Journal of Empirical Research in Management (JERM), Volume 1, Number 1, 2012. pp.26-29.

Attitude of Mobile Phone Subscribers towards Mobile Services in UttarakhandMamta Bhatt1 and Atul Bamrara2Abstract Telecom sector is one of the emerging sectors where many private operators have entered into the Indian market to provide better services to its customers. As the competition among mobile services providers become very tight, each company try to provide high-quality services and thus better satisfy their customers. The present study attempted to analyse the attitude of mobile customers towards their service providers in Uttarakhand and further explored the various problems faced by them for improvement in existing services.1

Keywords Mobile Telecommunication, Service Quality, GSM, CDMA

I. INTRODUCTION In todays world, with lot of technological advancements, distances have been reduced to almost zero. Communication is the basic need of human being and it prevailed since long back. There has been so many mean of distance communication. One of the most popular was letters. In olden times people write letters and sent them with the help of the mail sender, generally a house rider or pigeon who took flight to a particular place for sending the message. Later on post offices help the people to connect through a proper and definite channel to send letters and telegraph, to have long distance communication between them. Further new media of communication come into existence that is telephone. Discovery of telephone reduced the distance and time phenomenally. it became easy to communicate without any constraint of time and distance, so after discovering the telephone but it lacked mobility further improvements are done but the revolution in it comes when the mobile phones and their networking process was found. The transfer of information between two distant points is generally known as telecommunication which involves sound in the form of electrical signals. II. REASONSFOR USING MOBILE SERVICES IN UTTARAKHAND

now the customers are well educated & aware of their needs and the ways to fulfill them, so the companies do not want to lose its customers as it is less expensive than making the new customer for their facility. Due to some of these reasons, companies try to build relationship with their customers and try to expand their customer base. Uttarakhand is witnessing a tremendous increase in mobile phone subscribers as most of the population resides in rural areas, where transportation facilities are either not available or if available, are not in better conditions. Due to poor climatic conditions and less employment opportunities, most of the working people stay far from their families to earn livelihood. Mobile services have become boon for such families which connects them 24x7. These problems attract the mobile companies to establish their coverage. Telecom services are provided throughout the country via two modes: CDMA and GSM, where major players involve Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, Airtel, Vodafone, Tata, Aircel, Uninor, Idea and Reliance. Wireless subscriber base in the country is witnessing strong growth and it is one of the major driving forces in telecom industry. The services offered by the major players in the area include Prepaid, Postpaid, GPRS, MMS, WAP, SMS, 3G etc. III. PRIOR STUDIES Mobile phones today are widely used to play music, games, browse internet and social networking has changed the style of communication patterns not only through usual voice but videos and pictures. The results of the study made by Nurvitadhi (2002) showed wide usage of mobile phones by University students5. The choice to use mobile phones is its 24x7 usability and flexibility to operate from available network range. Further, there is a close relation between mobile phone and PDAs. Revathi and Padmavathy (2005) demonstrated that preference in cellular service providers in post liberalization era7. They studied the factors which influence the users choice for cellular service provider and the problems faced by users of cellular services. The study revealed that the respondents of BPL cellular limited and AIRCEL limited faced many problems and they have an idea of switchover to some other service providers, Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu. Dissatisfaction has been expressed about the technical qualities of the service provided in both service providers in terms of transmission quality like poor clarity

With new discoveries and inventions, customers have to become the frequent user of it, which increase their expectation towards the mobile phone services mainly related to its networking. Companies are well aware thatAssistant Professor, School of Commerce, H. N. B. Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal, India. 2 School of Management, H. N. B. Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal, India. Email: atulbamrara@gmail.com1

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Attitude of Mobile Phone Subscribers Towards Mobile Services in Uttarakhand

of signals, signal interruption and disconnection. Majority of the customers positively responded towards services of the mobile companies but Banumathy and Kalaivani (2006) found a mismatch between the promised offerings with the services which companies provide in reality1. The findings indicated that cell phone users expect more and more services compared to the existing ones. Munnukka (2008) investigated the intentions of cellular phone users and how it is affected by price perceptions4. It was found that there is a positive relation between both the factors, whereas, a negative relationship exists between price transparency and price perceptions of customers. Munnukka (2008) favored the implementation of various pricing strategies which positively affect price perceptions of cell phone customers4. There is a cutthroat competition in mobile market and every company is providing better and better services to attract customers. Ozcan and Kocak (2003) made an attempt to understand the satisfaction level of customers as well as use of cell phones in Turkey6. They verified that the objectives behind use of cell phone are status/ relaxation and security/ sociability. Status/ relaxation established a negative relation while security/ sociability established a positive relation with usability. The factors responsible to measure usability of cell phone include past experiences, company/ brand, income level etc. Billing, customer services, network, data and pricing are five different dimensions for quality of cell phone services (Lim, Widdows and Park, 2006)3. IV. OBJECTIVES 1) To observe the main problems faced by mobile service in Uttarakhand. 2) To examine the attitude of customers towards exploitation by service providers. V. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in four major cities (Dehradun, Rishikesh, Haridwar and Srinagar Garhwal) of Uttarakhand. Out of which 100 respondents (50 BSNL & 50 Airtel) were selected from each city. Hence, the total sample size is 400 customers and relevant information was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The strong reason behind studying the customers of BSNL and Airtel is their major market share in the region,

where Airtel provides the better connectivity and BSNL is known for its wide coverage even in rural and remote areas. The primary data has been obtained through selfdeveloped questionnaire whereas secondary data has been obtained from different published material, i.e., newspapers, journals, magazine and websites. Finally, the data was analyzed with the help of appropriate statistical tools like average weighted ranking, Chi square and t-test. VI. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS A.AND FINDINGS

