IndiaMobile 2009: India’s largest Mobile Usage study results to be announced shortly.

By Editor on October 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Wireless Federation will shortly be announcing the availability of the results of India’s largest primary research project undertaken to study Mobile usage in India. The project is titled IndiaMobile 2009.

The survey is one of the most representative, independent enumeration of mobile phone usage in India. Close to 285,000 urban and rural Indians, covering all states and union territories574 districts, 3,175 towns and over 2,800 villages were interviewed. With at least 30 plus sample each from 323 districts and 419 towns, and 100 plus sample each from 184 districts and 155 towns, the study could actually be the World’s largest mobile (telecom) usage study carried out in a single country. The survey was carried out by a reputed local research agency under the guidance of Wireless Federation.

With the Mobile sector in India seeing close to 20% of its market capitalisation knocked off in the last few days and increased momentum in the price war in India, the results from this survey will help the sector understand its customers better in order to re-gain some of its strength back.

Airtel, Aircel, Tata Indicom, Tata DoCoMo, Etisalat, MTS India, Loop Mobile, Reliance Mobile, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, BSNL, MTNL, Telenor, Virgin can all now compare data from each and every circle and each live operator to understand demographic spread, handset usage and analysis as well as detailed psychographic analysis of the Indian mobile consumer.

The Indian mobile industry will be able to plan better based on the results from this study, which is now planned to occur each year. A large majority of mobile operators have expressed keen interest in the results of the study.

By using the IndiaMobile 2009 results, Mobile Operators will be able to further mould the study to better suit their needs from 2010 onwards.

This study will be the de-facto benchmark for Mobile Usage in India, given the thorough nature of the research, the sheer size of the sample and the level of interest from the Mobile Eco-System in utilising the results from this study.

For More information, please write to Audrey [at] WirelessFederation.com for your free copy of the headline results.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Aircel, Airtel, Audrey, BSNL, consumer, DoCoMo, Etisalat, Idea, India, IndiaMobile, Indicom, Loop, MTNL, MTS, operators, Reliance, Survey, Tata, Telenor, USA, Virgin, Vodafone, Wireless, WirelessFederation

Reliance Mobile plans new celebrity brouhaha

By Editor on September 19, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Mobile, which is looking to spread its GSM telephony tentacles across the country, is believed to have roped in a constellation of six celebrities for a big-bang advertising campaign.

While cricket star M S Dhoni is almost certain to be a part of the star cast, industry sources say the company is also in talks with film star Abhishek Bachchan. (The junior Bachchan already endorses Motorola’s cellular phones.) Others in the campaign – to kick off by the end of this month – will be from the fields of sports and entertainment.

Speaking to Business Standard, Reliance executives confirmed that the campaign would be a multi-celebrity campaign involving cricketers, music industry stars and film stars. Sanjay Behl, head of branding, Reliance Mobile said: “We are in an evolutionary stage in growth and imagery. The communication will reflect that.”

The new campaign is being executed by creative shop Cartwheels, run by JWT’s former creative head, D Ramakrishna.

Behl is not willing to disclose if Abhishek, or Hindi music director and singer Himesh Reshammiya, is a part of the cast, though he claims that there might be about six celebrities who will endorse Reliance Mobile.

Celebrities are not new to cellular phone service providers. While cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been associated with Airtel since 2003 and Rahul Dravid bats for Hutch, former Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly has featured as the ambassador for Tata Indicom. Apart from Ganguly, Tata Indicom has also used star couple Kajol and Ajay Devgan in its campaigns.

But Reliance has reason to be aggressive. Apart from its CDMA services, which form the bulk of Reliance’s approximately 22 million subscriber base, the company is in the midst of scaling up in the GSM space, where it will find itself up against formidable rivals like Airtel and Hutch. While Hutch associates itself actively with cricket, theatre and art, Airtel has played up its music association through ringtones using its brand ambassador, A R Rehman.

In February this year, Reliance had applied for GSM spectrum in markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Uttar Pradesh (east and west circles), and Jammu and Kashmir.

It already operates GSM (900 MHz) mobile services in circles like West Bengal (including Kolkata), Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and the Northeast.