.g. Norway) it has well established strategic alliances which allow for a better service of mobile clients.

Weaknesses: The expansion of Vodafone has been completed at the expense of direct control of its operations. The company grew through a process of acquisitions of national telecommunications companies (e.g. the acquisition of the third biggest Czech mobile phone operator, Cesky mobile) rather than organic growth. This increased its subscribers’ base quickly, offering direct market knowledge and immediate additions of customer bases at the expense of direct effective control of the subsidiaries. At the same time though, it implicitly imposed a centralized operational structure for the group, nominating the UK headquarters as the leading business unit running a much centralised marketing and handset procurement at group level. This has resulted in the neglect of local markets and local differences, allowing market share to be gained by smaller local competitors. Due to the highly saturated Western European market this has resulted in an increase in the price elasticity of demand, with consumers becoming continuously price oriented. This has resulted in high customer churn rates reaching the level of 32.8% in the UK compared to O2’s 24%.

56

Opportunities: The telecommunications market, even though highly saturated in some regions offers great potential due to the ageing population and the sophistication of the consumers. It offers great opportunities through a careful market segmentation and exploitation of particular profitable segments. Different strategies should be pursued – simple phones and simplified pricing plans to the ageing population and more updated, sophisticated solutions for younger generations. The expanding Boundaries of the market could provide further opportunities by allowing Vodafone to enter more aggressively into fixed‐line service and to better enjoy the benefits of its high investment in 3G technology. Moreover the company has undertaken its first steps in establishing strategic alliances to develop customized solutions for end‐users: Vodafone recently announced two new partnerships, one with supermarket group ASDA to launch an ASDA branded mobile service in the UK, and another with electrical retailer DSG International to provide mobile solutions to small businesses. This could further be enhanced to avoid being a late‐entrant in this new method of distribution which offers access to a wide potential customer base.

4.4) Threats: The European part of Vodafone’s market is characterized by existing high levels of competition. Major brands such as O2 and T‐Mobile are exploiting the price sensitivity of customers and in this way they are building a stronger image and presence in the market. Indirect competition is also increasing further, through the presence of Skype and other related (not only voice) Internet‐based services. This combined with the upcoming European legislative measures is expected to limit further the tariffs for the network providers imposing further need for price cuts which could harm the bottom line profitability of the company.

57

58

Objective of Study: Following are the main objective to study about the customer satisfaction on Vodafone.  To study telecommunication industry.  To study the company profile of Vodafone.  To study customer satisfaction of Vodafone.  To study various Marketing activities provided by Vodafone.  To study the various services provided by Vodafone.  To know the expectation of Vodafone Customers.

59

Research Methodology “Marketing research means the systematic gathering, recording, analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services” Marketing research has proved an essential tool to make all the need of marketing management. Marketing research therefore is the scientific process of gathering and analyzing of marketing information to meet the needs of marketing management. But gathering of observation is must be systematic. The systematic conduct of research requires:  Orderliness, in which the measurements are accurate.  Impartiality in analysis and interpretation.

All of research can be categorized into basic and applied. 1. BASIC RESEARCH: - Basic Research is that intended to expand the body of knowledge for the use of others. 2. APPLIED RESEARCH: - Applied Research is one, which is carried out to find the solution for a particular problem or for guiding a specific decision. It is usually private in nature. My research on Vodafone is carried on for guiding specific decisions and its results are useful only to Vodafone for taking particular decision regarding product quality, staff and security. Hence the nature of my research study is “APPLIED RESEARCH “.

60

Benefits of study: There are many benefits related to take this study. Some of the benefits of taking this study are as follows:  By analyzing this information, the company would be able to better design schemes & services & target right prospects’ needs & wants.  More people will get aware about Vodafone that will increase profit level of Vodafone.  This study helps to identify the behavior of consumer when there are no offers & schemes from Vodafone.

61

Process of Marketing Research: The marketing research is done in systematic process. The Researcher has pursued the below process of marketing for my study at Vodafone:

Problem Identification

Research Design

Data Collection

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Research Report & Presentation

62

Problem Identification: The first and the most important step of marketing research is properly defining the problem. In order to identify the research problem two categories of problem should be carefully noticed.

