October 2018 - Telecommunication

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OCTOBER 2018

TELECOMMUNCATION

Featured Article Telecommunication Sector of New India

WeChat MR. ANAND CHOUDHARY Assistant General Manager at Vodafone

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ABOUT US

OUR VISION “To nurture thought leaders and practitioners through inventive education” CORE VALUES Breakthrough Thinking and Breakthrough Execution Result Oriented, Process Driven Work Ethic We Link and Care Passion “The illiterate of this century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” - Alvin Toffler At WeSchool, we are deeply inspired by the words of this great American writer and futurist.

Undoubtedly, being convinced of the need for a radical change in management education, we decided to tread the path that leads to corporate revolution.

Emerging unarticulated needs and realities require a new approach both in terms of thought as well as action. Cross-disciplinary learning, discovering, scrutinizing, prototyping, learning to create and destroy the mind’s eye needs to be nurtured and differently so.

We school has chosen the ‘design thinking’ approach towards management education. All our efforts and manifestations as a result stem from the integration of design thinking into management education. We dream to create an environment conducive to experiential learning.

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MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR Dear Readers,

It gives me great pride to introduce SAMVAD’s edition every month. Our SAMVAD team’s efforts seem to be paying off and our readers seem to be hooked onto our magazine. At WeSchool we try to acquire as much knowledge as we can and we try and share it with everyone.

Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe Group Director

As we begin a new journey with 2018, I sincerely hope that SAMVAD will reach new heights with the unmatched enthusiasm and talent of the entire team.

Here at WeSchool, we believe in the concept of AAA: Acquire Apply and Assimilate. The knowledge that you have acquired over the last couple of months will be applied somewhere down the line. When you carry out a process repeatedly it becomes ingrained in you and eventually tends to come out effortlessly. This is when you have really assimilated all the knowledge that you have gathered.

At WeSchool, we aspire to be the best and to be unique, and we expect nothing but the extraordinary from all those who join our college. From the point of view of our magazine, we look forward to having more readers and having more contributions from our new readers.

SAMVAD is a platform to share and acquire knowledge and develop ourselves into integrative managers. It is our earnest desire to disseminate our knowledge and experience with not only WeSchool students, but also the society at large.

Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Dear Readers,

Welcome to the October Issue of SAMVAD for the year 2018!

SAMVAD is a platform for “Inspiring Futuristic Ideas” and we constantly strive to provide articles that are thought provoking and that add value to your management education.

With courses pertaining to all spheres of management at WeSchool, we too aspire to represent every industry by bringing you different themes every month. We have an audacious goal of becoming the most coveted business magazine for B-school students across the country. To help this dream become a reality we invite articles from all spheres of management giving a holistic view and bridge the gap between industry veterans and students through our WeChat section.

The response to SAMVAD has been overwhelming and the support and appreciation that we have received has truly encouraged and motivated us to work towards bringing out a better magazine every month. We bring to you the October Issue of SAMVAD which revolves around the theme of “TELECOMMUNICATION”.

We hope you read, share and grow with us!

Hope you have a great time reading SAMVAD!

Best Wishes, Team SAMVAD.

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping old ones.”

John Maynard Keynes.

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We Chat

Analytics in Telecomm- Changing Business Model from Red Ocean to Blue Ocean

Disrupting Financial Statements of Telecommunication Giants

Metamorphosis Of The Telecom Industry Of India

Team Samvad

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Role of HR in Telecommunication Industry & Telecommunication Industry in HR

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Internet of Things and its effect on Telecom

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Call for Articles

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Team Samvad

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WECHAT MR ANAND CHOUDHARY Assistant General Manager at Vodafone Team SAMVAD Q1. Could you please take us through your inspiring journey in the Telecommunication Industry?

It has been an absolutely interesting journey of around 15 years in the Telecom industry. It all started with campus recruitment into Tata Telecom, which then manufactured EPABX solutions. This first job gave me insights on the power of various possibilities that Telecommunication industry has to connect diverse societies across geography.

Having worked on GSM and CDMA technologies, and seen one emerge as a leader while the other, even though having great technical potential, go through its sunset. To mobile applications and IoT now, it has been an absolute roller coaster ride of sorts. Like in everyone’s career there are these golden phases Being a part of TTSL, I was in a team driving cost savings via new product implementation in Customer Service. This meant driving digital initiatives way back in 2005, which is an achievement of sorts for a new guy in the block then. I implemented policies and drove solutions to ensure the team achieved cost saving which amounted to 10% of overall costs of customer services operations. That’s a big number in terms of money. Currently, I feel proud of myself to be contributing to nation’s key projects like Digital India - I am driving Digital India in my own capacity by enabling enterprises with IoT solution. Start-up

India - I feel proud driving Start-up India initiative, as I can promote unique and innovative solutions that start-ups provide to the enterprise world. Smart Cities – I feel proud powering Smart Cities. As I connect the smart

Bin, to the camera for surveillance, street lights to become smart and I can go on and on. No city Can be SMART unless it is Digital, and if it is Digital it has to communicate and record to make sense of the data.

