2..COMPARATIVE

International Journal of Business Management & Research (IJBMR) ISSN 2249-6920 Vol. 2 Issue 4 Dec 2012 13-20 Š TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS BSNL AND AIRTEL OPERATING IN GWALIOR DIVISION INDIA 1

R.C.UPADHYAYA & 2VASHUNDHRA SHARMA

1

Prof.Commerce Department, GOVT.K.R.G.College, Jiwaji University, Gwalior(M.P.), India 2

P.hd Scholar, Jiwaji University, Gwalior(M.P.), India

ABSTRACT In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. communication have become an integral part of the growth, success and efficiency of any business. This is the technology that gives a person the power to communicate anytime, anywhere. Due to advancement in technology, now communication becomes easy and faster.

India's telecom sector has shown massive upsurge in the recent years in all respects of industrial growth. From the status of state monopoly with very limited growth, it has grown in to the level of an industry. Telephone, whether fixed landline or mobile, is an essential necessity for the people of India. This changing phase was possible with the economic development that followed the process of structuring the economy in the capitalistic pattern. The stupendous growth of the telecommunication companies in India over the last fifteen years can be attributed to the liberal government of India, economic policy. In this research paper, special emphasis has been laid over the comparative analysis of telecom companies AIRTEL and BSNL by using primary sources of data in Gwalior division of madhyapradesh . For the completion of efficient research work, descriptive and exploratory research design has been used which further conclude that BSNL is having weak performance as compared to Bharti Airtel . Trends of previous 5 years in Gwalior division have shown that BSNL company has slowly deteriorated its position.

KEYWORDS: Broadband ,Customer Satisfaction, Wireline, Wireless INTRODUCTION Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for example. In the modern age of electricity and electronics, telecommunications now also includes the use of electrical devices such as telegraphs, telephones, and teleprinters, the use of radio and microwave communications, as well as fiber optics and their associated electronics, plus the use of the orbiting satellites and the Internet.A revolution in wireless telecommunications began in the first decade of the 20th century with pioneering developments in wireless radio communications by Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi.

Marconi won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his efforts. Other highly notable pioneering inventors and developers in the field of electrical and electronic telecommunications include Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse (telegraph), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), Edwin Armstrong, and Lee de Forest (radio), as well as John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth (television). The world's effective capacity to exchange information through two-way telecommunication networks grew from 281 petabytes of (optimally compressed) information in 1986, to 471 petabytes in 1993, to 2.2 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2000, and to 65 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2007. This is the

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R.C.Upadhyaya & Vashundhra Sharma

informational equivalent of 2 newspaper pages per person per day in 1986, and 6 entire newspapers per person per day by 2007. Given this growth, telecommunications play an increasingly important role in the world economy and the worldwide telecommunication industry's revenue was estimated to be $3.85 trillion in 2008. The service revenue of the global telecommunications industry was estimated to be $1.7 trillion in 2008, and is expected to touch $2.7 trillion by 2013.

The telecom sector reforms were undertaken in three phases. The first phase began in the 80’s, when private manufacturing of customer promise equipment was given a go-ahead in 1984. A proliferation of individual STD/ISD/PCO network also took place throughout the country by way of private individual franchises. Maharashtra Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was created out of the department of telecommunication (DOT) to handle the sectors of Mumbai and Delhi respectively. A high powered telecom commission was set up in 1989. Later Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) became the international service provider catering to telecom services originating from India. The second phase of reforms commenced in 1991 with the announcement of new economic policy. The government delivered the manufacturer of telecom equipment in 1991. It also ahead up radio services in 1992. In 1994, basic telephony was opened to the private sector by granting operating licenses to six companies. Also part of the second phase was the introduction of the National Telecom Policy 1994. It emphasized universal service and qualitative improvement in telecom services among other objectives. An independent statutory regulatory was established in 1997, Internet services were opened up in 1998.

The third phase & reforms began with the announcement of the new telecom policy in 1999. The theme of NTP was to usher in full competition through a restricted entry of private players in all service sectors. The policy favored the migration of existing operators from the era of fixed license fee regime to that of revenue sharing. The policy further declined the strengthen of the regulator opening up of international long distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) services to the private sector and corporation of telecom services. The year 2001 witnessed the entry of private operators in offering basic telephony and NLD services.

The telecom sector began witnessing a trend of growth with these reforms basic services were opened for unlimited competition more licenses were issued to the private sector for cellular services. There has also been a considerable increase in the rate of tale density. The telecom sector has thus completely changed both in terms of coverage and efficiency of services. Provision of landlines a demand, digital telephone, exchanges and the acceptability of optic fiber and wireless technology are a few instances of the change that took instances of the change that took place in the industry.

