3G War in India

When some countries are
boasting of the 4G
technology, in India, there is
a war like situation among
the telecom giants. Everyone
including the likes of Bharti group, Vodafone, BSNL and
Tata have recently launched
their 3G services in India.
The price sensitive Indian
market is still in its infancy
when we talk about '3G technology'. Till recently
the mobile phone has been
used for the basic purpose of
calling and text messaging.
It is now that these players
are trying to develop a wider scope of mobile telephony in
the country. And the timing
is perfect. The Indian middle
glass is growing at an
unprecedented rate.
Secondly, it is willing to spend more than ever before
and it is not hesitating to try
newer things. It is willing to
pay for convenience now.
People are surfing the net on
their mobile phones, they are buying smarter phones, they
are paying bills online and
what not. Amid this change, this
change which is very swift in
nature, Telecom majors are
trying their luck with this
expensive technology. With
as much as Rs 68000 crore invested in purchase of the
3G spectrum, I do hope that
these companies have a good
luck. Let me remind you that the
European market, where 3G
was introduced in 2003,
turned profitable for the
mobile phone companies 2-3
years back. So it could be a long wait for the companies
and especially when they
have invested so much. But
as I said the Indian market is
transforming at a stupendous
pace so I think the mobile phone companies here won't
have to wait that much. Currently, a lot of them are
using experiential marketing
to develop the market.
Bharti Airtel has launched a
campaign wherein it has
several red coloured buses or the famously known "3G
buses" on the move in some
of the major cities. Users can
step into these buses to get an
experience of the 3G mobile
services like mobile TV, video calling and online
gaming. Apart from that
they are also trying to induce
some excitement among
their customers with the new
Airtel tune. It's Print and outdoor campaigns also
scream 'Airtel is here'. It has
joined hands with Nokia for
its 3G network which might
be a smart move. The Vodafone's 3G ad
campaign is brilliant. It's
success from the Zoo Zoo
campaign can be judged
from the fact that it has been
the highest gainer in terms of number of users who have
decided to change operators
while keeping the number
same. Zoo 3G, the new
superhero of the Zoo Zoo
community is everywhere be it online or offline. One can
see these ads floating on
YouTube, ad portals,
journals, billboards etc. It is
a perfect example of how
integrated marketing communication is carried out
and truly depicts the
personality of the brand -
Faster, smarter and better. Tata Docomo has turned
thousands of its retail shops
in experience stores where
one can come and experience
the features of Tata Docomo
3G. The company also conducted a lot of outdoor
campaigning activity, some
of it being very innovative in
nature. Reliance new campaign for
Reliance 3G is quite
mundane. Though the ads go
on explaining about the new
services that are being
offered it fails to generate any excitement about the
brand. The ads lack the
energy and the hoopla that
has been created around 3G
by other brands. Aircel has moved up the
ranks pretty quickly and I
feel this is due to its
connection with the Indian
cricket team captain, MS
Dhoni. It is offering quite a lot in the 3G network. It has
been quite innovative in its
offerings. Idea 3G is again, I feel not a
very good campaign by Idea.
After a very successful 'What
an Idea' sirji campaign
featuring Abhishek
Bachchan, the present ads haven't done a bit to woo its
audience. It is just another
campaign to me. In fact I
was a bit disappointed after
seeing these ads. BSNL could have hit gold
when they offered the BSNL
3G services at the price of 2G.
This could have been a move
by the company to penetrate
deeper into the country but the campaign was not really
a big success. Neither was it
marketed well by BSNL, nor
was it easy for a customer
who wanted to move on to 3G
from 2G. There are some other
companies that are also
betting big on this sector.
The Indian mobile handset
manufacturers have already
started offering 3G enabled handsets at affordable
middle class prices. But there
is still a long way to go.
Awareness is one important
aspect. After creating
awareness the companies must think of percolating
down the pyramid and then
think about increasing
ARPU levels. It is an uphill path, and a
rocky one. As an example,
China has had only 4%
adoption of the technology
after 2 years of its launch
and that too when the players have been aggressive in their
marketing and the
government has been
supportive. Only time will
tell whether the Indian
market would fare any better for the Telecom majors than
their Chinese and European
counterparts.