Determining The Customer Satisfaction of Teletalk Bangladesh Limited

1.0 Introduction    

Tele density of Bangladesh is still the lowest in South Asia, according to the statistics of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). About 1.56% among 100 people has access to telecom facility. It shows the high potential in the telecommunication sector in Bangladesh. The existing telecommunication companies operating in Bangladesh have been enjoying competitive advantage because of less global competition but this scenario is soon to be changes as global giants are focusing on Bangladeshi markets with differentiated service and competitive advantages

1.1 Origin of the Report

BBA program at International Islamic University Chittagong Dhaka Campus requires a 12 weeks long internship program to introduce the students with the real life business administration. As an internee, I had to work for The Teletalk Bangladesh Limited for a period of 12 weeks to find out existing problems. The topic was set after discussion with the internship supervisor at AIUB and the Manager of the Teletalk Bangladesh Limited. This internship report on ”Determining The Customer satisfaction of Teletalk Bangladesh Limited” is submitted on 31 January 2007 to The Chairman, Internship Board, International Islamic University Chittagong.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The broad objective was defined at first. This broad objective was fragmented into some smaller, clearer, specific objectives.

a) Broad Objective:

The broad objective of this study is to know about the Tele history of Bangladesh and analyze the Determining The Customer satisfaction of Teletalk of Teletalk Bangladesh Limited.

 b) Specific objectives:

• To focus on the competitive advantages enjoyed by the Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. over its competitors.
• To understand the need gap of  mobile services in different regions of Bangladesh
• To know the preferences and expectations of the subscribers from a mobile service providers in Bangladesh
• To know subscribers’ perception of the current mobile services offered by existing providers in Bangladesh
• To measure the sensitivity towards Tariff structure and acquisition cost of   mobile connections.

1.3 Methodology

At first I collect the primary and secondary data from various source of information. These data will be following by several steps in given below:

1.3.1 Sources of Data

a) Questionnaire survey: I survey on dealers, subscribers and retailers and business market. My sample size was 100 and the information. It helps me to collect the information about the Determining The Customer satisfaction of analysis of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd and the market position of the company.

b) Interview collection from Management: I cover up the face-to-face and telephone interview among the interviewee for getting the vital information.

c) Conversion to the others: I have done the conversation among each other in the group and also discuses with my course instructor to institute the formation of report.

Besides, a monthly business magazine on Mobile phone technology named “GSM Technology” published in the Bangladesh was extremely helpful for the study. This study could be more informative if more issues of the magazine could be collected. The magazine focuses on the Mobile phone technology all over the world.  The prime secondary source was “Teletalk website”, Google website, monthly magazine; some information was collected from the Internet from various web sites.

1.3. 2 Type of Research

This research is a descriptive research. It will ultimately draw a conclusion and try to find out the actual meaning of the term “Customer satisfaction” of teletalk.

1.3.3 Sampling Plan

a) Definition of the Population:

Two major types of population were targeted for the study. Subscribers of different mobile operators are mainly the targeted population. There are many categories of mobile subscriber. For example, businesspersons, corporate clients, small and medium sized enterprises, employees, professionals, students all are Mobile subscriber. Therefore not all mobile subscribers have been considered as the population of this study. Rather, only the educated and organizations were considered as the population of the study.

b) Sampling Method:

Multistage random sampling was used for the selection of the sample. Since two types of target market were considered, the sampling was done in two different phases.

                1. Sampling of organizations

                2. Sampling of mobile subscribers.

c) Sample Size: The sample size is 100 respondents.

1.3.4 Data Collection Method

In most of the cases the selected organizations and persons were visited and the questionnaires were distributed to those organizations selected employees and subscribers for collecting data. A week later they were contacted to collect the responses but not all questionnaires were found completed. This part of the research was too difficult and painstaking because it required frequent visits to the respondents to collect all the responses. It took about 4 weeks to cover all the respondents.

1.3.5 Data Analysis

No complex analysis was performed in this study because this very new topic needs a primary research in our country. May be this primary study will then show the ways to go for in-depth study which may require more complex analysis of data. Method of rank order was conducted to find out the most important factors affecting the choice of Mobile Phone Company by subscriber.

1.4 Scope of the Study

This study covers only DhakaCity because of possible complexity and difficulty in covering whole country and because of shortage of time and manpower required for the survey. Corporate clients, Dealers and individual customers are the main population of the study.

