A Project report on

(Airtel application world)

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Ms. Sufia Khan Jigar Rathod
(Faculty, MOS) Ridhima Bhanot
Mr. Aayushman Gupta Sruti Ray
(Faculty, MPS) Sambedana Samal
Snigdha Solanki
Vijay Kumar Gupta
Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel
Limited, one of Asia’s leading integrated
telecom services providers with operations in
India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Bharti Airtel
since its inception has been at the forefront
of technology and has pioneered several
innovations in the telecom sector.

The company is structured into four strategic

business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise
and Digital TV. The mobile business offers
services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Telemedia business provides broadband,
IPTV and telephone services in 94 Indian
cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-
to-Home TV services across India. The
Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate
customers and national and international long distance services to telcos.

However, as a new service, we plan to enter

the product diversification, and introduce a
whole new service called AIRTEL Application
World in which we would be having tie up with
Mobile companies like Nokia and Samsung.
While using their Operating Systems, we plan
to provide our applications utilizing 3G
network. Unlimited data transfer between
the company's server and unlimited data
storage will be USP of our service using cloud
computing concept. Applications like on-line
multiplayer gaming, encrypted push mail services, live messenger and high speed
internet will give single portal access for ever requirement. The concept of cloud
computing and application pack with monthly rental could do the cost cutting and
provide application on fixed cost basis while avoiding fake applications and
unwanted viruses.
After launching of 3G in India, mobile internet users are increasing day by day.
When mobile companies are providing high speed internet at reasonable rates
due to cut throat competition, every tech savvy person is switching to 3G services.
Airtel is well known for its mobile and broadband service. Also Airtel has started
service names NET PC using cloud computing service. Airtel application world can
prove to be one of the most useful VAS made to fulfill all requirements of smart
phone users. Airtel application world will serve their users virus free application
encyclopedia along with unlimited storage and encrypted push mail service to
cater all aspects from business to leisure.

Airtel application world will serve in

following particular areas.

1) Business applications
2) Online gaming
3) Music
4) Leisure
5) Education

While more and more no. of people are using internet, when internet is inevitable
part of education, Airtel application world will be portrayed in user’s mind as
“Aladdin’s magical Lamp”. Starting from business applications like virtual meeting
place and push mail service to 3D multiplayer gaming, this application world will
give magical experience to its users at very affordable price. When cybercriminals
are major threat for any internet user, Airtel application world will provide
unbeatable security with encrypted data transfer and proxy servers. Also, first
time in mobile world, Airtel will use cloud computing concept to remove barrier
of storage limitation. With application packs at monthly rental, service users will
get their required software applications at affordable rate and without a fear of
fake applications. With latest technology and secured high speed data transfer,
Airtel application world will create benchmark in application world as an initiator
and innovator.
Bharti Airtel, a leading mobile service provider in India is Bharti Enterprises'
flagship company. According to Forbes Global 2000 list, Bharti Airtel, India's
pioneering private telecommunication service provider is ranked #826.

This integrated telecom service provider operates three strategic business units
covering 23 telecommunication circles. These three strategic businesses are
mobile business, enterprise business, and Airtel Telemedia business. Their mobile
business comprising fixed wireless and mobile services is spread over 23 telecom
circles, whereas their Airtel Telemedia business provides telephone and
broadband services to clients in 94 cities. International and domestic long
distance services and end to end telecommunication solution for companies are
included in Airtel enterprise businesses.

Brief history
Bharti Airtel was established as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited in 1985. This
telecommunication company is a joint stock holding enterprise headquartered in
New Delhi. Bharti Airtel, commonly called 'Airtel' is among largest mobile service
operator with a subscriber base of nearly 75 million. Airtel has a submarine cable
landing station in Chennai connecting this South Indian city to Singapore.

