Telecommunication & Networking � Changing Customer Profile & Preferences

Over the last two and half decades, the Indian telecom industry has evolved rapidly. Beginning with the basic telephony provided by BSNL, a public sector company, the telecom industry today is not just for providing the calling facilities; it includes services like 3G, 4G, 5G broadband, Netflix, amazon-prime, online payment banks, 24 hour recharge facilities voicemail, ringtones, easy bill payment services and much more. Internet is just one of the important additions to the services. While many big players in the private sector came on the scene and disappeared, others struggled to survive through mergers, acquisitions and restructuring of the business models in the wake of competition. Sometime back Reliance Jio offered free Internet and Voice usage as pre � launch offer and grabbed the customer's attention. This all came as a big game changer in the telecom industry as customers have multiple options and the telephonic and data service providers face new challenges to cope up with the situation. It is estimated that a large number of new customers coming into the mobile fold come from the underprivileged geographies with sub-optimal telecommunication infrastructure and poor connectivity; their prime preference is for low call tariffs and several other value added services like information about markets, commodity prices, weather forecasts and the ability to transact business in their regional languages. The theme of the paper is to examine if the telecommunication industry is prepared to face and respond to changing customer perceptions, preferences and expectations.