When I look back, I certainly feel proud to have orchestrated solutions right from the time of fixed line telephone to call centers to mobility driven SMS to applications and now driving Strategic Initiatives for IoT (Internet of Things).

I feel glad that I chose this industry to build my career and with the immense opportunities that lie ahead, it is an industry which will only thrive and grow. However, one needs to be agile to work in this fast-growing space and carve out your own space.

Q2. What are the challenges that the telecom industry is facing right now?

It is a universally known fact that Telecom is an investment-centric business and one needs to have the right mix of patience, strategy, and processes to get maximum market share. The telecommunication industry is going through a transformational phase of development.

Key challenges which industry faces are: 1. Reducing profit margins – Well we all use GBs of data which is cheaper than a Key pint of beer. New entrants use price drops as their means to grab market share. This trend has led to a huge dent in profits. From 11 operator’s licenses issues, there are now just 4 remaining.

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2. Fast Changing Technology – Operators need to keep investing in newer technology even before they have got their perceived ROI for their earlier investments. Before investments in 3G could reap their profits, 4G was around the corner for taking and now we hear about 5G too.

3. The rapid evolution of IoT – with billions of devices expected to communicate with each other, industry needs to scale up their capabilities to address the demands of markets. This growth is generating billions and trillions of new data sources and thus, it is expected that this growth will push the data to be handled by networks to zettabytes per year.

4. Security of Data: Concerns with respect to data security, ownership of data etc. will only grow as we go more digital.

5. Regulations: Just like banking telecom is a highly regulated space. Government policies are excellent but they need to be updated in order to meet the increasing ask of personal data security and even nation-wide security.

Q3. What do you think will be the next disruption in the telecom industry in India, as it is the second largest telecom network in the world?

India has immense potential from both consumer and enterprise perspective. As per TRAI, there are now 1,183 million connections, amounting to 92 mobile connections for every 100 inhabitants in the country. From an 11-player market, now there are only 4 major players. The disruption has impacted the market as much as it can. The industry has gone through its own bell curve and now should settle itself down as a mature industry. You see, now all telecom operators have started charging for validity again, the focus is back on revenue.

Consumer story of India shall continue, 5G is around the corner, consumers will be treated

with massive data speeds. For enterprises - Fixed wired-line networks for connecting the last mile on MPLS, ILL etc will become a thing of past, as 5G will enable this all! However, the major disruption will be the adoption of IoT, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence which will shape up the new age Telcos. The one who is able to garner right product mix, at a right price point and with the right set of partner eco-system will be able to make a mark.

Q4 Do you think the exponential growth in data consumption will anyway help India in improving the literacy rate?

Today, the digital divide in India is real illiteracy rate is 25-30 percent and digital illiteracy is even higher. About 70 percent of over one billion Indians live in rural areas, and only about 400 million have Internet access. As per various industry studies, around 85% plus internet connected users, use mobile data.

Certainly, data is like the new electricity connection, it is present in every house. In the process of using data on mobile, it is making people learn the basics of computing. With mobile data, the person is always connected. Just related to a basic point, Now, even a no-voice asks what is the pixel rating of their new camera phone, isn’t it? Right from the best in class to the lowest one in the economy has awakened to the power of data.

Data is driving literacy in more than many ways: -

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Bank balances are on mobiles Government subsidies call for use of mobiles Entire application-based economy is making people use more and more of data Easy access to data is making people more knowledgeable.

Also, because of data availability in your hands through a mobile phone, there are many a

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course which have started on training people on various skills. Teachers and institutes are adopting the use of the internet to record the session and give access to content on demand.

Also, today, we numerous institutes which use concepts like telepresence to conduct virtual classroom and run a session for students.

Anyone can access from anywhere and anytime.

This means learnings just don’t stop. Youtube has some many video courses. It is rightly put in the movie 3 idiots – “Gyan to har jagah bat raha hai.. kahi bhi chale jao.” It is up to the user, what he/she uses the power of data in his mobile. I am sure you would have observed that the difference between rural and urban clads are fast deaminizing. The rural clads are as smart as urban ones, thanks to the availability of data.

Data is really driving literacy in the country.

Q5. The telecom penetration in rural areas is 58.45% as of July 2018, what do think will be the factors contributing to further penetration?

