Exploring factors influencing consumers in selecting mobile telecommunication service provider

Telecommunication industry in Malaysia is the fast growing sector especially the mobile market. The development of this sector has become a catalyst for the growth of the nations’ commercial and industrial sectors. Much of the nation economic development was contributed by telecommunication sector. Reformation of the communication technology has been expanded since transformation of the traditional voice telecom network into an expanded and enhanced information infrastructure, which is capable of communicating all forms of information content (Melody, 2003). According to Beard and Hartmann (1999), ‘telecommunication sector is experiencing phenomenal global change with the liberalization and privatization of the sector, which also opens the competition’. Due to the competition, the telecommunication service providers offers innovative services as well as competitive prices also. It also opens the opportunities for the consumers to enjoy the choice among the service providers. In the Malaysian telecommunication background, competition can be seen as main factor among the telecommunication service provider companies. Companies like Sapura Digital Sdn. Bhd., Celcom and Mobikom Berhad have been seen their company either being merged with bigger and more competitive companies or gone bankruptcy. Service providers are expected to compete on both price and quality of services and also it is necessary for the service providers to meet the consumers' requirements and expectations in price and service quality (Melody, 2001). Today, there are three major mobile telecommunication service providers in Malaysia companies namely Celcom, Digi and Maxis. The nature of the competition today’s in the global telecommunications industry seems to centre on market activities that aim at gaining competitive advantages through strategic combinations of resources and presences in multiple products and geographical areas (Chan-Olmsted and Jamison, 2001).