1

Abstract

Indian mobile market is one of the fastest growing markets and is forecasted to reach
868.47 million users by 2013. India has seen rapid increase in the number of players which
caused the tariff rates to hit an all time low. This allowed the players to target the low income
population thereby increasing the market share. The availability of a number of subscriber
options for consumers and varied tariff rates of each player, lead the consumers to switch
between service providers. The objectives of the study are to find the factors that influence
the consumers in switching the service provider and to delve into finding out the likeliness of
switching the service provider. The type of research used for this study is descriptive
research design. The area covered under this study was Nadiad due to availability of well
mixed population base. A well structured questionnaire was designed and administered to
collect samples across Nadiad. Due to high population and need for variety of respondents,
Cluster Sampling method was chosen. The sample size was 200 The variables considered
for the study are Consumer demographics, Consumer satisfaction with existing service
provider, Factors influencing the switching behavior and factors that affect the switching
behavior of consumers and these were grouped into 4 categories namely customer service,
service problems, usage cost and others. The results from the study reveal that call rates
plays the most important role in switching the service provider followed by network coverage,
value added service and customer care while advertisement plays the least important role. It
is found that there is a relation between switching the service provider and the factors
(customer service, service problem, usage cost, etc.). After analyzing the findings of the
study, we propose that the mobile providers concentrate on increasing network stability and
setting tariff rates competitively.


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Index
No. Topic Page No
1 Introduction Indian
Cellular Industry
3
2 Introduction Mobile
Number Portability

5
3 PROCESS OF MNP: HOW
TO CHANGE MOBILE
OPERATOR?

6
4 LITRETURE REVIEW

7
5 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

9
6 Bibliography

10

3

Introduction Indian Cellular Industry

India is today one of the largest telecom markets in the world, with an addition of
more than 18 million subscribers every month. Telecom sector has continued to emerge as
the prime engine of economic growth, contributing to nearly 2% of the Indian GDP. Indian
telecommunication sector has undergone a major transformation through significant policy
reforms, particularly under NTP 1999. Driven by various policy initiatives, the Indian telecom
sector has achieved a phenomenal growth during the last few years and is poised to take a
big leap in the future.
The history of telephone services in India found its beginning when a 50-line manual
telephone exchange was commissioned in Kolkata in the year 1882 in less than five years
after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Today India has the world's second-
largest mobile phone users with over 903 million as of January 2012. In recent years, the
Telecom sector has been delivering strong returns on investments and steady subscriber
additions. This growth has been built on wireless revolution. The industry is expected to
reach a size of 344,921 Crore (US$ 68.81 billion) by 2012 at a growth rate of over 26 per
cent, and generate employment opportunities for about 10 million people during the same
period.


(Source: http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/WhatsNew/Documents/PR-TSD-Dec,%2013-
17022014.pdf)


Trends in the Industry
Rise in Cloud Computing: As improved broadband capacity helps to overcome
network bottlenecks, cloud-based offerings from telecom operators and ICT providers will
continue to grow. One Nation, One License Policy: With this, there will be no difference
between Local and STD Calls. This also means that there will be no roaming charges while
4

in India. New telecom policy is declared in June 2012. Digitization of Cable TV: This will help
the government to pursue India's broadband goals and thereby help to boost economic
growth. Smart devices and Digital content: As 3G will be stabilized by 2012 which will fuel
4G, smart devices like tablet, smart phone, smart TV will become a media for video and
digital content consumption. Bharti recently set the trend by launching 4G services in India.
The growth of Indian telecommunication sector is highly driven by supportive government
policies, emerging new technologies and changing consumer behavior. The fact that the
industry has made stupendous growth in recent times is reflected in the statistics below:

Key Statistics
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revealed that the country's mobile
subscriber base has increased from 893.84 million in December 2011 to 903.73 million in
January 2012. Telecom operators added 9.88 million mobile subscribers in January 2012.
The overall tele-density reached 77.57 per cent. Broadband subscriber base increased from
13.30 million at the end of December 2011 to 13.42 million at the end of January 2012.
Industry experts believe that Smartphone segment would be the fastest-emerging division
that would even outpace the overall handset market. The segment is anticipated to account
for 29 per cent of the total handset volume with 97.2 million units by 2017, registering a
CAGR of around 40 per cent. Third largest in the world and the second largest among the
emerging economies of Asia, the Indian Telecommunication network has emerged as a
leader time and again. Owing to this growth, a large number of multinational
telecommunication leaders are pouring into the nation and expressing their interest to invest
in the telecom industry in India.

5




Introduction Mobile Number Portability
Experiencing a rapid development which in turn is supporting the growth in Indian
economy, Provides ample chances employment and self employment generation. As mobile
number Portability has been introduced in India, retaining existing customers is now a very
tough job For network providers. After the introduction of mobile number portability in India,
the Mobile users switching turnover is more. This paper brings to light the reasons behind
that Mobile Number Portability on Switching Behavior-Indian Mobile Market.