Firstly, we all must appreciate that all businesses (barring NGOs) are run to make profits.

Telecom companies are no exception to this basic rule of business. And as I said earlier, telecom is a heavy investment-centric business.

One must appreciate that the cost of installing and managing a telecom network must be justified by the revenues earned. Having set the basic understanding.

According to me the key factors that will help push telecom in rural area are the following:   

Cost of setting up infrastructure Government policies Potential of growth in that area

If the remaining 42% area contributes to revenues which are minuscule, it may not make commercial sense to connect them. But that my way of looking at things, it certainly is a topic worth a healthy debate.

Q6 What advice would like to give students wanting to pursue a career in this industry?

Today innovations are happening everywhere. It is the area of telecommunications we all hear about the latest trends viz: IoT, Big Data, machine learning and Artificial intelligence etc.

Telecom sector will continue to grow with the speed of light. Just like IT, a telecom sector is a place where one needs to continuously keep reinventing oneself basis technology. The skills required in telecom have graduated and are changing rapidly. It is expected that professionals adopt the agile framework and deliver at a speed faster than what consumers expect. Which means, technology quotient has to be high, but at the same time newer business models have to be developed. Apart from telecom operators which provide lucrative career opportunities, Government initiatives around Digital India, Smart Cities have opened up many opportunities to work with the start-up ecosystem and participate in making India truly digital. One cannot exist alone, Partnerships and co-creation, play a key role in modern business.

Find newer and innovative methods of doing business. Trust me, the evolution will keep going on. If you like new challenges and have an appetite for new business ideas using technology, this is a field to be in! I certainly look forward to working with you all soon. All the best!!

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OPERATIONS Analytics in Telecomm- Changing Business Model from Red Ocean to Blue Ocean Saurabh Yadav & Megha Vaish, Symbiosis Institute Of Telecom Management Abstract Telecom giants collect lots of data regularly which can give deeper insights and will drive smart decisions if utilized effectively by proper mining and critical analysis of both structured and unstructured data. On top of this, there is Red Ocean in the industry making it challenging and dynamic for any operator to sustain. Hence it is imperative for the operators to take decisions based on extensive data analytics to ensure effective and efficient utilization of resources to increase market share. This article is an attempt to explain in brief how analytics can be applied in reducing customer churn, fraud and security breaches, and managing unstructured data.

Keywords Predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, social media analytics, forecasting, customizing plans, text analytics, Call Data Record (CDR), ARPU, Blue ocean, Red ocean, congestion, Regression.

Introduction Telecommunication industry in India is very dynamic and competitive in the world which can easily be understood by the fall of 4 operators (Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Reliance, and Aircel) because of the rise of R-Jio who entered by creating an uncontested market based on blue ocean strategy. India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market after China, with a subscriber base of 1185.88 million (TRAI, 2018), the market has seen strong growth in subscriber base in the past decade and a half.

There are currently 5 telecom service providers in India with a teledensity of 91.61% (TRAI, 2018), out of which 1,162.47million customer are

wireless subscriber (2G, 3G, 4G) and 23.41 million as wireline subscriber (TRAI, 2018).

New spectrum trading rules have been introduced which led to improving service quality and enhanced speeds by supporting consolidation. The Urban teledensity stands at 167.72% while for rural it’s 56.54% as on Nov 2017 (TRAI, 2018).

The telecom market is moving to a new uncontested market of Blue Ocean where new services based on user experience can change the whole scenario. It is therefore required by the firm to take decisions using extensive research, to maximize revenue and profits (COMMUNICATIONS TODAY, 2016) Some of the major challenges and how they can be understood by analytics:

Customer Churn Churn within the telecommunication business is inevitable and pricy. “Churn” in the telecom industry is the share of subscribers moving from a selected service (3G, 4G) to another service or operator. Telecom Operators today have an average churn rate of 1.9 to 2 percent month on month and an average annual churn rate of 10 to 60% which might have an effect on the company’s overall growth (kanniappan, 2014).

Customer churn reduces profitability and increases marketing and re-acquisition expenses.

Telecom companies use TRIPLE PAY services which is again becoming a red ocean, in TRIPLE Pay if few more services can be added like Entertainment, Education and regional information etc. Instead of having different apps, integrating services will give enhanced

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user delight and experience. Identifying gold customers by applying analytic techniques and give them a special privilege, will certainly increase customer lifetime value and reduce churn rate. Creating a strong CRM system in build with big data analytics and KPIs will lead to high customer satisfaction and experience (Hughes, 2017).

