research report-user perception and factors influencing adoption of converged ict services
DESCRIPTION
Studies have been conducted worldwide to ascertain the relationship between the adoption of the broadband/Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) services and socio-economic uplift of society as well as the reason of low adoption rate in Pakistan; however, the researchers choose this topic as he did not found Pakistan specific research with the focus on the following critical questions: What is the perception of internet/broadband users about the available converged services’ utilization and their preferred choices in terms of services, content, technology and service provider; and What are the key determinants affecting their choice to adopt/continue to use the converged services. After doing the survey; the results showed that the sample population doesn’t like restrictions like limit on downloading or speed. The speed and data download is increasing so do the possibilities of usage of innovative converged services in Pakistan. Only 13% were found to be using some value added services as converged/bundled TPS services that show that market is still in its nascent stage. Research also revealed that operator should preferably focus on e-health and e-banking services through commonly used devices such as “TV”& “Laptops/Mobiles” over broadband. In terms of content, international movies/dramas, that mostly would be just dubbing, have 1st ranking, then comes 2nd) Kids education and competition, 3rd) User-Interface/Applications for the elders or persons with disabilities and 4th) location/closed group based interactive services using the same TV/Mobile devices. Moreover, in terms of technology, most of the respondents are either ready to consider (51%) or in some cases adopt (29%) new technologies like 3G (mobile broadband). The prime focus was on the factors affecting the buying intention and results showed that “customer satisfaction”, “trial-ability of service”, “24 hours customer support”, “quality of Service (QoS)” have greater influence on consumer buying intention than “fair charging of services”, “Extendibility at multiple points in vicinity with security & privacy of information”, “un-interrupted /minimally interdependent bundled services” at “economical initial installation/equipment cost” The operators/service providers should concentrate on all the given aspects to establish themselves as market leader; however, respondents are demanding more efforts on the part of service providers to provide efficient “24-hour customer service”, ”QoS-Speed, Downloading capacity & throughput and User-Experience” and likely to buy interactive as well as location based services from the companies with recognized brands.TRANSCRIPT
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PERCEPTION OF USERS ABOUT CONVERGED SERVICES (COMBINED IT, TELECOM & MULTIMEDIA SERVICES) & FACTORS AFFECTING ITS
ADOPTIONCASE STUDY OF PAKISTANI MARKET
Fawad Ahmad Khan Niazi AUIC12FLMSMGT0048
Submitted to: Dr. Muhammad Zaheer Akhtar &
Ms. Iffat Choudhry
Abasyn UniversityIslamabad Campus April, 2013
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“THE RESEARCH PAPER IS THE REQUIREMENT FOR COMPLETION OF
THE COURSE: ADVACED RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN M.S.
(MANAGEMENT) PROGRAMME, 2012 – 2013)”
Dedication
I dedicate this research paper to my supervisors-Dr. Muhammad Zaheer Akhtar
& Ms. Iffat Choudhry, parents and last but not least, my seniors especially
“Mr. Muhammad Shamim”, “Mr. Noor-ud-Din Baqai”, “Mr. Mudassar
Hussain” & “Dr. Syed Ismail Shah”- who guide me throughout my life/career
and provide me the opportunity to learn and grow.
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Introduction: The broadband (high speed internet) has been the information highways in
the knowledge base society and promised great opportunities for the common
people by providing economical and instant access to valuable information
and innovative services in Pakistan. Access and adoption of broadband has
empowered the people of Pakistan but at the same time created challenges
such as digital divide (gap among the “have” and “have not”). This challenge
is of greater important as the socio-economic benefits have been associated
with the adoption of “broadband” and “over the top broadband enabled
innovative/converged service” in Pakistan
The efforts of the public and private sector in terms of “investment on
Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure” and
“improvement of related policy & legislative framework” has considerably
improved geographical coverage of ICT services; however, the “adoption &
diffusion of broadband & over the top converged services” is low in Pakistan
that is causing difficulty in delivery of associated socio-economic benefits to
common people of Pakistan.
