Handsets & service

provider

Today's communications industry would not be what it is without the contributions made by

Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel. The big breakthrough came when AT&T Labs

researchers Frenkiel and Engel divided wireless communications into a series of cells, then

automatically switched callers as they moved so that each cell could be reused. This led to the

development of cellular phones and made today’s mobile communications possible.

Modern mobile telephony took a giant leap forward on April 3, 1973, when Motorola employee Martin Cooper placed a call to rival AT&T's Bell Labs while walking the streets of New York City talking on the first mobile telephone, a Motorola DynaTAC. In 1978, AT&T conducted FCC-authorized field trials in Chicago and Newark, N.J. Four years later, the FCC granted commercial licenses to an AT&T subsidiary, Advanced Mobile Phone Service Inc. (AMPS). AMPS was then divided among the local companies as part of the plan-ning for divestiture. Illinois Bell opened the first commercial cellular system in October 1983.

For their pioneering work in cellular telephony, AT&T Labs researchers Richard Frenkiel & Joel Engel earned the National Medal of Technology. Cellular telephony has spawned a Multi-billion dollar industry and has freed tens of millions of people, both at home and at work, to communicate anywhere, any time.

India is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. The booming telecom

industry has been attracting large amount of investments in the country. The mobile

subscriber base in India has shown upward trend after several months. It increased from

861.66 million in February 2013 to 867.80 million at the end of March 2013, registering

a monthly growth of 0.71%, according data released by TRAI. The number of telephone

subscribers in India increased to 898.02 million at the end of March, 2013 from 892.02

million at the end of February 2013, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.67%.

The share of urban subscribers has increased to 61.11% from 61.08% whereas share of

rural subscribers has decreased from 38.92% to 38.89% in the month of March 2013.

With this, the overall Teledensity in India increased to 73.32 at the end of March, 2013

from 72.90 of the previous month.

Subscription in the urban areas increased from 544.86 million in February, 2013 to

548.80 million at the end of March, 2013. Subscription in rural areas increased from

347.16 million to 349.22 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of

urban and rural subscription is 3.94% and 2.06% respectively. The overall urban

Teledensity has increased from 146.15 to 146.96 and Rural Teledensity increased from

40.81 to 41.02.

An

Overview

And the

history

of cell

phone

services

and

handsets

Mobile trends in India

From watching television to making banking transactions, mobile devices are at the very heart of

life today, changing the way people communicate, learn and access information. In India, people

use their phones to access entertainment, to check the day’s cricket scores, to find the best route

to work or to communicate globally through their Twitter accounts. They purchase goods online

and use apps for anything from monitoring their weight to checking out local restaurants. In

fact, the uses of mobile devices are virtually limitless.

With almost 900 million1 mobile connections across the country, India represents a third of all

connections in Asia Pacific, with the figure expected to rise to 1.16 billion by 2017.

So far, however, adoption of 3G technology in India has been hindered by the small amount of

spectrum allocated to mobile services and the very high spectrum prices reached during the 2010

auction. The final prices concluded were high due to limited availability of spectrum, the auction

design process and particularly the reserve prices. This prevented any operator from acquiring a

national footprint and forced companies to borrow heavily to pay for 3G spectrum, limiting their

ability to invest in further roll-

out of networks and services. The move by operators to screen out inactive subscribers since 2012

has resulted in a temporary dip in the base. However, the subscriber base is expected to grow in

the long term. In recent months, India has seen an increase in adoption of 3G and, with better

spectrum pricing and management, mobile broadband growth could continue, with 3G and 4G

adoption in India expected to increase 31 percent between 2013 and 2017.