Fraud and Security Breaches Fraud in Telecommunications is consequently an extensive subject. Superimposed fraud and subscription fraud have done the most damage to the industry. Operators admit of 1% of the revenue through leakage, and for some, it is up to 10%, (KPMG Survey). As per the annual survey of 74 operators, the global telecom industry is confronting the revenue leakage of about $40 billion a year. Almost 50 million customer records have been lost through Cyberattacks in the past 10 years. Due to the security breaches and telecommunications fraud, operators lost around $38.1 billion in 2015 (CFCA, 2015).

to operators (CXOtoday, 2017).

Increasing unstructured data: Mobile data traffic is continuously increasing and with coming years it will increase with more pace. It is said by 2022, traffic generated from a smartphone will increase by 10 times and it is estimated that mobile data traffic is expected to grow by CAGR of 47%. In today’s scenario, around 90% of data is unstructured and only 10% is structured. This 10% of data consist of CRDs, DDRs, Network data, and Subscriber data, which can easily be analysed. While the other 90% which is not yet utilized properly.

This includes Content from the social stream, Blogs, tweets, comments, ratings, views, images, videos, traditional web content such as news articles, product information, and simple corporate informational web pages. (ERICSSON, n.d.)

Fig.2-Text Analytics – Themes (Negatives and Positives) Fig.1- Predictive analytics in Fraud preventi0n Unsupervised machine learning and data lakes can help you identify new and old types of frauds and helps in predicting critical situation, which can be avoided by taking pre-emptive actions. Continuous analysis of streaming data can point out the outliers more effectively, identify crime rings and even pre-empt large attacks. Fraud prevention increases customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and customer retention thus giving the competitive advantage

Mobile data traffic is continuously increasing and with coming years it will increase with more pace. It is said by 2022, traffic generated from a smartphone will increase by 10 times and it is estimated that mobile data traffic is expected to grow by CAGR of 47%. In today’s scenario, around 90% of data is unstructured and only 10% is structured. This 10% of data consist of CRDs, DDRs, Network data, and Subscriber data, which can easily be analysed. While the other 90% which is not yet utilized properly.

This includes Content from the social stream, Blogs, tweets, comments, ratings, views, images,

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videos, traditional web content such as news articles, product information, and simple corporate informational web pages. (ERICSSON, n.d.)

Conclusion: Thus, with the use of analytics techniques, operators can easily find the loophole in the existing process and provide them with a chance to focus on new ways of offering services to enter a new uncontested market. Based on the research done we can conclude that customer churn reduces if the contract term is increased, Quality service is provided. Fraud can be easily detected by outlier analysis. Text analytics, Social media analytics can easily read the people voice and new trends which can help operators to take decisions while launching new services.

control-association-survay-2015/file 6. (CXOtoday, 2017) http://www.cxotoday.com/story/using-big-datato-solve-telcos-fraud-revenue-leakage/ 7.(Communications Today, 2017) http://www.communicationstoday.co.in/14849telecom-infrastructure-issues-faced-byinfrastructure-providers-and-tsps-introduction 8.(Towster, 2016) http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/departments/artic les/426701-managing-the-edge-infrastructurechallenges-a-next-generation.htm 9.

(ERICSSON, n.d.) https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobilityreport/future-mobile-data-usage-and-trafficgrowth

can help organizations to be more efficient and customer focused across all the dimensions of organizations; -----------------------0-----------------------

References: 1. (TRAI,2018) retrieved from http://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Press_ Release_No4_Eng_11012018.pdf 2. (COMMUNICATIONS TODAY,2016) reterived from http://www.communicationstoday.co.in/i ndex.php/perspectives/2588-telecomsector-challenges-and-opportunities 3. (kanniappan, 2014) https://www.happiestminds.com/blogs/how-toreduce-churn-in-a-telecom/ 4.(Hughes,

2017)

http://www.dmnews.com/dataanalytics/churnreduction-in-the-telecomindustry/article/94238/ 5. (CFCA,2015) https://www.sysnettelematica.it/documenti-umlabs/antifrode/529-communication-fraud-

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FINANCE Disrupting Financial Statements of Telecommunication Giants Drashti Shah, PGDM Media and Entertainment- Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai & Akshat Chaturvedi, MDI, Gurgaon Reliance entering any market & not wiping away a share of its well-established competitors might beVarenya very unusual occasion. Reliance Jio not only Vikrant just defeated its competitors but demolished them, to such an extent that it disrupted the whole telecom sector completely. In addition to its telecom sector was already marred by the spectrum controversy, this resulted in more radical changes in the sector. Jio not only managed to seize a customer base of more than 100 million in a year but also the flair of millions of Indians, with each of its ambitious journeys.

