Menu
Home Explore People Places Arts History Plants & Animals Science Life & Culture Technology
On this page
List of mobile network operators

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

Terrestrial

This is a list of the world's 25 largest terrestrial mobile phone network operators measured by number of subscriptions.

RankCompanyMain marketsTechnologyTotalsubscriptions(in millions)Ownership(100% ownership unless stated otherwise)
1 China MobileCommunications Corporation China (China Mobile) Hong Kong (CMHK) Pakistan (Zong)List1003.91(September 2024)Government of the People's Republic of China (74.25%)Public stock (25.75%)
2 Bharti Airtel LimitedList
  •  Chad (Airtel)
  •  DR Congo (Airtel)
  •  Gabon (Airtel)
  •  India (Airtel)
  •  Kenya (Airtel Kenya)
  •  Madagascar (Airtel)
  •  Malawi (Airtel)
  •  Niger (Airtel)
  •  Nigeria (Airtel)
  •  Republic of the Congo (Airtel)
  •  Rwanda (Airtel)
  •  Seychelles (Airtel)
  •  Tanzania (Airtel Tanzania)
  •  Uganda (Airtel Uganda)
  •  Zambia (Airtel)
List563.22 (September 2024)Bharti Enterprises (66.57%)Singtel (32.15%)Google (1.28%)
3 Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited IndiaList461.23 (November 2024)Jio Platforms
4 China Telecom Corp., Ltd China MacauList423.44(September 2024)China Telecommunications Corporation (State Owned) (70.89%)
5 China Unicom Limited ChinaList345.05(September 2024)China Unicom Limited (40.92%)China Netcom Group (29.49%)Telefónica (0.6%)
6 Vodafone Group plcListList310.06(May 2024)
7 América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.VList
  • Argentina (Claro)
  • Austria (Telekom Austria)
  • Belarus (A1)
  • Brazil (Claro)
  • Bulgaria (A1)
  • Chile (Claro)
  • Colombia (Claro)
  • Costa Rica (Claro)
  • Croatia (A1)
  • Dominican Republic (Claro)
  • Ecuador (Claro)
  • El Salvador (Claro)
  • Guatemala (Claro)
  • Honduras (Claro)
  • Mexico (Telcel)
  • Nicaragua (Claro)
  • North Macedonia (A1)
  • Paraguay (Claro)
  • Peru (Claro)
  • Puerto Rico (Claro)
  • Serbia (A1)
  • Slovenia (A1 Slovenija)
  • Uruguay (Claro)
List315.87(September 2024)Helu Slim (36.50%)Carlos Slim (6.84%)Public stock (56.66%)
8 Orange S.A.ListList305.38(December 2024)Public stock (77%)Government of France (23%)
9 Telefónica S.A.List
  • Argentina (Movistar)
  • Brazil (Vivo)
  • Chile (Movistar)
  • Colombia (Movistar)
  • Ecuador (Movistar)
  • Germany (O2)
  • Mexico (Movistar)
  • Peru (Movistar)
  • Spain (Movistar)
  • United Kingdom (O2)
  • Uruguay (Movistar)
  • Venezuela (Movistar)
List270.59(May 2025)
10 MTN Group LimitedList
  • Benin
  • Botswana
  • Cameroon
  • Republic of the Congo
  • Eswatini (30%)
  • Ghana
  • Guinea
  • Iran (49%)
  • Ivory Coast
  • Liberia
  • Nigeria
  • Rwanda
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
List288.010(September 2024)Public stock (60.02%)Government Employees Pension Fund (25.33%) M1 (10.05%)
11 Deutsche Telekom AGListList258.811(September 2024)Free float (68.1%)Federal Republic of Germany (31.9%)
12 Vodafone Idea Ltd IndiaList209.012(November 2024)Government of India (49.8%)Vodafone Group Plc (23.2%)Aditya Birla Group (9.85%)
13 Axiata Group BerhadListList162.513 (December 2023)Public stock (54.91%)Government of Malaysia (45.09%)
14 PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) Indonesia East TimorList159.314(December 2023)Telkom Indonesia (65%)Singtel (35%)
15 Emirates TelecommunicationGroup Company PJSC (Etisalat)List
  • Afghanistan (etisalat)
  • Benin (Moov)
  • Burkina Faso (Moov)
  • Central African Republic (Moov)
  • Chad (Moov)
  • Egypt (e& Egypt)
  • Gabon (Moov)
  • Côte d'Ivoire (Moov)
  • Mali (Sotelma)
  • Mauritania (Mauritel)
  • Morocco (Maroc Telecom)
  • Niger (Moov)
  • Pakistan (Ufone)
  • Saudi Arabia (Mobily)
  • Togo (Moov)
  • United Arab Emirates (e&)
List15915(2021)Emirates Investment Authority (60.03%)Public stock (39.97%)
16 VEON Ltd.List
  • Bangladesh (Banglalink)
  • Kazakhstan (Beeline)
  • Kyrgyzstan (Beeline)
  • Pakistan (Jazz)
  • Ukraine (Kyivstar)
  • Uzbekistan (Beeline)
List153.916(December 2024)Letterone Investment Holdings S.A. (45.5%)The Stichting Administratiekantoor Mobile Telecommunications Investor (7.9%)Lingotto Investment Management LLP (7.8%) Shah Capital Management Inc. (6.7%)17
17 Ooredoo QSCListList149.418(Q3 2024)Government of Qatar
18 Verizon Communications United States United States Virgin Islands Puerto RicoList14619(December 2024)Verizon Communications
19 AT&T Inc. United States (AT&T Mobility LLC) Mexico (AT&T Mexico)List139.020(September 2024)Institutional Shares (59.28%)Vanguard Group Inc (14.12%)Blackrock Inc (11.49%)21
20 Telenor ASAListList138.3122(Q3 2024)Government of Norway (53.97%)Public stock (41.74%)The Government Pension Fund of Norway (4.79%)
21 Viettel GroupList
  • Burundi (Lumitel)
  • Cambodia (Metfone)
  • Cameroon (Nexttel)
  • East Timor (Telemor)
  • Haiti (Natcom)
  • Laos (Unitel)
  • Mozambique (Movitel)
  • Myanmar (Mytel)
  • Peru (Bitel)
  • Tanzania (Halotel)
  • Vietnam
List110.023(Q1 2022)Government of Vietnam
22 BSNL Mobile IndiaList88.9424(April 2024)25Government of India
23 NTT Docomo Inc. JapanList89.926(Q1 2024)Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
24 Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) Russia BelarusList87.6027(Q3 2024)Sistema (50.8%)
25 MegaFon Russia TajikistanList77.2628(Q2 2024)AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%)USM Telecom LLC (43.68%)