1.5 Limitations

Limitation, which I have faced while doing my report are discussed below:

• Since the Teletalk at its early stage in Bangladesh, not all even are well-known with the service of the mobile company.  One of the major limitations faced while conducting the study was to communicate with the selected respondents because they were very busy with their regular jobs.
• As, I had more dependence on the primary sources, so there might be some level of inaccuracy with those collected information. Though, adequate verification and cross checking was used, to minimize the error level.
• Confidential information regarding past marketing and sales information was not accurately obtained. Alike all other business holders also very conservative and strict in providing those information. Still I had tried my best in obtaining that sensitive information, as much as possible.

2.0 Organization Overview

2.1 History

Starting of mobile telephone service through a state-run entity was the cherished dream of all people of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Government had honored the dream by including this issue in its election pledge. Our government had taken several positive steps for making this dream into a reality. Though money is very hard to come by in the national budget, our government had allocated approximately Taka 800 (eight hundred) crore for the mobile telephone project. We have also created the new company Teletalk Bangladesh Limited to operate and render its services to the people. (The present government is committed to reach mobile telephony to the doorsteps of the common man at an affordable price. Teletalk, a state-run public mobile-telephone company was launched with that objective in mind. The venture has proved to be successful one, as the introduction of Teletalk has led to reduction of tariffs in mobile telephone services rendered by other providers as well.Teletalk is the only state-run mobile telephone service provider in the country. It has already completed one year of operation. In this year Teletalk has a story of success as well as failure. On the other hand, there is still undesirable weak or no network in some important places despite its best and sincere efforts.

People’s expectation from Teletalk is very high – people have shown tremendous enthusiasm to have a connection of Teletalk mobile phone. Therefore, Teletalk must honor its customers by improving its services day-by-day so that people may be proud of the organization. This state-run company should however, be given enough authority and freedom to expand its network and to provide more and more value added services to strengthen its position in the market. This will not only create a source of revenue for the Government but also give rare opportunity to the public to have better and quality services at cheaper rates.

2.2 Launch of Teletalk

The long awaited launching of a mobile telecom network by a state-run enterprise had finally materialized on 31 March 2005. It also fulfilled a cherished dream of people who continuously demanded to the government for such an enterprise. The government started the “Mobile Telephone Project” and Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) was entrusted with the responsibility for implementing the same. The Project work started in June 2004 and the network was soft launched on 29 December 2004. I am happy that BTTB had been able to keep its promise and deliver in time.

Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. was formed to operate the network installed by BTTB and it has been successful in operating a standard network and give proper service to the people of Bangladesh. Teletalk has introduced many attractive packages and all of them have been welcomed by the market. From the very beginning of its launching,

Teletalk got huge popularity as it triggered the true competition in the market. I am happy to know that within one year, Teletalk has covered 61 districts, 120 upazillas and most part of the three major highways of the country. However, there is still a long way to pass for improving its network.

People have high expectation from Teletalk. They expect continuous network coverage all over the country, prompt customer service, and more value added services, data services of high band-width etc. from Teletalk. Teletalk must honor its customers by improving its services day-by-day so that people can realize that even in a competitive scenario, the public sector organization can achieve remarkable development if they get opportunity.

Initial Capacity At the time of lunching

With a capacity of 2.5 Lakh Mobile Phone, it is not possible to cover a network throughout Bangladesh. According to scope of the project this capacity is limited to all metropolitan cities, all district head quarters and three major highways. In spite of that, BTTB’s Mobile Project will cover about 275 Upazillas and growth centers.

Government decision to own a Mobile Company was to ensure fair competition between public and private companies. After the emergence of Teletalk Bangladesh Limited, rates & tariffs in the market have been reduced tremendously. Moreover all the mobile operators are now continuously trying to provide more value added quality services with cheaper rate. Only fair competition can ensure better service and Teletalk is a party to it.