Products and services

Services offered by Bharti Airtel can be classified into:
Mobile services – Based on number of customers Bharti Airtel is largest mobile
service operator in India. This company offers mobile services based on GSM
technology. For convenience of its customers Bharti Airtel has both pre- paid and
post paid facilities.
Enterprise business – Bharti Airtel provides integrated services comprising mobile,
telephone, broadband, data and connectivity services internationally as well as
nationally for small, medium and large scale enterprises. Its carrier service
provides network connectivity through optic fiber over a distance of more than
35,000 km. Bharti Airtel is a member of South East Asia – Middle East – Western
Europe – 4 consortiums which include 15 global
telecommunication service providers.
Airtel Telemedia Services – This Company offers high speed broadband services
through landlines in 94 cities.

Financials
Bharti Airtel till March 2008 had assets worth US $6.61 billion. During period
between April 2007 – March 2008, it achieved sales amounting to US $6.61 billion
and profits of US $0.94 billion.

Awards and recognition

Bharti Airtel was adjudged 'Best Carrier India' at 2008 Telecom Asia. It was
recognized as 'Best Cellular Service Provider
' and 'Best Broadband Service Provider' at V&D 100 awards for 2008. In 2007,
Bharti Airtel won 'Business Leadership Award' from NDTV Profit.
Strengths:

• Bharti Airtel has more than 65 million customers (July 2008). It is the largest
cellular provider in India, and also supplies broadband and telephone
services - as well as many other telecommunications services to both
domestic and corporate customers.
• Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing
Tel, with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business
has access to knowledge and technology from other parts of the
telecommunications world.
• The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This
has underpinned its large and rising customer base.

Weakness:

• An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by
Sunil Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and
experience of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the
start-up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field.
• Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular
strength of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are
important if your company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally.
• The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN
could signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity
for the business once the Indian market has become mature.

Opportunities:

• The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine

which will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with
Google can only enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising
opportunities in Indian for Google.
 • Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key
strategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in
India via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with
BlackBerry Wireless Solutions.
• Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the
early days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper,
and to question industry approaches and practices - for example replacing
the Revenue-Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which
is better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote
villages and towns.
• The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small
villages every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to
afford a few tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits
are scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy.
• Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and
Idea Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus
Towers. This new business will control more than 60% of India's network
towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could underpin the
company's long-term strategy.

Threats:

• Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone

which owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and
instead invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology
previously available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its
competitors.
• The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could
tempt Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable
if the world goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the
decision not to proceed with talks about the potential purchase of South
Africa's MTN in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance
Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Inidan
 industrialist to invest in the new emerging African telecommunications
market.
• Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global
telecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market.

Effect of SWOT on new service launch

Strengths: Weakness:
 Ready customer database  Airtel did not own its own
 Old strategic tie-ups with towers
mobile companies
 Pan India coverage
Opportunity: Threats:
 Customized Google search  other companies like
engine Vodafone and RIM
 joint venture with Vodafone  quickly changing pace of the
Essar and Idea Cellular to global telecommunication
create a new independent
tower company called Indus
Towers

Major Challenges :

Getting a Disproportionate Share of customers

• Plan and Deploy network

• Distribution through a hub and spoke model

Build Relevance for its products and services- Network & affordability

• Build Capability to Make Scale an Advantage

 • Segmentation( consumer, trade) and segmented delivery

• Technology automation

• Building internal people capabilities like restructuring of the marketing

team which was carried out recently.

Delight current customers

• Build trust- lead simplification of tariff, customer touch points

• Drive innovation- Data and services which would be user friendly.

Future Challenges-

• Mobile number portability (MNP) is a facility given by operators where a

subscriber can move from one service provider to another without
changing the number allocated to the subscriber.

• Thus, under MNP, a subscriber will have the option of retaining the same
phone number issued by the old operator even with the new operator.

• To achieve the successful implementation of MNP, operators should

consider carrying out a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to ascertain
whether or not the implementation of the technology would prove to be
profitable for the operator.

Future Strategies-

• Translate its expertise in Indian markets to other emerging economies. This

could call for acquisitions globally.

• Technology leadership is a must – Airtel must ensure that its reliance on

GSM technology does not render it obsolete.

