Project Mobile Service Povider

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background Information
In our daily life, we use mobile phones to communicate with each other. Mobile communication become wider nowadays. The history of mobile communication began in year 1958 in Germany, where the A1 net was established (Dane Marjanovic, 2010). The evolution of mobile phones is greatly influenced the development of mobile communication around the world. The usage of mobile phone is not common in early 90’s, but become a trend in 21st century. Even students of primary school use mobile phone nowadays to interact with their friends.
In Malaysia, the developments of mobile communication also influence the students to have their own mobile phones. Budde (2010), said that the mobile market in Malaysia has been more spectacular, jumping from 3 million subscribers in 1999 to reach around 28 million by end-2008. Mobile phones become a priority among the students as most of them spend their leisure time with their mobile phone activities.
Moreover, the communication companies in Malaysia such as Maxis, Celcom and Digi compete with each other to promote the lowest price of their service provider to attract people to subscribe. The most benefited from this situation are the students because they can get special offer and promotion whenever they subscribe to certain service provider. This scenario also attracts the students to have their own mobile phones as they can communicate easily and can save their budget. The price of the mobile phone also contributes to the increases in number of mobile phone users among students.

Sandip Das(2011) , The Chief Executive Officer, Maxis said, "We are very excited with this achievement. Over the last 2 years we have worked hard at revamping our system, modernising our network, creating new transmission and building our IP networks to prepare ourselves for the surge in demand for data and broadband. The strength and quality of our coverage will help bring to life the rich content, applications, downloads and relevant services that Maxis can offer, across a wider footprint than any other service provider in Malaysia. Maxis provided 2 plans which is postpaid plans and prepaid plans. For those who want to share the love with their family, they can apply “Family Plus 30”,”Value Plus Family”. Moreover, for those who want to keep their close ones near, they are advise to apply “Value Plus Internet 30”.
Telenor ASA(1995)”DiGi became the first telco in Malaysia to launch and operate a fully digital cellular network. For Digi prepaid plan they provide DIGI easy prepaid, DIGI best prepaid, DIGI prepaid smart plan, prepaid blackberry plans. For the Digi postpaid plans it consist of DIGI postpaid plus, and DG smart plan. The customer will enjoy even more rewards from Digi. We can enjoy even more reward from Digi.For prepaid specials,get extra talktime with Reload Bonus and Birthday Bonus. Furthemore, postpaid specials also give reward for customers by earning BonusLink Points for every ringgit you spend with Digi. Digi organise a contest such as DIGI ComicStrip Contest, visit Digi on Facebook and join Running Bob on his adventures to win great prizes.

Celcom Axiata Berhad, DBA Celcom(2006), is the oldest mobile telecommunications company in Malaysia. Celcom is one of a member of the Axiata group of companies. Being one of the very few companies in Malaysia to originally obtain a cellular phone license, it successfully introduced mobile telephony in Malaysia through its ART-900 (Automatic Radio Telephone) service, using first generation (analogue) System) specifications of the United Kingdom, a derivative of the US-AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) technology. The ETACS ART-900 was started using the prefix "010". Celcom now uses the dialling prefix identifier of "013" and "019" and offer digital GSM (Groupe Speciale Mobile), an originally European standard, now largely a world standard for mobile communications. Through the Mobile Numbering Portability by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, CELCOM also provides Virtual Mobile Operator services. Celcom also provides rural communications services using CDMA Technology and Satellite Phone. Celcom is offering both 2.5G and 3G services on its postpaid and Xpax prepaid brands. Celcom claimed a 80% nationwide mobile service coverage with 3G availability in most of Klang Valley, Johor Bahru, Melaka, Kulim and Penang. Celcom Broadband is Malaysia’s No.1 Mobile Broadband Provider, with 857,000[3] subscribers in 2010. The broadband network cover 71%[4] of Malaysia populate.
U.O.X- rewards you with the best prepaid mobile service around. You get the lowest Call and SMS rates, free all-night calls and messaging, and access to the most rockin’ parties in town. We want you to enjoy life and not be worried about stuff, your credit expiry included. With U.O.X., you just need to reload a minimum amount of RM5 per month to enjoy 30 days validity. So you can use all that extra cash you save for something else! Like a new phone or whatever!