Mobile Number Portability is the process by which, one can move to another
operator of Ones choice, but one can retain the old number. The advantage is that one need
not have to Go through the problem of informing all your friends & family that your number
has changed - It stays the same. Subscriber can keep with the same technology,
GSM/CDMA. Also shift to CDMA or vice versa. Both post-paid & prepaid subscribers can
use it.

Globally, the introduction of MNP across markets has witnessed a mixed response
from customers. The push for MNP implementation has always been led by market
regulators in An effort to provide mobile customers with the freedom to move between
service providers And drive healthier competition. Globally, among the major countries,
Singapore was the First to implement MNP in 1997, followed by Hong Kong, Australia,
Germany, US and France etc.

MNP has been introduced in India, in two phases. It has been introduced first in
Indian metro City and group a telecom zones, on December 31, 2009, and afterward in the
remaining part Of the country, by March 20, 2010. Subscribers have to pay up all due bills
before making an Application for MNP. The mobile porting fee is to be paid to the latest
operator. No fee Payment is necessary to be given to the operator for porting. TRAI said that
porting between Mobile operators are supposed to be accomplished within four days.
Prepaid users must keep in mind that their balance talk time and SMS will disappear if they
switch to a different Operator. According to the Indian telecom regulator TRAI, nearly 8.54
million subscribers were issued porting requests in the month of April 2011, an increase of
32.98% month on Month. (www.mnp-india.com).


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PROCESS OF MNP: HOW TO CHANGE MOBILE OPERATOR?

Earlier the subscribers were hesitant to change their operators due to fear of losing their
existing mobile number, but now with the introduction MNP subscribers can easily switch to
new operator while retaining the same mobile number. Theres a catch though. You cannot
switch operator and retain number if you have been with that operator for less than three
months. Prepaid users must remember that their balance talk time will disappear if they
switch to a different operator. The maximum downtime between deactivating the existing
connection and starting the new connection will be a maximum of two hours. TRAI has
forwarded the responsibility to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to select an
operator who will be licensed to manage an end-to-end MNP solution.

Subscribers must pay up all pending bills before making an application for MNP.
The porting fee is to be paid to the new operator.
No payment is required to be given to the operator you are leaving.
TRAI said that porting between mobile operators should be accomplished within four
days.

PER PORT TRANSACTION CHARGE
The per port transaction charge has been computed by dividing the total cost to the MNP
Service Provider (MNPSP) by the estimated number of porting subscribers, over a period of
5 years. Accordingly, the Per Port Transaction charge works out as follows:-

Table 2: Per Port transaction charges
Particulars Unit Amount
Total Cost Rs. In Million 2,320.47
Average Cost of Porting In Million 123.26
Per port transaction charge In Rs. 18.83
License Fee at 1% In Rs. 0.19
Total Per Port Transaction Charge In Rs. 19.02
Rounded-Off In Rs. 19.0

Source: TRAI
TRAI said that subscribers in India will be able to change their service providers while
keeping the same mobile number, at a fee of no more than Rs. 19. It doesnt matter whether
you want switch from GSM to CDMA or vice-versa, or within GSM and CDMA operators; you
can still retain the same number. However, initially, you will be able to switch operators and
retain the number only within the same telecom circle. You cannot retain the same number
and change operators if you want to, say, move from Delhi to Bangalore. TRAI also said that
service providers will be able to charge any amount less than or equal to Rs 19.
7



LITRETURE REVIEW

Suvalaxmi Patra and Jayakrushna Panda (2013), they both explored the topic as A
STUDY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDER . research
objectives have been identified to be studied during the course of this ongoing research. To
analyse the factors which consumer considers at the time of purchase of cell phone, to find
out brand of cell phone affect consumer behavior & to find out whether gender has an effect
on purchase of cell phone or not. The present study follows a 2 X 2 factorial design of
research. Factor one refers to types of consumers (business and professional) versus
students and factor two refers the gender (male & female) there are four sub groups namely:
Male business man and professional, Female business man and professional, Male students
and Female students. In each sub groups there are sixty respondents (N = 240) and the
minimum educational qualification of the respondents is graduation. The study focused a
persuasive random technique for selecting the respondents. An overall analysis reveals that
users of the entire four brands do give importance to the necessity of using cell phone, brand
name, categories, SIM, screen type, camera resolution, memory capacity, connectivity /
internet and The ANOVA revels both gender and consumer type talk time. It indicates that
consumers are contentious jointly influences cell phone use. about technology and system.
Since the study follows a 2 X 2 factorial design two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
used to interpret the data this analysis indicate the main effect as well as the interaction
effect. It is used for each brand separately.

