TELCO SERVICE IN UTM
WHICH WILL THE STUDENT CHOOSE?
Introduction
Background of the study
Telecommunications, also called telecommunication, is the exchange of information over significant distances by electronic means. A complete, single telecommunications circuit consists of two stations, each equipped with a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter and receiver at any station may be combined into a single device called a transceiver. The medium of signal transmission can be electrical wire or cable (also known as "copper"), optical fiber or electromagnetic fields. The free-space transmission and reception of data by means of electromagnetic fields is called wireless. The simplest form of telecommunications takes place between two stations. However, it is common for multiple transmitting and receiving stations to exchange data among them. Such an arrangement is called a telecommunications network. The mobile sector is vibrant, with keen competition among the operators and rapid growth in subscriber numbers. The regulatory regime is forward looking and liberal
Key milestones in the development of 120 years of telecommunication in Malaysia in chronological order are listed below.
· 1870 First telegraph submarine cable linking Malaysia and Indonesia marks the start of telecommunication in Malaysia. This link was extended to London in the year 1879.
· 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
· 1891 The first telephone exchange was installed in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
· 1894 Marconi invents the radio.
· 1929 The first Royal Malaysia Police Radio linked the island of Pulau Ketam to Port Klang.
· 1931 The first commercial radio was broadcasted from Bukit Petaling Radio Station.
· 1936 The first overseas radio link from Kuala Lumpur to the rest of the world was made.
· 1946 The first telex was introduced. Printed document can now be sent over the wires for the first time.
· 1959 The first microwave network station for telephone transmission was commissioned at Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur.
· 1963 The first telephone broadcast in black and white pictures was launched.
· 1970 The first international earth satellite receiving station was built in Kuantan, Pahang allowing live international television broadcasts a reality.
· 1979 International Direct Dialing was first introduced in Malaysia.
· 1983 The commissioning of Kuala Muda Maritime Coast Station for international maritime service.
· 1985 The latest cordless mobile phones and representations of state-of-the-art ATUR 450 technologies were introduced.
· 1987 Jabatan Telekom malaysia was privatized. New logo, new mission statements with higher standards of service were guaranteed.
· 1992 Smartfon was introduced where one can call anytime while on the move in a Smartfon zone.
· 1993 Menara Kuala Lumpur or Kuala Lumpur Tower was launched. It was the 4th tallest telecommunication tower in the world at its launching.
The market for mobile services in Malaysia is highly competitive. Prior to the liberalization of the telecommunications industry in Malaysia, Telekom Malaysia had a virtual monopoly on telecommunications services in Malaysia. In recent years, the Government has taken steps to introduce managed competition in the industry by awarding various telecommunications licenses. To date, the Government has awarded eight mobile licenses to operators in Malaysia. Maxis' competitors in this segment are Celcom, Telekom Malaysia (through its TMTOUCH, Mobifon 018 and ATUR011 brands), DiGi and TIME. Maxis believe that the main competitive factors in the mobile services market are network coverage, service quality, pricing and brand. The government wants the country to become an information-based society by 2020, and the telecom sector plays a major role in its vision. The current dominance of one operator in most segments of the telecom industry is not conducive to the government meeting its objectives. Hence there are good prospects for companies to enter the market in support of the government’s plans provided that it is done with understanding and sensitivity.
The changing landscape of the Malaysian mobile market has over time witnessed the restructuring of the main players in that market. The government has been a strong supporter of the rationalization of what had been seen as an overcrowded market. A particularly significant merger between Telekom and Celcom took place, creating a lot of interest. At the same time, but with less fanfare, Maxis acquired Time dotCom’s mobile unit. These changes resulted in the number of operators being effectively reduced from five to three. The allocation of 3G licences has also been controversial with one of the operators initially missing out then picking up one in a surprising fashion. By December 2008 Maxis Communications had a mobile subscriber base of 11.1 million, with Celcom in second place on 8.8 million, while DiGi was number three with 7.1 million subscribers. New operator, with its exclusively 3G offering, was trailing the field with just 200,000 subscribers at the time. This report looks at the mobile operators in the Malaysian market.
Celcom claims to have the widest and most extensive coverage nationwide, compared to other cellular services in Malaysia. Celcom claims its dual-band GSM (900/1800 MHz) coverage has reached over 97% of Malaysia's populated area in 2006, and 100% through satellite coverage. As of 2006 Celcom is offering both 2.5G and 3G services on its postpaid and Xpax prepaid brands. Current (published) customer base passes over 10 million, with blended ARPU (Average Revenue per User) stood at RM65. Celcom claimed 95% nationwide mobile service coverage with 3G availability in most of Klang Valley, Johor Bahru, Melaka, Kulim and Penang.