This issue is the prime focus of multi-lateral organizations (Ref. United
Nations/UNDP’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015
www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview, WSIS initiatives &
recent ITU/UN technical assistance for broadband plan of Pakistan) as well as
national Government organizations (Ref. fiscal incentives and other initiatives
taken by Ministry of IT’s under the Broadband Policy, 2004
www.moitt.gov.pk, regulatory frameworks prepared in line with policies
www.pta.gov.pk; and USF Broadband Program www.usf.org.pk/Broadband-
Programme.aspx and technical R&D projects www.nictrdf.org.pk).
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The Broadband policy of Pakistan is intended to boost the proliferation of
broadband services through measures to bring about reduction in bandwidth
tariffs and other incentives along with simplification in the licensing process
for the provision of data services. The IT policy of Pakistan is aimed at
harnessing the potential of Information Technology as a key contributor to
development of Pakistan and covers all the major areas of IT implementation.
The guiding principle of the policies is that the government shall be the
facilitator and enabler to encourage the private sector to drive the
development in the IT and Telecommunication sectors.
Private sector service providers (IT & Telecom operators and System
Integrators) are also striving for promotion of “internet/broadband” for its
adoption in Pakistan. Studies have been conducted worldwide to ascertain the
relationship between the adoption of the broadband/ICT services and socio-
economic uplift of society as well as the reason of low adoption rate in
Pakistan; however, the researchers did not found Pakistan specific research
with the focus on the following critical questions:
What is the perception of internet/broadband users about the available
converged services’ utilization and their preferred choices in terms of
services, content, technology and service provider; and
What are the key determinants affecting their choice to adopt/continue
to use the converged services.
The current study attempts to answer the above given questions that also
constitutes the scope of the research with the following objectives:
Objective-I: To understand the perception of broadband users (existing
and potential users of the innovative services) about the converged
services;
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Objective-II: To understand the choices of broadband users in terms of
different parameters that can be further explored by the researchers.
Objective-III: Identification and testing of degree of influence the key
variables have on customer’s buying intention/adoption of converged
services.
The overall objective of the study is to help all stakeholders in improvement of
relevant policies and business plan for sector development, gender
mainstreaming, youth empowerment, skill development and creation of job
opportunities.
Conceptual Model Converged Services in Pakistan - Representative Service-Triple Play Service
(TPS-Internet, telephone & IPTV/video)
Relationship among Perception of potential/current users, key determinants of adoption and their choices are proposed to be themes for future studies.
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The service providers/operators are providing the converged services
through different strategies (acquisition of banks-EasyPaisa, MobiCash etc.
and revenue sharing agreements/strategic alliances with multimedia services
providers e.g. Mobile TV etc.).
As depicted in the conceptual model, the “triple play service (TPS)” has been
taken as the representative service of such converged services. Triple Play
Service (TPS) is one of the converged services available in Pakistan that is
currently being provided by telecom operators over the high speed internet
i.e. broadband. TPS is combined/bundled package of telephone, internet and
other internet enabled value added services such as Internet protocol (IP)
based TV i.e. IPTV.
The research questions were primarily focused on following inter-related
aspects of focused segment and converged services value chain:
Questions related to Objective-I & II:
o How the consumers are using internet/broadband which is the medium
on which TPS are to be delivered;
o What are the consumers’ perception about the available converged services
to know about the aspects like utilization trends; and
o What are their preferred choices in terms of service, content, technology
and service provider; and
Questions related to Objective-III: Factors affecting the broadband users’
buying intention/adoption of converged services:
o What are the key determinants/factors affecting their intention to
buy/adopt or continue to use the converged services?