Reasons Behind using Mobile Service

Today, it has become a necessity to have a cell phone for various purposes. The purpose of using the cell phone may vary from user to user. People get their cell phone connection to fulfil their needs. Some of them got their connection just to show their prestige and others to promote their business. The users prefer cell phone, because it makes communication possible in a very quick way. The analysis shows that the reason for used mobile service. From Table 1 it is observed that the respondents of the services (BSNL and AIRTEL) had the similar criteria for making choice of the company. Connect with the family is ranked first, followed by easy communication and business purpose. Hence, it is clear that maintaining connection with the family is important for all the mobile services users. B. Problem Faced by Mobile Service Users

To analyse the shortcomings of mobile services used by the customers of BSNL and AIRTEL weightage scoring techniques are adopted for which the respondents are scaled 1 to 5 according to their personal view. From the Table 2 it is inferred that in case of BSNL mobile service, network was ranked first (54%), delayed connectivity was second (49%) and scheme/offers was third (36%). Hence it is clear that network is an important problem faced by BSNL service users. In AIRTEL mobile service, delayed connectivity was ranked first (47%), lack of coverage was second (46%) and network was third (43%). Hence it is clear that delayed connectivity is an important problem faced by AIRTEL service users.

Table 1: Reason Behind using Mobile Service BSNL Average Weightage Score 59.73 51.06 33.06 33.86 22.20 AIRTEL Average Weightage Score 57.73 50.73 31.33 32.73 27.26

Reasons Family Connectivity Easy Communication Security Business Purpose Other Purpose

Total Score 896 766 496 508 333

Rank I II IV III V

Total Score 866 761 470 491 409

Rank I II IV III V

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Journal of Empirical Research in Management (JERM) Table 2: Problem Faced by Mobile Service Users BSNL Average Weightage Score 54.20 36.13 48.73 34.30 26.06 AIRTEL Average Weightage Score 43.26 38.80 47.40 45.93 24.60

Problems Network Scheme/Offers Delayed Connectivity Lack of Coverage Recharge/ Billing System

Total Score 813 542 731 516 391

Rank I III II IV V

Total Score 649 582 711 689 369

Rank III IV I II V

C.

Attitude of Customers Towards Service Quality

It is observed that every user of the respective services has claimed for poor service quality. The opinion of the respondents in this regard it was observed that majority of the respondents had service quality problem in BSNL (61%) followed by and AIRTEL (45%). To understand the association between service quality and across demographics the following observations has been made with the help of 2 tests. Ho: There is no significant association between demographic and opinion regarding lack of service quality.Table 3: Attitude of Customers Towards Service Quality Gender 2 D.f. Calculated 0.895 1 1.341 1 Age 1.429 2 3.087 2 Education 15.048 3 1.485 3 Income 10.334 3 1.282 3 Occupation 4.836 3 4.823 3

customers demographic characteristics has been carried out and the following observations have been made: Ho: There is no significant attitudinal difference between gender vs exploitation by service providers.Table 4: Gender Vs Exploitation Gender Male Female Mean Score 2.278 2.205 BSNL t value 0.456 p value 0.649 AIRTEL Mean t p Score value value 2.158 -0.819 0.414 2.297

Service BSNL AIRTEL BSNL AIRTEL BSNL AIRTEL BSNL AIRTEL BSNL AIRTEL

Significance 0.344 0.247 0.489 0.214 0.002 0.688 0.016 0.735 0.184 0.185

The mean attitude score of the male and female of BSNL and AIRTEL mobile services customers is 2.278, 2.205 and 2.158, 2.297 respectively. The difference between the mean score of the above two group of the BSNL and AIRTEL mobile services respondents is (t = 0.456 and p = 0.65 > 0.05) and (t = -0.819 and p = 0.41 > 0.05) which is statistically not significant. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted and gender wise there is no significant difference in the opinion regarding exploitation. Ho: There is no significant attitudinal difference between age vs exploitation by service providers. The mean attitude score of the younger and adults age group of BSNL and AIRTEL customers is 2.250, 2.250 and 2.352, 2.098 respectively. The difference between the mean score of the above two group of the BSNL and AIRTEL respondents is statistically not significant (t = 0.000 and p = 1.00 > 0.05) and (t = 1.550 and p = 0.12 > 0.05).Table 5: Age Vs Exploitation Age Group Younger Adults Mean Score 2.250 2.250 BSNL t value 0.000 p value 1.000 Mean Score 2.352 2.098 AIRTEL t p value value 1.550 0.123

From the results shown in Table 3 it can be concluded that opinion towards lack of service quality of BSNL and AIRTEL is not significant with respect to age, gender and occupation. Whereas, in case of education and income the differences are significant with BSNL but missing with AIRTEL. D. Attitude Towards Exploitation

To study the attitude of customers towards exploitation by mobile service providers t-test analysis based on

Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted and age wise there is no difference in their opinion towards exploitation by mobile service providers.