Mostly in Malaysia, teenagers around 8 to 24 own their personal mobile phones. In a study (Abdullah, 2004), Malaysian youths claimed that owning a mobile phone is an essential part of their life. They use their phone not only to communicate to each other but doing other activities. The most popular mobile phone activities over the past 7 days are listening to music, SMS, taking pictures, and playing games (Lam, 2010).
Based on our observation, most JMC’s student use service provider such as Maxis, Celcom, and Digi. Students will have their own budget for their mobile phone expenses. This is so important because students need to save their money for other activities instead of wasting their money only for their mobile phone expenses. Researchers found that young mobile phone users tend to demonstrate appropriate monthly expenditure. Furthermore, more than half (57%) of adolescents claimed that they were very careful in spending money on their mobiles. However, a small number (38%) of them reported that they tend to overspend on their mobile phones due to peer expectation of receiving a reply SMS (Short Message Service) from them (Zulkefly & Baharudin, 2009). So for the purpose of this research,we would like to identify the most popular service provider preferred by JMC’s student, to find out the reasons why do they prefer that particular service provider and to find out students’ opinions on which service provider provides better services.

1.2 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS.

Definition of mobile is capable of moving or being moved readily. Digital Technology . pertaining to or noting a cell phone, usually one with computing ability, or a portable, wireless computing device used while held in the hand, as in mobile tablet; mobile PDA; mobile app . Definition of communication is the process by which people exchange information or express their thoughts and feelings. Communication also the ways of sending information, especially using radio, telephone, or computers.

1.3 OBJECTIVE

i. To identify the most popular service provider preferred by JMC’s students. ii. To find out the reasons why do they prefer that particular service provide. iii. To find out student’s opinions on which service provider provides better services.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are the most popular service provider preferred by JMC student whether Maxis, Celcom or Digi ?
2. What are the reasons of JMC student prefer that service provider by Maxis , Celcom and Digi.
3. What are the opinions of JMC students on which service provider provides better services?

2.0 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
The data for the study was obtained through a set of questionnaire.

3.1 The respondents
The respondents of Johor Matriculation College were chosen for the research. 50 students were chosen to complete this survey.

3.2 The instrument
The relevant data for this research was obtained through a set of questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to enquire the students’ opinion on the most popular service provider.

3.3 Research procedure
The first step of this research is choosing the respondents of Johor Matriculation College. When they were identified, the questionnaire was given to be answered. There were altogether 22 question in the questionnaire. The analysis of data was then in progress after the questionnaire was collected.

3.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the research would be first presented in non linear forms before discussing them in details.
3.1 The most popular service provider preferred by Johor Matriculation’s Students.
3.1.1 Service provider that JMC’s students subscribe.

FIGURE 1 Based on Figure 1, most students preferred Maxis as their mobile service provider. There were 30 students choose Maxis as their service provider, 15 students choose Celcom and the other 5 choose Digi. From the data, it can be conclude that most JMC’s students choose Maxis as their service provider. From 28 students that choose Maxis , 15 of them used Youth Club package,9 used Hotlink Standard package and the other 4 students used Hotlink Special. Then, for the other service provider Celcom ,8 of students used Celcom U.O.X package , 4 used Celcom Xpax and the other 3 used Celcom S.O.X. Moreover, for Digi, 7 students used Digi Easy Prepaid, 3 used Digi Best Prepaid and only 2 used Digi Prepaid Smart Plan.
Majority of the respondents love to subscribe to Maxis and fewer of them love to subscribe to another service provider. Several respondents also subscribe more than one service provider as not all of the respondents have only one handphone. 3.1.2 Percentage based on quantity of respondent’s handphone.

Figure 2.0
Figure 2.0 shows that the numbers of students that have one handphone are 19 students that are 38%. The numbers of students that have two handphones are 23 students which covered 46%.The numbers of students that have three handphones are 4 students that are 8%. Whereas the number of student that have more than three handphone are 4 student that are 8%.

From the survey, most of the respondents only have one handphone. The background of the family can be the determining factor to this situation; this is because most of the respondents are come from rural area.

3.2 Reason why they preferred the particular service provider
3.2.1 The reason why they used particular service provider.

