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 | List
| 997.4 [1] (April 2024) | Government of the People's Republic of China (74.25%) Public stock (25.75%) | |
2 | India | Bharti Airtel Limited | List
| 620.0 [2] (March 2024) | Bharti Enterprises (66.57%) Singtel (32.15%) Google (1.28%) | |
3 | India | Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited | List
| 472.42 [3] (April 2024) | Jio Platforms | |
4 | China | China Telecom Corp., Ltd | 413.5 [4] (April 2024) | China Telecommunications Corporation (State Owned) (70.89%) | ||
5 | China | China Unicom Limited | 333.0 [5] (December 2023) | China Unicom Limited (40.92%) China Netcom Group (29.49%) Telefónica (0.6%) | ||
6 | United Kingdom | Vodafone Group plc | List
| 323.0 [6] (December 2023) | ||
7 | Mexico | América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V | List
| 311.6 [7] (March 2024) | Helu Slim (36.50%) Carlos Slim (6.84%) Public stock (56.66%) | |
8 | Spain | Telefónica S.A. | 298.7 [8] (March 2024) | |||
9 | South Africa | MTN Group Limited | List
| 287.6 [9] (March 2024) | Public stock (60.02%) Government Employees Pension Fund (25.33%) M1 (10.05%) | |
10 | Germany | Deutsche Telekom AG | List
| 255.8 [10] (March 2024) | Free float (68.1%) Federal Republic of Germany (31.9%) | |
11 | France | Orange S.A. | List
| 242.6 [12] (March 2024) | Public stock (77%) Government of France (23%) | |
12 | India | Vodafone Idea Ltd | 210.1 [13] (June 2024) | Government of India (23.8%) Vodafone Group Plc (23.2%) Aditya Birla Group (15%) Institutional Holdings (20.1%) Non-Institutional Holding (17.9%) | ||
13 | USA | AT&T Inc. | List
| 217.4 [14] (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%) [15] | |
14 | Malaysia | Axiata Group Berhad | List
| 162.5 [16] (December 2023) | Public stock (54.91%) Government of Malaysia (45.09%) | |
15 | Indonesia | PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) | List
| 159.3 [17] (December 2023) | Telkom Indonesia (65%) Singtel (35%) | |
16 | UAE | Emirates Telecommunication Group Company PJSC (Etisalat) | 159 [18] (2021) | Emirates Investment Authority (60.03%) Public stock (39.97%) | ||
17 | Netherlands | VEON Ltd. | List
| 154.2 (November 2024) | Letterone Investment Holdings S.A. (47.9%) Public stock (43.8%) Stichting Administratiekantoor Mobile Telecommunications Investor (8.3%) | |
18 | USA | Verizon Communications | 156.7 [19] (October 2024) | Verizon Communications | ||
19 | South Africa | Vodacom | List
| List
| 154.9 [20] (May 2024) | 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%) |
20 | Qatar | Ooredoo QSC | List
| 121 [21] (2021) | Government of Qatar | |
21 | HKG | CK Hutchison Holdings – Telecom Division | List
| 120 [22] (2022) | CK Hutchison Holdings | |
22 | Vietnam | Viettel Group | 110.0 [23] (December 2018) | Government of Vietnam | ||
23 | Norway | Telenor ASA | List
| 93.0 [24] [25] (March 2024) | Government of Norway (53.97%) Public stock (41.74%) The Government Pension Fund of Norway (4.79%) | |
24 | Iran | MTN Irancell | 92.46 [26] (April 2020) | TCI (94.09%) Sukuk (5.91%) | ||
25 | India | BSNL Mobile | 88.94 [30] (April 2024) [Note 2] [27] | Government of India | ||
26 | Russia | Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) | 83.85 [31] (Q3 2021) | Sistema (50.8%) | ||
27 | Japan | NTT Docomo Inc. | 82.63 [32] (May 2021) | Nippon Telegraph and Telephone | ||
28 | Russia | MegaFon | 70.5 [33] (Q1 2021) | AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%) USM Telecom LLC (43.68%) | ||
29 | Philippines | Globe Telecom Inc. | 53.73 [34] (Aug 2023) | Asiacom (50.81%) Singtel (20.08%) Public stock (15.65%) | ||
30 | Philippines | PLDT Inc. | List
| 52.5 [35] (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%) |
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) [36] | |
2 | Globalstar | Proprietary CDMA | 0.638 (March 2015) [37] | |
3 | Thuraya | Proprietary FDMA/GSM | 0.260 (December 2007) [38] | Etisalat (28%) |
4 | Inmarsat | Proprietary GSM | 0.254 (September 2009) [39] | |
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 1.20 billion subscribers as of August 2024. 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 949.21 million broadband internet subscribers as of August 2024.
3G is the third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology. It is the upgrade to 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 by 5G. This network is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunications services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications set by the International Telecommunication Union. 3G is used in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV.
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile network operator to obtain bulk access to network services at wholesale rates, then sets retail prices independently. An MVNO may use its own customer service, billing support systems, marketing, and sales personnel, or it could employ the services of a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE).
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is an Indian central public sector undertaking, under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The central public sector undertaking was established on 1 October 2000 by the Government of India. Its highest official is designated as Chairperson and Managing Director, who is a central civil service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Communication Finance Service cadre or central engineering service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Telecommunication Service cadre. It 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.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. 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"} & "Transparency makes us different" is its motto. As of May 2024, it has 1.92 million subscribers.
Telia Norge AS, formerly NetCom AS, is a Norwegian Telecommunications Company. Founded in 1993, it is the second largest provider in Norway. The company has about 2,379 million mobile subscribers, and about 500,000 TV and broadband subscribers, and the company headquarters are located at Økern Portal in Oslo. It is owned by the Swedish company Telia Company. The Telia office in Trondheim consists mainly of sales, customer service and technical departments. Telia was for a while the exclusive carrier for iPhone in Norway, until Telenor signed an agreement with Apple Inc. to also distribute the device in Scandinavia.
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; previously it was two private + BSNL/MTNL, subsequently it changed to three private + BSNL/MTNL in GSM; however currently each telecom circle has all four operators including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone idea ltd and BSNL/MTNL.
Yettel Bulgaria is the largest mobile network and the third largest fixed telecommunications company in Bulgaria. The company was founded under the name "Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile" in 2001 by OTE and operated under the brand name "Globul" until 2014. In 2013 it was bought by Telenor and changed its name. In August 2018, the company was acquired by PPF, a Czech private investment fund. The company continued to use the Telenor brand until 1 March 2022, when it was renamed to Yettel Bulgaria. In February 2024, the company was acquired by e& (Etisalat), and the merger was approved by Bulgaria's competition watchdog. However the branding of Yettel has not yet been changed.
Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and LTE Advanced services throughout India. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology across all Indian telecom circles. It is the second largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest mobile network operator in the world. Airtel was named India's 2nd most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.
BSNLMobile is an Indian state-owned telecommunication company of the Government of India. BSNL Mobile operates under the BSNL brand and provides wireless cellular services to B2B, B2C, & B2G segments in India. BSNL Mobile has a pan-India presence with presence in all the 22 telecom circles in India.
Telephone numbers in India are administered under the National Numbering Plan of 2003 by the Department of Telecommunications of the Government of India. The numbering plan was last updated in 2015. The country code "91" was assigned to India by the International Telecommunication Union in the 1960s.
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, trading as Viettel or Viettel Group, is a Vietnamese state-owned multinational telecommunications, technology and manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. The enterprise is under the direct administration of the Vietnam Ministry of National Defence, making it a military enterprise and officially a major production unit under the Vietnam People's Army.
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.