Takeover Of loop by Aiortel

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TAKEOVER OF
BY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
TITLE
PAGE NO
1
INTRODUCTION
3
2
PROFILE
5
3
HISTORY
8
4
STRATEGY
10
5
CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY
24
6
SWOT ANALYSIS
27
7
CONCLUSION
31
9
BIBLIOGRAPHY
32

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INTRODUCTION
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian
Multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in New Delhi,
India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel
Islands. Airtel has a GSM network in all countries in which it operates,
providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel
is the world's first largest mobile telecommunications company by subscribers,
with over 275 million subscribers across 20 countries as of July 2013. It is
the largest cellular service provider in India, with 192.22 million subscribers as of
August 2013.
Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of
fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription
television services. It offers its telecom services under the "airtel" brand, and is
headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service
provider to achieve Cisco Gold Certification.[8] It also acts as a carrier for national
and international long distance communication services. The company has a
submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable
connecting Chennai and Singapore.
Loop Mobile, usually referred to as LOOP and formerly known as BPL
Mobile, was an Indian mobile network operator. Being the country's oldest
telecom service provider, Loop Mobile is the first operator in the country to offer
services like MMS, GPRS and Caller Ring Tunes.[21] Other VAS include Reply-
All, Roaming on Prepaid, Intelligent network, General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS), Multimedia Messaging Service(MMS), Missed Call Alert, Caller Ring
Tune, Mobile Tracker and others. In April 2012 Loop Mobile announced its
intention to shut down operations across India except Mumbai with effect from 15
May 2012. The move is expected to impact 6,100 customers, however, the figure is
much less than 0.01% of the number of mobile phone users in India.

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On 18 February 2014, Bharti Airtel announced that it had agreed to acquire
Loop Mobile for 700 crore (US$110 million), subject to regulatory and
statutory approvals. This was the first merger in the Indian telecoms market in
nearly six years. This was also the first deal to be recorded since the government
had finalized a new mergers and acquisitions (M&A) policy earlier that year,
although the policy had not been notified formally. The two companies had been in
talks since mid-2013. Loop Mobile's 20 year license in the 900 MHz band was due
to expire in the last quarter of 2014, and the company did not participate in the
2014 spectrum auction, making it impossible for the company to continue
operations. Loop Mobile's 3 million subscribers were added to Airtel's 4 million
subscribers in Mumbai under the agreement, taking Airtel's total customer base in
Mumbai to more than 7 million, helping it surpass Vodafone as the largest operator
by subscriber base in the circle, though its market share by revenue for Mumbai
still lagged Vodafone..

5. PROFILE OF AIRTEL AND LOOP MOBILE
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Bharti Airtel Limited
Type Public company
Traded as
BSE: 532454 NSE: BHARTIARTL
BSE SENSEX Constituent
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 7 July 1995
Founders Sunil Bharti Mittal
Headquarters
Bharti Crescent, 1, Nelson Mandela Road,
New Delhi, India
Area served
India & South Asia, Africa, and the Channel
Islands
Key people
Sunil Bharti Mittal
(Chairman and MD)

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Products
Fixed line and mobile telephony, broadband
and fixed-line internet services, digital
television and IPTV
Website www.airtel.com
Vision and Mission of Airtel
Vision
 By 2015 Airtel will be the most admired brand in India:
 Loved by more customers
 Targeted by top talent
 Benchmarked by more businesses
 To build India's finest business conglomerate by 2020
 Supporting education of underprivileged children through Bharti Foundation
 Strategic Intent:
 To create a conglomerate of the future by bringing about “Big
Transformations through Brave Actions.”
Mission
 “We at Airtel always think in fresh and innovative ways about the needs of
our customers and how we want them to feel. We deliver what we promise
and go out of our way to delight the customer with a little bit more”
 We will meet global standards for telecom services that delight customers
through:
 Customer Service Focus

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 Empowered Employees
 Cost Efficiency
 Unified Messaging Solutions
 Innovative products and services
 Error- free service delivery

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Loop Mobile
Former type Private
Industry Telecommunication
Fate Acquired by Bharti Airtel
Founded Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (1994)
Defunct 2014
Headquarters Mahim, Mumbai, India
Area served Mumbai
Key people Sandip Basu (MD and CEO)
Services Mobile network operator
Owners Khaitan Group (99%)
Employees 550 (December 2013)
Website www.loopmobile.in