2.3 Departments of the Teletalk

 All the departments must fix up their largest and it is better to make it as much objective as possible. Some of the tentative targets can be cited as follows:

a) Customer Service

b) Operations

c) Planning:

d)  IT:

e) Finance:

f) Human Resource

g) Marketing

2.4 Analysis of Teletalk

The most remarkable success of Teletalk is the slump in Tariff Structure. As soon as Teletalk announced its tariff the long-lasting oligopoly between other private mobile operators were shattered. Healthy competition came into the mobile market causing almost 50%, if not more, reduction in price both in terms of SIM price and usage rate. The slump in price made mobile phone affordable even for the low-income group of people. Using a mobile phone soon became a necessity; it’s no more a luxury.

The strength of Teletalk was the confidence of the subscribers in the government institution. On the other hand it’s being the part of government, is probably the biggest weakness from operational perspective of Teletalk, which will be understandable as we go through this article. At a time when people were desperately searching the way out to get rid of the oligopoly of a few operators, j Teletalk started its operation with big bang of response. People became frenzy to get a Teletalk SIM. Another good reason for that craze was its flexibility in connectivity with the other operators. It’s the only SIM, which has such a, versatility of connections having ISD, Economy ISO service along with both incoming and outgoing connectivity with any of the land phones. The biggest weakness was a premature entrance in a mature market. As soon as anyone could catch hold of a Teletalk mobile, he started comparing it with the services of Grameen, Banglalink or Aktel.

Having the slightest of ideas of what problems can impound and compound starting a commercial operation with such a small coverage containing pockets all over the places, Teletalk had its first setback. Many of us used to say “Where is the harm in throwing a system on use with such a small number of BTSs if operator like Grameen could start its commercial operation with couple of BTSs around.” But “think-tanks” of Teletalk miserably failed to identify the difference of stepping into a developed market and that into a developing market. Moreover, the progress of development of network was far below the expectation of subscribers. Above all the interfacing with other operators was so poor, especially with GRAMEEN, mostly because of non-cooperation, it became a nightmare for the Teletalk subscribers to use a Teletalk mobile. Peoples’ hope was immediately dashed out and all the opportunities Teletalk had started with immediately began shrinking and squeezing.

Present Status of Teletalk

Definitely there is no justification brooding on the past unless we utilize that experience in the further course of time. Let’s try to find out the present standing of Teletalk. At the moment, Teletalk has a Prepaid subscriber base of around 2,35,000 and 10,000 postpaid

The figures might seem promising but this is only showing the “Gross Revenues”. To get an idea of the financial strength of the organization Finance Department should calculate the operational and other expenses, along with other outward flow of cash in terms of payment to other operators, in order to get the “Bottom Line”, which is the most important financial parameter for an organization. It is vivid from Table-l that prepaid revenue/subs is more or less static but postpaid revenue/subs (95% PCOs) has increased substantially from January to February. Teletalk can take it as a challenge to increase revenues/subscriber/ month both for prepaid and postpaid subscribers by doing adequate marketing and offering better network and services.

Also this parameter can be compared with other operators to get an idea where we are actually standing and how much scope is really there to inflate that amount

*Network utilization is practically higher than that because PCOs generate traffic at a rate more than 25 mills Erlang based on which the “Capacity on Air” is calculated.

Table-ll: Division-wise Radio Network Capacity utilization

Though the present network is supposed to be capable of catering 4,00,000 subscribers the biggest problem concerning Teletalk is the distribution of subscribers. The capacity of the network and distribution of subscribers at the moment goes as follows:

Both Table-ll and Table-Ill justify that there remains a big opportunity of increasing subscribers outside Dhaka and proliferating revenues manifold by doing that.

 The disenchantment of subscribers for not having Teletalk services outside Dhaka can be identified as:

• Higher value of SIM price
• Poor Area Coverage
• Poor marketing
• Inferior quality of transmission link bringing down the BTS too often

In this case high value of Teletalk SIM is worth mentioning. Packages from other operators, having similar facilities offered by Teletalk, are available at 3 to 4 times less price than that of Teletalk. It is totally unjustifiable to charge a subscriber such an astounding price for having a SIM of a network which doesn’t have satisfactory level of coverage and which has service-level not at its peak. Quite understandably, subscribers are feeling disillusioned subscribing for Teletalk.

There might be other reasons, which should be identified by the Marketing Department, and appropriate tools should be developed to resolve the problem.

3.1 Customer Satisfaction from Theoretical View

Customer satisfaction is the extent to which a product or service’s perceived performance matches a buyer’s expectations. If the product or service’s performance falls short of expectations, the buyer is sure to be dissatisfied. If performance matches or exceeds expectations, the buyer is satisfied or delighted.