Satellite based

This is a list of the world's five largest satellite phone network operators measured by number of subscribers.

RankOperatorTechnologySubscribers(in millions)Ownership
1IridiumProprietary TDMA0.824 (June 2016)29
2GlobalstarProprietary CDMA0.638 (March 2015)30
3ThurayaProprietary FDMA/GSM0.260 (December 2007)31Etisalat (28%)
4InmarsatProprietary GSM0.254 (September 2009)32
5ACeSDual-mode Satellite/GSM0.020 (December 2007)

See also

  • Telephones portal

Footnotes

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

References

  1. "Monthly Customer Data". 30 September 2024. https://www.chinamobileltd.com/en/ir/operation_m.php ↩

  2. "Quarterly Highlights" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://assets.airtel.in/static-assets/cms/investor/docs/quarterly_results/2024_25/Q2/Press_Release.pdf ↩

  3. "Trai Press Release 89/2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_No.89of2024.pdf ↩

  4. "China Telecom Monthly Reports". China Telecom Corporation. 30 September 2024. https://www.chinatelecom-h.com/en/ir/kpi.php ↩

  5. "Key Financial and Performance Indicators for the First Three Quarters of 2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://doc.irasia.com/listco/hk/chinaunicom/interim/2024/int3q.pdf ↩

  6. "Annual Report 2024". 24 May 2024. https://reports.investors.vodafone.com/view/197179846/ ↩

  7. "3Q 2024 Reports" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://s22.q4cdn.com/604986553/files/doc_financials/2024/q3/3Q24.pdf ↩

  8. "Q3 Press Release 2024". 29 December 2024. https://gallery.orange.com/finance?lang=en&od=35608b55-6ecd-4862-bbfc-54a128ee0f67&om=17411288-4387-49f2-b390-9bd242c5e763&v=1123abb0-0379-4925-884c-8d7accb3e2da ↩

  9. "Q1 Results 2025". 14 May 2025. https://www.telefonica.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/04/rdos25t1-data.xlsx ↩