Funded by Mukesh Ambani, Jio managed to break into a heedful group of Telecom operators, and to its kudos within a brief spell of time, elevated itself to becoming the biggest player in the pack. This was because Jio considered Data rather than Voice to be its primary source of revenue, whereas 75% of revenue share its competitors came from Calling services. This represented a significant shift in the structure of the Indian Telecom sector. This ascent did not come at a cost. After investing around 2 lac crore on setting up the required infrastructure, this newcomer is still making returns whereas making rest of the telecom industry suffer by bringing in more & more users. Digital revolution was underway throughout the world & India was lagging behind others when it came to mobile internet access.

To this Jio's acquisitive business prototype, characterized by its use of offers like, “Summer Surprise” & “Dhan Dhana Dhan” resulted in it disrupting the market by not working around TRAI - framed guidelines. Jio's influence has been far greater than free voice calls & disruption of the industry.

Here is a brief glance at how Jio managed to shake things in the industry, 

Price Cuts Great news for the consumers which eventually turned out to be the worst nightmare of the industry. As Jio entered the market with its predatory pricing, all the major players were pushed into a price war which they had avoided for a long period. After Jio's entry, not just tariff rates dropped but even prices of data plan & voice call also dropped. To keep pace with Jio, all the other telecom companies which previously charged skyhigh prices later started charging as low as 50 ₹ per GB.

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Data Revolution India which ranked 150th in terms of data consumption before entry of Jio saw itself biggest data consumer of the world in terms of value within a matter of time.

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4G VoLTE voice call revolution Prior to Jio's entry telecom's operator use to charge hundreds of rupees every month for providing call services, Jio entered the market with a bang by promising free unlimited calling services by using its VoLTE network. Jio provided supercilious call standard at a cost, which was just a mere fraction of what its competitors use to incur. This eventually made the competitors upgrade their network to the latest standards.

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JioFiber Gives ultra-high-speed internet up to 100 Mbps for 3 months & complimentary access to a host of Jio's premium apps.

Another blow it provided to its competitors was to increase their selling expenditure in the advertisement. The advertisement expenditure has already increased up to 10% which is further expected to go up to 20%. To add further misery, despite assurance from the government to the sector, central state's policy did not provide any help, as Goods & Service Tax (GST) increased the tax from 15% to 18%. It even forced 2 major players like Vodafone & Idea to merge to survive this competition. However, till now, their amalgamation hasn’t brought any fruits, but it is expected that it will bring some stability with consolidation resulting benefit of synergy in operations which will bring operations to cost down. This can also help pricing power to return. This will result in both companies having 35% of customers in the market & 42% of revenue market share in the coming future. This was also a result of the ignorant attitude of Vodafone & Idea regarding quick transforming of Telecom landscape. They missed the 4G bus & it was too late when Jio entered. This however damaged financial statements of other small operators & forced them to exit as there was already a debt burden prevailing and free calling offered by Jio impacted their revenue on a large scale resulting into their liquidation. It’s predicted that only 3 major players will be part

of the sector in the coming future, 1. Idea-Vodafone 2. Reliance Jio 3. Bharti Airtel Still, the concern remains high debt, the combined debt of Idea-Vodafone is marginally higher than Airtel. And due to high competition, they have to continuously invest in expansion & providing value-added service which will further raise the debt level. To provide to further increasing cost, Telecom operators are looking for selling a noncore asset, mainly the towers.

There is an opportunity for Idea-Vodafone merger to monetize its tower assets. Even Bharti Airtel, India’s second largest Telecom operator after Idea-Vodafone merger decided to buy Tikona Digital Network's 4G business.

It was Public's perception of Jio products & it's pricing strategies which seemed better & affordable to the public when compared with its competitors. It also benefited from unfair cost advantage as Spectrum usage charge stand constantly. Now the next category Jio is aiming is at Fintech segment. Following the acquisition of a customer base of 200 million users, it has an eye on the merchant community. It has launched a new app called “Jio Browser”. This will enable them to dominate Point of Sale segment which is currently dominated by major banks. Jio doesn’t plan to stop here and is further targeting to take on video streaming giants like Google, Netflix & Amazon Prime. Not just limited to telecom, but now they’re offering lifestyle products, streaming TV service, digital payment application, music library & connected home system.

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MARKETING METAMORPHOSIS OF THE TELECOM INDUSTRY OF INDIA Ayushi Anand, PGDM - Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai There was a time in history when owning a telephone set was a status symbol. Hardly two sets in a society. Neighbours would flock to inquire into its operation and sometimes even request to make calls to their wealthy relatives.

Varenya Vikrant Alexander Graham Bell brought the world a bit closer.

However, the revolutionary, Martin Cooper, thought the world was not close enough yet; he invented the cell phone. With time, cell phones became from luxury to a necessity.