• Indian market in spite of being the worlds largest is still not matured.
Opportunities abound in the hinterland which must be exploited.
The Service:

Airtel application world is going to cater the service packs and application combos
at never before rates and price. With entry of 3G, this revolutionized telecom
world will take new directions to achieve new heights with high data transfer
rates and immense opportunities. As in past scenario, every company used to
provide mobile internet and VAS as a separate thing along with company
download center. Now, with new technologies like cloud computing and 3G,
companies and third party software providers are designing their software again
to meet high quality standards and
requirements. This will act as an add-
on to all the existing services that are
being provided by AIRTEL to its
customers with a minimal additional
price. The already existing services
include-

 Instant Balance Enquiry

 24Hr recharge Facility
 Caller line identification
 Call divert, Call wait & Call Hold
  Multimedia messaging service (MMS)
 Airtel Live Portal
 SMS based Information Service
 Hello Tunes & Ring Tones
 Voice Mail Service
 Easy Post-paid bill collection
 Gifting of Ring Tones & Hello Tunes
 GPRS
 Business Solutions

USP of the service:

USP of this service will be cloud computing principles in mobile services, 3D

multiplayer mobile gaming and many more. Company will provide service like
encrypted push mail service to keep pace with other service providers like
blackberry. Also, unlimited online storage, 3D multiplayer online gaming, virtual
meeting place, customized google search engine and ready to access online
software pool will add on to customer’s ease of access and company’s
profitability. Also while customers will use all applications online, one can avoid
problems related to platform of software as many mobile just supports java based
software only. So mobiles will become virtually platform free.

Pricing strategy:

Pricing strategy will be unique than other service providers as company is going to
launch this new service. Company will provide unlimited data transfer to its
central server for accessing Airtel applications and song jukebox at a fixed
monthly rental. Gaming pack will come on monthly rental and on one time use
basis. Online application pool access will give customers flexibility to choose from
various applications and just pay for them to access online. Customers will receive
client software which will retrieve software from online database as per
customer’s subscription.

Sales and Distribution plan:

As company is having large customer base and pan India footprint, distributors of
Airtel telecom will help to distribute this new product. Also customers will get an
option to subscribe online from Airtel website. USPs of company’s new service
will help company to attract new customers which are currently using 2G service.

Advertisement and Promotion:

As this new service will cost bit higher

than normal service to the customers,
company will do aggressive but
focused marketing. Viral marketing
through emails and advertisements on
social networking sites like orkut,
Facebook and Linked-In will play a
vital role in spreading a word to
customers. Every Airtel customer care
center will display advertisement of
this new service along with free demo
inside customer care center. New customers subscribing for this service will get
free application pack access for one month with a single condition that customers
have to subscribe for at least 3 months. Also, per month 2 hours of free music
library access will help to attract music lovers. Large scale print and video
advertising. Big celebrities like SRK and Sachin are roped in to endorse the new
service to have a better connect. Moreover some innovations such as Bollywood
movie premiers, music services such as ring back tones & many more.

For the specific customers like youth, tech savvy people and children the
promotion would be through some of the already existing strategies like –
Process:

Company will launch this service as multilayer stage to pinpoint faults in new
service and curing them too provide complete satisfaction. Test market will be
metro cities. Company will start launching it from Bangalore which is well known
for Silicon Valley and India’s first Wi-Fi city. Successful adaptation by customer will
lead company toward launching it to new cities. In first phase, all metro cities will
be covered then company will cover main cities of every states followed by
smaller cities.

People:

This product is targeted mainly towards business class and college students.
Company will provide virtual meeting place for organizations that will pay fixed
monthly rental. Also, chat rooms in messengers will be replaced by this meeting
places which will be provided for free and open for all. Other applications will
include virtual tutor and library which will help both students and corporates to
learn new things using pre designed training programs stored in Airtel server.

Current billing centers will play a role of service center as this new service is
available online. These centers will help customers to activate new application
and pay bills for monthly usage.

Target market will be employees of MNCs and other corporates who uses 24X7
Internet for email & intranet access and young age group particularly with age 18-
30 who plays maximum online gaming and uses other online applications.
Applications provided by this service will target this customer group only.

