Analysis of the mobile telecom services sector: from the players’ strategies, to the customers’ preferences

Abstract

The mobile telecom services sector is relatively young as a market. Nevertheless, especially since the nineties, it went through radical changes and challenges. In Italy, this resulted in a very interesting situation. The historically dominant players, used to an oligopoly, have to fight harshly against multiple new entrants. Exploiting new and different business models, the liberalisation of the market and changes un customers’ need and wants, these new players aggressively attacked the market. While the market dynamics and services have become very competitive, three brands still hold more than 80% of the market share. With such intriguing scenario, this work is dedicated to analyse the main characters within it, respectively in the offer side and the demand side of the market. Going through the services offered and the business structures of the mobile operators, the objective is to understand their roles and strategies, also thanks to a pricing analysis. This resulting in the possibility to better judge the market, whether the players’ competitiveness can explain it or if it seems that the situation does not find a rational link with that. Following this path, the analysis of the customers’ choices and preferences offers insights to understand their behaviour in the market, thanks to the data collected with a survey. This part is focused on three main topic areas. Looking at the actual plans from the respondents, which are the trends from the demand side and whether the influence of demographic variables towards the price selection, thanks to a multiple regression. The second topic is the research of customers’ preferences towards the key attributes of mobile plans. With age again a possible factor of influence, cognitive dissonance is the focus too by matching the information regarding purchased plans to the preferences expressed. Lastly, the analysis is set to investigate if personality traits, together with demographic variables, can explain the reasons why such an high number of customers posses plans that are inferior compared to the ones actually available in the market. Combining all the specific results and comparing them, it is possible then to better comprehend the market and the customers’ behaviour, whether logical or illogical they may be.