Today, almost every human owns one.

How can I say this? Well, this is how; India ranks second in terms of Telecommunication subscriptions, internet subscribers and app downloads in the world, with the connection being 93.27(per 100 inhabitants) and the number of mobile subscribers being 1189 million as of 2018. App downloads in the country grew approximately 215% between 2015-2017. Over the next five years, the rise in mobile-phone penetration due to falling handset costs and decline in data costs will add 500 million new internet users in India, creating opportunities for new businesses.

The Government of India has brought about numerous wide-ranging and radical policies that have to impart along with well-built consumer demand in the swift flourishing of the Indian Telecom Sector. It has enabled easy market access to the telecom equipment and a fair and proactive Regulatory Framework in the form of the new National Digital Communications Policy, 2018, that have empowered that the telecom services are provided at economical prices to the consumer. Also, the liberalisation of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) i.e. The sector is now open to 100% FDI. Out of this 100 per cent, 49 per cent will be done through unmanned route and the rest is to be done through the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) consent route. These evolutions have made the sector one of the

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quick growing and within the top five employment generators in the country. FDI worth US$ 31.75 billion during the period April 2000 to June 2018, according to the data released

by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

Some of the developments in the contemporary past are: Throughout the first quarter of 2018, India has become the world’s fastest-growing market for mobile applications.

India remained as the world’s fastest-growing market for Google Play downloads in the second and third quarter of 2018.

Bharti Airtel is planning to launch 6,000 new sites and 2,000 km of optical fibre in Gujarat by the year 2018-19.

The number of mobile wallet transactions increased by 5 per cent month-on-month to 325.28 million in 2018.

BSNL is expected to launch its 5G services in India by 2020.

Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have merged into ‘Vodafone Idea’ to become India’s largest telecom company, as of September 2018.

How is it even thinkable that we talk about the telecom industry in India and fail to mention the curt and gigantic disruptor – JIO. Jio has seized the sim trays of the consumers, thanks to its cost-effective and overwhelming plans. Two years into the market and Jio already has the subscriber base of 215 million. 240 Crore is the gigabytes of data consumed by the Jio subscribers in a month! With its aggressive pricing and plans, it leads the Telecom Majors Vodafone and Idea to integrate and other smaller insignificant players like Aircel to shut down its operations in India. They could not live through the Reliance blow. Thanks to the speed and lucrative plans, other products like PUBG, Swiggy, Uber eats etc have encashed on it. It has brought them closer than it ever was.

The road ahead…

The telecom Industry apart from the JIO disruption is also heading towards a vital reallocation in the coming years with the introduction of new technologies like 5G, M2M, IoT and AI. India is dynamically gearing to roll out 5G in this year to come at par with the rest of the world. The Telecom Engineering Centre under the Department of Telecom is arranging finalising standards for telecom equipment and devices for 5G services. 5 billion IoT/M2M (Machine-to-Machine) devices are to come up in India in the coming years that will be vital for the adoption of 5G technology. The largest number of startups in IoT space is coming out of India in the fields of health management, environmental monitoring etc. With a well-built foundation of smart minds and entrepreneurs and strong governmental support, the future of Telecom Industry in India is undoubtedly bright.

Apart from these chances lying in the technological advancement segment, the other untouched segment is the rural Indian Population. With approximately 70% of Indian population is rural and the Telecom penetration being only 44% of the total subscriber base, and with increasing living standards and disposable incomes, the only way for the telecom giants to grow their crux is by acquiring new subscribers and tailoring a plan for the day-wage workers so that there is committed motivation on their part to invest in it.

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HUMAN RESOURCES Role of HR in Telecommunication Industry & Telecommunication Industry in HR Abhinav Kapadia, MMS Batch 2 & Anjali Dedhia, MMS Batch 1- Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai If there is any major contributor in Companies Varenya Vikrant success that goes unnoticed, it’s surely HR team.

They deliver the service which benefits both Company & it’s employees. Indirectly they even play a role in delivering superior services to customers, as it’s rightly said, more motivated the employee, much better are the services delivered to its customers, & HR plays a crucial role in Team Building, Team Motivation & Team Coordination.

Talking about telecommunications, they’ve played a significant part in bringing world together & making it One Global Village. This is due to constant improvement in practices followed by Telecommunications Companies, then whether it’s operational efficiency, marketing techniques or improving the financial outlook of the company, all of which has a common foundation, which is HR as they are responsible for selecting right people for the right job.

So, the question arises, what role does HR exactly plays??