Cellular telephone services have achieved great commercial success; because users recognize the mobile telephone access can improve productivity and enhance safety. A new subscriber is opting for cellular services for personal security, safety and convenience. Increase in demand and the poor quality of existing telecommunications landline services. Mobile service providers will be benefited from the research, the ways to improve their quality of service and to support more users in their system. The present study has been made to identity the customer’s attitude towards cell phones ,telephones,broadband services of BSNL and AIRTEL in Gwalior Division. Many private operators have entered in to the cellular segment to provide services. It has brought heavy competition in to the market. They have to find out the customers attitudes towards this service which could be useful to formulate new strategies policy and market their services in a better way.

RESEARCH METHOLOGY Primary data was collected through observation, questionnaires and interviews. Along with Filling up of questionnaire interviews in local language with customer was done. The data is selected as a major primary data collection

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A Comparative Study of Telecommunication Service Providers Bsnl and Airtel Operating in Gwalior Division India

method, since the aim of the study is the customers perceived service quality and how it is related to customer satisfaction our main focus is thus the customer.

Study Methodology The study was conducted in two modules. The first module (subjective survey) was undertaken to gauge the subscriber feedback on quality of service by way of a large sample based field survey. The second module (objective assessment) involved auditing of the QoS monitoring records of telecom operators.To gauge the level of satisfaction of subscribers with the quality of service provided by the service providers, interviews across a large sample of subscribers for Basic (Wireline), Cellular Mobile

(Wireless) and broadband services were conducted. The sample survey was

conducted to ensure spread across operators on the basis of their subscriber size and the type of circle in which we are conducting the interviews. The satisfaction level of subscribers was collected on a four-point scale of “Very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “dissatisfied” and “very dissatisfied”.

The questionnaire is divided into two broad segments viz.

1.

The first part dealt with all the aspects of customer perception of service which was detailed out by asking questions for basic (wireline) and cellular mobile (wireless) segments and questions for the broadband segment.

2.

The second part of the questionnaire was about checking the awareness, implementation and effectiveness of ‘telecom consumer’s protection and redressal of grievances regulations. This module entailed questions which probed the consumers exhaustively on the three stage redressal mechanism.

Definition of Key Terms Wireline Service – These are the telephone services that are provided by various service providers for home / office installations. These telephone connections are connected by a copper wire.

Wireless Service – This service encompasses the services based on both GSM and CDMA network technologies. These are typically known as mobile services.

Broadband Service – Broadband’ is defined in the Broadband Policy 2004 as “An always on data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of the minimum download speed of 256 kilo bits per second (kbps) to an individual subscriber from the Point of Presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide Broadband service where multiple such individual Broadband connections are aggregated and the subscriber is able to access these interactive services including the Internet through this POP. The 2 interactive services will exclude any services for which a separate license is specifically required, for example, real-time voice transmission, except to the extent that it is presently permitted under ISP license with Internet Telephony”.

Table 1 QoS Parameter Service provision Network performance, reliability & availability

Satisfaction with Wireline on: Time taken to get a new phone connection -Phone working & always available - Make & receive calls easily - Getting clear voice quality on phone

Satisfaction with Celluler Services on: Time taken for activation of connection -Availability of signals - Make & receive calls easily - Getting clear voice quality of phone

Satisfaction with Broadband Services on: Time taken to get a broadband connection -Speed of broadband connection - Service uptime

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R.C.Upadhyaya & Vashundhra Sharma

Table 1 – Contd., Satisfaction with Wireline Satisfaction with on: Celluler Services on:

QoS Parameter Maintainability

Quality of fault repair service

Help services

-Ease of access to helpline numbers - Response time of the customer care executive - Problem solving ability of the executive - Time taken by executive to resolve complaint - Redressal mechanism Timely delivery of bills - Accuracy of bill - Clarity of bill - Accuracy of charges deducted (for prepaid) Quality of supplementary services provided Overall rating of quality

Billing

Supplementary services Overall satisfaction

-Availability of network - Restoration of network problems -Ease of access to helpline numbers - Response time of the customer care executive - Problem solving ability of the executive - Time taken by executive to resolve complaint - Redressal mechanism Timely delivery of bills - Accuracy of bill - Clarity of bill - Accuracy of charges deducted (for prepaid) Quality of supplementary services provided Overall rating of quality

Satisfaction with Broadband Services on: Time taken for restoration of connection -Ease of access to helpline numbers - Response time of the customer care executive - Problem solving ability of the executive - Time taken by executive to resolve complaint prepaid) - Redressal mechanism Timely delivery of bills - Accuracy of bill - Clarity of bill - Accuracy of charges deducted

Quality of supplementary services provided Overall rating of performance

Table 1 is showing different QoS parameter on the basis of these parameter we analyzed performance of BSNL and AIRTEL in Gwalior division.