Here the researcher’s problems are: A number of customers are not satisfied with services, new schemes and offers.  A number of customers are not satisfied with the network coverage.  A number of customers are not satisfied with the current call rates of Vodafone.  A number of customers are not satisfied with the Free SMS schemes.  A number of customers are not satisfied with the service of customer care of Vodafone.

RESEARCH DESIGN: Research design indicates the methods and procedure of conducting research study. Research design can be done in following three types:1 Exploratory Research:Exploratory research focuses on the discovery of new ideas and is generally based on secondary data. 2 Descriptive Research:Descriptive research is undertaken when the researcher want to know the characteristics of certain groups.

63

3 Causal or Experimental Researches:An experimental research is undertaken to identify causes and effect relationship between two variables. The Research Design is: Descriptive Research Design

Data Collection and Sampling: A) Sources of Data Collection:Basically there are two types of data i.e. secondary and primary: I)

Primary Data Collection:-

Primary data collection contains the following four types of methods: 1 Observation Method: It contains Causal observation, Systematic observation, direct observation and contrived observation. 2 Survey Method: It contains Personal Interview, Telephone Interview and Mail Interview. 3 Experimental Method. 4 Panel Method.

II)

Secondary Data Collection: It can be collected from internal as well as external sources

1 Internal Source:

64

Various internal sources like employee, books, sales activity, stock availability, product cost, etc. 2 External Sources: Libraries, trade publications, literatures, etc are some important sources of external data. The Researcher has used primary data for the core purpose of the project and this primary data has been gathered by survey method. The researcher has also used secondary data

B) Data collection Tools: To conduct a survey, the Researcher has selected a structured questionnaire as an instruction for gathering valuable information from the customers. Questionnaire, which is used for the survey, is consisting of questions and checklist questions to check the customer feedback.

C) Sampling Plan: The researcher has design a sampling plan that is consist of five decisions. I)

Sampling unit:

Who is to be surveyed? The Researcher has selected youngsters, businessmen, and housewives, employees to conduct survey and to measure satisfaction level.

II)

Sampling types:

65

There are two types of sampling i.e. Probability Sampling and Non – probability Sampling. i)

Probability Sampling : -

Probability sampling means each unit of the universe has equal chance of getting selected. The most frequently used probability sampling methods are as below: a) Simple Random Sampling. b) Stratified Random Sampling. c) Multi-stage Random Sampling. d) Cluster Sampling. e) Multi – phase Sampling. f) Replicated Sampling.

ii)

Non – Probability Sampling:Non – Probability sampling contains following methods:-

a) Judgment Sampling. b) Convenience Sampling. c) Panel Sampling. d) Quota Sampling For this purpose the researcher has used non probability convenience sampling.

66

III)

Sample Size: Sample size means limited numbers of respondents covered under the research

study from a population and the researcher has taken a survey of 100 respondents to know the satisfaction level of customer.

IV)

Sampling Area: The researcher’s area for survey was lucknow Sampling Unit: Here the researcher has randomly selected the respondents of the lucknow city.

Data Analysis and Interpretation After all the above steps are completed now the important step is data analyzing and interpretation. For this there are various analytical and statistical tools. Some of these tools are Percentage, Average, Dispersion, Co-relation, Co-efficient, etc.

67

68

IMPORTANCE The customer is always right. This is incontrovertible. Customer belongs at the heart of every business because without them there is no business. Without their money, there is no exchange. Therefore, for any company, the customer is the starting point that influence very move. Marketing is based on this logic. It is process by which a company finds out what its customers want and need, and then delivery it in a way that that makes as much profit as possible. Because marketing focuses on customers, the heart of every business and sources of all income, it follows logically that marketing as a mere function of business to be performed intermittently. By focusing on different customers, a marketing orientation gives a company an edge over those who focus more on different products, selling and the production. Marketing opportunity arise when customer wants and need arise. There is no point in trying to sell something for which there is no demand. The production process must be informed by customer demand. Customer will not often buy just because it is exist. Customers are satisfied when offered what are needs. In practice, they are not all that easy to please. Marketing is also about predicting what customer will want and need in the future. It is native have to think that customers needs and want remain constant, adopting the customer-centered approach to a business will involve change.