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HISTORY
Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an
agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models
for the Indian market. In 1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL),
and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones,
establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had
also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In
1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 2005, Bharti
extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer
voice servies all across India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile
network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the
Kuwait-based Zain Telecom. In March 2012, Airtel launched a mobile operation in
Rwanda.
BPL Mobile Communications, established in 1994, was India's first mobile
network operator. It began commercial operations in 1995. The Khaitan Holdings
Group took ownership control in 2005, purchasing a 99% stake in the company at a
cost of 700 crore (equivalent to 13 billion or US$210 million in 2014). BPL
Mobile was renamed to Loop Mobile in March 2009, following the expiry of its
brand-use agreement with the TPG Nambiar owned BPL Group.
On 18 February 2014, Bharti Airtel announced that it had agreed to acquire
Loop Mobile for 700 crore (US$110 million), subject to regulatory and
statutory approvals. This was the first merger in the Indian telecoms market in
nearly six years. This was also the first deal to be recorded since the government
had finalized a new mergers and acquisitions (M&A) policy earlier that year,
although the policy had not been notified formally. The two companies had been in
talks since mid-2013.

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Loop Mobile's 20 year license in the 900 MHz band was due to expire in the
last quarter of 2014, and the company did not participate in the 2014 spectrum
auction making it impossible for the company to continue operations. Loop
Mobile's 3 million subscribers were added to Airtel's 4 million subscribers in
Mumbai under the agreement, taking Airtel's total customer base in Mumbai to
more than 7 million, helping it surpass Vodafone as the largest operator by
subscriber base in the circle, though its market share by revenue for Mumbai still
lagged Vodafone. Airtel also acquired electronic equipment, optic fiber and the 8
megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz band held by Loop in Mumbai. However,
Airtel did not acquire Loop Mobile's 550 employees.[4] The status of Loop's
employees could not be immediately ascertained.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) could soon start sending out
notices to Loop Mobile's customers to switch to another operator before the
company's permit for Mumbai expires in November, a move which could throw a
spanner in the works of Bharti Airtel's Rs700-crore deal to acquire the company.
Under the proposed deal, for which a definitive agreement was signed on June
23, Bharti Airtel is to take over Loop's nearly three million subscribers and 25,000
cell sites through what is called a slump sale — without assigning values to
individual assets.
The transaction, if and when cleared by the DoT, will expand the subscriber
base of Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecom operator, to seven million in the
Mumbai circle and make it the biggest operator in India's financial capital as well.
Although the two parties have not given out any financial details, industry
observers have put the figure at Rs700 crore.
The DoT's likely move could, however, throw the financial calculations
haywire. In an internal note reviewed by the paper, the DoT has proposed that
Loop Mobile and the Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM)
cell of the DoT should start notifying Loop's current subscribers that their network
operator will cease to exist once the permit expires in November and they need to
port out. The development comes at a time when Bharti Airtel, according to media
reports, has already started making calls to Loop's subscribers asking them to
gather the requisite forms which are needed for porting out.

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STRATEGY ADAPTED BY AIRTEL
Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone service,
Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had put up large no of hoardings
and kiosks in and around Delhi. The objective behind designing a promotion
campaign for the ‘Airtel’ services is to promote the brand awareness and to build
brand preferences. Airtel money will play a transformational role in accelerating
mobile based commerce in India. This will potentially change the way India
transacts, especially as it provides unmatched reach and convenience. airtel money
is now further extending the availability to deeper pockets of the country, to make
a significant impact on the lives of millions. e.g. customers will be able to easily
repay loans, contribute to pension plans, save money, send money and transact
conveniently without leaving their villages. Besides, innovative cash management
systems will also be available for the industry, further increasing their efficiency
and effectiveness.
1. Diversification
In diversification the firm cans business in new markets with new products.
The strategy implied is risk oriented as the business is being launched into new
markets where the firm lies inexperienced. The firm, which plans to adopt a
diversification strategy, must have a clear vision about it target and a good idea of
the risks involved.
According to researcher, Airtel company uses growth matrix as a tool for its
their marketing strategy in India because in India the competition in telecom
industry has become hard as there are many telecom industry introducing their
services. Hence Airtel concentrates on market penetration and development by
introducing new services like Airtel broadband, 3g services, air T.V, and national
and low international roaming services and many loyalty schemes in their services
which attract more customers under one brand. It also focus on product and
diversification by launching new product like Blackberry IPhone and apple mobile
under his brand name and it also shift in new market like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri

