Mobile phone is a common gadget being found everywhere. Mobile phones have enabled the youth to make develop new relationships and maintain the existing ones. With the increase in the purchasing power of students, the mobile phones market is also rapidly expanding and this influences the increased usage pattern of varied cellular services among the students. Addiction to cell phone for calling or texting is most commonly observed disadvantage of cell phones. As per the study cellular service is a major contributor to the service sector in India. Most of the cellular service company in India are influenced by the students because there is more number of youth in our population. The new offers by various cellular service companies are to attract the youth customers.

The usage pattern of various cellular services among the students is different from each other. This study shows the difference in the usage of cellular services of different students in Mangaluru City.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the difference in the usage pattern of cellular services by the students. The time, money being spends by them. This study will provide solution to our research question.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The objective of this research is to know the difference in the usage pattern of cellular services among students:

· Spending pattern by students on mobile recharge;

· Time spent by them on calling, texting, browsing, downloading and their usage pattern;

· Does the kind of mobile phone have an impact on their usage and recharge?

· How long students are using the same network provider?

· Student’s attitude towards cellular services;

· How much they are satisfied towards cellular network they use;

· Spending pattern on recharge according to gender.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

The scope of the study “A Research Study on Usage Pattern of Cellular Services by Students in Mangaluru City” is to understand the difference in the usage pattern cellular services among students. The study was conducted at October and November 2015 by collecting information from 100 respondents in Mangaluru City.

METHODOLOGY:

This study identifies trends of cellular service usage among college students. The study was conducted in Mangaluru City. The total sample size was 100. We designed questionnaire according to our research objectives. Our questionnaire contained 15 questions. The data collected was analyzed using SPPS. Secondary data was collected by referring to the reports, articles, and magazines.

SAMPLING:

The total sample size for this study was 100 students in Mangaluru City. Out of 100 students 35 were females and 65 were males. The age group of 100 respondents was between 20-24 years.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

In review of literature it was found that there will be nearly more than 5 billion cellular subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2010 (ITU, 2010). According to TRAI (2009-10) India had nearly 584.3 million wireless subscribers and Bharti Airtel group is most popular wireless service provider. The majority of mobile phone users started using it when they were 10-18 years old (Ishfaq and Tehmina, 2011). It has been found in a study that youth desperately want to be in contact with their friends (Ito, 2006). In a study conducted by MACRO (2004) it was found that primary usage of cell phone among teenagers and youth is to keep in touch with friends and to call up their family members. These findings are consistent with the study conducted in mid western university among college students by Mikiyasu and Shotaro (2011). In the same research it was found that most respondent aged 20 and under use cell phone as a medium to strengthen their existing friendship. The change in technology has change the consumer mind. From fixed lines to wireless lines the number of subscribers has shown remarkable growth. This has made a great impact on student’s minds through various offers provided for various uses like online recharge, paying bills, texting, data usage etc. which has made students to depend more on their mobile phones.

According to Hopeton and Leith many respondents use phones as camera and alarm clock and to play games. The tendency to use mobile for more than one purpose was more among younger people.

Study conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India (2011) shows that more than 75% of Internet users are young men including school and college going students. Among Internet users 89% use it to access emails, 71% use it for social networking, 64% use it for educational purpose and 55% use it for chatting. 87% of Internet using population uses it at least once a week.

In Malaysia, at an average students use their phone for 6 hours daily and spend USD 18.7 monthly on their mobiles and text message is the most commonly used feature among them. (Sheereen and Rozumah, 2009). In same study it was found that more than half students preferred using SMSs than making calls. It has been found that students generally have habit of using cell phone while college lectures (Srivastava, 2005).

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

1. Spending pattern on mobile recharge

Recharge is an important to analysis as it shows the usage or recharging (i.e. purchasing of cellular services). To find out spending on recharge, it becomes to know or collect data how much students recharge their mobile on monthly basis.

Table No. 1: Monthly Mobile recharge by the respondents.