Keeping in view the initial study and general discussion with the broadband
operators, hypothesis were made to test the influence of the identified “key
determinants-Independent Variable” on the “Decisions to continue/adopt”
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prescribed in the theoretical framework. The relationship between the key
factors of customer’s buying intention/adoption is tested whereas, the
relationship among all the parameters in value chain (i.e. objective-I, II & III)
would be the themes for future studies. For the purpose of this study,
following hypothesis are tested:
Hypothesis-I: Satisfaction with the broadband service provider, giving confidence to
buy more services from the same operator has significant influence on broadband
users’ buying intention/adoption of the TPS;
Hypothesis-II: Free or discounted initial package for test & trial (Trial-ability) has
significant influence on broadband users’ buying intention/adoption of the TPS;
Hypothesis-III: Assurance of being charged fairly (knowledge of overall monthly
package of add-on/bundled services in comparison to separate individual subscription)
has significant influence on broadband users’ buying intention/adoption of the TPS;
Hypothesis-IV: 24 hours Customer Service to mitigate the perceived risk that failure
of internet service will disrupt all services for quite a long time has significant
influence on broadband users’ buying intention/adoption of the TPS;
Hypothesis-V: Minimum interdependency of bundled services i.e. arrangements
made by operators to mitigate the risk of failure of one service may cause failure of all
services has significant influence on broadband users’ buying intention/adoption of
the TPS;
Hypothesis-VI: Up-front package price i.e. initial installation/equipment cost has
significant influence on broadband users’ buying intention/adoption of the TPS;
Hypothesis-VII: Quality of Service (QoS) of telephone, video and internet when
combined as TPS has significant influence on broadband users’ buying
intention/adoption of the TPS;
Hypothesis-VIII: Ability to extend the service at multiple points with security&
privacy of data and information has significant influence on broadband users’ buying
intention/adoption of the TPS;
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In other words, for any operator offering/willing to offer Triple Play Services
(TPS) i.e. bundled/converged services to its existing or potential customers in
Pakistan; If the consumer have the perception that operator has the capability to fulfill
the promised “customer satisfaction”, “trial-ability of service”, “fair charging of
services”, “24 hours customer support”, “quality of Service (QoS)”, “Extendibility at
multiple points in vicinity with security & privacy of information”, “un-interrupted
/minimally interdependent bundled services” at “economical initial
installation/equipment cost”; then it will serve as key determinant of their decision to
adopt/continue to use the TPS i.e. converged services in Pakistan.
Theoretical Model:
This study will help all stakeholders of the converged services value chain in
better understanding of the market situation for refinement in policies,
regulations and current diversification strategies of the content
producers/publishers and telephone, internet & TV service providers in
Pakistan.
Hypothesis I to VIII
Key Determinants/Factor
significant influence
Broadband users' intention
to buy/adopt/continue to use the
TPS
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Methodology of Research:
This is a cross sectional study to ascertain the key determinants/factors that
has significant influence on buying intention/adoption of TPS/Converged
services provided over broadband in Pakistan. The quantitative approach and
survey through the questionnaire is adopted for data collection.
Respondents:
The respondents were selected randomly from the post graduate level
students of different universities as well as professionals (decision makers in
the family), falling in the age bracket of 20-35 years from the twin cities of
Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The total 70 questionnaires were disseminated and 50 people responded back
with response rate of 70%. After initial review, total 45 responses were
selected and 5 were rejected as they were not filled properly. It is imperative
to mention that researcher may take this study further by studying
relationship among the objective I, II & III or by simply increasing the
respondents from twin cities as well as from other cities of all provinces.
The limitation in collection of desired quality of data was that questionnaires
were neither got filled with assistance to the researcher nor interviews were
conducted to provide immediate clarification on the queries that has resulted
in considerable percentage of reply in the category of “No Idea”/”No
Response”. The objective of independent responses collection was to eliminate
the element of researchers’ biasness in data collections stage.
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Data Analysis:
SPSS software is used to enter the data in a structured way and descriptive
analysis (ratios and charts) of the data is being done along with the regression
and correlation testing; however, interested researcher may apply other data
analysis techniques for further interpretations and inferences.
