Preference and satisfaction towards mobile service providers: A comparative study of rural and urban consumers

The present study was undertaken to understand and compare the preference and satisfaction of rural and urban consumers towards mobile service providers. The study was conducted by selecting company outlets of five mobile service providers, one each of Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Vodafone and BSNL, from both urban and rural areas of Ludhiana district on convenience basis. Further 20 customers from each company outlet were selected on random basis. Thus, 100 each urban and rural customers, were selected for the study. The primary data were collected with the help of structured and non-disguised schedule. The results showed that both rural and urban respondents consider economical calling, network coverage, customer service, as the most important factors influencing their choice of mobile service providers. Urban respondents also consider roaming services as one of the factors influencing their choice of mobile service providers. It was also found that 69 and 56 percent of rural and urban respondents would recommend others to subscribe to their mobile service provider.