Abstract

On June 11, 2008, Spice Telecom launched a handset and connection combo called “Sabka Spice” at Rs. 599, targeting the BoP population in rural India and paving the way for Indian cellular service providers to further penetrate into the rural hinterlands of India. India’s huge and largely un-penetrated rural market was extremely attractive for telecom companies as they went for volumes at the cost of average revenue per user (ARPU).

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

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Keywords

Market expansion, rural market, bottom of the pyramid, BoP, telecom, teledensity, average revenue per user, ARPU, Spice Telecom, Sabka Spice, Spice S 300 handset, Cellular telephony, cellular telephony, price war, Mobile, low-income earners, semi-literate people, penetration of rural India