Figure 3.0 Based on the survey, most of the respondents prefer to use selected particular service provider because of certain reasons. Majority of respondents subscribe Maxis as their service provider because Maxis provide much cheaper than other service provider. So, it can save their budget in a month. Some student said that they have an advantage to get rewards such as free SMS for a certain limit and free airtime call. Therefore, they coincidentally can save their budget for top up their mobile credits.

3.2.2 The regular people that they contact by using the particular service provider.

Figure 4
Figure 4 show the percentage of to whom student frequently communicate. High percentage that is 50% equal to 25 students show that mostly student communicate to their family. Followed by 34% or 17 students usually communicate both that is family and friend beside their lovers. 16% or 8 students mostly communicate with their friends.
Majority of the respondents always contact their family because most of the respondents live further away from their family and some of them come from East Malaysia. Therefore, they will usually contact their family in order to keep in touch with their family. We also find that most of the respondents have large number of family.

3.2.3 The amount that they spend for the particular service provider in a month.

Figure 5
From Figure 5, we can see that only two students earn their communication mobile expenses from their parents and it only costs less than RM 50. The rest of the students that is 39 students pay their mobile expenses by their own. Then, 32 students from them spend less than RM50, 15 students spend in average of RM50-RM100 and only 3 of them spend more than RM100 for their mobile communication expenses.
Most of the students are pay their expenses by their own. Majority of them are spending less than RM 50 a month for their mobile communication expenses. This is because they use other alternatives to communicate with their family and friends such as internet. In this globalization era, most of the students prefer to use social network in the internet such as Facebook, Whatsapp , Viber, Line and Twitter to keep in touch with each other. Therefore, the usage of mobile communication is limited. The students that spend more than RM 100 for their monthly expenses maybe have many siblings.

3.2.4 Do you plan monthly budget for your mobile communication expenses?

Figure 6 Based on 50 respondents, there are 17 respondents that do not plan monthly budget for their mobile communication expenses. And for the balance, 33 respondents do plan monthly budget for their mobile communication expenses. From 33 respondents who plan their monthly budget, 22 of them save equal and less than RM 50. For amount RM 50-RM 75 only 8 of the respondents and more than RM 100 only 3 respondent save for each of the amount.

3.2.5 Do you often use phone call, SMS, and caller ringtone? Table 1: Service often used by respondents Service | Yes | No | SMS | 37 | 13 | Phone Call | 35 | 15 | Caller ringtone | 22 | 28 |

Table 1 shows the result for student’s Johor Matriculation College that use or often use messaging, phone call, caller ringtone. High rates show that student usually use messaging and phone call. Only about 26% or 13 students that rare using messaging and 30% or 15 people for the phone call. Meanwhile only 44% or 22 students used caller ringtone.
Majority of people often use messaging and phone call to communicate with other people. Several people did not prefer use caller ringtone because it intake the money and not benefit to certain people.

3.3 Find out students’ opinion on mobile communication and which service provider provide better services.
3.3.1 For what student used the handphone.

Figure 7
Based on figure 7, 32 from the respondents answer they usually use handphone for personal matter and only 14 respondent usually uses for family. While the remaining respondents answered they usually use handphone for other matters such as for business, playing game and studying.

Most of the respondents used handphone for their personal matters such as keep in touch with their friends. Moreover, not all respondent involved in business, therefore less of them use handphone to widen their business.

3.3.2 Student opinion about “PLANS” which are promoted by certain mobile service provider.

Figure 8 Based on the survey, most of the respondents prefer to use selected particular service provider because of certain reasons. Majority of respondents subscribe Maxis as their service provider because it promotes affordable charges and much cheaper than other service provider. Moreover, with the affordable charges especially for students, it can makes them easily to communicate with each other. Some respondents also state that they use that particular service provider to reduce the cost of expenditure while using mobile service provider to contact their family and friends because their family use the same service provider. Only a few respondents state that they used that particular service provider because they easy to communicate with special persons.

4.0 Conclusion and recommendation 4.1 Conclusion
Based on the first objective which is to identify the most popular service provider preferred by JMC student, the result shows, 30 out of 50 respondents from MODULE 1, MODULE 2, MODULE 3 and ACCOUNT chose the most famous mobile service providers is Maxis compared to Celcom and Digi .
Secondly , for the second objective which is to find out the reason why do they prefer that particular service provider, most of the students chose package that are being promoted by Maxis can save their budget because Maxis offer affordable charges to them that can easily communicate with each other’s . Hence, they also can reduce their expenditure on the mobile service providers.
Lastly, for the third objective which is to find out students’ opinion on which service provider provides better service, the students who use the Hotlink Standard package for Maxis said, they have an advantage to get rewards such as free SMS for a certain limit and free airtime call. Therefore, they coincidentally can save their budget for top up their mobile credits.