12. Lanka and etc to become multinational brand and provide different services like
broadband, air TV etc under one brand Airtel.
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2. Differentiation Strategy
In differentiation strategy the firm always tries to create, introduce new
things and services that make the firm unique from their competitor. Companies
may charge more due to this differentiation. It also leads to a loyal customer
following.
3. Focus Strategy
It is most reliable for small companies but at times it is also profitable to
big companies. A focus strategy should target market segments where competition
is low or weakest to earn average investments and gain competitive advantage by
launching their services and established their business
By researcher point of view, Airtel - new private telecom industry in India
has made its marketing strategy based on focus strategy which focuses on market
segment, and launched its services in those region where geographical condition
are hard like J&K, Assam Arunachal Pradesh and some part of Himachal Pradesh
etc. where people are not so aware to look of specific advantages. This has helped
Airtel to become popular in these regions because no telecom industry provider
offers their best services in this region. Airtel has also comes in news several
times by choosing Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as it mobile
ambassador and by offering ready sponsorships for IPL games in India.
The Ansoff Growth matrix is other formula in businesses to know their
product and growth of market strategy. This tool has been developed by Igor
Ansoff and was first published under heading of “Strategies for Diversification” in
Harvard Business Review in 1957. It provides knowledge to an organization on
how to maintain or grow their business by means of existing and new product in
existing or new market. This tool offers benefits to the companies by telling what
decision should be taken to improve current performance. This tool has four key
segments as shown in figure

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4. Marketing Policy
a. Customer Segmentation
Individual businessman, entrepreneur professionals and established organizations
are the main customers of Airtel. They have also a target to take students and low-income
groups with their introduction of Airtel simple rate Pre-Paid services.
They target high class people by the post-paid service. To serve the market more
accurately their target market will be further segmented based on psychographics
and business size.
b. Marketing Strategies
TMIB always wants to achieve desired sales growth and customer base. Airtel
wants to encourage existing customers to use more and more of their services.
Their newly introduced package named “Eid Double Bonus” is one of their
successful initiatives for the exiting customer It has a concept of “Customer gets
Customer”
c. Product Positioning
Initially their target was to reach the top. But others are targeting to the grass root
level, and increasing their customer. Airtel wants to be the leader with good quality
and is designing products for the middle class range also.
d. Marketing Product Mix
 Product
Continuous improvement of quality. Reposition of slow moving products
to different target markets. Always branding Airtel with all packages with a GSM
service

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 Price
Necessary changes in tariff structure and changes in terms and
conditions. Penetration pricing in the face of competition. Skimming policy
where possible.
 Place
Make effective use of distribution. Make product and service delivery
system more effective and less time Consuming. Wider distributing network to
make service more accessible.
 Promotion
Brochures with all necessary information, Press advertisements,
Television, Radio, Commercials and Billboards.
5. Market Penetration
The businesses focus on selling existing products into existing markets. The
three main objectives that businesses want to achieve include either outgrowing or
stabilizing the current market share for the product; the target market to be out
grown into should be a secure market, and bringing up faithful strategies to
improve the quantity of consumers.
6. Market Development
The main focus of the business is to bring the presiding products into the new
market. The scheme includes:
 Locating a new geological market; like export of new items to another
country.
 Giving more emphasis to the latest item and its promotion.
 Supply of new channels
 New pricing schemes to get more customers.

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7. Product Development
It is one of the prime aims of businesses to bring and introduce new products
in the marketplace. This strategy based on development and modification of
products can get new dimension into the existing markets.
8. TARGET AUDIENCE
 Prepaid Connection: Target audience is college students.
 Post-paid Connection: Target audience is working people but there
be secondary audiences like housewife and collge students who use
this connection.
9. COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN TOOL
“Anything that allows one person to communicate to another person “
1) Telecom sector
2) Skype
3) Mail servers
4) Social network sites
Today's youth share a 'relationship' with their families but they share their 'life'
with their friends. Thus, the communication as well as the service has relevance for
today's youth.
10. Segmentation
Due to diminishing marginal returns on its voice revenues, Airtel was forced to
abandon its one size fits all demographic segmentation. It came up with a strategy
where it classified users into different segments. Segmentation can be defined as
the process of dividing the market into customers with similar interests into one
segment.

