Telecom Price War

Since the inception of Q3 of this fiscal year, the million dollar question that has been haunting the management & marketers of telecom companies is weather the company would be able to sustain the price which has been thrown into the market?? What would be the next step by the rivals??? What should be the strategies?? Should the company react or respond to the moves taken by the rivals??? There has been lot of debates going on these topics.
However, only time would be able to tell us as to what would be the faith of the ongoing price war??
It is a known fact that Indian telecom industry offers the cheapest call rates in the world. Even then, there is price war among the service providers. The Billion dollar Question that arises in the mind is what is the need to have a much cheaper call rates when you already have the cheapest???
The Answer to this question probably lies into the economics of competition. This industry is so lucrative that it is attracting everyone in the corporate world resulting into addition of more players in a field which is already crowded. The urban market which tends to stagnate in a short span of time has more to contribute towards the war. Since the infrastructure required per user in the urban is less and the revenue generated per user is high in urban market compared to the rural, everybody in the field is interested only in the urban market which makes it a ZERO SUM game.
When Tata Docomo recently entered into the field, the only option that it had was to drag the frustrated and unloyal customers of other players into its favor which its sister company (Tata Indicom) has been practicing since last many years on the basis of the superiority of CDMA technology over GSM (in respect of Clarity of Voice etc) . However, since there were no any technological competencies this time in a level playing field, it played its game on the pricing front.
It initiated to change the rule of the game completely by first introducing the per second charges for all outgoing calls (Local & STD) and then also the roaming charges. It managed to take a first mover advantage by quickly garbing a significant chunk in the very first month of its launch followed by similar trend in the upcoming months as well. The other players having NO CHOICE had to change themselves accordingly with the change of the games rule.

A question arises into the mind as to that a similar thing happened some 2 years back when BSNL tried to use an innovative pricing strategy by introducing Re.1 call per minute all over the country but at that time neither the customer responded to it nor other players took much interest in it. Why????
The percentage slash in the call rates are almost same in both the situation. Then why was that it didn't aroused any interest among the customers or the players?? May be it was not a proper time to introduce that particular strategy OR No one took BSNL's move seriously(As it has no longer been seen as a competitor)!!!!!!!!!
Now, Reliance has taken a step ahead in the war by introducing 1paise/SMS and Tata Docomo introducing 500000 second in Rs.99 which is much lesser then 1paise/sec.(0.02paise/sec). If the war doesn't stop here then a time would come when the call charges would be absolutely free and the customer would be the most precious assets of the companies. Indeed the time has arrived, because with the introduction of MNP (Mobile number portability), the customers would get an added advantage and whatever loyalty persist among the consumers would vanish. The customers would not even think twice in changing the service provideronce the MNP is introduced, that too @ a cost of only Rs.19.
Hence, the next Quarter and the succeeding fiscal year would be a tough time for the telecom service providers as their margins, bottom line and the top line would be shrinking from every angle. Only way for the companies to cope up with the situation is to be customer friendly and do whatever you can to help retain the customers. The time has come when the company would run only at the mercy of the consumers.
Innovative marketing & pricing strategies rather than price war would be a better option for both the consumer as well as the company. For E.g. introduce a plan where in a person can speak for 1 hour free of cost to his/her friend's Birthday. Taking such steps would also help consumers think about the company and they may remain loyal.
At this point of time when there is a stiff war going on in the battlefield among the telecom players, it would be more interesting to watch new players such as UNINOR, DATCOM, EDISALAT DB, STel etc venturing into the market. In fact, Uninor is already in the market by this month. As a marketer it would be the most appropriate time and field to watch and learn the marketing nuances and strategies of the companies which would be changing from time to time as the battle progresses.

Introduction...... Know about me...

Hi my all beloved ones, I am basically a north Indian from UP. However, I have been born
and brought up in eastern part of the country i.e.Manipur. Therefore, Eventhough I am a north Indian i look like and also behave like a East Indian. I will tell how???

Whenever someone interacts me for the first time, He/She ends up asking me..
"Santosh r u a Bengali"? Then, I explain them the whole concept behind me being a north Indian
and looking/behaving like a East Indian. Don't worry frens.... I will explain it here as well...

Actually,My whole family is based out in Manipur(Tamenglong District) becoz my Dad has his
business there. I was born and brought up in Tamenglong and did my schooling from the best school of the area i.e.Don Bosco High School. Due to the very fact that I grew up in Tamenglong,each and every behaviour of mine,style, attitude,accent of my voice,diet ("I m a rice lover" in contrast to the north indians who love "Rotis") pattern etc belongs to these place only.I hope these explanation would convince u all that about how I am a "North-East Indian".

After completion of my School in 2002 from Don Bosco,Tamenglong I moved towards a more developed part of the country for my higher studies. It is a trend in our place that one who had completed his SSC(we call it Metric) and is serious about his/her career then one must move out for his/her higher studies becoz it is a proven fact that the place doesn't have adequate facilities for higher studies even though it has the potential!!!!!! So, i moved to my native place in UP (Deoria) from where I pursued +2 and completed it in 2004 from Central Academy.

Moving ahead in my career life, I reached City of Nawabs "Lucknow" for my further studies.
For the 1st year of my life in Lucknow, I prepared myself for the Medical Entrance Test
(I did it becoz i had studied Physics,Chemistry & Biology in +2 and all my frens were preparing
for these & not becoz i wanted to become a Doctor!!!!!!!).

After preparing for Medical entrance for a year and a bit exposure to the world, I came to know
that Beta, This is not ur cup of tea.This is for some one who is Genious,Hardworking & Patience.
which I didn't have any.I then gave a thought and made the competition for the medical seat
a bit easier my colleagues. Finally I decided to pursue Graduation in science(which was my only option !!!!) and thus joined Lucknow Christian PG College in 2005.

During my Graduation days, I once again gave a thought as to what to do next,becoz mujhe itna
samajh mein agaya tha ki simple graduate hone se aaj k jamanye mein kuch nahin hota!!!!!!!!
So,I do thought of becoming a professional. But how??? people decide of their dream profession
and then undergo studies in it from graduate level itself... but mere sath ulta hua !!!
I completed my graduation and then it was time for me to decide my profession !!!!!!!!

So,Most obvious since MBA was a hot cake,I also decided why not become an MBA graduate??I,then started preparing myself so that I can "Bell the CAT" in 2007.I tried my best but was able to bell the CAT only 3/4th. Finally with that result and performance of mine in GD & PI, I finally
reached BALAJI INSTITUTE OF TELECOM & MANAGEMENT,PUNE (Sri Balaji Society) which is supposed to give me a break through into the Business world. It is suppose to provide me the "PASSWORD" for entering into the Corporate world.

Frens,I have just jotted the summary of "BEING ME".There are lot many things which I have skipped. Its so becoz I have to respect the word "Introduction" and have to write about Myself so that it looks like an Introduction rather than a Novel.

However, I promise that I would provide u with all the stuffs which are worth mentioning here
in the blog but in pieces. It would be your task to puzzle the blogs (Don't worry Guys, I would
give u the link)..

Thanks a lot for being so patience with me... I would be back soon.... Bye bye