Future Implications:
The result of this study may be used by the service providers for strategy
making to tap the opportunities in the market.
Review of Literature:
A similar study was conducted in the Korea when the IPTV services were
launched and IPTV services were taken as representative of innovative
converged services. The objective was to understand the diffusion of IPTV
service by combining the adoption-diffusion model and use-diffusion model
of innovation. Non-users of IPTV were surveyed using the adoption-diffusion
model to get the idea about the factors influencing their intention to subscribe
to the IPTV service; whereas, the users of IPTV were surveyed using the use-
diffusion model to know about the factors influencing their satisfaction level
and intention to continue using the service. During the study, it was observed
that “trial-ability”, “household innovativeness”, “perceived risk” were
determinants of the user satisfaction and “perceived ease-of-use” was
mediating factor. Whereas, in the use-diffusion model, complementarities and
communication were shown as determinant of user’s satisfaction. They found
that consumers’ intention to re-use IPTV was strongly influenced by its
relative advantage and perceived risks. (Motohashi K, Lee Deog, Sawang Yeong
& Kim Seung, “Innovative converged service and its adoption, use and diffusion: a
holistic approach to diffusion of innovations, combining adoption-diffusion and use-
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diffusion paradigms”,”Journal of Business Economics and Management, Vol 13(2):
308-333, 2012).
The focus of the researcher in this study is to develop and test hypothesis in
the context of the findings of the study in Korea and researchers own
observations and to test them in the environment of Pakistan while knowing
about the customer. The key determinants/hypothesis are identified that
presumably have strong influence in building perception of “relative
advantage” or “mitigation of risks”; and hence, have significant positive
influence on the intention to buy/adopt or continue to use TPS-Converged
services in Pakistan.
Results and Discussions:
PART-I: Knowledge about the consumer usage patterns: o How the consumers are using internet/broadband which is the medium
on which TPS are to be delivered;
o What are the consumers’ perception about the available converged services
to know about the aspects like utilization trends; and what are their
preferred choices in terms of service, content, technology and service
provider; The results are as under:
i) Knowledge about TPS/IPTV and source of information:
The results show that most of the respondents (60%) were those who had the
knowledge about the TPS/IPTV services. Regarding the source of information
following is the response:
Newspaper TV Commercial Friend Other
8% 56% 33% 3%
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In view of above, it is anticipated that most useful media to target the
potential customer is TV Commercial (56% respondents’ quoted source) for
greater reach and coverage of target market segment.
ii) Will you Recommend IPTV service?
Strongly Recommend
Recommend Neither
Recommend Nor Discourage
Discourage Strongly Discourage
7% 60% 33% 0% 0% The respondent had no disliking and hence it is observed that the services
being evaluated are not in clash with the norms and culture so there are bright
chances of adoption by all strata of the society in short and long run.
iii) a) Likeness to buy/continue to use IPTV service from existing B.B.
Service Provider & Preferred Display Device:
Yes No TV Mobile Computer No Response
38% 62% 44% 13% 9% 33%
b) Existing Telecom Service Provider
PTCL Wateen Nayatel Witribe Qubee Others
Broadband Service Provider (% Share)
67% 4% 4% 16% 4% 4%
The majority of respondent (62%) were not likely to buy TPS in the current
scenario; however, the persons with intensions to buy (38%) also represents
huge potential. Moreover, 44% respondents still prefer to use TV as the
display/access device; hence, there is huge potential of smart TV devices. The
other important aspect is that mobile devices are getting popular than
computers/laptops and hence showing positive trend towards “future all
mobile stage” and peoples’ increasing need of “consumption on the move” in
busy life style.
