Firstnaukri: Hi all, welcome to the session. Sorry to keep you guys waiting.
Dipak Roy: .
Dipak Roy: Today, talking to our family members and friends over international barriers seems so effortless and simplified. We can access internet anytime, anywhere and now on our mobile sets as well. Life was never so uncomplicated, but excellent telecom services have actually made us live a life we never even dreamt of. In no more than a decade, the world around us has changed tremendously. Businesses are growing at a rapid speed; they are now connected with firms at all the sectors. There is a strong co
Firstnaukri: Today we have Mr. Dipak from Airtel with us for the session: How is telecom enriching our lives. Please pour in your questions now.
Dipak Roy: Hi all.
Nishant: Good morning Sir, How will number portability affect the Telecom Industry & has it affected/helped Airtel ?
Dipak Roy: Global trend shows MNP has not impacted any significant churn of customers. Similarly in India over the last few weeks, you would have read in newspapers that chnage over numbers are insignificant.
Abhisek: Hi sir , I am pursuing B.E/B.TECH in electronics & communication so I want t know about the Scope of mobile internet & career options?
Dipak Roy: Hi Abhishek, As an engineering graduate you can either work for service providers like airtel or can work for any of the technology companies like Ericsson, Nokia etc. who provide netwrk technology to service providers. To you second question on Mobile internet, there is imense opportunity to use the mobile phone to access internet seamlessly from anywhere, with out the hastle of connecting over broadband, etc.
sumit: Dear deepak. 1st of all thanks for providing a window for communicating directly with you. My question is with 3G coming live, do you see a downfall in broadband connections
Dipak Roy: Dear Sumit, Inspite of 3G happening, I don't see much of decline in broadband as high volume data access and transfers will still be preferred over broadband. For e.g corporates, small offices, businesses, etc, will require large data transfer and usage of computers, which can be accessed better through broadband
Dipak Roy: Dear Krishna, telecom market started initially with urban markets but today majority of new customers, for all large service providers, come from rural. That is because of drop in tarifs and affordability and company like airtel has heavily invested in creating network infrastructure in rural parts of the country.
Dipak Roy: Dear Aditya, I don't think any compition or price drop justifies unethical practices by companies. Besides, companies like airtel have very strong internal and external governance practices and have always believed in following the laws of the land.
Jerly Thomas: Airtel was already established as a very strong brand previously with the old logo and jingle;what was the strategy behind the new logo???
Dipak Roy: Dear Jerly, the new logo and jingle of airtel is a message and flavour of our international presence across 19 countries. besides, we want to create a youthful brand which caters to the younger generations
Rajesh: Sir, is the telecom industry ignoring the rural masses ? are there applications for supporting farmers in agriculture etc ?
Dipak Roy: Dear Rajesh, the telecom industry is heavily focussing on rural markets and majority of new customers today come from rural. for aritel, close to 60% of new customer acquisition comes from rural. besides, the Indian tarifs rates are lowest in the world, making it very affordable for masses
Poonam: Sir, I am currently in a non-metro location. How does companies like airtel cultivate employee base to expand its reach into its rural foray.
Dipak Roy: Dear Poonam, airtel has offices in more than 100 cities and towns across the country. besides, we have sales distribution network across the length and breadth of the country, making it one of the largest direct and indirect sales organisation across industries. Someone like you can be part of our organisation, even if you are not in a metro location
Pooja Singh: Sir, I am in final yr MBA in Amity. Calling cards are very popular abroad. Can we expect the "calling cards" model to enter Indian telecom market.
Dipak Roy: Dear Pooja, airtel has good offerings for international calling card facility for international travellers.
Dipak Roy: Dear Swati, we have a large presence of sales force in rural markets. Therefore we have specific traning programs for our rural sales officers
Praweja: How does airtel pursue its talent attraction & entry level hiring activities.Do you have specifc programs & activities to attract quality jobseekers.
Dipak Roy: Dear Praweja, airtel recruits fresh graduates for it sales organisation, depending on our need of each circle. Besides, we do campus hiring for fresh MBAs in top 15 management institutes and top 10 engineering colleges
Sid: What kind of growth do you see in the broadband markets?
