Mobile Vergin Assignment Help

In this section we will talk about one of the start-ups of Virgin Mobiles of Mr. Richard Branson’s in India. After the successful implementation of other start-ups they will try to capture the Indian market with the help of their attractive offers and value added services. They will use the services of the Tata CDMA and GSM network in order to provide or offer their services. In context to this they will use Virgin Mobile as brand name. They target the Indian youth for the growth of the business in an effective manner. They plan to render their services in both the sections CDMA and GSM services. For CDMA they decide to provide their handset having their logo and name on it. They also plan to market the facility of the prepaid and the post-paid services on both GSM and CDMA segment(Donner, Marsden, & Gitau, 2011). They also decided to offer wireless services with a brand name Datamax. They strongly put their focus upon the Indian youth in order to attain the success. They plan to launch their both GSM and CDMA services in the various states of the India but in few states they will launch their CDMA services only and in some they didn’t able to launch as there is no Tata services available in these states.

With the previous experience in the various countries they plan to give an offer to Tata in order to make sale of their CDMA brand sets to the customers. With the various kinds of offers and other benefits they tend to enter into the India market. There are many other companies also exists in the Indian market having large market share in comparison to the Tata. They also provide effective and efficient services and hold their own customers effectively. But they make effective plans and offers in order to attract the large number of customers(Escobari & Donner, 2010). They effectively study the market and make conclusion to target the youth market. They make effective and attractive plans in which they provide innovative benefits to their users.

Company description:

Mr Richard Branson’s is well known for his start-ups as they are engaged in various business related to different sectors such as Travel, Radio, print media, Energy, cars, airline, etc. In the previous start-ups related to the telecommunication services in various countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Poland, South Africa, UK, USA, Latin America, Colombia, Chile, etc. they achieve huge success as they get effective response from the government as well as from the service users also(Ian, 2010). They can render their services with the help of the existing telecom companies in an effective manner. They can act as an independent entity along with partnership with the existing mobile company and they can issue a license to the mobile service provider in order and the network infrastructure is operated by the company. With this strategy they can run their business in an effective manner and they didn’t face any problem in it. With these possibilities and benefits they enter into the India market and make tie-up with the Tata Teleservices in order to render their services to the Indian customers.

Product and services description:

The product and services provided by the virgin mobile is the telecom services. Under the head of product the talk time offers provided by the company get considered. They provide effective and attractive offers or the products in order to attract the new customers. They provide such attractive talk time offers in order to attract the customers due to which customers can change their mobile connection and use the services of the virgin mobiles(Ilias & Anastassios, 2010). With the help of their effective product and services they can attain success in various countries in an effective manner. With the effect of this they tends to enter into the Indian market with their existing effective offers and plans in order to attract the number of Indian customers in an effective manner. By looking at the previous experiences in different countries such as Australia and the success factor globally it seems possible that in Indian market also they can attain their success in an easy manner.

Above table shows the number of virgin mobile subscribers in the Australia. As the quarter passes the virgin mobile users get increases effectively. The increasing trend shows the increase in the usability.

Industry and Market description:

The telecom industry of India has six major operators which can continuously providing their services in the Indian market and attain significant market share. The telecom service providers in the Indian market are Reliance, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL and Tata Indicom. They can render their services in an effective manner. All the operators have their own significant market share in which they are performing brilliantly(Karin, 2010). In the segment of the CDMA Reliance and Tata is performing effectively on the contrary in the GSM segment remaining four companies such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL are performing effectively. All the companies are working significantly as all have their loyal customers which can use their services in an effective manner. Each service provider can provide effective services to their users in an effective manner. They provide effective network services and the better connectivity to their users. They make effective plans consisting effective call rates, call plans, etc.

Current Situation

Reprise of original problem statement and case study questions:

Virgin mobile is facing lot many challenges in order to make survive in the market. The foremost problem for virgin mobile is there is an issue aroused by the department of telecom against virgin mobile services and the issue is that virgin mobile didn’t get entered in the Indian market as a MVNO (or we can say Mobile Virtual Network Operator)(Nam, Ekinci, & Whyatt, 2011). In context to this in New Delhi, the Department of Telecom conduct an enquiry over the Tata Teleservices Alliances and the virgin mobile. In enquiry it is observed that the contract or tie-up between the Tata Teleservices and virgin mobile didn’t fall under mobile virtual network operator (or MVNO). But, earlier at the time of the tie-up it was written that in India virgin mobile is operating as a mobile virtual network operator by the cellular operation association. These arguments create controversies over the virgin mobile services in India. Due to these issues virgin mobile face effective challenges in order to make stability in the market. Along with these major challenges there are few questions arise which arise in order to get to know more about the problems of the Virgin face in the Indian market. The few questions are as follows such as:

1. What are the issues they are facing in operating the business?
2. Effect of legislation or regulations on the business?
3. Didn’t get the adequate customer response?
4. Effects of the cut-throat competition on the functioning of virgin mobiles?