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iv) Level of satisfaction in terms of quality of existing Broadband
Service:
Excellent Good Neither Good
nor Bad Average Poor No Idea
9% 58% 4% 24% 2% 2%
This information was gathered to get the idea whether there is any link
between the satisfaction with the quality of current services provided by the
operator to possibilities of further innovative/add in services. However, there
seems no strong positive relationship exists as 67% respondent ranked quality
of existing broadband service as Excellent (9%) and Good(58%); whereas, only
38% showed likeliness of buying TPS.
v) a) Respondents’ Family Information:-
Family Composition: Based on 45 Respondents’ data Number of persons in age groups
5 to 10 11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 41 & Above Total
No. of males in each age bracket
7 24 41 17 24 113
No. of females in each age bracket
14 19 31 14 32 110
Total people in age brackets
21 43 72 31 56 223
In percentage terms of all people
9% 19% 32% 14% 25%
Following are the findings related to the family composition of the
respondents that can be further explored by increasing the number of
respondents hailing from all provinces:
~50% of population are below 30 years age [Huge future market]
~32% are in the age group of 21-30 years – [Decision makers]
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~19% are in teen-age [Education, Sports, Multimedia & Entertainment
may be key content to be aggregated by the service providers]
~9% are children [Kids education, Competitions and entertainment
market]
~39% are above 40 years of age with specific needs and demand of
controls [Potential Market of customized devices like one-click
shortcuts for applications, user-interfaces with big font sizes and other
services suitable for persons with disabilities associated with old
age/short-sightedness or parenting etc].
b) Respondents’/Family experience of using Broadband and Average
time spent over internet:
On average the respondents were using broadband since ~4 years and
used to spend ~5 hours daily over internet.
c) Respondents’/Family Income (Rs):
10-20K 21-40K 41-60K 61-80K 81K & Above 2% 20% 20% 22% 36%
~78% respondents’ falls in the range of 40K Rs and above category that
showed that in Rawalpindi/Islamabad, there a real demand to be
exploited by the service providers.
d) Other Useful Information:
Average Monthly Bill 500-1K 1001-1.5K
1501-2k
2001-2.5K
2501-above
%age terms (users in billing range) 27% 31% 22% 4% 11% Internet Speed <1MB 1MB 2MB >2MB %age terms (users in billing range) 7% 44% 24% 24%
Download Capacity Limited Unlimited
No Resp
%age terms (Limited/Unlimited) 22% 71% 7%
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The people don’t like restrictions like limit on downloading or speed. The
speed and data download is increasing so do the possibilities of usage of
innovative converged services in Pakistan.
e) Usage of Value Added Services
Yes No No Resp
13% 71% 16%
Only 13% were found to be using some value added services as
converged/bundled TPS services that shows that market is still in its
nascent stage.
E-Security E-Learning IPTV
17% 17% 67%
Among the people who were using the converged/value added services;
IPTV was ranked 1 while e-learning and e-security were the other services.
f) Family Members Earning Money On-line:
Yes No 9% 91%
It was assumed that people would have been earning on-line, especially the
young male and females to see the uptake; however, respondent feedback did
not show the desired result. Rather, it is clear that 91% people are not earning
money on-line.
vi) Consumer Preferences:
Choice of Latest Technologies at a relatively higher cost (3G SIM- Latest Technology /3G Adoption Prospects)
Eager to buy at any cost
Rank
Will Consider
when available Rank
Will never buy
Expensive 3G SIM Rank
No Idea/ Other
Rank
29% 2 51% 1 7% 4 13% 3
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Most of the respondents are either ready to consider (51%) or in some cases
adopt (29%) new technologies like 3G (mobile broadband).
vii) Users Currently experiencing or Willing to use
Converged/Bundled Services
Parameter Current
ly Using
Willing to Use
No Idea
No Response
Rank in
terms of
current usage
Rank in terms of
willingness to use
Research & Education
93% 9% 0% 2% 1 3
On-line Business/work
89% 18% 20% 11% 2 2
Entertainment 62% 18% 7% 13% 3 2 Games 51% 18% 22% 18% 4 2 Socializing (facebook etc.)