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Attitude of Mobile Phone Subscribers Towards Mobile Services in Uttarakhand Table 6: Education Vs Exploitation Education Less educated (upto 12) Higher educated (Above 12) Mean Score 2.400 2.212 BSNL t value 0.955 p value 0.341 Mean Score 2.125 2.236 AIRTEL t value -0.584 p value 0.560

Table 7: Income Vs Exploitation Income Dependent on others Independent Mean Score 2.203 2.267 BSNL t value -0.358 p value 0.721 Mean Score 2.257 2.184 AIRTEL t value 0.423 p value 0.673

Ho: There is no significant attitudinal difference between education vs exploitation by service providers. The mean attitude score of the less educated and higher educated group of BSNL and AIRTEL mobile services customers is 2.400, 2.212 and 2.125, 2.236 respectively. The difference between the mean score of the above two group of the BSNL and AIRTEL respondents is (t = 0.955 and p = 0.34 > 0.05), (t = -0.584 and p = 0.56 > 0.05) and (t = -0.305 and p = 0.76 > 0.05) which is statistically not significant. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted and education does not influence the opinion of the customers regarding exploitation. Ho: There is no significant attitudinal difference between income vs exploitation by service providers. The mean attitude score of the dependent and independent income group of BSNL and AIRTEL mobile services customers is 2.203, 2.267 and 2.257, 2.184 respectively. The difference between the mean score of the above two group of the BSNL and AIRTEL respondents is (t = 0.358 and p = 0.72 > 0.05) and (t = 0.423 and p = 0.67 > 0.05) which is statistically not significant. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted and income wise there is no difference in the opinion regarding exploitation by service providers among dependent and independent income groups. VII. CONCLUSION The study investigated the customer attitude towards their service providers and the relationship between demographic variables and service quality. The study has concluded that there is insignificant relationship between demographics and service quality. However, for education and income, the test statistics is significant for BSNL. It is analysed that there is no significant difference across demographics regarding exploitation by different mobile service providers. Most of the respondents were agreed and also opined that customers are exploited by service providers. The study indicates that respondents of BSNL and Airtel mobile services face many problems and they have an idea to switch their service operator. Majority of the customers considered that connectivity with the family is the main reason to adopt mobile services.

Broadly, is can be recommended that BSNL should ponder on strengthening the network capabilities and scheme/ offers while Airtel must contemplate on mechanisms which can enhance the quality of connectivity and network coverage. REFERENCES[1] Banumathy, S. & Kalaivani, S. (2006) Customers attitude towards cellphone services in communication system, Indian Journal of Marketing, 36(3), 31-36. Retrieved November 27, 2009, from the Web site http://www.indianjournalofmarketing.com/archives/2006/ march2006.htm. [2] Deng, Z., Lu, Y., Wei, K. K. & Zhang, J. (2010) Understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical study of mobile instant messages in China. International Journal of Information Management, 30(4), 289-300. Retrieved December 21, 2010, from the Web site http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026840 1209001224. [3] Lim, H., Widdows, R., & Park, J. (2006) M-loyalty: winning strategies for mobile carriers, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 23 (4), 208-218. Retrieved February 02, 2010, from the Web site http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=15 62889&show=html. [4] Munnukka, J. (2008) Customers purchase intentions as a reflection of price perception, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 17 (3), 188-196. Retrieved December 25, 2009, from the Web site http://www.emeraldinsight.com/ journals.htm?articleid=1728593&show=pdf [5] Nurvitadhi, E. (2002) Trends in Mobile Computing: A Study of Mobile Phone Usage in the United States and Japan, Thesis submitted to Oregon State University, 1-49. Retrieved December 25, 2009, from the Web site http://www.citeseerx.ist.psu.edu. [6] Ozcan, Z. Y. & Kocak, A. (2003) Research Note: A Need or a Status Symbol, European Journal of Communication, 18(2), 241-254. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from the Web site http://ejc.sagepub.com/content/18/2/241.short. [7] Revathi, S. & Padmavathy, S. (2005) Preference in cellular service providers in the post liberalization era, Indian Journal of Marketing, 35 (2), 6-10(20). Retrieved February 02, 2010, from the Web site http:// www.indianjournalofmarketing.com/archives/feb2005.htm [8] Shedd, W. (1996) Turning back churn, Telecommunications, 30(11), 73-76. Retrieved January 11, 2010, from the Web site http://www.highbeam.com/ doc/1P3-10423039.html.

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