A Dynamic Decade of Mobile Phone Services in India

Abstract

The Indian telecom landscape has today emerged as one of the most dynamic business segments in the country. The telecommunication services have made a rapid stride both in quality and quantity. However the users at large are found dissatisfied with the quality of service made available to them. The process of technological sophistication has gained the momentum but the users are yet to get the quality service.

The cellular industry has reached a critical juncture. Deregulation and its domino effects of price free - for - alls, high customer churn and the increasing commoditization of services, together with the economic slowdown and consequent budget cuts, have all taken their toll.

India is today one of the world’s most promising markets, but for the telecom companies it is both promising and difficult. With at least 6 operators in each circle, the Indian market is extremely competitive. The customer is very demanding and is willing to churn easily and adding fuel to fire, ARPU is dropping by 4 percent every quarter. So to survive and prosper, telecom companies must innovate and innovate every day, every hour. It is obvious that to attract and retain customers and meet their ever growing demands and creates profits, service providers must come up with not just with innovative services and products, but must go for new innovative ways of reaching out to the customers. And this is what Indian telecom companies seem to be doing - innovating.

This paper follows recent research about the importance, the variety and the development of innovation in the mobile service industries. These innovations have essentially been commercial and technical including tariff; value added services, marketing formulas and the service content including the relationship to customers. The emergence and the diffusion of these innovations reveal a systematic and dynamic competitive process.

Keywords: Competition, Market Dynamics, Mobile Phone Services, Service Innovation, and Technological Innovation