They’re mainly responsible for 2 major roles, a) Management of Resources It involves activities like talent acquisition, employee engagement, communication, employee compensation & performance management. b) Skill Enhancement This includes training, motivating, define growth path for employees, career

building & employee welfare schemes.

With Indian telecommunication industry emerging as one of the major reasons for resurgence of economic growth, India has surpassed US to become second largest wireless network in world. This is due to increasing competition in telecom sectors, which has made companies penetrate market in tier-3 cities, which has not only increased its extension to rural areas, but also leading to increase in employment & enhancing financial statements of companies. From profession point of view, telecom sector continues to offer new opportunities as industry expands. This can be done by practicing Strategic Human Resource Management. Telecom company needs telecom engineers, test engineers & software engineers in large numbers. In recent years, market has undergone fundamental changes in terms of technology, recruitment & competition. In this changing environment, practices like poaching & raiding are acquiring strength.

Today’s HR Team has to combat with challenges like Adapting to globalization, prioritizing the strategies & analyzing the process. With so much competition prevailing in the market, the candidates other than salary look into various aspects like brand, location, job security and reputation of company which also is to be taken care by HR Team. It is HR’s role in helping company to come up with innovative ideas to meet customer needs by targeting top talent. It

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helps in making a good local company to great global brand. It enables the enterprise to provide complete end to end solutions to corporate customers and other long-distance services to carriers. In this fast-moving economy, telecom companies should be keen for growth, and thus needs to build an environment within the organization which is highly competitive and to form a team of new generation leaders which are needed to run new landscape and workforce.

They help in providing technical oxygen to companies, on which business & customers connect. As sector has undergone changes & is dynamic in nature, conventional methods no longer serve the purpose and operational structure needs constant assessment & thus making companies always ready for a change.

To build customer empathy, innovative skills are required that can be done by retaining the right people, developing leadership skills & recognize new business model which includes evolving skills & equipping them with perfect environment. They don’t just need employees to be reactive but proactive with further augmentation of rewards & recognition. As the pace is high, it is both demanding & stimulating.

Fast moving technology, upsetting to cloud means advancement in expertise, knack & knowhow of employees & need for flexible employees.

With increasing customer expectations of service, it needs 24*7 running model. This whole process requires bringing in right people to bring in innovation & excellence. Companies are at their best when its workforce is at their best.

This can be done by providing proper working conditions, rehabilitation activities and proper compensation schemes which encourages to keep employee motivated, committed & fit. By

putting employees first, & including diverse workforce can reflect with the communities where they are operating.

Source: Economic Times (2017)

It was predicted that due to latest advancements in sector, people were at risk of losing their jobs, as companies were consolidating and optimizing the staff. Around 50,000 people lost their jobs, but now it can be said that the worst is over.

However, companies might now turn their focus on recruiting in fields like big data & artificial intelligence. Companies need to unveil more apps on grounds of health, education & livelihood with a vision to take digital experience in every corner, which might need further needs of employees who can develop such apps and a good marketing team to spread the knowledge & awareness regarding the same.

Further advancement can be done by practicing E-HRM which is an application which supports both networking & supporting. It is crux in decentralizing HR practices to management & employees. This empowers employees to focus less on operating part & more on strategic part.

It helps to improve both efficiency & effectiveness in HR activities by reducing cost & making HR part of strategic function of organization. By implementing such practices, company can not only improve their performance but also keep their competitors on toes. Companies can also launch startup fund to promote entrepreneurship in digital market by investing in business with proper Human Resource planning & allocation.

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GENERAL MANAGEMENT Internet of Things and its effect on Telcos Vaibhav Kumar, PGDM- NITIE Mumbai

Internet of Things popularly known as IoT has been one of the most popular words over the internet,

every

business,

technology-firm,

equipment manufacturers have been trying to utilize this IoT boom. In the Internet of Things, things refer to the sensors, RFID, smart watches, smartphones which are connected over the

using the power of Telcos. As the alarm rings over the smartphone’s lights are switched on with sends a signal to geyser, car to pull up the right set temperature on their own without human interference. Smart homes or cities none can work without telescopes, so we can simply say that all this have increased the demand for fast 5G services.