Physical Environment-
Subscription would be available at all airtel offices and outlets.
MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGY
(Increase Market Share)

• Attract users of competitors products : Full Talk time

• Convert nonusers into users :Lifetime plans to attract low income groups
• Increase product usage : Easy Recharges
• Increase the frequency of purchase : Recharge through ATM ; Internet
based recharging through leading banks ; Products available on India times
shopping and Rediff shopping
• Find new applications for current users: Collaboration with banks to
facilitate fund transfer through mobile; Global Money Transfer.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

• Product quality improvement strategy: Good mobile coverage.

• Product feature additions strategy: Wap Services; EDGE Service; Airtel Live
(Cricket news, downloads, astrology, travel etc.);
• New product development strategy : Blackberry

MARKET DEVELOPMENT
(Intensive)

• Expand geographically : Entering new markets in the west (U.K) ; Launching

mobile services in Sri Lanka ; GSM license in Bhutan
• Target new segments: Call Home service for NRIs living in USA to be in
touch with their loved ones.

DIVERSIFICATION

• Broadband Services.
• Telephone Services - Touchtel.
• Consultancy services to industry verticals like Banking, Financial services.
 New
Entrants

Rivalry
Suppliers Among Customers
Firms

Substitute
Products

Bargaining power of Suppliers:

As Airtel was using mobile towers of other companies, that companies can ask for
more rent as Airtel is going to use 3G network. Though Airtel is starting own
mobile tower company, but installation across India may take time so we can
consider this factor here. Also Airtel application world will include most of the
applications from third party application developers. These developers may deny
designing software compatible with Airtel application world.
Bargaining power of buyers:

Because of changing pace of mobile industry, prices of mobile services are rapidly
decreasing. May be customer can ask same service at lower price or switch to
other services as loyalty remains very low when many substitutes are available.

Threat of new entrants:

Airtel is one of the telecom giants but there are other players also like Vodafone
and Reliance. As many companies are going to start 3G service, this may prove to
be a threat to new service. Threat from new entrant in telecom sector is low as
following factors affects very much

 Huge License Fees to be paid upfront & High gestation period

 Entry of MVNOs & WiMAX operators
 Spectrum Availability & Regulatory Issues
 Infrastructure Setup Cost - High
 Rapidly changing technology

Substitute Products:

Laptops and netbooks are major substitute for mobile services. Launce of i-pad
also create new substitute as all of these devices comes with Wi-Fi access and
different application set. May be user of iPad don’t like access of same
applications on small mobile screen.
Main reasons of failure may include following reasons in this service

 Failure due to platform incompatibility

 Network connectivity failure
 Application error
 Coding error in software

Company can take security measures to avoid this problem. When users are trying
to use Airtel service that is incompatible with user’s mobile, application may show
error. Like while mobile user is using mobile phone with Symbian OS and his
mobile is not able to support java based applications, it may show error while
accessing software developed in Java. To avoid this, company can provide
compatibility information while user subscribes for particular service

Another failure may occur due to network connectivity. At first stage, while
company is going to launch this product in metro cities, may be customers will
never face this problem but to avoid this type of failure in smaller cities, survey by
company is necessary for better connectivity at every corner.

Application errors may occur in primary stage while adding new application to
database. Company may give notice showing beta version before putting it for
open access. And from failure reports of breakdown of software, company can
improvise the software.
Coding error is also one of the most common errors in software world well known
by the name “bug”. To remove this type of errors, company can give patch or
fixes to users or replace it with new software versions.

Airtel is already having huge network of service centers and customer care
centers for their different products. Company can train their people to deal with
any kind of software errors occurring while usage of this service. Or company can
outsource servicing to any call centers to ensure smooth functioning of service.
While this new era of telecom is ready to make footprints in world of 3G service,
high speed internet and fast data transfer will become a reality from a dream.
India is developing country overall but developed country from technological
point of view. People of India are able to adopt any changes made due to
improved technology. Users of internet are increasing day by day. This new
service launch by Airtel will prove 3G service’s usefulness to every class of people
from students to high end professionals. May be it will take time to recognized by
customers but once successful, it will become “Nicotine” for tech savvy people.