In 2009, the 3G coverage covers most major towns where there is a telephone exchange and either HSDPA or EDGE services within 15 mile radius (GSM UMTS maximum allowed range) with GPRS as basic data coverage
U Mobile Sdn Bhd is Malaysia’s newest 3G service provider and was founded in 1998 as MiTV Networks Sdn Bhd. U Mobile is a wholly owned subsidiary of U Television Sdn Bhd which was formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn Bhd and MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd .U Mobile seeks to enrich the lives of consumers by making communication, entertainment and information easily accessible through advance technology via one convenient, ubiquitous platform.
On 24 May 1995 DiGi became the first telco in Malaysia to launch and operate a fully digital cellular network.They were also the first to offer GPRS (2.5G) and later EDGE (2.75G) in Malaysia in 14 May 2004. DiGi primarily uses the GSM1800 band with the network code of 50216.DiGi is listed on the Bursa Malaysia under the Infrastructure category.It uses the native dialling prefix identifier of "010", "016", "0143", "0146" and "0149", although with the implementation of Mobile number portability mandated by the Malaysian government this does not apply to subscribers who switched from their old mobile service provider over to DiGi. At the moment, switching to DiGi is free.
Objectives
The objectives of the study are:
1. 1. To find out the students from UTM towards their preferences and choices when making decision in choosing the right telecommunication network.
2. 2. To investigate the reason of the students in choosing their preferred telecommunication service.
3. 3. To identify the level satisfaction of telecommunication network in Malaysia among the students.
4. 4. To explore the current and near future state of innovations that may serve as solutions to the growing of service provider and the quality of telecommunication network.
5. 5. To provide better suggestion and solution to improve the telecommunication network service.
Statement of problem
Factor that contributes student to choose the telecommunication network
There are many choices of telecommunication networks in Malaysia which are Maxis, Digi, Celcom and Umobile for UTM students. Typically, for a consumer, UTM students will choose the telecommunication network due to its stability of the line, worthy of the package, coverage network for the network and others additional function and performance. This is why the telecommunication network company in Malaysia nonstop offer new package for the student and also always update their network performance and coverage.
Level of loyalty and perception among students for the usage line telecommunication network
Due to the competition among the telecommunication network company in Malaysia, student will get the benefit from it because all company has a good offer to attract consumer to use their line network. But however, as a smart consumer, student will always choose the best plan. Some of the student will even change the plan always due to the benefit of the plan. From that situation we can know that student will have more than 1 network and the reason that make them to change line is because maybe they influence by offering new package from the telecommunication network company that bring more benefit.
Level satisfaction of telecommunication network in Malaysia among the students
As a consumer they absolutely want the line that can give the good service and then can satisfy their needs. The telecommunication company that gives the good service can get more consumers to use their product. For the most part, every telecommunications company provides the same things: Internet, phone, and cable services but it is the most demand of consumer when they use line network, so has some company are take the advantage to offer a good price for that service which can attract the consumer to used their product. For example Digi become the most popular telecommunication network service since it was found that to be more economical because this line is cheap and suitable for everyone.
The innovations that may serve as solutions to the growing of service provider and the quality of telecommunication network.
The telecommunication company always fined a way to increase their line for consumer whether for local or international. To evaluate their line they must keep maintain to the growing of service provider and provide high quality and efficiency of network services, ensure that the entire network coverage, ensure the quality of users phone call. Beside that company also looking into the personalized service and business innovation that is to offer a variety of telecommunications portfolio, continue to make innovations in business to meet the personalized consumption needs of different customer demand
Suggestion and solution to improve the telecommunication network service.
To expand the line telecommunication network, company has personalized service and business innovation which is to offer a variety of telecommunications portfolio, continue to make innovations in business to meet the personalized consumption needs of different customer demand. Other than that some company give more attention to the aspect of customer service, they always have a strategy plan to keep maintain of their service. The strategy is including to provide warm and considerate, perfect after-sale service, the staff with friendly attitude, familiar with the business of understanding, rapid response to customer requests, standardization of services and ensure customer has nothing to worry about.
Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction
This section discusses the methodology of the research. The main purpose of the research is to investigate especially UTM students’ on their preferences of telecommunication, perception towards the telecommunication network and also the service quality that is provided by Malaysia telecommunication network. To access and evaluate the preferences, perceptions and services among the students, a campus of University Teknologi Malaysia situated in the Skudai area with 25000 students’ population was chosen. Data for the research were collected through questionnaire.