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	Up to 100	24	24.0
	100 to 250	46	46.0
	250 to 375	21	21.0
	500 to 1000	09	09.0
	Total	100	100.0

Interpretation: The reason for the inclusion of this question was to find out spending pattern by students on mobile recharge. From the above table we analyse that out 100 respondents, 24% of respondents spend only up to rupees 100 for recharge, 46% spend 100 to 250 Rs on recharge, 21% spend 250 to 375 Rs on recharge and only 9% of respondents spend 500 to 1000 Rs on recharge.

2. Ranking on various mobile usages

All the respondents use various facilities (i.e. calling, texting, browsing and downloading) provided by the network provider but to know which facility is used more by the cellular users.

Table No. 2.1: various ranks given by the respondents for texting

Rank order	Observed N	Expected N	Residual
I	22	25.0	-3.0
II	32	25.0	7.0
III	29	25.0	4.0
IV	17	25.0	-8.0
Total	100	100.0

Interpretation: From the above table we analyze that 22 % of the respondents out of 100 have ranked texting as first i.e. 22 % use texting more than other facilities calling, browsing etc., 32 % have ranked texting as second, 29% have ranked texting as third, 17% respondents have ranked texting last as they use it less compare to other facility.

Table No. 2.2: various ranks given by the respondents for calling.

Rank order	Observed N	Expected N	Residual
I	54	25.0	29.0
II	29	25.0	4.0
III	14	25.0	-11.0
IV	3	25.0	-22.0
Total	100	100.0

Interpretation: From the above table we analyze that 54 % of the respondents out of 100 have ranked Calling as first i.e. 54 % use calling more than other facilities like texting, browsing etc., 29 % have ranked texting as second, 14% have ranked texting as third, 3% respondents have ranked calling last as they use it less compare to other facility.

Table No. 2.3: various ranks given by the respondents for browsing

Rank order	Observed N	Expected N	Residual
I	18	25.0	-7.0
II	29	25.0	4.0
III	42	25.0	17.0
IV	11	25.0	-14.0
Total	100	100.0

Interpretation: From the above table we analyze that 18 % of the respondents out of 100 have ranked Browsing as first i.e. 18 % use calling more than other facilities like texting, calling etc., 29 % have ranked texting as second, 42% have ranked texting as third, 11% respondents have ranked Browsing last as they use it less compare to other facility.

Table No. 2.4: The various ranks given by the respondents for downloading

Rank order	Observed N	Expected N	Residual
I	8	25.0	-17.0
II	8	25.0	-17.0
III	23	25.0	-2.0
IV	61	25.0	36.0
Total	100	100.0

Interpretation: From the above table we analyze that 8 % of the respondents out of 100 have ranked Calling as first i.e. 8 % use Downloading more than other facilities like texting, browsing etc., 29 % have ranked texting as second, 14% have ranked texting as third, 3% respondents have ranked Downloading last as they use it less compare to other facility. From the above table it’s clear that out of 100 respondent’s majority of samples uses calling then other facilities like texting, browsing and downloading and other mobile usage used by them.

Analysis from the above Table was helpful to find out most used facilities and through this analysis we can reject the first hypothesis (i.e. Students spends most of their time in texting other then calling) as majority of the respondents use calling more than texting every time.

3. Mobile impact on recharge and usage time

The study was done to know whether the kind of mobile phones used have impact on recharge and usage time.

Table No. 6.1 shows spending on recharge according to Female

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	up to 100	24	24.0	24.0	24.0
	100 to 250	46	46.0	46.0	70.0
	250 to 375	21	21.0	21.0	91.0
	500 to 1000	9	9.0	9.0	100.0
	Total	100	100.0	100.0

Table No. 6.2 shows spending on recharge according to male Spending

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	up to 100	16	24.6	24.6	24.6
	100 to 250	31	47.7	47.7	72.3
	250 to 375	11	16.9	16.9	89.2
	500 to 1000	7	10.8	10.8	100.0
	Total	65	100.0	100.0

Interpretation: The above tables reveal that out 35 female 46% of females prefer recharging 100- 250 Rs on a monthly basis, where as only 31% of male prefer the same, which is lesser than that of female. From this observation we conclude that female spend more on recharge than male.