Above are few questions which can be answered in order to make effective discussion about the issues or problems or challenges faced by the virgin mobile in the market of India(Shemi & Procter, 2013). Virgin is a well known brand in the world and then also they struggle to survive in the Indian market. There are various countries in which they can run their telecom business in an effective manner but in India they face challenges and face situation of struggle in order to survive in the market. They can provide CDMA and GSM services with prepaid and post-paid facility along with the internet facility in the whole world.

Case study solution

Virgin mobile get entered into the Indian market with its existing product and the services along with the existing services which they tend to implement effectively in the Indian market in order to attain their success(Solis, 2012). They can target the youth sector of the Indian market in order to render their services in an effective manner and capture the market at a rapid speed. The strategy of targeting the youth sector become successful and they get huge response from the Indian market as they can accept their products and services in an effective manner. If we talk in the percentage in the customer satisfaction ratio they got 95% score as they can make 95% of targeted population satisfied. It is considered as record and ranked as Number 1 in order to make the customer satisfied. They open number of outlets in order to render makes their product available to the customers and for this purpose they open almost 4,500,000 outlets in the Indian cities. Opening that much huge number of outlets provides huge success in order to attain the customer satisfaction. The major reason behind their success was they provide what they promised due to which they get highly accepted in the Indian Market(Sullivan, 2009). But along with the success the controversies also get into action which create lots of problem for the virgin mobile and destroy the image of the virgin mobile in the market.

Responses to the case study questions:

As the virgin mobile get the success along with this controversies related to their tie-ups also get increase which creates lots of problem from them. With the effect of this their competitors took advantage of the situation in order to revise their existing talk time plans or offers so that they can capture their market share again in an effective manner which was captured by the virgin mobile. As the time passes the controversies related with the virgin mobile keeps on increasing and certain more problems also rising which can damage the image of the virgin mobile in the eyes of the Indian customers. The problem arises for virgin mobile such as their competitors also revise their plans in an effective manner at cheap rates which can attract their loyal customers towards them effectively. Along with this the virgin mobile users also face a problem like signal fading while making phone calls, they also face network problem while using the virgin mobiles for their purposes. Due to these factors the users of the virgin mobile become unsatisfied and they move towards their old service providers in order to get the effective services. These problems or the factors damage the reputation of the virgin mobiles. These challenges create lots of problem in front of the virgin mobile as they keep on losing their market share and potential customers in India(Unerman & O’Dwyer, 2010). Competitive companies get benefited with the virgin mobile situation and they can effectively avail the situation in order to attain their market share in an effective manner.

Below are the responses to the questions such as:

What are the issues they are facing in operating the business?

The foremost issue they face is related to their tie-up with Tata. The Department of Telecom raised an issue that the tie-up of virgin mobile didn’t fall under the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) in India.  Whereas they keep on claiming that earlier at the time of the tie up department of telecom stated that there is no issue and the cellular operation association of India gives a written statement that virgin mobile is operating as an MVNO in India(Valsiner, 2013). But all these facts didn’t get considered by the DOT (or department of telecom) at the time when they got stuck into the various controversies in India. Along with this DOT can put an enquiry panel on the alliance of the Tata Teleservices and the virgin mobile in order to find out the reason behind the controversies. Along with these issues they also face issue of change in the policies or regulations which are made by the department of the telecom as they badly affect the functioning of the virgin mobile.

What are the effects of legislation or regulations on the business?

Before the entry of the virgin mobile Indian market have liberal policies or the legislations or regulations which are easily followed by the existing companies. Various types of data packages, message packages, etc. were available in the market along with effective call rates(Wagen, 2006). All the telecom service providers can provide effective packages to their users so that they can capture the effective market share in comparison to others. But after the entry of the virgin mobile in the Indian market and their consequences department of telecommunications make effective changes in the rules and regulations of the telecom industry. They can make amendments in the existing regulations in order to make effective control over the telecommunication companies. With the drastic change in the existing regulations or legislations virgin mobile face effective issues as they are already facing issues related to their tie-up controversies. In this situation they can’t put focus upon one thing because if they put their focus toward the controversies they lose their market share and if they focus on market share they can lose their focus on solving the controversies. They didn’t get the optimum support from the Indian government in order to operate effectively. With the effect of this potential finance institutions also took their step back as they observe that they didn’t get support from the Indian government and with this financial institutions didn’t want to take risks. For them this situation become worst as the time passes because they didn’t get the favourable decision in the controversies as well as they lose their huge market share with the effect of the time(Wallace &Kremzar, 2010). TRAI or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India revised the tariff plans and other service plan and with this they keep on issuing order and directions on various subject matters such as quality of the services provided to customers, tariff rates, interconnections, mobile number portability, etc.

Didn’t they get the adequate customer response?

In the beginning of the business virgin mobile get the huge positive response from the Indian market as they implement their previous successful strategies in to the market. They also introduce their effective existing plans in order to attain the success and make effective competition with the existing competitors. In the first year they can attain 88% score in the field of customer satisfaction

Figure1: stats taken from the virgin mobile review.