Expectations are based on customers’ past buying experiences, the opinion of friends and associates, and marketer and competitor information and promises. Marketer must be careful to set the right level of expectations. If they set expectations too low, they may satisfy those who buy but fail to attract enough buyers. In contrast, if they raise expectations too high buyers are likely to be disappointed. Dissatisfaction can arise either from a decrease in product and service quality or from an increase in customer expectations. In either case, it presents an opportunity for companies that can deliver superior customer value and satisfaction.

Today’s most successful companies are rising expectations—and delivering performance to match. Such companies track their customers’ expectations, perceived company performance, and customer satisfaction. Highly satisfied customers produce several benefits for the company. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive, remain customers for a longer period, and talk favorably to others about the company and its products & services.

Although the customer centered firm seeks to deliver high customer satisfaction relative to its competitors, it does not attempt to maximize customer satisfaction. A company can always increase customer satisfaction by lowering its price increasing its services, but it may result in lower profits. Thus, the purpose of marketing is to generate customer value profitably. This requires a very delicate balance: The marketer must continue to generate more customer value and satisfaction but not “give away house.” Now, we have a very good idea regarding the importance of customer satisfaction. So, it is also important for the company to know about the satisfaction level of the customers. When any problem is cropped up and identified, it becomes easier to solve the problem. In the next part of my paper I have focused on the ‘Customer Satisfaction Factors’ of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. That has been followed by:

 Primary research: a survey to find out the ‘customer satisfaction level’ of Teletalk.

3.2 Customer Satisfaction Factors of Teletalk

Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. is a highly and fast growing mobile company. In mobile telecommunication industry, there are direct and indirect factors that influence customer satisfaction. I tried to focus on the most important factors that influence customer satisfaction at Teletalk.

3.3 Airtime

Airtime is the core offering of Teletalk. So, quality of communication, network availability etc. are the most important customer satisfaction factors. Quality of airtime depends on the ratio of subscribers and transmission base stations. If the numbers of subscribers are increased without developing the network, quality of airtime goes down.

3.4 After Sales Services

“After sales service” is very important in the mobile telecommunication industry. Teletalk has extensive after sales customer care tools. I would like to focus on these tools one by one.

3.5 Helpline

Teletalk is the first company who introduce 24 hour helpline in Bangladesh. In this part of my paper I tried to focus on the existing operations of the helpline service of Teletalk, which will enable us to understand the importance of the helpline service. A Teletalk subscriber needs to dial 1234 to reach Teletalk Helpline. It is computer aided information base to afford immediate access to the information about the subscribers. But the operations are done manually.

After dialing 1234 the subscriber is first welcomed by an automated and standardized process. Then s/he needs to wait for few seconds. After that the subscriber reaches the Customer Centre Officer (CCO). The CCO starts the conversation with a greeting. The subscriber explains his/her problems to the CCO (Some Basic Queries are enclosed in The APPENDIX).

If the inquiry is regarding general information, the customer relations officer does not need to take help of information system. S/he just provides the information and the subscriber keeps the phone.

There are some queries that are very much more personalized and the CCO needs to get into the account of that particular subscriber and provide the service. In some cases the subscriber just keeps the complaint/request and later action is needed to be taken.

3.6 Value Added Services

This is a newly introduced value added services by Teletalk. This is a automated push pull service. A Teletalk subscriber needs some types of information like Jokes, Weather, Taxi, Horoscope, Quotes, Emergency, International Weather Forecasting, and Cricket. The Teletalk subscribers apply following process and charge reduction 1 TK per message.

3.7 Customer Care Centers

Most of the problems of the subscribers are solved by the helpline service. But there are some problems that can not be solved there. Subscribers need to

come physically to deal with those problems. GrameenPhone has five information centers that are popularly known as ‘Info Centers’.

The Teletalk has 10 (Ten) customer care centers through out the country. To know the addresses and related information see below;

Station 

Address

Telephone No.

Dhaka (Banani)

Teletalk Customer Care Centers
H # 41, R # 27, B # A
Banani, Dhaka. (Opposite to Banani Grave Yard)

02-9882585
Ext: 333 (Pre-Paid),
444 (Post-Paid)

Fax: 02-8857592

Dhaka (Uttara)

5th, Floor., N Z Center,
Hs. No.: 5; Rd. No.: -12, Sector -6, (HouseBuilding Mor). Uttara, Dhaka.