69

70

Q1) Do you have a mobile phone? Purpose: The main purpose of this question is to know how many respondents use mobile phone.

Suggestions

Yes

No

No. of respondents

93

7

Interpretation: 93% of the respondents are have a mobile phone while 7% of the respondents do not have a mobile phone.

71

Q2 Which operator’s service do you use? Operator’s service name

No. of respondents

Vodafone

87

Airtel

29

Idea

17

Reliance

21

BSNL

5

Tata Indicom

3

Interpretation: Major respondents using mobile are enjoying Vodafone services. 16% of the respondents use Airtel, 6% respondents use Idea while 12%, 4% and 2% respondents use Reliance, BSNL and Tata Indicom respectively.

72

Q3) Are you aware about Vodafone? Purpose: The purpose behind this question is to know about the awareness of Vodafone among all the respondents.

Suggestions

Yes

No

No. of respondents

100

0

Interpretation: Here 100% of respondents are aware about Vodafone Services.

73

Q4) From which source you came to know about Vodafone? Purpose: The purpose behind this question is to know from which source the respondents came to know about Vodafone.

Sources

No. of respondents

Advertisements

63

Hoardings

52

Newspapers

35

Mouth Publicity

26

Interpretation: 36% of the respondents are aware about Vodafone through Advertisements, 29% are aware because of Hoardings while 20% and 15% of the respondents are aware because of Newspapers and Mouth Publicity respectively.

74

Q5) Since how long you are using Vodafone Services? Purpose: The purpose behind this question is to know about the usage time of Vodafone customers i.e. since how long they are using Vodafone services.

Time period

No. of respondents

Less than 1 month

12

2-6 months

19

6-12 months

22

More than 1 year

34

Interpretation: Major Respondents using Vodafone are old customers. 39% of the respondents use Vodafone services from past more than 1 year while the lowest is 14% respondents using Vodafone services less than 1 month.

75

Q6) Which of the following services do you use of Vodafone? Purpose: The purpose behind this question is to know which services do the Vodafone customer use, Pre-Paid or Post-Paid.

Services

No. of respondents

Pre-Paid

73

Post-paid

14

Interpretation: 84% of the respondents use pre-paid services while only 16% of the respondents use post-paid services.

76

Q7) Which services are more helpful to you while using Vodafone Services? Purpose: The purpose behind this question is to know which services are more helpful to the respondent while using Vodafone.

Services

No. of respondents

Call Rates

27

SMS Rates

48

Network

36

Value Added Services

19

Interpretation: Here major Respondents are youngsters so they mainly use SMS services of Vodafone. 37% of the respondents use Vodafone for SMS services while only 14% of the respondents use Vodafone for Value Added Services.

77

Q8) Do you call at customer care? Purpose: The purpose of this question is to know how many times and how often the respondents call at customer care of Vodafone.

Suggestions

Yes

No

No. of respondents

76

11

Interpretation: 87% of the respondent calls at customer care while 13% respondents do not call at customer care.

78

If yes, how often you call at customer care? Time Period

No. of respondents

Daily

5

Once a week

12

Once a month

24

Occasionally

35

Interpretation Major respondents here call customer care occasionally. 31% respondents respondents call customer care once a month while 16% and 7% of respondents call once a week and daily respectively.

79

Q9) For what reason you call at customer care? Purpose: The main purpose of this question is to know the reason of the respondents regarding calling at customer care.

Reasons Value Added Services Information regarding new schemes Complaining Other queries

No. of respondents 21 23 42 36

Interpretation: 34% of respondents call at customer care for complaining purpose while 30%, 19% and 17% of respondents call customer care for other queries, information regarding new schemes and value added services respectively.

80

Q10) Rate the following on the basis of your satisfaction. Services

Excellent Very Good

Fairly Good Average

Poor

Network

31

29

17

7

3

SMS Rates

6

19

35

24

3

schemes 3

14

27

33

10

New

and offers Customer Care

6

32

29

15

5

Recharge

12

28

31

14

2

2

20

43

19

3

Added 9

24

29

19

6

Outlets Call Rates Value Services

SMS Rates: Purpose: 81

The purpose of this analysis is to know the perspective of the customers of vodafone regarding Rates of SMS.

