Rank 24: Sterling Cellular: Turnaround Success

This was truly a great year for Sterling Cellular Ltd. The company not only
managed to better its last year’s growth rate, but also snatched away market
share from its rival Bharti Cellular.

Growing at an impressive 58.9 percent, highest among all the metro private
operators, the company recorded a sales figure of Rs 386.6 crore. Its subscriber
base grew by 79.1 percent and stood at 3.9 lakh in March 2002. While the company
had just about one-third of the market in terms of subscriber base, its market
share in revenue terms was significantly higher at about 41 percent. This was
possible because of Sterling’s conscious effort to focus on signing the
high-revenue subscribers and marketing value-added services aggressively. The
company put its bet on post-paid subscribers as opposed to the competitor Bharti’s
focus on the pre-paid.

Sterling also focused seriously on content partnerships. As a result, a lot
of applications such as ring-tones and picture download are available on its
network. The success of this recently launched service is also due to the right
payment model.

Sterling Cellular TURNOVER FACTSHEET CEO : Sudershan Banerjee Area of Operation : Cellular service Address : C-48 Okhla Industrial Area Phase I, New Delhi 110 020 Tel  : 98111 44444 Fax: : 011-6828850 Web site : www.airtelworld.com  S W O T Strength  : The Hutch name; Good ARPU Weakness : Far behind Bharti in brand recall Opportunity : Content-based applications Threat  : New operators and an aggressive MTNL

Sterling Cellular has a great turnaround story. A company that seemed no
match for its competitor Bharti just a couple of years ago, has today emerged as
a serious challenger, excelling in many areas and focusing on the right markets.
It already has a better ARPU. It remains to be seen if it can have a higher
market share.