internet, they can interact with each other, store as well transmit information to the cloud computing. After the success of 4G now most of the countries are looking forward to 5G services which

will

serve

for

reliable

and

faster

downloading speed of around 1GBPS. By 2020 china, US, South Korea is looking forward to being the first countries to launch 5G services for commercial purposes. For the success of Industry 4.0, we need faster 5G services for connecting IoT with the cloud, big data analytics, the blockchain, artificial intelligence, Home automation, and wearable devices are the top two successful examples of applying IoT to enhance telecom. Smart homes are a hot topic in western countries, as a smart home is designed in such a way that smartphones, alarm clock, AC, car, lights, etc all are interconnected with each other

https://electronicsforu.com/wpcontents/uploads/2017/01/37890956_xxl-1696x491.jpg Talking about connected cars, the first connected cars were made by General Motors Working with Motorola Automotive when they introduced OnStar in 1996. Which became popular afterword’s as it has the various advanced feature like infotainment, safety, navigation, diagnostic efficiency. Tesla now is conducting a trial for a driver-less car which isn’t possible without IoT and Telcos, so we can see that demand for high-bandwidth & faster internet is going to surge in future. If we take a look at the changing scenario of business then

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data holds the key for marketing, supply chain, finance. With the advent of big data analytics, we need to get the data about the customers, suppliers, demand, inventory for carrying out predictive analysis using the software. This data can be extracted from IoT devices which need telecommunication services to transmit these data to the cloud. We have seen that the demand for data services has been increasing exponentially over the time for which we need Telcos infrastructure. IoT has no meaning without Telcos as it needs Wi-Fi to transmit the stored data to the cloud for storage and analysis.

customer-care services to the customer by reducing manpower. This order is now delivered by using drones which uses fast internet services to track the location of the delivery. We can clearly see that with the advent of smart technology tools like IoT, blockchain, big data, market basket analysis the demand for data services has increased manifolds providing a good platform for Telcos to expand their business by pulling more towers, optical fiber cables helping to grow their business. After demonetization use of digital money using UPI, card swap machine, wallets have increased which has caused a surge in the demand for fast internet services. Changing usage pattern can be remotely managed by using IoT by the telecom companies,

which

will

help

them

in

understanding the consumer usage pattern for providing better services, maintenance, and Reference: https://www.tesla.com/autopilot

subscription plans.

One of the IoT data sources includes a

Industry 4.0 also known as physical-cyber space

distributed messaging system which allows

where all the IoT devices and computers will be

Telcos to transfer data between cells, processing

connected to each other ultimately making

centers, and users. It is essential to process data

decisions on the basis of the data analytics, AI

close to the source so as to easily transfer them

without

to data centers. This helps to predict data

machines will get smarter as they get access to

congestion in case of some cricket matches near

more data, helping our businesses to be more

the stadium and improve customer experiences.

efficient. These connected machines will extract

Talking about the latest use of Drones in last-

a large amount of data from the sensors will be

mile delivery services by Amazon. Customers are

transmitted to cloud storage, big data analytics,

placing the orders over the net, then this order is

machine learning hence the demand for fast

processed and stored over cloud using data,

connectivity

chatbots like Alexa are also utilizing the IoT,

experts have suggested keeping 5G exclusively

machine learning, Neural networks, Natural

for industry 4.0

language processing techniques to deliver best

human

will

involvement.

increase

These

alarmingly.

smart

Few

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Internet of things is the key for decision making process for almost all the businesses in the future. For tapping the benefits of Industry 4.0, dark warehousing, faster last-mile delivery, driver-less cars we infrastructure

to

need

to have Telcos

support.

Without

Reference:

telecommunication sector we cannot have

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-

sustainable growth, most of the countries are

images.forbes.com%2Fbernardmarr%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F09%2FAdobeSto

focussing on harnessing the benefits of 5G

ck_203804824-1200x480.jpg

services. In the world of analytics where SCM,

Telecommunication businesses will be able to effectively

plan

and

analyse

maintenance,

thereby optimizing their services in the area of poor network coverage, slow downloading speeds, dropped calls and inordinate service wait times.

marketing, finance, HR all are going for datadriven decision-making, telecom sector can’t be ignored. IoT data are used by the companies to understand the needs of the customer based on which new products, services are developed and marketed

to

the

customers

by

telemarketing, E-commerce tools.

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using

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CALL FOR ARTICLES

We invite articles for the NOVEMBER 2018 Issue of SAMVAD.

The Theme for NOVEMBER month- “Sports” The articles can be from Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Operations or General Management domains.

You may also refer to sub-themes on Dare2Compete.

Submission Guidelines: o Word limit: 1000 words or a maximum of 4 pages with relevant images. o Cover page should include your name, institute name, course details & contact no. o The references for the images used in the article should be mentioned clearly and explicitly below the images. o Send in your article in .doc or .docx format, Font size: 12, Font: Constantia, Line spacing: 1.05’ to samvad.we@gmail.com. Deadline for submission of articles: 30th November, 2018 o Please name your file as: <Your Name>_<title>_<section name e.g. Marketing/Finance> o Subject line: <Your Name>_<Course>_<Year>_<Institute Name> o Ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are clearly mentioned. o Clearly provide source credit for any images used in the article.

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