3.2 Sample Design
The respondents of the study were all undergraduates from different courses at University Teknologi Malaysia. In February 2010, a total of 30 questionnaires were distributed to students at different faculties of the university. A total of 30 students from various faculties at University Teknologi Malaysia returned the questionnaires. Of these numbers, 12 were males’ students while the rest (18) were females.
3.3 Research Design
This research utilized quantitative research methodology. The instruments used to collect the data were questionnaire. A set of questionnaire containing 28 questions divided into 6 sections was developed. Different question-type such as ranking, yes-no, listing, category, open-ended and Likert-scales were used in the questionnaire. The different sections of the questionnaire were: i) demographic information, ii) level of satisfaction toward the service of current network, iii) which network wills the student chooses, iv) how is the promotional for the network, v) and comments. The questionnaire was piloted by lecturer and a few students to assess its validity before it was distributed.
3.4 Data Collection
Before the actual data collection period, a piloted study was conducted to assess the validity of the research instruments. A total of 4 students were involved in the pilot study chosen among our friends in university.During the actual study, the questionnaires were distributed at various locations on campus such as entrance of main library, several bus stop and cafeterias. A total of 30 students were selected randomly in order to get their cooperation in answering the questionnaires. Respondents were approached with an initial question of their opinion regarding telecommunication service, before the questionnaires was given to them. Their opinion and their questionnaires answers will be taken into account of the study.
3.5 Data Analysis
To analyze the data that were getting from our research, a total of five variables were taken into consideration namely accessibility, level of satisfaction, safety measures, study purposes and affordability. Our groups used SPSS to analyses the data were get from the respondents. The data were entered into computer using SPSS. Results were presented through frequency count and other descriptive statistics such as T Test, box plot, frequency, Anova, pie chart, bar chart, cross tabulation and others.
Conclusion
This research investigated the usage of preferred telecommunication services among Universiti Teknologi Malaysia students. Primary data were collected by randomly distributing questionnaires to 30 students. As mention earlier in the introduction, the main purpose of the research is to investigate especially UTM students’ on their preferences of telecommunication, perception towards the telecommunication network and also the service quality that is provided by Malaysia telecommunication network. Besides that, we want to investigate the level of loyalty and perception levels of the students about usage of the telecommunication network. We also want to know the level satisfaction of telecommunication network in Malaysia among the students. Furthermore we absolutely have to explore the current and near future state of innovations that may serve as solutions to the growing of service provider and the quality of telecommunication network. From our investigated then we get to provide better suggestion and solution to improve the telecommunication network service.
The following conclusion can be drawn from the study. This study has shown that Maxis is the top preferred telecommunication service among Universiti Teknologi Malaysia students due to its better stability of line compared to the other telecommunication net work providers. We can see most of the UTM students are satisfied with the service that provide by the telecommunication service provider. In addition, it was found that, the use of 3G is becoming important and is one of the main reasons for the students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in choosing their telecommunication service provider; so that the quality and coverage area of 3G is needed to be improve.. Lastly, cost of the telecommunication network holds the biggest potential in attracting customers from a list of new peripheral services to be offered by service providers.
Recommendation
Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, here are several recommendations to be considered. There are several recommendations that can be considered towards UTM students. Students should opt for the cheapest telecommunication service provider. Always look out for the service provider’s promotion for get better benefit. Have a precise consideration before choosing the telecommunication service. Students should opt for Digi plan if their talk time is cost more than RM2.00 per day as it is cheaper than other telecommunication network provider.
There are recommendation should service provider consider as well such as telecommunication network providers should aggressively promote new peripheral services that would be interest to students in their effort to attract more customers. The services of 3G should be upgrade by every telecommunication network provider since it become popular nowadays. For the coverage of service interface other company should provide better services interface, and integrated the service channel. Telecommunication service providers should varying strategies to target more customers. In order to be a stable line the telecommunication company must have a flexibility to start from a small, simple, configuration and grow as needed. It means that company should start from beginning and learn how to fulfillment a customer’s need. Telecommunications enterprises should also provide personalized service based on consumer personalized, adaptable demand. For the other network, they should have more fixed services as well to make customer feel convenience to use that line and when they satisfied by the service provided and then they will used the line continuous.
Recommendation For Future
In future, this research should be carried out on students from other Universities to see whether they are any similarities in the findings. Besides, conduct a survey on particular telecommunication service provider either Maxis, Digi, Celcom, or UMobile more committed in this matter. It is recommended carrying out a survey to test the relationship between usage of telecommunication service and academic result.