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

This chapter is a summary of the data analysis, which was presented in the previous chapter,

The majority of the respondents that is 65% out off 100 were male. According to the survey we can understand AIRTEL is one of most preferred network service with 44% and next being IDEA with 21%. It is followed by Vodafone 15%, DOCOMO 12%, and BSNL with 8% among the students in Mangaluru. The majority of students spend 100-250rs on mobile recharge on monthly basis and it is clear that kind of mobile has impact on recharge but not on usage. Students preferred calling facility more than other facilities like texting, browsing and downloading. Students are highly satisfied with the network service provided by the company but not highly satisfied with other offers. Majority of the respondents are highly satisfied with network provided by the networker provider but not with not with other criteria’s like customer care and internet services. From the study it was found that all of the respondents require good customer care services.

SUGGESTIONS:

By analysing the collected data on problem “usage of mobile network by students of Mangaluru” All the networks must improve customer care service as majority of respondents are not satisfied with it and also respondents suggest customer care of network provider to be effective and efficient. As students use calling more than other facility, network provider must give more offers for students to attract more student customers to use their network.

It should aim at achieving market retention by retaining customers as well as attracting new customer as competition in network market is increasing. Improvement may be made in ensuring that all the criteria’s such as network, offers, customer care and Internet services is improved by customer needs because customer satisfaction.

CONCLUSION:

The study reveals that Airtel is most preferred service provider than other service providers. The kind of phones such as Android, Windows etc influences in the recharge of their cell phone. Majority of students use pre-paid SIM card instead of post-paid because they prefer recharging their SIM card on monthly and weekly basis. Calling is most preferred by students than texting.

REFERENCES:

1. Batra, R. and Ahtola, O.T. (1990). Measuring the hedonic and utilitarian sources of consumer attitudes. Marketing Letters, 2 (2), 159-170.

2. Liu, C.M. (2002). The effects of promotional activities on brand decision in the cellular telephone industry. The Journal of Product and Brand Management, 11 (1), 42-51

3. O’Keefe, M. (2004). 2004 worldwide camera phone and photo messaging forecast. Info Trends Research Group, Inc. Research Report

4. Wilska, T-A. (2003). Mobile phone use as part of young people’s consumption styles. Journal of Consumer Policy, 26 (4), 441-463.

5. Contextual patterns in mobile service usage, Hannu Verkasalo, 6 March 2007 / Accepted: 5 February 2008 / Published online: 4 March 2008 Springer-Verlag London Limited 2008

6. Contextual usage patterns in Smartphone communication services, Juuso Karioski, Tapio Soikkeli, volume 17 Issue 3, March 2013.

7. Service Usability and Users’ Satisfaction of Cellular Phone Subsistence in Odisha : An Empirical Study, Sadananda Sahoo and Debasis Mohapatro

8. An Assessment of Awareness, Usage Pattern and Adoption of 3G Mobile Services in Botswana, Deepti Garg and Ajay K. Garg , August 2011

Received on 08.01.2016 Modified on 13.01.2016

Asian J. Management; 7(1): Jan. –March, 2016 page 47-52

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2016.00007.X

		Paired Differences					t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)
		Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
		Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean	Lower	Upper
Pair 1	Mobile recharge	-.64000	1.31441	.13144	-.90081	-.37919	-4.869	99	.000
Pair 2	Mobile Usage Time	.22000	1.19409	.11941	-.01693	.45693	1.842	99	.068

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	11	11.0	11.0	11.0
	2.00	15	15.0	15.0	26.0
	3.00	26	26.0	26.0	52.0
	4.00	12	12.0	12.0	64.0
	5.00	15	15.0	15.0	79.0
	6.00	11	11.0	11.0	90.0
	7.00	7	7.0	7.0	97.0
	8.00	2	2.0	2.0	99.0
	9.00	1	1.0	1.0	100.0
	Total	100	100.0	100.0

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	V good	5	5.0
	Good	31	31.0
	Average	58	58.0
	Bad	3	3.0
	V bad	3	3.0
	Total	100	100.0

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	V good	16	16.0
	Good	58	58.0
	Average	23	23.0
	Bad	2	2.0
	V bad	1	1.0
	Total	100	100.0