For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.
This is a list of the world's thirty largest terrestrial mobile phone network operators measured by number of subscriptions.
Rank | Country | Company | Main markets | Technology | Total subscriptions (in millions) | Ownership (100% ownership unless stated otherwise) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | China | China Mobile Communications Corporation | 974.04 [1] (September 2022) | Government of the People's Republic of China (74.25%) Public stock (25.75%) | ||
2 | India | Bharti Airtel Limited | List
| 496.91 [2] (June 2022) | Bharti Enterprises (66.57%) Singtel (32.15%) Google (1.28%) | |
3 | India | Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited | List
| 486.31 (May 2023) | Jio Platforms Meta | |
4 | China | China Telecom Corp., Ltd | List | 390.48 [3] (October 2022) | China Telecommunications Corporation (State Owned) (70.89%) | |
5 | China | China Unicom Limited | 320.00 [4] (June 2022) | China Unicom Limited (40.92%) China Netcom Group (29.49%) Telefónica (0.6%) | ||
6 | Mexico | América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V | List
| 307.85 [5] (September 2022) | Helu Slim (36.50%) Carlos Slim (6.84%) Public stock (56.66%) | |
7 | South Africa | MTN Group Limited | List
| 289.11 [6] (December 2022) | Public stock (60.02%) Government Employees Pension Fund (25.33%) M1 (10.05%) | |
8 | United Kingdom | Vodafone Group plc | List
| 286.016 [7] (February 2024) | ||
9 | Spain | Telefónica S.A. | 277.52 [8] (May 2023) | |||
10 | France | Orange S.A. | List
| 241.9 [10] ( December 2022) | Public stock (77%) Government of France (23%) | |
11 | India | Vodafone Idea Ltd | 230.94 (May 2023) | Government of India (32.09%) Vodafone Group Plc (31.27%) Aditya Birla Group (17.49%) Private equity (15.97%) American Tower Corporation (3.18%) | ||
12 | USA | AT&T Inc. | List
| 217.4 [11] (January 2023) | Institutional Shares (59.28%) Vanguard Group Inc (14.12%) Blackrock Inc (11.49%) State Street Corp (7.53%) Newport Trust Co (5.07%) Geode Captital Management, LLC (2.52%) [12] | |
13 | Germany | Deutsche Telekom AG | List
| 212.04 [13] (September 2022) | Free float (68.1%) Federal Republic of Germany (31.9%) | |
14 | Indonesia | PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) | List
| 176 [14] (2021) | Telkom Indonesia (65%) Singtel (35%) | |
15 | Norway | Telenor ASA | List
| 172 [15] (2021) | Government of Norway (53.97%) Public stock (41.74%) The Government Pension Fund of Norway (4.79%) | |
16 | Malaysia | Axiata Group Berhad | List
| 163 [16] [17] (2021) | Public stock (54.91%) Government of Malaysia (45.09%) | |
17 | UAE | Emirates Telecommunication Group Company PJSC (Etisalat) | 159 [18] (2021) | Emirates Investment Authority (60.03%) Public stock (39.97%) | ||
18 | Netherlands | VEON Ltd. | List
| 157 (2022) | Letterone Investment Holdings S.A. (47.9%) Public stock (43.8%) Stichting Administratiekantoor Mobile Telecommunications Investor (8.3%) | |
19 | USA | Verizon Communications | 143.3 [19] (January 2023) | Verizon Communications | ||
20 | South Africa | Vodacom | List
| List
| 132.78 [20] (September 2022) | Vodafone Group Plc (65.1%) Institutional Investors (15.76%) Government of South Africa (13.54%) YeboYethu (6.23%) Retail positions (2.96%) Wheatfield Investments(0.84%) Others(0.17%) |
21 | Qatar | Ooredoo QSC | List
| 121 [21] (2021) | Government of Qatar | |
22 | Vietnam | Viettel Group | 110.0 [22] (December 2018) | Government of Vietnam | ||
23 | India | BSNL Mobile | 106.03 [26] (March 2023) [Note 2] [23] | Government of India | ||
24 | HKG | CK Hutchison Holdings – Telecom Division | List
| 120 [27] (2022) | CK Hutchison Holdings | |
25 | Iran | MTN Irancell | 92.46 [28] (April 2020) | TCI (94.09%) Sukuk (5.91%) | ||
26 | Russia | Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) | 83.85 [29] (Q3 2021) | Sistema (50.8%) | ||
27 | Japan | NTT Docomo Inc. | 82.63 [30] (May 2021) | Nippon Telegraph and Telephone | ||
28 | Philippines | Globe Telecom Inc. | 53.73 [31] (Aug 2023) | Asiacom (50.81%) Singtel (20.08%) Public stock (15.65%) | ||
29 | Philippines | PLDT Inc. | List
| 52.5 [32] (Aug 2023) | Public (41.55%) NTT Docomo (14.5%) Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (12.05%) Metro Pacific Resources, Inc. (9.98%) NTT Communications Corp (5.85%) First Pacific (3.54%) | |
30 | Russia | MegaFon | 70.5 [33] (Q1 2021) | AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%) USM Telecom LLC (43.68%) |
This is a list of the world's five largest satellite phone network operators measured by number of subscribers.
