A project report

On

Factors influencing the choice of

mobile phone service providers

Submitted by:
Sec C- Group 3
Adig
Anirban Mohanty
Arushi Jain
Bharath Bhushan Peddini
Harish Reddy
Kriti Singh

Section C Group 3

Introduction:
In todays world where there are many telecom players, and when the information
about every companys offers are being evaluated by consumers, they might have
different heuristics and weights assigned to different factors which they take into
consideration while selecting a service network
This topic will give us better insights on various factors taken into consideration and
the importance various consumers attach to the factors and the results will help us
to decide on the optimized scheme for attracting and retaining larger base of
customers
Telecom industry in India is growing at healthy rate and the FDI being opened up in
this sector there any many players who are entering and capturing good amount of
customers. But the returns from existing customer base of any company is not able
to generate healthy revenues, the reasons being
1. Highly competitive industry which are forcing for lower prices for service.
2. High investment costs for companies for purchasing the spectrums and also
high operational costs
There are some researches done on this topic but are done in other countries,
(please see the references for more information), we would like to extend the
research for Indian Industry scenario where there are variety of customers and a
large variation of preferences is expected.
Literature Review:
1. Ahasanul Haque, Sabbir Rahman, Mahbubur Rahman (2010)
established the factors that determine the selection of a mobile
telecommunication service provider are: Service quality, Price, Availability of
the product, and Promotions
2. Solomon A. Keelson (2012) concluded that the basic reasons for changing
telecom servers are Reliability and Cost Savings. Reference group influence,
social reputation and regular contact with others were also influential factors
3. Shibashish Chakraborty, Kalyan Sengupta (2013) identified four distinct
determinants responsible for customer Satisfaction. These are Generic
requirements, Functional quality, Price and Flexibility
4. Riquleme (2001) identified six key attributes; call rates, access cost,
connection fees, handset features, special offers and call cost of mobile to
mobile have significant impact on consumers while making decision to
choose particular service provider

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5. Raj Kumar and Harish (2011) have concluded that price has positive
significant impact on consumer while choosing particular service provider
6. Karjaluoto et al. (2005) in their study conducted in Finland mobile industry,
they have identified certain factors which significant impact on choosing
particular service provider are call rates, services and network coverage.
7. Lin (2002) explained in his study of factors that affect brand decision in the
mobile phone industry in Asia, that the quality of network coverage and cost
of calls are the main attributes which plays vital role in choosing particular
service provider
8. Ilias Santouridis , Panagiotis Trivellas (2010) explained in their study
that Customer service, pricing structure and billing system are the service
quality dimensions that have the more significant positive influence on
customer satisfaction, which in turn has a significant positive impact on
customer loyalty. The mediation role of customer satisfaction on the service
quality and customer loyalty relationship has also been confirmed
9. Anthony Dadzie (2011) determined that the reason for switching
subscribers to competitor brand is due to network and tariff related issues
10.Daniel Kipkirong Tarus, Nicholas Rabach(2013) in their study of
determinants of customer loyalty said that perceived service value, service
quality and social pressure were significant predictors of customer loyalty.
Corporate image was found to moderate the relationship between service
value, service quality, social pressure and customer loyalty
Research Objectives:

To determine the qualitative and quantitative factors that consumers consider

while choosing a pre paid mobile service provider
To determine the correlation between different factors and consumer buying
decision
To prioritize the different factors and highlight the most important factors for
a consumer

Research Questions:
What are the factors that consumers look for in a telecom operator while
purchasing a prepaid/postpaid connection?
How do the factors involved in selecting a mobile service provider vary with
changing demographic factors?

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 What is the degree to which each of these factors affects consumer purchase
decision?