02-8932915-16

Fax: 02-8932914

Chittagong

TeletalkCustomerCareCenter
945 O, R, Nizam Road
Chittagong. (Near GEC Mor)

031-654499
Fax: 031-658329

Khulna

Teletalk Customer Care Centers
68/B, K, D, A, Avenue
Khulna.

041-733945
Fax: 041-733948

Rajshahi

TeletalkCustomerCareCenters
Ahamad Plaza (1^st Floor)
282 Alopotty, Ghoramara,
Shaheb Bazar, Rajshahi.

0721-812323
Fax: 0721-812333

Sylhet

Teletalk Customer Care Centers
R, N, Tower (1^st Floor)
Chowhatty, Sylhet

0821-724455, 813033
Fax: 0821-715500

Bogra

Teletalk Customer Care Centers
Jolessori Tola (Kali Bari)
Bogra.

051-60000
Fax: 051-60499

Barisal

Teletalk Customer Care Centers
86 Sadar Road, TalukdarMansion (Art Villa), 2nd Floor, Barisal.

 0431-2176011
Fax: 0431-2176012

Comilla

325-365 Jhawtola (1st floor Comilla)

081-71111
Fax-081-71114

Mymensingh

3, Ganginarpar (1st Floor)Mymensingh

091-66300
Fax- 091-65300

In these information centers, the subscribers can come directly with their problems like billing (wrong bill, detailed bill etc.), address change, SIM change, handset problems etc.

These after sales services are very crucial to keep the subscribers satisfied regarding Teletalk.

3.8 Conducting a Survey

I developed my questionnaire (enclosed in the APPENDIX) mainly focusing on the customer satisfaction factors of Teletalk. There were ten closed-ended questions. I kept one open-ended question to better understand the gap between customers expectation and satisfaction level.

My topic of this project was ‘Assessing Customer Satisfaction of Teletalk’. As I aimed to assess the satisfaction level, I only surveyed the ‘users’ of Teletalk.

4.0 Swot Analysis

A SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and is a simple and powerful way to analyze company’s present marketing situation. SWOT Analysis is a powerful technique for identifying Strengths and Weaknesses, and for examining the Opportunities and Threats organization face.

Abbreviation                                                                   Amplification

What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that with a little thought, it can help us uncover opportunities that we are well placed to take advantage of. And by understanding our weaknesses, we can manage and eliminate threats that would otherwise catch our unawares.

More than this, by looking at ourselves and our competitors using the SWOT framework, we can start to craft a strategy that helps us distinguish ourselves from our competitors, so that we can compete successfully in current market.

4.1 Tools of Swot Analysis

Strengths

• Patents.
• Strong brand name.
• Good reputation among customers.
• Cost advantages from proprietary know-how.
• Favorable access to distribution networks.

Weaknesses

• Lack of patent protection
• A weak brand name
• Poor reputation among customers
• High cost structure
• Lack of access to key distribution channels

Opportunities

• An unfulfilled customer need
• Arrival of new technologies
• Loosening of regulations
• Removal of international trade barriers

Threats

• Shifts consumer tastes
• Emergence of substitute service
• New regulation

4.2  Swot Analysis of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd

4.3 Analysis of Strengths

• Subscriber inclination to Teletalk as a government owned organization: People have a deep inclination towards Teletalk . Because subscribers have more confidence in the government institution. They think that they might get some extra benefit from Teletalk like lower call rate, optical fiber facilities etc. rather than other providers.
•  Teletalk’s all connections are ISD & EISD: It’s a big strength of Teletalk. It’s the only SIM which has such a versatility of connections having ISD, Economy ISD service along with both incoming and outgoing connectivity with any of the land phones. This is not seen to other providers. It gives a tremendous competitive advantage to the Teletalk Bangladesh ltd over its respective competitors.  Teletalk is the only indigenous company using GSM service: Teletalk is the only local organization which is providing GSM technology in this country. The other local organization named pacific telecom is providing CDMA technology which is more expensive. So Teletalk can take this advantage over its competitors.
• It has also provided incoming facility up to 2015: Teletalk have a strong strength over its competitors incase of incoming facility. Teletalks present incoming duration is up to 20015. Which is 20 times more than other competitors?
• From the very beginning it is providing free TNT incoming: Teletalk is the only provider which is providing T&T incoming free from the very beginning. Whether other operators providers providing such kind of facility just now.
•  Moreover its contribution to our economy can be notable: As a Govt. owned company Teletalk have a strong contribution in our national economy. Its one of the high profit generating Govt. organization in Bangladesh.
•   Low cost provider: The most remarkable success of Teletalk is the slump in tariff structure. It is the lowest cost provider in Bangladesh telecommunication market.

