Assessing the Nature of Competition in the Telecommunication Industry: A Case Study of Airtel Ghana Limited, Kumasi

Due to the huge potential in Ghana’s mobile phone sector, the industry is experiencing an intense competition, a battle for supremacy in the mobile phone industry. The telecommunication sector is securing extraordinary growth in Ghana with increasing levels of mobile penetration. The study seeks to assess the nature of competition and its impact on the telecommunication industry using Airtel Ghana Limited as the case study. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used. Target population included all top officials and management staff of Airtel Ghana. Random sampling was used to select fifteen (15) members of management and marketing staff as the sample size for the study, this constituted 83.3% of the total population. Analysis of data collected was done using SPSS. Findings revealed that the industry structure is concentrated; the competitive strategy adopted was cost leadership, differentiation and focus, driving forces of competition in the industry were rivalry among current competitors and bargaining power of customers and the basses of competition were price, new product development, and promotions. It is therefore recommended that companies adopt one competitive strategy, embark on customer loyalty programmes, invest in research on new product development, and be skill at internal marketing. KEYWORDS: Industry, competition, driving forces, concentrated, new product development, strategy