Service

Excellent Very Good

SMS Rates 6

19

Fairly Good

Average

Poor

35

24

3

Interpretation: Here major respondents are not much satisfied with the SMS rates of Vodafone as major respondents are youngsters. 7% of respondents rate it excellent, 22% rate it very good, 40% rate it fairly good, 28% rate it average, 3% rate it poor.

New Schemes and Offers: Purpose: 82

The main purpose of this analysis is to the respondent’s perspective related to the new schemes and offers provided by Vodafone.

Service

Excellent

New schemes 3

Very Good

Fairly Good Average

Poor

14

27

10

33

and offers

Interpretation: Here major respondents are not much satisfied with new schemes and offers of Vodafone. 38% respondents rate new schemes and offers as average, 31% respondents rate it as fairly good, 16% rate it as very good while 12% and 3% rate it as poor and excellent respectively.

Customer Care: Purpose: 83

The main purpose of this analysis is to know about the satisfaction of customer care service provided by Vodafone to their customers.

Service

Excellent

Customer Care 6

Very Good

Fairly Good Average

Poor

32

29

5

15

Interpretation: Customer care service of Vodafone is better compared to some of the other services. 37% respondents rate it as very good, 33% rate it as fairly good, 17% rate it as average, and 6% and 7% rate it as poor and excellent respectively.

84

Outlets: Purpose: The purpose behind this analysis is to know about the satisfaction of the Vodafone customers regarding recharge outlets.

Service

Excellent

Very Good

Fairly Good Average

Poor

Recharge

12

28

31

2

14

Outlets

Interpretation: Recharge outlets of Vodafone are majorly rated on fairly good and very good basis. 36% of the respondents rate it as fairly good, 32% rate it as very good, 16% rate it as average, 14% rate it excellent and 2% respondents rate it as poor.

85

Call Rates: Purpose: The purpose behind this analysis is to know about the perception of vodafone customers regarding different call rates.

Service

Excellent

Very Good

Fairly Good Average

Poor

Call Rates

2

20

43

3

19

Interpretation: Major percentage of respondents are not happy with the call rates of Vodafone. 49% of respondents rate call rates of vodafone as fairly good, 23% rate it as very good, 22% rate it as average while 4% and 2% respondent rate it as poor and excellent respectively.

Value Added Services: 86

Purpose: The purpose behind this analysis is to know about the perception of vodafone customers regarding Value Added Services.

Service Value

Excellent Added 9

Very Good

Fairly Good Average

Poor

24

29

6

19

Services

Interpretation: Value added services of Vodafone are quite feasible as compared to some of the other services. 33% respondents rate it as fairly good, 28% rate it as very good, 22% rate it as average while 10% and 7% rate it as excellent and poor respectively.

Q12) Why you are not using Vodafone Services? Purpose: 87

The purpose of this question is to know why other respondents do not use Vodafone services.

Reasons

No. of respondents

Lack of awareness

2

High Prices

6

Poor Services

3

Poor Network

2

Interpretation: 6 don’t use Vodafone services because of high prices. 3 respondents don’t use Vodafone services because of poor services while 2 respondents each don’t use vodafone services because of lack of awareness and poor network.

Q13) Would you like to recommend Vodafone to others? Purpose: 88

The purpose of this question is to know the recommendations of the respondents towards Vodafone, whether they would like to recommend the Vodafone services to others or not.

Suggestions

Yes

No

No. of respondents

78

9

Interpretation: 90% of the Vodafone customers would like to recommend Vodafone services to others while 10% of the Vodafone Customers won’t recommend to others.

89

Age analysis: Purpose: The main purpose of this analysis is to know how many respondents belong to a particular age of group.

Age

Below 18

18-25

26-50

51 or above

Respondents

4

54

23

6

Interpretation: Major respondents are youngsters i.e. 62% of the respondents belong to age group of 18-25, 26% respondents belong to age group of 26-50, 7% of respondents belong to 51 or above age group while only 5% of the respondents belong to age group of below 18 years.