4.2 Recommendation
Future researchers may do further research on the same topic by : i. Increasing the numbers of respondents. ii. More extra time to conduct this research.

Reference

Budde, P. (2010, April). Malaysia-Key Statistics,TelecommunicationsOverview and Major Players. Retrieved August 30, 2010, from Research and Markets: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=1031175 Dane Marjanovic, C. M. (2010). New Opportunities for B2B and B2C.
Retrieved August 26, 2010, from Mobile Commerce. www.csg.uzh.ch/teaching/ws0405/inteco/extern/talk7.pdf Lam, S. (2010, August 3). Survey shows young Asians are inseparable from their mobiles. Retrieved August 26, 2010, from Star Online.

Sandip Das (2011),Maxis As First Service Provider in Malaysia, from Maxis Website. http://www.maxis.com.my/mmc/index.asp?fuseaction=press.view&recID=531 Zulkefly, S. N., & Baharudin, R. (2009). Mobile Phone use Amongst Students in a
University in Malaysia: Its Correlates and Relationship to Psychological Health.
European Journal of Scientific Research, 208.

Appendices

ARTICLE
Mobile phone service providers in Malaysia Currently, in Malaysia most of the Gen Y-era own either an IPhone, Blackberry or Nokia. In Malaysia, in 2009, it was reported that 30.379 million people own mobile phones .The majority of them come from the Gen Y cohort. The main players in Malaysia for mobile phone providers are Maxis, Digi, Celcom and U- Mobile. These players usually entice their consumers by offering attractive ‘packages’. The enticement of ‘packages’ may include switching benefits, price reduction, and flexible product bundling.
An interesting data gathered from MCMC in 2007 showed that there were more male users compared to female taking an average of 56.4%. Unsurprisingly, they have also found the penetration rate to be highest in the urban areas of Kuala Lumpur (91.4%), Malacca (85.5%) and Selangor (76.1%).
The telecommunication industry is known as a highly competitive market where players are aggressive in their promoting their brand through heavy advertisement. According to the figures from AC Nielson, the big three telecommunication companies was ranked as the top 10 advertisers for the first half of the year 2009 (M,Chan 2009). In fact, the top spender of the three, Maxis typically spends about between 50mil to 90mil in a half year budget for advertising alone. Being savvy marketers, all the three companies have currently embraced the social media bandwagon joining the masses on Facebook and Twitter allowing them to tap and connect with the younger generation of target market.

Maxis
Maxis is the leading integrated telecommunications service operator in Malaysia with coverage all over the country including East Malaysia. One can enjoy excellent reception in all major towns and cities, on all major highways, as well as in-building coverage.
Maxis also provides affordable IDD calls either through direct dialling an international number or key in a simple code with IDD132. You can also roam in more than 180 countries with Maxis.
You can sign up for either the post-paid service under Maxis or prepaid service branded under Hotlink. For those looking for iPhone, Maxis is one of the two Telco’s offering iPhone with various data plans. IPhones sold under Maxis is cheaper due to higher subsidy by Maxis but their monthly plans are higher than the other operator.
Being an integrated player, customers can expect to benefit from the various bundles offered when one signs up for more than one service in addition to the mobile service.
Celcom
Celcom, the oldest mobile telecommunications company in Malaysia, claims to have the most extensive and widest coverage all over the country. Celcom offers various post-paid packages under its Exec plans with different monthly commitment levels. Their mobile prepaid services are offered under Celcom Blue.
With the most comprehensive coverage nationwide, customers can be assured of being able to make and receive calls when one travels around the country even to the more remote areas.

Digi
Digi's strength is more in prepaid and is represented by the yellow man in most advertisements and roadshows. Their network coverage is not as extensive as Maxis and Celcom.
DiGi is the second operator in Malaysia to offer the iPhone on April 1, 2010. Although its monthly plans are cheaper than Maxis's iValue plans, the price of the iPhones sold are higher than Maxis.