SVKMs NMIMS

NMIMS Global Access -School for Continuing Education

Course: Business Economics

SEM - I

Programme

DSM/DBM/PGDBM/DHRM/PGDHRM/DMM/PGDMM/DFM/PGDFM/DITM/PGDITM/DBF
M/PGDBFM/DSCM/PGDSCM/DFPWM/DRM/PGDRM

Assignment Marks: 30

Instructions:

All Questions carry equal marks.

All Questions are compulsory
All answers to be explained in not more than 1000 words. Use relevant examples as far
as possible.
All answers to be written individually. Discussion and group work is not advisable.
Students are free to refer to any books/reference material/website/internet for attempting
their assignments, but are not allowed to copy the matter as it is from the source of
reference.

Students should write the assignment in their own words. Copying of assignments from
other students is not allowed.

The Indian Mobile Telephony Market

Competition and fall in prices sure does really increase the demand a true witness of this has
been the Indian Mobile Service Provider Market. India has come a long way in its tryst with
what can be called a revolution in mobile telephony Drastic reduction of call rates and handset
prices lifted the mobile telephone sector from the red as Indians responded well to the cuts. As
demand for mobile services saw a huge rise, the volume expansion was more than counter-
balanced the price reduction.
From call rates as high as INR 16/minute in 1995 to as low as INR 1/minute in 2008 and from a
subscriber base of 0.03 million in 1995 to 346.9 million in 2008, and now 87.48 crore in July
2013 were the number of telephone subscribers in India . Whereas the Internet subscribers
including Internet access by mobile device subscribers increased were at 164.81 million. The
data reveals that the customer base has increased many folds.

The Industry went through a wide range of policies changes and also the change in the internal
competition policy. Intense competition with 10 to 12 operators in a service area has led to a
free-fall in tariffs. However, this has not been matched by an increase in Minutes of Use per
connection per month (MoU or data usage), which on the contrary, has been dwindling.

While the revenue growth is declining, driven by inflation, the cost burden of operators continues
to increase. Network operating expense of all operators has increased significantly with time.
Also, the operators have been incurring additional expenses on account of compliance to
regulatory initiatives such as MNP, UCC, subscriber verification and stricter EMF requirements
and lawful interception. As a result of being squeezed from all sides, the financial position of
operators is under significant stress.

But we can state that the consumer surely gained over the period of time in scope of services and
price affordability.

Q1. Explain the concept of price elasticity with the reference to the above case. Kindly support
your answer with the Diagrams where necessary.

Q2. Explain the concept of Monopolistic Competition in the reference to the above case study.

1. Exp

Pedagogical Objectives:

To understand the concept of elasticity of demand and discuss various types of elasticity
of demand
To understand the link between price elasticity of demand, revenue and business
decision.

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