List of mobile network operators

For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.

Terrestrial

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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
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
List
  •   China
  •   Macau
413.5[4]
(April 2024)
China Telecommunications Corporation (State Owned) (70.89%)
5 China China Unicom Limited
List
  •   China Unicom
  •   CUniq HK
  •   CUniq UK
List
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.
List
  •   Argentina (Movistar)
  •   Brazil (Vivo)
  •   Chile (Movistar)
  •   Colombia (Movistar)
  •   Ecuador (Movistar)
  •   Germany (O2)
  •   Mexico (Movistar)
  •   Peru (Movistar)
  •   Spain (Movistar)
  •   Sudan (Sudan Unicom)
  •   United Kingdom (O2)
  •   Uruguay (Movistar)
  •   Venezuela (Movistar)
298.7[8]
(March 2024)
9 South Africa MTN Group Limited
List
  •   Afghanistan
  •   Benin
  •   Botswana
  •   Cameroon
  •   Republic of the Congo
  •   Eswatini (30%)
  •   Ghana
  •   Guinea
  •   Guinea-Bissau
  •   Iran (49%)
  •   Ivory Coast
  •   Liberia
  •   Nigeria
  •   Rwanda
  •   South Africa
  •   South Sudan
  •   Sudan
  •   Syria
  •   Uganda
  •   Yemen
  •   Zambia
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
List
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
  •   Indonesia (Telkomsel Halo, Telkomsel PraBayar, by.U)
      East Timor (Telkomcel)
159.3[17]
(December 2023)
Telkom Indonesia (65%)
Singtel (35%)
16 UAE Emirates Telecommunication
Group Company PJSC
(Etisalat)
List
  •   Afghanistan
  •   Benin
  •   Burkina Faso
  •   Central African Republic
  •   Chad
  •   Egypt
  •   Gabon
  •   Côte d'Ivoire
  •   Mali
  •   Mauritania
  •   Morocco
  •   Niger
  •   Pakistan (26%)
  •   Saudi Arabia (27%)
  •   Togo
  •   United Arab Emirates
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
List
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
List
List
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)
List
  •   Russia (MTS)
  •   Armenia (VivaCell-MTS)
  •   Belarus (MTS)
83.85[31]
(Q3 2021)
Sistema (50.8%)
27 Japan NTT Docomo Inc.
List
82.63[32]
(May 2021)
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
28 Russia MegaFon
List
  •   Russia
  •   Tajikistan
70.5[33]
(Q1 2021)
AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%)
USM Telecom LLC (43.68%)
29 Philippines Globe Telecom Inc.
List
  •   Philippines (Globe, TM, GOMO)
53.73[34]
(Aug 2023)
Asiacom (50.81%)
Singtel (20.08%)

Public stock (15.65%)
Ayala Corporation (13.19%)
Directors, Officers, Executive Stock Option Plan (0.26%)

30 Philippines PLDT Inc.
List
52.5[35]
(Aug 2023)
Public (41.55%)
NTT Docomo (14.5%)

Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (12.05%)
JG Summit Holdings (11.27%)

Metro Pacific Resources, Inc. (9.98%)

NTT Communications Corp (5.85%)

First Pacific (3.54%)

Satellite based

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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)

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ BSNL and MTNL merger approved by Government of India.
  2. ^ After adding subscribers of MTNL to BSNL, because MTNL will merge with BSNL.

References

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  1. ^ "Monthly Customer Data". 30 April 2024.
  2. ^ "Quarterly Highlights Report" (PDF). 31 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Trai Press Release 23/2024" (PDF). 31 March 2024.
  4. ^ "China Telecom Monthly Reports". China Telecom Corporation. 30 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). 31 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). 31 December 2023.
  7. ^ "1Q 2024 Reports" (PDF). 31 March 2024.
  8. ^ "1Q Results 2024". 31 March 2024.
  9. ^ "Q1 Results 2024" (PDF). 31 March 2024.
  10. ^ "Interim Group Report 1Q 2024" (PDF). 31 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Non-controlling equity interest: Iraq". Orange. Archived from the original on 25 February 2020.
  12. ^ "Q1 Press Release 2024". 31 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Vi Results June 2024" (PDF). 30 June 2024.
  14. ^ "AT&T Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results". about.att.com. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  15. ^ "AT&T INC. Ownership summary| NASDAQ". nasdaq.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  16. ^ "Axiata Integrated 2019 Annual Report 2023" (PDF).
  17. ^ "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). December 2023.
  18. ^ "Etisalat 2Q Report 2020" (PDF). p. 4. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  19. ^ "Verizon delivers strong third quarter results with customer growth in mobility, extending industry leadership" (Press release). Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  20. ^ "Group Results 24".
  21. ^ "Q1 2021 Results" (PDF). Ooredoo. April 2021. p. 12.
  22. ^ "Customer base, 2019" (PDF). CK Hutchison Holdings Limited. 19 March 2020.
  23. ^ "Viettel to become a digital service provider this year". Viettel Group. 14 December 2019.
  24. ^ "Telenor Group's Results 1Q 2024" (PDF). 31 March 2024.
  25. ^ "PTCL acquires 100% shares of Telenor Pakistan for Rs108 billion". 15 December 2023.
  26. ^ سهم بازار اپراتورهای همراه در سه ماهه نخست سال جاری [Mobile operators' market share in the first quarter of this year]. rond.ir (in Persian). Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  27. ^ a b "MTNL to be act as BSNL subsidiary Till Merger Complete". The Hindu. 29 June 2019.
  28. ^ "Government approves Revival package for BSNL, MTNL". The Economic Times. 23 October 2019.
  29. ^ "BSNL, MTNL to be merged, along with special package". India Today. 23 October 2019.
  30. ^ "TRAI subscription data". April 2022.
  31. ^ "Q1 2021 Results" (PDF). MTS. 18 May 2021. p. 2.
  32. ^ "NTT FY2020" (PDF). 12 May 2021.
  33. ^ "KPI Q1 2020". MegaFon. 28 May 2020.
  34. ^ "Report 1Q 2021" (PDF). 7 May 2021. p. 4.
  35. ^ "Financial highlights 1Q 2021" (PDF). 6 May 2021.
  36. ^ "Iridium Q2 2016 Results" (PDF). 30 June 2016.
  37. ^ "Globestar Announces Q1 2015 Results". Globalstar.com. 31 March 2015.
  38. ^ "Thuraya Launches SMS Info Service with CNN" (Press release). Thuraya. 27 November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010.
  39. ^ "INMARSAT HOLDINGS LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS For the three and nine months ended 30 September 2009 (unaudited)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 November 2012.
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For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.