90

Age wise analysis(NETWORK): Purpose: The main purpose of this analysis is to know the perception of different respondents of differnet age groups regarding network service.

Age Ratings Excellent Very good Fairly good Average Poor Total

Below 18 1 2 0 1 0 4

18-25 19 18 10 5 2 54

26-50 9 7 6 1 0 23

51 or above 2 2 1 0 1 6

Total 31 29 17 7 3 87

Interpretation: Here major respondents rating network as excellent are youngsters that include the age group of 18-25, the same is the case with all the rating of this service.

91

Age wise analysis (SMS Rates): Purpose: The main purpose of this analysis is to know the perception of different respondents of differnet age groups regarding rates of SMS. Ratings Excellent Very good Fairly good Average Poor Total

Age Below 18 0 1 1 2 0 4

18-25 1 12 27 11 3 54

26-50 3 5 5 10 0 23

51 or above 2 1 2 1 0 6

Total 6 19 35 24 3 87

Interpretation: Major respondents are youngsters and they are not much satisfied with the SMS rates of Vodafone.

Age wise analysis (Call Rates): 92

Purpose: The main purpose of this analysis is to know the perception of different respondents of differnet age groups regarding call rates. Ratings

Age Below 18 0 1 2 1 0 4

Excellent Very good Fairly good Average Poor Total

18-25 2 11 26 13 2 54

26-50 0 6 12 4 1 23

51 or above 0 2 3 1 0 6

Total 2 20 43 19 3 87

Interpretation: Major respondents rate charges of calls as fairly good. 26 respondents falling in age group of 18-25 rate it as fairly good.

93

94

95

96

97

LIMITATIONS

1. Sample size was small for the research therefore there can be biasness in the findings.

2. Unfavorable behavior of respondents.

3. Survey was conducted in restricted area.

4. Respondents were confused about their opinions.

98

99

Books:  Marketing Management – Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller.

Websites:  http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/local_press_releases/por       

tugal/portugal_press_release/vodafone_had_highest.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_satisfaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutch_(Indian_cellular_company) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone http://bora.nhh.no/bitstream/2330/1919/1/Saplitsa%202008.pdf www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=606658 www.iimcal.ac.in/community/consclub/reports/telecom.pdf www.scribd.com

100

101

Q1) Do you have a mobile phone? o Yes o No Q2) Are you aware about telecommunications service? o Yes o No If yes, then which operator’s Service do you use? o Vodafone

(Multi-choice)

o Airtel o Idea o Reliance o BSNL o Tata Indicom ( If not Vodafone then go to Q12 ) Q3) Are you aware about Vodafone? o Yes o No

(If No, then go to Q11 )

Q4) From which source you came to know about Vodafone? o Advertisement o Hoardings o Newspapers o Mouth Publicity Q5) Since how long you are using Vodafone services? o Less than 1 month o 2-6 months o 6-12 months o More than 1 year

102

(Multi-choice)

Q6) Which of the following services do you use of Vodafone? o Pre-paid o Post-paid Q7) Which services are more helpful to you while using Vodafone services? o Call rates

(Multi-choice)

o SMS service o Network o Value Added Services Q8) Dou you call at customer care? o Yes o No If yes, how often you call at customer care? o Daily o Once a week o Once a month o Occasionally Q9) For what reason you call at customer care? o Value added services o Information regarding new schemes o Other queries o Complaining

103

(Multi-choice)

104

Q10) Rate the following services on the basis of your satisfaction. Services

Excellent

Very Good

Fairly good

Average

Network SMS rates New schemes and offers Customer Care Recharge outlets Call Rates Value Added Services

Q11) What makes you unaware about Vodafone? o Less Advertisements o Less Publicity o Others (If others then mention ________________________) Q12) Why you are not using Vodafone services? o

Lack of awareness

o

High Prices

o

Poor Services

o

Poor network

Q13) Would you like to recommend Vodafone to others?

105

(Multi-choice)

Poor

o Yes o No

Q14) Give your suggestions to help in serve you better. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Name: ________________ Age: ___ years Sex: Male/Female Contact no.: ___________ Signature: __________

106