16. There are basically 4 levels of segmentation and Airtel segmented its market as:
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1. Segment marketing
Here the target market is divided into different segments on the basis of
homogenous needs. Airtel has broadly divided the whole market into 2
categories – prepaid and postpaid.
2. Niche Marketing
It can be defined as the marketer’s effort to position their product or service
in smaller markets that have similar attributes and have been neglected by
other marketers. AIRTEL launched its product blackberry in this category
which particularly focused on the upper business class who have to be in
touch with the world every time
3. Local marketing
In this segment companies have to focus on the requirements of the local
markets to be successful. Airtel is focusing on local marketing by their low
tariff plans in rural and even urban cities.

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4. Individual Marketing
In this segmentation, companies focus on individual customers and try to be
in touch with them by phone calls, email etc. Airtel regularly calls its every
customer and tells them about its new features and schemes.
Airtel segmented its consumer market on the basis of:-
1. Geographical segmentation
The market is divided into groups based on demographic attributes such as
localities, regions, cities, density etc. Airtel segments the market on the basis
of states, as they have different plans for different states. The different
geographic regions are handled independently and different campaigns are
run according to the tastes and preferences of people in each region.
2. Demographic segmentation
The market is divided into groups based on demographic attributes like age,
gender, income, occupation, religion, family life cycle etc
 Age and lifecycle
Recognizing that senior citizens have the need to keep in touch with their
children and relatives who may be located far away, Airtel came up with a
senior plan which offered a discount on one STD number and one local
number. Besides, subscribers of this plan could get special discounts for
health check-ups and would have a facility to club bills with that of their
children

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 Gender
The Company has also launched special packages to target the women.
Airtel had started the Ladies Special plan targeted at women and allowed
subscriber to receive special beauty and lifestyle tips, apart from
subscriptions to cosmopolitan and housekeeping magazines. The plan also
offers women the option to club the monthly bills with that of their spouses.
 Income
Airtel also segmented the market on the basis of income through their
corporate plans. They had started the corporate scheme on the basis of the
higher usage rate and higher income persons.
 Generation
Airtel had started ‘Friendz’ pre-paid connection, SMS plans and VAS like
hello tunes, which was targeted towards the 15-25 year age. This includes
phone to phone (P2P) recharge facility, enabling the consumer to transfer
talk time and validity to any Airtel prepaid subscriber. In addition comes
the introduction of ‘Hot Spot’ tariffs where Airtel Friendz customers can
enjoy tariff discounts at pre-designated places within the city.
3. Psychographic segmentation
In this segmentation, marketers segment the market on the basis of
motivation, values, belief, lifestyle, personality etc

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 Lifestyle
Airtel focused its attention on two groups in particular.
 The first group was known as "funsters" -- consumers aged
between 18-35 years old, who share a common trait -- a high
adoption of VAS. Airtel believes that with some targeted
marketing, spending from this group can increase quite
significantly. The Telco has exclusive tie-ups with application
providers like Google and has identified music-on-demand as a
key value proposition.
 The other segment of focus is the "achievers", who are the top
five percent of mobile users. While this segment isn't a high
adopter of VAS, it contributes to revenues nearly 10 times that of
Airtel's ARPU.
 To enhance customer experience for this segment, Airtel has
separate priority relationship managers. It also partnered with
HTC and Blackberry to offer high end handsets catering
specifically for those customers who want to be in touch with
their peers or their subordinates, colleagues etc.
 Personality
Airtel last year had also started life Time Validity scheme for the persons
who are not financially strong and can’t afford the normal schemes.
4. Behavioural segmentation

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Organisations also divide the market on the basis of behaviour that the
customer shows towards the usage of products. Various variables for
segmenting market on the basis of purchase behaviour of customers are
occasions, benefits, user status, user rate, loyalty etc.
 Occasions
Airtel on the occasion of Independence day, introduced a recharge coupon
of Rs 1947 with two years validity for its Delhi and NCR prepaid
customers
 Benefits
Airtel also provides various tangible and intangible benefits for its
customers. Like Airtel launched various tangible benefits like validity
schemes for its customers and intangible benefits like roaming, voice
mail, fax mail, close user group etc.
 Usage rate:
Airtel very often comes up with schemes like Get the talk time of 1111 on
the recharge on 1000 i.e. getting more talk time value for which customers
are paying.