42% 2% 0% 4% 5 4
Banking Transaction
36% 24% 27% 13% 6 1
Scheduling doctor appointment
22% 24% 44% 16% 7 1
Other (Skype - Group study, Lectures, learning how to repair things etc.)
13% 9% 0% 69% 8 3
The results shows that research and education, on-line business/work
(facilitative assignments, as 91% are not earning directly) and entertainment
are top three in current usage ranking; whereas, in terms of potential services
to be bundled are as under:-
1st) e-banking & e-health;
2nd) e-commerce, on-line games & entertainment; and
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3rd) Research & distance learning as well as Skype/YouTube type
portals for useful information gathering.
Operator should preferably focus on e-health and e-banking services through
commonly used devices such as “TV”& “Laptops/Mobiles” over broadband.
viii) Preference of Local Language interface/content:
Yes No 58% 42%
Parameter Intl'
Movie / Drama
Kids’ Education & Competition
Video Games
Location Based
Services using same
TV/Mobile Services
User Interface/
Application for Elders / People with Disabilities
Others
In terms of percentage of respondents
51% 47% 16% 40% 44% 13%
Ranking (in terms of users choice of content) 1 2 5 4 3 6
Respondents were asked to choose as many as they like to see in local
language “interface/content”; therefore, the table showed the %age of the
respondent showing preference/likeness to use the content/language,
preferably purposefully developed content/interface for meeting the local
community demand/needs.
Here, very interesting results have found as you may notice that international
movies/dramas, that mostly would be just dubbing, have 1st ranking, then
comes 2nd) Kids education and competition, 3rd) User-Interface/Applications
for the elders or persons with disabilities and 4th) location/closed group based
interactive services using the same TV/Mobile devices.
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This is also eminent from the popularity of Turkish dramas in current days in
Pakistan and for the rest of services; operators should come up with new
offerings to tap the market potential in other areas especially for people in the
old age or living with sort of disabilities as well as those interested in location
based services.
ix) Preferred Service Provider:
1st
Choice
further ranking of
brands
2nd Choice
3rd Choice No Response
Mobile operators
Brand
51% opt Mobile
Operator as 1st
Choice
1. Mobilink 2. Telenor 3. Ufone 4. Warid 5. Zong
4% opt Mobile
Operator as 2nd Choice
2% opt Mobile
Operator as 3rd Choice
42%
As a matter of first choice 51% respondents like to use the converged services
from the brand of mobile operators; however, it is important that 42% people
did not respond to question properly and hence, the results may need
re-validation after re-phrasing the question or supervised interview session.
Other preferred brands were the brands of TV/Media companies (GEO,
Duniya etc.) and Manufacturers brand (Nokia, Sony etc.)
PART-II: Factors affecting the broadband users’ buying intention/adoption
of converged services: What are the key determinants/factors affecting their
intention to buy/adopt or continue to use the converged services?
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Level of Significance/Influence
Parameters-Key determinants
Very High
High Medium Low Very Low No Response
Initial installation cost 16% 29% 38% 7% 7% 4%
Minimum inter-dependance of bundled services
22% 31% 27% 9% 2% 9%
Knowing exact overall monthly package prices - Assurance of being charged fairly for add on services
24% 33% 24% 4% 4% 9%
Ability to extend services at multiple points with security & privacy
27% 24% 33% 7% 4% 4%
Satisfaction with Current BB Operator giving confidence to buy more innovative services from same operator
33% 24% 29% 4% 2% 7%
Free or discounted initial package for test and trial
38% 31% 18% 7% 2% 4%
Quality of Service (QoS)
38% 24% 29% 2% 2% 4%
24 Hours Customer Service
40% 27% 16% 4% 7% 7%
This table shows the level of significant/influence that respondents thought
the given factors/parameters have on their buying intentions/decision to
adopt/continue to use. The ranking of the above parameters may be done in
several ways.