Dipak Roy: Dear Sid, with technologies like BWA and LTE, broadband growth in India will see an explosive and exponential growth in the next 5 years. Currently India is very small compared to most countries, but with lower tarifs and good existing network, there is no reason why anyone will not start using broadband extensively
Nitish: Can u Please tell me when the 3G service will be available pan India
Dipak Roy: Dear Nitish, 3G is getting rolled out across the country by all service providers who have got spectrum. As we chat, airtel has already started services in Karnataka and TN and in next couple of months, will be available in all circles where we have licenses
Pritesh Solanki: Sir, with too much competition in the telecom sector, do we see consolidations in this industry in near future... And if it happens how will it impact the recruitment scenario
Dipak Roy: Dear Pritesh, even if consolidation happens in the telecom industry, the big and serious players will continue to grow at a healthy pace, atleast for the next 5 years. Therefore I dont see any slow down in hiring by companies like airtel
Shweta: Do you think Mobile app markets will be the next big thing in India?
Dipak Roy: Dear Shweta, mobile app market is already very big in India and most large services providers have more than 10% of business coming from non-voice. Moreover with 3G and high speed connectivity and large telecom, handset and IT companies building app stores, the market is just exploding.
vivekpm: Dear sir, Im vivek , working with ICICI bank as a retail manager.. as u said 60% of the cm acquisition is frm rural areas.. are we gettting the required RoI from rural areas after acquisition.
Gayathri Narayanan: Will airtel enter the mobile handset space ?
Dipak Roy: dear Vivek, rural customers and market is still a good business opportunity for all service providers because the usage continues to grow with so many offering available for rural customers
Rajeev Bhalla: How does airtel plan to address the problem of call drops & network congestion as the tele density goes up?
Dipak Roy: Dear Rajiv, airtel has the largest network infrastructure in India and is further investing heavily in strengthening its network quality. We are aware of the call drop issues and I can assure you that this is getting handled at the highest levels in the company
Krishna Kiran: On what criteria,Telecom zones are divided across the country?What about the zones where you don't have spectrum,How will you share with your competitor ?
Dipak Roy: Dear Krishna, airtel has licenses and spectrum across the entire country and therefore there is no place where we don't have a presence. Telecom circles are demarketed as per government licenses and circles are further devided into zones which are sales territories.
sumit: Hi depak. Why are we still in 3G life whereas all new products in western market revolves around 4G. When do you think we'll bridge this gap.
harikrushna: in telecom industry currently wi.max and wifi is hot topic 4 all of us what is it how it is usefull to us its advantages and importances.
ANINDYA: how 3g is advantageous rather than 2g?
Dipak Roy: Dear Anindya, Hari, Sumit, et. all... 3G/4G or wi max will provide high speed connectivity which is primarily required for data access. Using these technologies, you can not only access the internet and all its services and applicatrions very fast, but also have high entertainment content for movies and music, video calling, mobile health service, mobile commerce, etc. In the next few years you will increasing find yourself using the mobile phone for many applications and transactions
Dipak Roy: I have received many questions on career opportunities in the telecom industry. Let me firstly say that careers in telecom are not only with service providers like airtel but also with technology companies with provide network and IT infrastructure, large call centre companies which provide telecom customer service and BPO companies which take process outsourcing from companies like airtel. Within airtel you are work in sales, customer service, marketing, suppy chain, network, IT, finance, HR et
das: Is mobile platform going to replace the utility of destops, laptops and tablets in the near future?
Dipak Roy: Dear Das, mobile will largely take your time away from the other 2 traditional screens, that is computers and television because all the functionalities and features will be available on your phone.
Dipak Roy: For those who are interested in career in airtel, I invite you to visit our careers site on airtel.in or with our partner Naukri, for exploring various job opprotunities which are currently listed. We have a strong backend process to access applications and whoever id found suitable, will be responded to.
Firstnaukri: That's all for today folks. Thanks ton for joining us & special thanks to Mr. Dipak for taking out an hour to chat with the students. It's time to sign off now.
Firstnaukri: Stay tuned for upcoming Net-Engage Sessions.
Dipak Roy: I am really delighted to have such a wonderful interaction with all of you. Hope I have been able to answer most of your questions. Telecom is such an intersting industry, providing career opportunity in best of sales & distribution, customer service, tecnology, etc. I once again thank Naukri for providing this opportunity to interact with all of you. Wish you all the best....