4.4 Analysis of Weaknesses

• Premature entrance in mature market: The biggest weakness was a premature entrance in a mature market. As soon as anyone could catch hold of a Teletalk mobile, he started comparing it with the services of Grameen, Banglalink or Aktel.
• Lower number of human resource: The number of employee of Teletalk is too much lower regarding its requirement. As a result the service quality and customer satisfaction go down.
• Failed to identify difference between developed market and developing market: Teletalk failed to identify the difference between developed market and developing market. There strategy making is not match with the current situation.
• Lower promotional activities: The promotional campaign of Teletalk is not too much strong like other providers of Bangladesh as result consumers are less aware about Teletalk and its package.
• Weak management system: poor coordination among different functional department of Teletalk as result service efficiency goes down.

• Poor marketing: The overall marketing activities of Teletalk is not much rich like other competitors.
• Lower number of value added service: Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. is providing a less number of value added service to its subscriber regarding its competitors. As a result subscribers are becoming dissatisfied on the Teletalk service. The comparison of value added services of different operators are mention below. Where as Teletalk providing less number of value added service.

       Teletalk value added service:

•   SMS (short message service)
•   Voice SMS
•   Cricket Update (222)
•   Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
•   Bangla SMS
•    SMS: (Jokes, Weather, Taxi, Horoscope, Quotes, Emergency, International Weather Forecasting).
•   International SMS
•   Friends and Family (Aponjon)
•   GPRS (General Pocket Radio Service)
•   International Roaming

Grameen Phone Value Added Services:

•   SMS (Short Message Service)
•   SMS Push-Pull Services: By using you can enjoy more than 160 contents (Ex: Sports news, Emergency numbers, Restaurants. Airline and Railway timing, Travel info etc.)
•   Voice Mail Service (VMS)
•   Fax and Data
•  Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
•   News Service
•   Channel-I- Program Schedule (2525)
•   Event Based sports Update (2002)
•  Iftar and Sehri Timings (1515)
•   Bangla SMS

Banglalink Value Added Services:

•   I’bubble
•   Voice Mail Service (VMS)
•   Short Message Service (SMS)
•   Ring Tone Download
•   Logo Download
•   SMS(Tex. Quotes & Jokes, Cricket Update, Horoscope, Emergency)
•   Conference Call
•   Ring Tones
•   SMS email
•   SMS adda
•   Picture Messages
•   International SMS
•   Song Dedication
•   Instant Recharge

AKTEL Value Added Services:

•   SMS
•   Call conferencing
•   Bangla SMS
•   Friends and Family
•  Share e-fill (Transfer balance)
•   Post paid Bill Info
•   SMS Email 2 Email SMS
•   SMS based MSN Yahoo Messengers
•   Voice Mail Service (VMS)
•   Night Bird Talk Plan (NBTP)
•   GPRS
•   Short Message Service (SMS)
•   E-fill
•   International SMS
•   Fun Dose

Citycell Value Added Service

•  Dost SMS Chat
•   Trump Card
•   Virtual Card
•   International SMS
•   Bangla SMS
•   Ring tone
•   Group SMS
•   Email@ mobile
•   Call Related Service
•   Voice based Information Service
•   SMS based Information Service

• The progress of development of network is far below from the subscriber expectation: the expansion of network coverage is too much slow. People thought that Teletalk should use the BTTB’s network facilities; as a result Teletalk can cover the most of the area of Bangladesh. But in reality this is not true.
• High connection charge: The SIM price of Teletalk is too many high packages from the other operators, having similar facilities offered by Teletalk, are available at 3 to 4 times less price than that of Teletalk. It is totally unjustifiable to charge subscriber such an astounding price for having a SIM of a network which doesn’t have satisfactory level of coverage.