Methodology:
Primary Research: Primary research in the form of a survey questionnaire was
floated online. Sample size was 36.
Secondary Research: Various internet resources like online customer forums; etc
were visited to collect useful data and gain market and customer insights. Research
Papers and Journals discussing the similar topic in other developing country
scenarios were studied.
Data Analysis: The data collected was analyzed using the following statistical
tests:1. ANOVA
2. Independent t-test for equality of means
Data Analysis
Collection of Primary data is from respondents by administering online
questionnaire which comprised closed and open-ended questions
Total 36 respondents are drawn on convenience sampling basis
The study was conducted among MDI students with the following
demographic profile :

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H0 : All factors have equal significance for customers

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

The P- value is very low (< 0.05)

Therefore there is sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis

The top three significant factors that impact the choice of service provider
Sectionare
C Group
3 Quality, Call Tariff and Customer care services
Network

Impact of attributes for postpaid and prepaid users

Call Tarif
4.5
4
3.5
3

Postpaid

Prepaid

The significance value is < 0.05 for call tariff

Therefore we can say that the call tariff impacts prepaid and postpaid
users differently

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Pre paid users are impacted more by call tariffs than post paid users

Impact of Age group of the customer on considering attributes for

choosing present service provider

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The significance value is < 0.05 for call tariffs

Therefore the significance for call tariffs is different for different age groups

The significance of call prices is maximum for the age group 20-23 and min
for 25years and above

Impact of gender on considering attributes for choosing service provider

All the significance values are >0.05

Gender impacts all the choosing attributes equally

Findings
As the MSP market becomes more complex and more competitive, it is
essential that services providers know what their customers needs are
The significance of factors that impact the selection of MSP varies from
customer to customer
Pre paid customers tend to be more price sensitive than post paid customers
Also, young mobile users are more affected by tariffs than older customers
None of the factors significantly influenced users based on their gender

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Bibliography

Karjaluoto, H. Karvonen, J. Ketsi, M. Koivamki, T. Manninen, M. Pakola, J.

Ristola, H. and Salo J.(2005) Factors affecting consumer choice of mobile
phones: Two studies from Finland, The Haworth Press, Finland
Ahasanul Haque, Sabbir Rahman, Mahbubur Rahman (2010) Factors
Determinants the Choice of Mobile Service Providers: Structural Equation
Modeling Approach on Bangladeshi Consumers, Business and Economics
Research Journal, Volume 1, Number 3
Solomon A. Keelson(2012) Factors affecting consumer choice of multiple
mobile services, Global journal of business research ,Volume 6,Number 4
Anthony Dadzie (2011), Brand Preference for Mobile Phone Operator Services
in the Cape Coast Metropolis, International Journal of Business and
Management, Vol. 6, No.11; November 2011, pp.190-205.
Riquelme, H (2001), Do Consumers Know What They Want? Journal of
Consumer Marketing, 18(5),pp.437-448
Lin, C.F. (2002), Segmenting customer brand preference: demographic or
psychographic, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp.
249-68.
Shibashish Chakraborty, Kalyan Sengupta(2013)An exploratory study on
determinants of customer satisfaction of leading mobile network providers
case of Kolkata, India, Journal of Advances in Management Research Vol. 10
No. 2
Ilias Santouridis , Panagiotis Trivellas(2010) Investigating the impact of
service quality and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in mobile
telephony in Greece, The TQM Journal, Vol. 22 No. 3
Daniel Kipkirong Tarus, Nicholas Rabach(2013) Determinants of customer
loyalty in Kenya: does corporate image play a moderating role? The TQM
Journal, Vol. 25 No. 5

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ANNEXURE 1
Questionnaire
1. What is your gender?
Male
Female
2. What is your age?
20-23

23-25

25 and above

3. Which type of mobile connection do you use?

Prepaid
Postpaid
4. Reasons for choosing your service provider
Strongly Agree
Disagree

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

Agree

Neutral

Strongly Disagree

Call Tariff
Network Quality
Advertisements
Customer Service
Spectrum of plans
Value added services

5. Any one thing that you dont like about your service provider and
would like them to improve...

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