Suresh A.S (2011), he explored on MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES . MNP gives the subscriber an option to choose
from the various service providers. Mobile phone companies will be under constant pressure
to improve their services so that their subscribers not only stay with them but they are also
able to attract subscribers from other networks. Competition will, hopefully, ensure that they
introduce better service plans with lower tariffs. At the same time, it will benefit new players
immensely. Introduction of mobile number portability will facilitate the easy exit of disgruntled
users. This also means operators will have to put more effort to provide better services to
retain the customers, better services mean the companies will have to set up more mobile
phone towers, upgrade their equipment and provide instant rectification of problems so that
the subscribers are always able to get connected, surf the internet and make full use of their
mobile telephones.

K. Kumaresh and S.Praveena (2012), they have explored in their research on title as
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER SWITCHING BEHAVIOR TOWARDS MOBILE
NUMBER PORTABILITY. The objectives of the study are to find out the factors influencing
customer mobile number portability, to identify the problems encounter by the respondents
to switchover another service provider and to suggest strategies to retain the customers for
the service providers. In order to study the Mobile Number Portability in Erode city, both
primary and secondary data were collected. Secondary data was collected from different
magazines, newspapers and government publications. For collection of primary data from
respondents (customers) separate well structured interview schedule was prepared based
on the objectives of the study and pretested. For this purpose 100 MNP customers randomly
selected from the different mobile services in Erode city. The following statistical techniques
were used to analyze the data Percentage analysis, Factor analysis, Discriminate analysis
and Garrett ranking. Most of the sample respondents were young age and low income
category. To attract the low income and high income group of people, the case firm should
provide more schemes and offers as provided by its competitors to increase the Mobile
number portability respondents. And Considerable share of the respondents were aware of
8

MNP through Advertisement, friends and relatives, so the case firm should provide
promotions like offers and discounts for the persons who motivate their relatives and friends
to avail MNP.

Richard Lee, Jamie Murphy, University of Western Australia (2005), their study
investigates determinants that cause mobile phone Customers to transit from being loyal to
switching. It concluded that there are different factors which affect the Customers to switch
from loyalty to switching intentions such as price, technical service quality, Functional
service quality, switching costs, etc. But, the rating was given that price is the most important
factor which affects the Customers to switch loyalties to another provider.

Conor Twomey (2008), Department of Statistics, University College Cork, Ireland, they try
to identify hysteresis in the switching patterns of Customers in the Irish mobile phone
industry. It was not until the introduction by the Communication Regulator of full-number
portability that Customers began to take advantage of the savings that switching mobile
phone operator could produce. Through the use of experimental economics and by modeling
switching behavior using the Preisach model, along with observed and market data suggests
that the average Customer is misguided and misinformed in his/her decision to switch to bill
pay. More realistically though, one can attribute this unexpected result to the enhanced
services and mobile phone subsidies that a Customer receives as a bill-pay Customer.

Mitja Pirc, Universitat Pompeu Fabra(2006), Spain, the Mobile telecommunications
service sector, in spite of providing high service quality and striving for Customer
satisfaction, is characterized by dynamic Customer activities and provider switching. By
using the consumption system perspective on mobile services and mobile phone, he
provides the explanation on the factors of Customer switching. It is found that the mobile
services usage effect on switching intentions is curvilinear (positive linear and negative
quadratic) and that only the budgetary constraint regarding the service matters and not the
one related to the mobile phone. Past mobile service providers switching experience also
contributes to the intention to switch. Mobile phone ego involvement has positive impact on
Customer retention; however purchase involvement (both mobile phone and mobile
services) increases Customer risk.

Oyeniyi, Omotayo* and Abiodun Abolaji Joachim (2008), He attempts to find the
relationship between Customer services on Customer retention in telecommunication
industry in Nigeria. If retention is not managed, Customers loyalty may be lost. He examines
the potential constructs in Customer retention by investigating the chain of effects of
retention from Customer service, satisfaction, value and behavioural intention. The
hypotheses are supported except that a higher level of Customer satisfaction does not lead
to Customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction does not necessarily lead to Customers loyalty.
It is assumed that when the Customer is satisfied, then loyalty towards the telecom company
is strengthened. Their results, further show that the respondents in their study have a
positive impression towards their telecom companys ability to meet their changing needs.











9


RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Problem identification

expansion.
innovative and attractive services.
is increasing, so each one of them wants to overplay
others to attract the consumers.
switching cost.

Objectives

To identify customer awareness about mobile number portability.

Nadiad .



Scope


accordingly new plans can be formulated.
This study can be extended to understand the switching behavior of a particular cellular
service provider

Research Design

At initial stage, the research design is exploratory because the research statement was
developed on the basis of the review of literature that was available on internet, in books and
journals. After framing the research statement, the research design becomes descriptive as
it now describe..

Data Collection

In this study, the primary data was obtained by administering structured questionnaires. The
secondary data was collected through various literature reviews and articles.

Sampling Design:

Here non-probability convenience sampling has been used. 200 customers were selected.
The sampling unit comprises the respondents who are living in Nadiad. Questionnaire was
used for the purpose of the data collection as the research instrument. This Questionnaire
consisted of closed ended questions including rating scales.


Sample Size: 200 samples from the region of Nadiad.


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