4.5 Analysis of Oportunities

• Teletalk can use the image of local and government owned organization: General people have a deep inclination to the govt. owned organization especially to the local organization. People want to keep the money into own country. So Teletalk can use such kind of soft corner of consumers and promote the service to them.
• Introduction of new technology and services: Teletalk can implement new and consumer oriented technology in this sector. Because people have inclination to new and modern technology. Now a day’s people are ready to accept the new thing.
• Expand the market in the rural area: Till now there is huge area is remain out of coverage where a huge number of target consumers are available. So Teletalk can bring that respective area under coverage and catch those potential consumers.
• Teletalk can use the experience of BTTB: BTTB one of the old and experience organization in Bangladesh telecommunication sector. They have special experience about the consumer behavior of Bangladesh. They know about the consumer’s need and want. So Teletalk can take help from the BTTB about this matter and implement those criteria in the competitive market. Which things, give Teletalk competitive advantage over its respective competitors.   
• Teletalk can use softswitch network: The softswitch network separates the bearer and control layers and a softswitchcentric network can be built on different types of bearer networks such as TDM, IP and ATM unlike, legacy network that depend on a single specific switching technology. Based on strategic planning and the developmental phase, an operator can select suitable bearer mode technologies for different phases, from the perspective of long term sustainable development, the IP centered softswitch network defines the future. So Teletalk can use this technology and practice competitive advantage over rivals.

4.6 Analysis of Threats

• An upcoming mobile service provider named WARID TELECOM a concern of Dhabi group: At present Bangladeshi mobile sector is almost saturated , after that a new company named WARID is going to starts its operation in Bangladesh which going to become a big threats to Teletalk and  other operators.
• The invention of technology which is new modern and consumer oriented: Technology is changing with day run. It changes the consumer’s demand pattern by offering different attractive features. As a result consumer shifts from one technology to other technology, which might create a big problem to Teletalk and others.
• Another invisible threat is land phone operator: In Bangladesh land phone operator is expand the market with day run. People are switch from mobile to land phone operators. As a result ultimately the number of mobile user is decreasing and create problem to the mobile operators as well as Teletalk.

5.0 Marketing System

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place

5.1 Service

Teletalk is a service based industry. So it always tries to maintain the quality of the service when it serves to the customers. And teletalk has done the job by offering different type of package.

5.2 Price

Pricing is one of the marketing mix tools that a company uses to achieve it marketing objectives. Teletalk decides its service pricing on the basis of cost based pricing.  They always think about the consumer purchase capability. That’s why they try to fix a reasonable price for the consumer.

5.3 Promotion

Promotion is one of the marketing tools that a company uses to achieve its marketing objectives. Each promotion tools has unique characteristics to improve their total sales. Teletalk are trying to do more promotional activities for their service. Teletalk Marketing promotion can be classified in several steps:

5.4 Advertising

Teletalk first promotional activity is advertising. They know that advertising is the way where massage could be delivered to the consumers mind. And this Massage can be delivered to the consumer by the sound, music, choreography, lighting and performer appearance. Advertisement massage must be believable, meaningful and distinctive. Advertising can be used to buildup a long-term image for a product and also can trigger quick sales. So that they invest a huge amount of money for advertise to create a brand loyal customer.

Advertising media:

• Newspaper
• Web site
• Magazine

5.5 Personal Selling

Personal presentation by the firm sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationship. Teletalk uses personal selling in different stages of marketing and distribution. Company distributes their product (SIM, Scratch, Cash card) among the wholesalers and retailers by maintaining the excellent relationship.

5.6 Sales Promotion

Sales promotion includes a wide way of tools that can attract consumer’s attraction, strong incentive of purchase, free gifts, discount and several types of occasional program.

PHP sales promotion includes credit sales, commission etc. PHP arrange conference every year among the dealers, wholesalers and retailers. They always try to influence and convince them for creating a market demand and sale their product.

5.7 Public Relation

Public relation is used to promote products, people, places, ideas, activities, organizations and even nations. Public relation can also influence a product sales or brand awareness. Teletalk arrange meeting always with the wholesalers and retailer for maintaining a good relationship with them.

5.8 Place

Place is very much important for product sale. Place depends on good location, transportation facility, availability, channels etc. and teletalk select a right place named Banani, from this place people can easily buy the product and there transportation system is very easy and available.