  10. "Q3 Results 2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://www.mtn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/MTN-Group-Q3-24-trading-update.pdf ↩

  11. "Interim Group Report 3Q 2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://report.telekom.com/interim-report-q3-2024/_assets/downloads/entire-dtag-ir324.pdf ↩

  12. "Trai Press Release 89/2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024. https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_No.89of2024.pdf ↩

  13. "Axiata Integrated 2019 Annual Report 2023" (PDF). https://axiata.listedcompany.com/misc/Axiata_Integrated_Annual_Report_2023.pdf ↩

  14. "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). December 2023. https://www.telkom.co.id/minio/show/data/lampiran/1712209383262_original_Annual%20Report%20Telkom%202023_website.pdf ↩

  15. "Etisalat 2Q Report 2020" (PDF). p. 4. Retrieved 21 July 2020. https://etisalat.com/en/system/docs/2020/Etisalat-Group-Q2-2020-Earnings-Release-English.pdf ↩

  16. "Q1 2025 Results". VEON. May 2025. https://www.veon.com/fileadmin/user_upload/investors/tradingupdate/1Q25_Factbook..xlsx ↩

  17. "VEON Ltd. Ownership Structure, as of 31 December 2024 (after completing delisting from Euronext Amsterdam on 25 November 2024)". Retrieved 20 May 2025. https://www.veon.com/investors/equity-investors#tab-item-17 ↩

  18. "Q3 2024 Results" (PDF). Ooredoo. October 2024. p. 12. https://www.ooredoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ORDS_ER_Q3-2024-FINAL.pdf ↩

  19. "Financial and Operating Information". Verizon. 24 January 2025. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. https://www.verizon.com/about/file/74377/download?token=aFR5AvZZ ↩

  20. "AT&T Financial and Operational Schedules 3Q 2024" (PDF). Retrieved 30 September 2024. https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR-V2/financial-reports/quarterly-earnings/2024/3Q24/3Q24_ATT_Financial_and_Operational_Schedules_and_Non_GAAP_Reconciliations.pdf ↩

  21. "AT&T INC. Ownership summary". NASDAQ. Retrieved 27 May 2019. https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/t/ownership-summary ↩

  22. "Telenor Group's Results Q3 2024" (PDF). 30 October 2024. https://www.telenor.com/binaries/investors/reports-and-information/quarterly/2024/Presentation-Q3-2024.pdf ↩

  23. "Viettel Global network Q1 2022". Viettel Group. 29 March 2022. https://international.viettel.vn/about-detail/global-network ↩

  24. "TRAI subscription data". April 2022. https://www.trai.gov.in/release-publication/reports/telecom-subscriptions-reports ↩

  25. After adding subscribers of MTNL to BSNL, because MTNL will merge with BSNL. /wiki/Mahanagar_Telephone_Nigam_Limited ↩

  26. "NTT subscribers". 12 May 2021. https://group.ntt/en/ir/fin/subscriber.html ↩

  27. "Финансовые и операционные результаты Группы МТС за 3 квартал 2024". mts.ru. Retrieved 30 January 2025. https://moskva.mts.ru/about/media-centr/soobshheniya-kompanii/finansovaya-otchetnost/2024-11-19/finansovye-i-operacionnye-rezultaty-gruppy-mts-za-3-kvartal-2024 ↩

  28. "МегаФон подвёл финансовые итоги первого полугодия 2024 года". MegaFon. 16 August 2024. https://corp.megafon.ru/press/news/federalnye_novosti/federal/20240816-1000.html ↩

  29. "Iridium Q2 2016 Results" (PDF). 30 June 2016. http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-3ERWFI/2965382186x0x902196/92E3D619-F773-46B8-AE00-5FCF6AEE53CE/IRDM-Transcript-2016-07-28T12_30.pdf ↩

  30. "Globestar Announces Q1 2015 Results". Globalstar.com. 31 March 2015. http://eu.globalstar.com/en/index.php?cid=7010&pressId=871 ↩

  31. "Thuraya Launches SMS Info Service with CNN" (Press release). Thuraya. 27 November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100103101754/http://www.thuraya.com/en/article/thuraya-launches-sms-info-service-with-cnn-1.html ↩

  32. "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. https://web.archive.org/web/20121106213550/http://www.inmarsat.com/Downloads/English/Investors/IHL_Q_3_2009.pdf?language=EN&textonly=False ↩