But after the rise in the controversies and change in the telecom regulations or legislations affect the business of the virgin mobile. Virgin mobile get stuck into the controversies and their customers face the problems like lose or fading of signals while making calls. These factors make the customers unsatisfied and at the same time they get effective packages and offers from the existing companies. With these issues they are not able to perform effectively and didn’t get the adequate response from their customers(Walliman & Price, 2011). Earlier at the time of entry virgin mobiles provide low cost packages to their respective customers but as the time passes department of telecom make effective change in their legislations. When they get unfavourable decision on the controversies they didn’t able to provide effective packages or the offers to the Indian consumers. And due to these factors they didn’t get the adequate customer response.

What are the effects of the cut-throat competition on the functioning of virgin mobiles?

In the Indian market there are six telecom industries were working effectively such as Airtel, Reliance, Idea, Tata, Vodafone and BSNL. They attain significant market share along with loyal customers and regularly providing the effective services. When the virgin mobile makes entry into the Indian market they provide effective and attractive offers to the Indian consumers. Offers of the virgin mobiles were bit attractive and effective in comparison to the existing telecom companies due to these users get attracted towards the product and services provided by virgin mobile(Williams, 2009). They provide low cost or reasonable packages to the services users as they can attain success with the same packages in different countries in the telecom industries effectively. With the use of the attractive packages they can attain the huge market share and affect the market share of the existing companies. At the same time virgin mobile stuck into the controversies and department of telecom make effective changes in their regulations and legislations. The competitors took the advantage of the situation in an effective manner as they make revision in their existing packages with the effective network facility. Services users face network problem while using the services of virgin mobiles as their signals get fade away while making the calls. Due to these factors service users get dissatisfied and move towards the old service users and they make effective use of the situation.

Evaluation of alternatives:

Virgin mobiles stuck into the major issues or face huge problems as they can face controversies related to tie-up with Tata. In order to deal with the situation there are few alternatives such as they can make re-agreement with the Tata in effective manner or they can chose any other company in context to this. Earlier they made agreement with the Tata and DOT approved their agreement as they fall under MVNO but later on they refuse it and give the decision against them because they can’t fulfil the required documents which are necessary for the MVNO purpose. Now, in this case they can make re-agreement considering all the facts, requirements effectively related and relevant to the MVNO. Or they can make agreement with other telecom companies considering all the facts or requirements relevant to the MVNO. (Yoon & Thanh, 2011). They already providing effective packages or offers to their respective customers but department of telecom can make effective changes in the telecom regulations which have to be effectively followed by the telecom service providers in an effective manner. The alternatives are as follows:

• Make re-contact with Tata or any other telecom service provider by considering the effective requirements Earlier, they made agreement with the Tata and DOT approved their agreement as they fall under MVNO but later on they refuse it and give the decision against them because they can’t fulfil the required documents which are necessary for the MVNO purpose. Now, in this case they can make re-agreement considering all the facts, requirements effectively related and relevant to the MVNO. Or they can make agreement with other telecom companies considering all the facts or requirements relevant to the MVNO.
• Re-enter into the market with the revised packages considering the changes made by the department of telecom. Such as:

1. They revised their call rates in order to attract the customers
2. They revised their marketing strategy in order to attract the customers as they hire Ranbeer kapoor (Indian actor, celebrity. Having huge fan following) as their brand ambassador.
3. They introduce new handsets with new technology at cheap rates in order to attract the consumers.
4. They can run effective campaign in order to make their customers aware about the plans and other services.

 Conclusion:

In the end we can conclude that virgin mobile can make start-up in the Indian market on the basis of their previous successful experience. In the Indian market also they can implement their existing successful strategies along with existing products and services in an effective manner. in the beginning of the business they get huge response from the Indian market and seems to capture the huge market share in the short tenure. In the first year they can attain the 95% score in the customer satisfaction evaluation. With the effect of this it is clear that they can attain effective success in the Indian market also but they got stuck into various controversies related to their tie-up with Tata. Along with this there was change in the regulation or legislations of the telecom service providers which also affect the business of the virgin mobile. Virgin mobile face huge problem in order to operate their business and their competitors take advantage of the situation in an effective manner. Virgin mobiles stuck in order to resolve their consequences due to which they get distracted from market share. Their competitors make advantage of this situation as they revise their existing plans in order to lower the call rates in order to attract the customers. For virgin mobile the situation become even more worst when the decision related to controversies goes against. With these issues they can face so many problems as their existing customers can make complaints regarding the loss or fading of signals while making calls. These problems keep on increasing and along with this their competitors can provide effective offers with effective network facility in order to capture their market share again. They can revise their talk time plans along with this they also follow the new rules and regulations in an effective manner. Due to these factors their competitors can attain their market share again effectively. There are few alternatives available for the virgin mobile as they can make effective tie up with Tata or some other telecom company in order to run their business and capture the market share in an effective manner. Before getting into the market they consider them as their competitor but in order to enter into the market they need to make partnership with the existing company. In order to deal with this situation they can tie-up with Tata and share the profits in 50-50 ratio.