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11. ADVERTISEMENT
Airtel was the first company to target specific customers and it came out with
advertising its group card labeled as ‘Friendz’. In fact, until now, the market was
treated as homogenous. The “Friends card” is for those who wish to restrict
themselves to their group with low calling rates and some free messages.
There are many advertisement of AIRTEL with different taglines. The following
are some of the different advertisement of Airtel from past till present:
1. Airtel Jingle- A.R. Rahaman
 16 states, 600 million people, one service provider .
 One network that connects India, like A. R Rahman moves India with his
music.
TAGLINE: People who need wireless network, people who want to connect on
the go, people who want to be the part of the revolution of wireless
Communication.
This music went on to become the “Airtel Signature Tune”
2. Join The Dots
 “Few relation are very important, they can’t be avoided.

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 When relations are based on love and affections, distance is nothing and
conversation is possible
- keep connected with Airtel”
TAGLINE: Special relations Son, Daughter, Wife, Husband, Mother, Father
(Every Family member).
3. Communication Boundaries
“Express Yourself’ platform making the breaking of
communication barrie rs its focal point”
“Deewarein gir jaati hain,
faasle mit jaate hain,
jahan do baatein ho jaati hain
(Barriers break when people talk).”
Connecting cultures, longing to communicate without any barriers the society
places, making new friends, caring, unity, peace, free mindedness
TAGLINE: Long distance relationship like Son/ daughter away from home,
husband away from his wife for business assignment, friends separated because of
careers.
4. Endless Goodbye
“A man and his girl is never apart even after saying goodbye.”

23. With Airtel 3G video calls, you always stay close to your loved ones, no matter
how far you are.
TAGLINE: People who always want to see and talk with each other .
5. Together Good Things Happen
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The growth of Airtel is related to Shahrukh khan from its No one to someone to
stardom, which is connected to 110 million fans.
Unity, togetherness, networking, Aspiration, chasing the dreams, relationships,
success.
“Life is all about experience”
“You cannot be alone when 110 million people are connected with you”
TAGLINE: Aspirating People, close friends, people who loves networking, people
who want to be together.
6. Har ek friend Zaroori hota hai
Besides entertaining one and all with its catchy jingle, the ad served to position
Airtel as a brand that stands for friendship, and helps one to stay in touch with all
kinds of friends

24. TAGLINE: The late night savior, the guy who throws his house open, the ones
who borrow money from you, the ones who pay for you…
- the list is endless…….
7. Jo tera hai wo mera hai
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“Friendship is all about sharing”
 Picturisation: vibrant, peppy, colourful and pretty much bursting with youth,
and the upbeat mood of the ad is complemented by an anthem that has
started creating quite a buzz on the digital space.
 Relation, happiness, Youngsters, Masti, Cool factor, Memorable moments in
friends.
TAGLINE: Teenagers, youngsters.
Besides this, other strategies that Airtel has adopted are:
People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive
premiers of blockbuster movies. There have been educational campaigns,
image campaigns, pre-launch advertisements, launch advertisements,
congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-ments, attacking
advertisements and tactical advertisements. Bharti Airtel, in its mobile
networks, initially during the mid-late 1990s positioned itself as a brand

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for the elite. The high government tariff and the low awareness about
mobile phones among the masses, called for such a positioning. A mobile
phone was a luxury affordable only to the price insensitive customer in
those days and Airtel rightly positioned themselves in this segment. Their
tagline was “Power to Keep in touch” and it was a part of their motto to
associate their brand with leadership and an inspirational lifestyle.
This was part of their “Leadership Series” campaign. As time progressed,
in 1999-2000, the competition intensified and Essar almost caught up to
Bharti Airtel. It was during this period that through surveys conducted,
Airtel realized that the idea of Leadership itself was changing and also
that people perceived Airtel as an efficient but cold brand. These surveys
further went on to show that in the mobile network industry, customer
service was of paramount importance and the existing consumer base was
invaluable as more and more people brought mobile phones only on thE
recommendations of friends and family.
In August 2000, Bharti launched its new “Touch Tomorrow” campaign to
humanize the brand. The advertisements featured mobile users surrounded
by caring family members. These ads spanned across the print, electronic
and outdoor media. They aimed to capture the SEC B markets also as the
mobile price and government tariff were reducing. This resulted in the
creation of a huge consumer base and they changed the logo to reflect their
core values of leadership, performance and dynamism. Special features like
music download, SMS, GPRS were introduced at affordable prices.
In 2002, Airtel again repositioned its brand to “Live Every Moment” and
changed their logo. It was done to give the brand a young and international
feel. Several celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan were
roped in as brand ambassadors. All the wireless products were replaced
under the Airtel brand and the company began following a 2-tier
architecture. This repositioning and new advertising changed the way the
consumer felt about the brand and improved the reach.