RESULTS Table 2: Summary of the Survey Module for Basic (Wireline) in the Gwalior Division S.No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Performance Customers satisfied with provisioning of service Customers satisfied with billing performance Customers satisfied with network performance, reliability and availability Customers satisfied with maintainability Customers satisfied with supplementary and value added services Customers satisfied with help services including grievance redressal Customers satisfied with overall service quality

BSNL 90 96

Airtel 96 96

74 93

84 95

85

88

96 79

96 89

Satisfaction level of subscribers in percentage with various parameters of Basic (Wireline) service are shown in Table -2.

17

Percentage

A Comparative Study of Telecommunication Service Providers Bsnl and Airtel Operating in Gwalior Division India

100 80 60 40 20 0

BSNL AIRTEL 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Service No.

Figure 1: Show Satisfaction Level of Subscribers with Various Parameters of Basic (Wireline Wireline) Service Table 3: Summary off the Survey Module for Wireless in the Gwalior Division S.No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Performance Customers satisfied with provisioning of service Customers satisfied with billing performance Customers satisfied with network performance, reliability and availability Customers satisfied with maintainability Customers satisfied with supplementary and value added services Customers satisfied with help services including grievance redressal Customers satisfied with overall service quality

BSNL 92 91

Airtel 95 91

47 72

79 90

66

78

65 75

73 89

Percentage

Satisfaction level of subscribers in percentage with various parameters of Wireless service are shown in Table-3 Table

100 80 60 40 20 0

BSNL AIRTEL 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Service No.

Figure 2: Show Satisfaction Level of Subscribers with Various Parameters of Wireless Service Table 4: Summary of the t Survey Module for Broadband in the Gwalior Division S.No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Performance Customers satisfied with provisioning of service Customers satisfied with billing performance Customers satisfied with network performance, reliability and availability Customers satisfied with maintainability Customers satisfied with supplementary and value added services Customers satisfied with help services including grievance redressal Customers satisfied with overall service quality

BSNL 86 87

Airtel 95 89

94 84

94 88

89

93

94 90

95 94

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R.C.Upadhyaya & Vashundhra Sharma

Satisfaction levell of subscribers in percentage with various parameters of Broadband service are shown in Table -4.

Percentage

95 90 85 BSNL 80 AIRTEL 75 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Service No.

Figure 3: Show Satisfaction Level of Subscribers with Various Parameters of Broadband Service

CONCLUSIONS This paper presenting customer satisfaction in Gwalior division with some QoS parameter. This paper is based on a survey which is done in Gwalior division on BSNL and AIRTEL service providers. here we prepare questionnaire for wireline, wireless less and broadband customer separately which includes questions regarding performance of Service providers. On the basis of data that are filled by customers we analyzed performance of BSNL and AIRTEL on following parameter Customers satisfied with provis provisioning ioning of service, Customers satisfied with billing performance, Customers satisfied with network performance, reliability and availability, Customers satisfied with maintainability, Customers satisfied with supplementary and value added services, Customers Customers satisfied with help services including grievance redressal ,and Customers satisfied with overall service quality. after analysis of performance we found that customers are very satisfy with the services which are providing by AIRTEL.customers are not sa satisfy tisfy with the services that are providing

by BSNL.in some case there is need to improve the services of BSNL other wise in future due to competitive environment survival of BSNL is not possible. In wireline and broadband the performance of BSNL and AIRTEL are almost similar.

There is only problem with wireless service of BSNL. So there is need to improvement in this area.

FUTURE SCOPE This paper is limited to survey the customer satisfaction in Gwalior division which include Gwalior ,Datia, Shivpuri ,Guna, and Ashoknagar. one can go to survey the same for different division of Madhya Pradesh. this paper is basically focus comparision between BSNL and AIRTEL service providers, one can go to do same survey with different service providers like reliance,idea,aircel,Vodafone nce,idea,aircel,Vodafone etc.it can be done in rural and urban area separately.

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DR. SARIKA .R. LOHANA (2012),” CUSTOMER RESPOND AND SATISFACTION AGAINST MARKETING STRATEGIES OF SELECTED CELLULAR SERVICE PROVIDERS IN NANDED CITY” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies, Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834.

2.

ESHA SHARMA “ COMPARISON OF BSNL WITH OTHER TELECOM INDUSTRIES” APJRBM Volume 2, Issue 1 (JANUARY 2011) ISSN 2229 2229-4104

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Malik V. (2010): “The New Mark Marketing Border” The Journal of AIMA, Vol. 49, Issue 10, pp.82-84. pp.82

A Comparative Study of Telecommunication Service Providers Bsnl and Airtel Operating in Gwalior Division India

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