6.0 Analysis and Findings

6.1 Presenting the Survey Results: (According to the attached Questionnaire.)

6.2 Awareness about Mobile Operators:

 Top of mind (TOM) awareness of Grameen was found to be the highest among users (78%). Aktel position (18%) is immediate after this.  Bangla Link has got very low top of mind (TOM) awareness- only 1%. But, the total awareness is high for all the mobile operators except Teletalk.

6.3 Brand User ship:

Usership of Grameen Phone is much higher than that of other mobile operators among all the mobile users. Most of the respondents avail themselves of mobile phone service from Grameen (71%). It is followed by Aktel (28%), CityCell (5%), and Banglalink (3%), Teletalk (2%) The ever user ship is much higher for Grameen Phone (86%) than the current user ship.

 6.4 User ship: Pre-paid vs. Post- paid:

Most of the mobile users have been found subscribers of pre-paid connections. The study has found that 100% of the Bangla Link subscribers use pre-paid connections. Percentages of pre-paid users are 97%, 94%, and 88% for Grameen Phone, Aktel and City Cell respectively. The highest post paid user ship has been found among the City Cell users (12%).

6.5 Reasons behind Using Pre-paid Phones:

Most of the mobile users have been found subscribers of pre-paid connections. The reasons behind using pre-paid mobile connections. ‘No hassle of bill payment’ has been found to be the most mentioned reason by the pre-paid mobile users (84%). ‘Availability of cards everywhere’ has been found the next mentioned reason by the prepaid mobile users (12%). The scenario is quite similar in all four regions of Bangladesh.

 6.6 Reasons behind Using Post -paid Phones

Post paid mobile users have also mentioned reasons behind their preference. The major reasons behind using post paid mobile connections. ‘Low call rate’ has been found to be the most mentioned reason by the post-paid mobile users (74%). The scenario is almost similar in all the four regions of Bangladesh.

6.7 Number of Calls per Day

Nearly two-fifths of the respondents have mentioned that on an average they receive less than 5 calls per day (39%). Almost the same number of respondents receives 5-7 calls per day.

Regarding the outgoing calls, it should be mentioned that 59% of the respondents make less than 5 calls, while 31% make less than 5-7 calls per day.

6.8 Duration of per call

Majority of the respondents (34%) have reported that the duration of most

of their calls is less than 5 minutes.

7.1 Recommendation

Marketing:

• Number of new subscribers should be added
• Number of new package should be aired
• Increase the promotional campaign

Operations:

• Downtime per BTS in minutes per month
• Downtime per unit in core networks in minutes
• Reduction of fault recovery time

Planning:

• Number of new subscribers should be added
• Extension of coverage area in square kilometers
• Expansion of transmission backbone in kilometers
• Introduction of new technology

IT:

• Number of systems should be automated in a year

Finance:

• Increasing revenue
• Decreasing Expense
• Increased utilization of allocated budget

Human resource:

• Hire potential employee
• Provide proper training to employee
• Evaluation system

7.2 Conclusion

TELETALK Bangladesh Limited is the first government owned private  cellular operator in Bangladesh. TELETALK Bangladesh Limited  has a goal to receive an economic return on its investments and to contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh where telecommunications can play a critical role. TELETALK Bangladesh Limited  believes in service, a service that leads to good business and good development. Telephony helps people work together, raising their productivity. This gain in productivity is development, which in turn enables them to afford a telephone service, generating a good business. Thus development and business go together.

The main goal of TELETALK Bangladesh limited is to deliver SIM kits to the subscriber at a cheap rate and make a competitive market . All the categories of subscribers had collected their SIM kits through banks. Which is very satisfactory of SIM collection rate. When the Subscriber received their SIM kits, the innocent smile of them shows recessive support to TELETALK. This is the great achievement of TELETALK Bangladesh Limited.

In services sector FDI inflow in Bangladesh is enormous. Telecom sector is become the core of interest in FDI in Bangladesh. So it is expected in the long run TELETALK has to face an immense competition.  As well as we are also forecasting the current PCO culture might change if the profit margin reduce at current ratio. By this offer interest of TELETALK and PCO’s owners reciprocally proportionately will sustain.  In the long run they can able to face the market competition successfully.