Dr. Arpita Basak1 and Dr A Srihari Krishna2
1Department of Business and Management. Facult of Administrative sciences and economics,
Tishk International University, Erbil, Iraq
2ITM Vocational University, India
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
DOI: 10.23918/ICABEP2021p25
Abstract
India is the world’s second-largest telecom market with a subscriber base of over 1.16 billion as of Dec 2020. The opening up of cellular services in the late nineties was the trigger point for the sharp rise in the mobile telephony industry. In the past decade, the sector witnessed rapid growth in the mobile services with tele-density reaching an all-time high and is currently hovering around 86.22%. Telecom industry clocked abnormal growth in the initial phase as the entry of new players expanded the bouquet of value-added services. Subsequently, the commoditization of services resulted in cutthroat competition with price as the only factor of differentiation. Price wars became rampant and Indian telecoms had to settle for the lowest tariff in the world. Changing government policies adversely affected the economics of the industry resulting in shakeout. Today, three private players (Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea) literally control this sector with a distant public sector company (BSNL) occupying the fourth position. This paper tracks the changing business landscape of the industry, key strategies of frontline players to attract and retain customers, government policy imperatives that impacted industry viability, market conditions leading to consolidation, survival and revival tactics of existing players to strengthen their market position, etc. The takeaways of this study should help draw lessons for other telecoms in the emerging markets which are likely to playout in a similar fashion in the near future.
Keywords: Pricing, Strategies, Marketing, Customer.
ICABEP2021
International Conference on Accounting, Business, Economics and Politics
3rd joint conference organized by the collaboration of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics,
Tishk International University, College of Administration and Economics, Salahaddin University-Erbil, and
University of Szczecin, Poland.