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i) Ranking in terms of Highest Priority Given by Respondents:
Parameter
Ranking in terms of Highest Priority
Given by Respondents
A Initial installation cost
7th
(Weak Positive Influence)
B Minimum inter-dependence of bundled services
6th
(Weak Positive Influence)
C Knowing exact overall monthly package prices -
Assurance of being charged fairly for add on services
5th
(Weak Positive Influence)
D Ability to extend services at multiple points with security & privacy
4th
(Weak Positive Influence)
E Satisfaction with Current BB Operator giving
confidence to buy more innovative services from same operator
3rd (Strong Positive
Influence)
F Free or discounted initial package for test and trial
2nd (Very Strong
Positive Influence) G
Quality of Service (QoS) 2nd
(Very Strong Positive Influence)
H 24 Hours Customer Service
1st (Very Strong
Positive Influence)
All the above factors contributes to the decision making but the Parameter E,
F, G & H are very strong positive influence on the potential customer. This is
further corroborated by putting the data into the statistical tool (SPSS). The
results using SPSS are attached at Annex-I
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Conclusion:
In view of above results and discussion, it is observed that:
1) If the consumer have the perception that operator has the capability to fulfill
the promised “customer satisfaction”, “trial-ability of service”, “24 hours
customer support”, “quality of Service (QoS)”; then it will have strong
positive influence on and serve as key determinant and have significant
influence on broadband users’ buying intention/adoption of the TPS i.e.
converged services in Pakistan.
2) If the consumer have the perception that operator has the capability to fulfill
the promised “fair charging of services”, “Extendibility at multiple points in
vicinity with security & privacy of information”, “un-interrupted /minimally
interdependent bundled services” at “economical initial installation/equipment
cost”; then it will have relatively weak positive influence and have
relatively less significant influence on broadband users’ buying
intention/adoption of the TPS i.e. converged services in Pakistan.
The importance of the trial-ability, established earlier, has been supported
with this study as well. This shows that broadband users wants to move
ahead and adopt the value added services in the form of bundled services but
are bit cautious due to fear of technology or cost of experiencing/trial the
service. The operators should offer some time-bound package and training to
give them “feeler” with “training” to help user in his “first flight”.
The operators/service providers should concentrate on all the given aspects to
establish themselves as market leader; however, respondents are demanding
more efforts on the part of service providers to provide efficient “24-hour
customer service”, ”QoS-Speed, Downloading capacity & throughput and
Page22
User-Experience” and likely to buy interactive as well as location based
services from the companies with recognized brands.
Page23
PERCEPTION OF USERS ABOUT CONVERGED SERVICES (COMBINED IT, TELECOM & MULTI-MEDIA SERVICES) & FACTORS AFFECTING ITS
ADOPTION-CASE STUDY OF PAKISTANI MARKET Fawad Ahmad Khan Niazi
Studies have been conducted worldwide to ascertain the relationship between
the adoption of the broadband/ICT services and socio-economic uplift of
society as well as the reason of low adoption rate in Pakistan; however, the
researchers did not found Pakistan specific research with the focus on the
following critical questions:
What is the perception of internet/broadband users about the available
converged services’ utilization and their preferred choices in terms of
services, content, technology and service provider; and
What are the key determinants affecting their choice to adopt/continue
to use the converged services.
Operator should preferably focus on e-health and e-banking services through
commonly used devices such as “TV”& “Laptops/Mobiles” over broadband.
international movies/dramas, that mostly would be just dubbing, have 1st
ranking, then comes 2nd) Kids education and competition, 3rd) User-
Interface/Applications for the elders or persons with disabilities and 4th)
location/closed group based interactive services using the same TV/Mobile
devices.
Most of the respondents are either ready to consider (51%) or in some cases
adopt (29%) new technologies like 3G (mobile broadband).