Rank | Operator | Technology | Subscribers (in millions) | Ownership |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Iridium | Proprietary TDMA | 0.824 (June 2016) [34] | |
2 | Globalstar | Proprietary CDMA | 0.638 (March 2015) [35] | |
3 | Thuraya | Proprietary FDMA/GSM | 0.260 (December 2007) [36] | Etisalat (28%) |
4 | Inmarsat | Proprietary GSM | 0.254 (September 2009) [37] | |
5 | ACeS | Dual-mode Satellite/GSM | 0.020 (December 2007) |
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users with over 1.1 billion subscribers as of December 2023. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by multiple large-scale telecom operators and the ensuant hyper-competition between them. India has the world's second-largest Internet user-base with over 904 million broadband internet subscribers as of December 2023.
Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Telenor ASA is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, but focused in Scandinavia and Asia. It has extensive broadband and TV distribution operations in four Nordic countries, and a 10-year-old research and business line for machine-to-machine technology. Telenor owns networks in 8 countries.
Celcom Axiata Berhad is the oldest mobile telecommunications provider in Malaysia. Celcom is a member of the Axiata group of companies. Celcom was merged with Digi to form CelcomDigi on 1 December 2022.
3G is the third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology. It is the upgrade over 2G, 2.5G, GPRS and 2.75G Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution networks, offering faster data transfer, and better voice quality. This network was superseded by 4G, and later on by 5G. This network is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunications use services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication Union. 3G finds application in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV.
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divisions Verizon Consumer and Verizon Business, and stopped using the Verizon Wireless name. Verizon is the second-largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 144.8 million subscribers as of December 31, 2023. It currently has the largest network in the United States with their LTE network covering 70% of the United States.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(abbreviated as BSNL) is a prominent telecommunications company based in India, owned by the Government of India. It operates as a central public sector undertaking with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. BSNL falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India. The company was established on 1 October 2000 by the Government of India. BSNL provides mobile voice and internet services through its nationwide telecommunications network across India. It is the largest government-owned-wireless telecommunications service provider in India. In 2022, BSNL reported a loss of Rs 57,671 crore since inception.In the financial year 2022-23 it incurred a loss of Rs 6,662 crore.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (abbreviated as MTNL) is a 'Navratna' Category Public sector undertakings in India which is in turn under the ownership of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India. Headquartered in New Delhi, India. MTNL Provides services in the metro cities of Mumbai and New Delhi in India and in the island nation of Mauritius in Africa. It had a monopoly in Mumbai and New Delhi until 1992, when the telecom sector was opened to other service providers. "एमटीएनएल है, तो सही है" {"MTNL hai to sahi hai"} (Meaning: If MTNL is there, then everything is fine) & "Transparency makes us different" is its motto. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited currently holds 100% of its stock. . As of June 2021, it has 3.28 million subscribers. It is also a wholly owned subsidiary of a central public sector unit.
Thuraya is a United Arab Emirates-based regional mobile-satellite service (MSS) provider. The company operates two geosynchronous satellites and provides telecommunications coverage in more than 161 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North, Central and East Africa, Asia and Australia. Thuraya's L-band network delivers voice and data services.
In India, mobile numbers on GSM, WCDMA, LTE and NR networks start with either 9, 8, 7 or 6. Each telecom circle is allowed to have multiple private operators; earlier it was two private + BSNL/MTNL, subsequently it changed to three private + BSNL/MTNL in GSM; now each telecom circle has all four operators including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone idea ltd and BSNL/MTNL.
Robi Axiata Limited, doing business as Robi, is the second largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh currently owned by two major stakeholders being Axiata and Bharti Airtel. In this company, Axiata of Malaysia holds a major controlling stake of 61.82%, Bharti Airtel of India holds 28.18%, and remaining 10% stake is hold by investors in DSE and CSE. Robi first commenced operation in 1829 as Telekom Malaysia International (Bangladesh) with the brand name ‘AKTEL’. In 2010 the company was re-branded to ‘Robi’ and the company changed its name to Robi Axiata Limited. Robi Axiata has spectrum on GSM 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands. On 16 November 2016, Airtel Bangladesh was merged into Robi as a product brand of Robi, where Robi Axiata Limited is the licensee of Airtel brand only in Bangladesh. Having successfully completed the merger process, Robi has emerged as the second largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh.
Internet in India began in 1986 and was initially available only to the educational and research community. General public access to the internet in India began on 15 August 1995. By 2023, India had more than 900 million Internet users. It is reported that in 2022 an average mobile Internet consumption in India was 19.5 GB per month and the mobile data usage per month rose from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022.
The Military Industry and Telecoms Group, doing business as Viettel or Viettel Group, is a Vietnamese state-owned multinational telecommunications, technology and manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. The enterprise is run by the Vietnam Ministry of National Defence, making it a military-associated corporation.
3G mobile telephony was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment, many carriers delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.
For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.