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CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY
Customer Service Delivery is one of the very essential department of the
organization. It plays a very vital role in the organization. This department starts
working right from the beginning when a customer applies for a connection. CSD
is the department which is to sort out any kind of problem faced by the customer.
The department is playing a very vital role in retaining the customers.
When a customer wishes to take a connection he/she first goes to particular
outlet where a connection is available. Then the customer fills up the form and
takes a connection. This department then starts its work, they send for the
verification of the customer who has applied for the connection. After the
verification is done the connection of the customer gets activated and the customer
starts using it.
After that, if the customer wants to use other services provided by the
company, the customer will either go to the outlets or call in the help desk for
further query or to know about the schemes provided. All this role play is handled
by the CSD department itself. We can say that this department is directly
connected with the customers 24 hours.
The information’s that we receive through Value Added Service( i.e. SMS) is
all done by this department itself. They always keeps the customers aware of the
newly launched schemes and try to benefit the customers. To benefit a customer a
company should always resolve the problems of the customers that they are facing.
They also should not only resolve the problem and leave, but they should also
follow up the customers from time to time and create goodwill among them.
All this is done by the CSD department very smoothly and accurately. If this
department fails to perform then there will be a great chaos in the company and
may fail to proceed further.

28. The CSD department has three departments. They are shown below:
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CSD
CONTACT
EXPERIENCE
SERVICE
EXPERIENCE
ZONAL
OPERATION
Call Centre,
IVR(Interactive
Voice
Recorder),
Service
Recovery.
Communication,
Collection,
Service,
Provisioning, Risk
and Credit.

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SWOT Analysis
Bharti Airtel is the world’s third largest mobile service provider by subscribers
after China Mobile and Vodafone with over 270 million global customers. It is also
India’s biggest wireless telecom operator both by subscribers and revenue. Those
numbers came in at 193.5 million and Rs.113 billion ($1.8 billion) respectively
after the end of latest quarter. Again, these figures are just for Airtel’s mobile
services in India. The telecom also provides mobile telephony services in 20 other
Asian and African countries. Given the challenging (but improving) telecom sector
sentiment in India, it is worthwhile to discuss a Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis for the company.
Strengths
 Biggest mobile service provider in world’s second largest telecom
market
Mobile phone subscriptions now follow the normal population trends
around the world. With about 870 million wireless subscriptions, India
ranks second after China in the wireless market. Airtel has a 22.2% share
of that market.
 High brand equity
Airtel is among India’s most visible brands omnipresent in most parts of
the nation through television, print and various other forms of
advertising. Celebrity endorsements and innovative advertising that
understand the pulse of market are some of the assets of the Airtel brand.
 Superior overall network quality and reliability
Bharti Airtel (along with Vodafone) runs one of the better mobile

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networks’ in India. They have nationwide penetration and although there
is no dearth of consumer complaints regarding dropped calls and slow
data against Airtel, it still offers a higher quality telecom service
experience as compared to most other telecoms.
Weaknesses
 High competition in the telecom market –
Airtel, like all other service providers in India, has been adversely
affected by the extreme price competition. Although the average voice
call rates have gone up recently, they were as low as Rs.0.6/min. (1
cent/min.) a few years ago. The story is similar with data and 3G tariffs.
As a result, the company has been reporting declining profits for many
years..
 Debt and finances
According to their latest quarterly report, Airtel is burdened by $9.7
billion in net debt, which is a lot of money when converted to rupees.
How can Airtel repay this debt is the question? Possibilities include stake
and equity sale or spike in revenue. Depreciating rupee is also an issue
since it results in foreign exchange losses and increases the financing
cost.
 Africa acquisitions and operations
Airtel acquired Zain’s Africa business for $9 billion in 2010. Since then,
it has struggled to turn around those operations reporting repeated losses
from the continent. While the Africa operation has widened the
companies’ geography, it continues to be a drag on its balance sheet.
 Late adoption of 3G and advanced wireless technologies
Due to various regulatory uncertainties and delayed spectrum auctions,
India and Airtel were late to the 3G party. 3G services were launched by
Airtel only in early 2011. The data tariffs were high, speeds were
unsatisfactory and customer acceptance of 3G was slow. The company