Key service providers in India

rank

Service

provider

subscriber ownership Market

share

Technology

1 Airtel 19.34 (October

2013)

Bharti Enterprises (64.76%) SingTel (32%) Vodafone (4.4%)

21.69% (march 2013)

GSM EDGE HSPA TD-LTE

2 Vodafone 19.55 (October

2013)

Vodafone Group (100%)

17.56% (march 2013)

GSM EDGE HSDPA

3 Reliance 15.41 (September

2012

Reliance ADAG (67%) Public (26%)

14.17%

(march

2013)

CdmaOne EVDO GSM HSPA WiMAX

4 Idea

cellular

12.72 (Q2 2013)

Aditya Birla (49.05%) Axiata Group Berhad (19.96%

14.01% (march 2013)

GSM EDGE HSPA

5 BSNL 9.72 (October

2013) State-owned 11.66%

(march 2013)

GSM EDGE HSDPA HSPA+ CdmaOne EVDO WiMAX WiFi

6 Tata

docomo

9.01 (August

2012) Tata Teleservices (74%) NTT DoCoMo (26%)

7.65%

(march

2013)

CDMA EVDO GSM EDGE HSPA+

7 aircel 6.32 (October

2013 Maxis Communications (74%) Apollo Hospital (26%)

6.92% (march 2013)

CDMA EVDO GSM EDGE HSPA+

8 uninor 0.32 (October

2013) Unitech Wireless ]] (67.25%) Unitech Group (32.75%)

3.65% (march 2013)

GSM EDGE

9 Mts India 1.4 (October

2011) Sistema (73.71%) Shyam Group (23.79%)

1.53%

(march

2013)

CDMA EVDO

10 Videocon 0.32 (October

2013) Videocon 0.23%

(march 2013)

GSM GPRS EDGE

11 Mtnl 0.36 (October

2013) State-owned 0.58%

(march 2013)

GSM HSDPA CDMA

12 Loop

mobile

0.3 (October

2013) Khaitan Holding Group (100%)

0.35% (march 2013)

GSM EDGE

Swot analysis

Weaknesses

- The mobile internet is still not a mass market, which

implies that trade names / promoters are merely dipping

their toes into this instead of dedicating serious financial

resources. It is point where ‘internet marketing’ was,

many years back.

- With respect to handsets, the market is in fact becoming

more and more fragmented, which indicates that it is

becoming tougher instead of simpler to work towards a

user experience with a comprehensive acceptability.

- The fact that mobile advertising is not an isolated part of

marketing implies that there is no body with the

authorization to keep an eye on a number of essential

components. It can be difficult to find out where to go for

premium practice, recommendation, and so on.

Strengths

- Implementation of the mobile internet is accelerating

and usage of content is increasing.

- The experience of using the internet for online browsing

is becoming more and more agreeable constantly because

of enhanced technology, together with handset

enhancements.- “The ‘walled garden’ approach adopted

by mobile operators is being consigned to the dustbin with

the likes of T-Mobile and 3 signing deals with the big

search engines” (MBAC LLC, 2012, p. 102).

- Predetermined price for mobile content is facilitating to

drive content usage.

- There is additional guidance from organizations like the

Mobile Marketing Association.

- It is becoming simpler to pay for acquisitions through

mobile, particularly small-ticket items.

Opportunities

- Mobile Search – there is an immense prospect for

promoters to find traction on mobile search engine

listings, as a lot of brands have not jumped on board yet.

- GPS integration in mobile phones.

- The mobile phone is quite a personal device and hence,

there exists a huge potential to get personalised

promotional messages – only if it is done correctly

- Acquisition as well as maintenance

- Branding and direct reaction- Recent feature of flash

light indicates that additional designers as well as

developers will get on board with mobile with something

that is well-known.

Threats

- It continues to become more tricky for mobile phone

manufacturers to offer a steady experience across various

browsers keeping in view the ever intensifying range of

handsets and personal devices available in the market.

- Exploitation of mobile marketing is a big ; that is,

consumers being overcharged and ‘permission marketing

principles’ being completely overlooked. It could get

worse if the delinquents are not penalized appropriately.

Pestle analysis

Political:

The Federal Communications Commission has done some good with respect to the mobile phone system.