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lacks nationwide 3G license with spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom
service areas. Airtel’s LTE network for mobile broadband is still
confined to only 4 cities in India.
Opportunities
 Untapped voice market
Despite many believing that the voice market in India is close to
saturation, hundreds of millions remain without a phone. Recently, VLR
(Visitor Location Register) numbers released by the regulator TRAI,
showed that around 730 million out of the total 870 million are active
connections. Given many people in India use multiple SIMs, it is safe to
say that mobile phone penetration in the country is less than 50%. The
opportunity for Airtel is huge, especially in the rural segment.
 3G and data revenue –
Airtel’s 3G subscribers constitute less than 5% of its total subscriber
base. Apart from getting new 3G customers to join Airtel, there is
immense room for growth within its existing customers. The operator
should be more aggressive in marketing the benefits of high speed data
access on phone. Simultaneously, it must ensure faster and consistent
data speeds on its network.
 Mergers and Acquisitions
Unfortunately, the M&A rules in India are yet to formally declared
although recent media reports have suggested that companies may be
allowed to merge as long as their market share in every circle is less than
50%. Airtel with a market share of 22.2% should be good to acquire
smaller telecoms to reduce competition and add subscribers and
spectrum. Such acquisitions will incur huge spectrum costs, but it could
be well worth it in the long term.

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 Unfriendly regulatory environment
The telecom industry in India has been plagued by a hostile and unstable
regulatory scenario. This has adversely affected the industry sentiment
and the wireless service providers. While some clarity has begun to
emerge, many guidelines are far from certain. Airtel has not remained
untouched from this chaos. And this threat would continue to linger for
the next few years.
 Spectrum Auctions and Reframing
Government of India and TRAI kept a high reserve price for 3G, BWA
and the recent 1800 MHz auction. Airtel had spent Rs.123 billion ($2.7
billion per rupee to dollar conversion back then) for 3G airwaves. Since
the returns are slow due to low tariffs, buying the spectrum at high price
is detrimental for the telecom. Reframing 900 MHz is another terrible
idea which would negatively impact Airtel’s finances, given that it will
have to repurchase those airwaves to continue 2G operations.
 Mobile Number Portability
MNP gives the customer independence to change the service provider
while retaining the number. With similar tariffs across various telecom
and satisfaction with the current service provider being low, consumers
are willing to jump ship. The larger incumbent operators are losing
millions of customers to the newer players who attract these customers
with their freebies and innovative offers.

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 Bharti Airtel could also be the target ofor the takeover vision by other
global telecommunication that wish to move into Indian market.
CONCLUSION
Airtel is fulfilling the needs of many people. The company should promote their
product as attractively as possible. They should also maintain the market reputation
they has and retain the customers. There are lot of competitors in the market, the
company should face the tough competition and come out with better policies and
plans.
They should always focus on achieving the targets or objectives of the company.
The company has a tie up with many large organizations and which is because of
their service and reputation in the market. Hence, the organization should change
its policies with the changing market and maintain its position. They should try to
reduce the cost.
Even though the growth of the company is stagnating in recent times, and the
pressure from competitors and regulatory bodies is always on the increase, new
strategies and innovations, acquisitions, penetration into international markets
better schemes for customers should ensure that Airtel keeps its nose above its
strong competition. The prospects of Airtel continue to remain strong because it is
built around very strong fundamentals, and this growth should be
visible in the near future.

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BIBLIOGRAPHHY
The following are the sources referred to while preparing this report:
 The Times Of India
 Economic times
 The Hindustan Times
 Bharti Airtel website – http://www.airtel.in

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 Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel
 Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_Mobile
 Cisco’s Consumer Based Study on Airtel’s Rural Strategies
 Business Today
 FDI in Telecom - http://ictps.blogspot.in/2012/04/fdi-in-telecom-sector-of-india-
and.html