When legislative declared that people must be permitted to keep their phone numbers when they switch

mobile phone companies, the Federal Communications Commission said that wireless carriers would have to

act in accordance as well and offer number portability. From the year 2004, they have been reviewing the

prohibition on cell phone use in aero planes. Governmental bodies as well as legal system sought to simplify

confusing and deceptive charges on mobile phone bills. “In 2009 , they decided to launch a review of cellular

phone exclusivity deals – like the lucrative and longstanding arrangement between Apple and AT&T” .For

centuries, the government has fought to put a stop to big businesses from growing too much from a

competition point of view. However, I really do not think that there is any problem with a customer who

decides to buy a mobile phone along with a bundled service as long as the customer completely recognizes

the deal.

Economic:

Mobile phone manufacturers are very important for the economy as they presently occupies a third of the

global market. Providers want consumers and will use an immense amount advertising budget to acquire

them. They will offer free mobile phones to new customers because a phone cost the manufacturer almost

nothing and a cell phone customers paying their monthly bill of 40 USD to 200 USD for the rest of their lives

(Luo et al, 2012, p. 180). With more than five billion existing clientele and many millions more,

manufacturer’s future is looking good. Apart from billions in advertising dollars, the cell phone makers have a

number of other factors to think about; for instance,

The cost of acquiring latest 3rd generation authorizations as well as upcoming 4th generation

The life cycle of mobile phones – existing phones are at the saturation phase

The enormous cost of creating the networks in the initial instance

The level of rivalry with the market

Social

The mobile phone market has expanded to a global level and as a result, mobile devices are distributed all

over the world. As the utilization of mobile phones infuses the globe, the “globalization of mobile device user

interface design is becoming more crucial to business success and building a loyal customer base” (Dierkes et

al, 2011, p. 371). Communications technologies are completely reliant on a social network for

implementation as well as for utilization, and hence the circulation of these technologies within a society is of

utmost importance. The perspective of the mobile user includes his social scenario and the influence of

society on the usage of mobile phone. This makes the social factor a crucial part of understanding users along

with their required usage of mobile phone and associated services.

Technological:

The technological advancements within the industry are crucial for the achievement of any new entrant in

the market that is persistently developing, as the level of competition increases, mobile phone companies

should ascertain that their handsets are at the top-most level of innovation. With features such as camera,

internet, social networking and email, all provisions on phones, companies will now have to imagine other

functions to help discriminate and stay prominent as compared to the competitors. In addition to innovative

features, a large number of users are demanding the softwares / applications that are compatible with all

operating systems. In this regard, “Nokia’s alliance with Microsoft for their latest Smartphones seems a very

good move as everyone are aware of the technological capabilities of Microsoft and the value they can add

to any technological product”

Legal:

As with any multi-billion dollar industries, legal concerns proliferate within the cell phone arena. While the

majority of companies do whatever they can to copyright their designs, there appears to be a huge deal of

gray area within the hardware as well as software that the mobile phone makers offer. Court cases involving

copyright violation are in abundance. Following are few examples of the same. Apple is taking legal action

against the Finnish company Nokia for infringing one of its exclusive rights. Lately, Samsung lodged a

objection against Kodak for the technology used in mobile phone camera ((Reller et al, 2009, p. 129). Apple

has lodged a case against cell phone producer HTC for copyright breach concerning Android phones.

Taiwanese Elan Microelectronics, ledged a court case against Apple with respect to their multi-touch

products, for instance, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, MacBook and Magic Mouse. Actually, there are limitless

court cases between cell phone manufacturers, putting billions of dollars at stake.

Environmental:

In today’s culture, it is extremely important for organisations to be considered as environmental friendly as

well as principled with regard to their manufacturing, due to the comprehensive effect it has on global

warming. Therefore, the mobile phone companies should ensure that they function in an suitable and

ecologically appropriate manner. Mobile phone recycling turning out to be all the more popular, indicating

how important this issue is for the individuals. The main concern with mobile recycling is the discarding of

the batteries of the phones because they be quite hazardous if not disposed of properly