List of mobile network operators explained

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

Terrestrial

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	data-sort-type=number	Total subscriptions (in millions) !	Ownership (100% ownership unless stated otherwise)
1	China	China Mobile Communications Corporation			997.4^[1] (April 2024)	Government of the People's Republic of China (74.25%) Public stock (25.75%)
2	India	Bharti Airtel Limited			620.0^[2] (March 2024)	Bharti Enterprises (66.57%) Singtel (32.15%) Google (1.28%)
3	India	Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited			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			323.0^[6] (December 2023)
7	Mexico	América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V			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			287.6^[9] (March 2024)	Public stock (60.02%) Government Employees Pension Fund (25.33%) M1 (10.05%)
10	Germany	Deutsche Telekom AG			255.8^[10] (March 2024)	Free float (68.1%) Federal Republic of Germany (31.9%)
11	France	Orange S.A.			242.6^[11] (March 2024)	Public stock (77%) Government of France (23%)
12	India	Vodafone Idea Ltd			219.08^[12] (April 2024)	Government of India (32.09%) Vodafone Group Plc (31.27%) Aditya Birla Group (17.49%) Private equity (15.97%) American Tower Corporation (3.18%)
13	USA	AT&T Inc.			217.4^[13] (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%)^[14]
14	Malaysia	Axiata Group Berhad			162.5^[15] (December 2023)	Public stock (54.91%) Government of Malaysia (45.09%)
15	Indonesia	PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel)			159.3^[16] (December 2023)	Telkom Indonesia (65%) Singtel (35%)
16	UAE	Emirates Telecommunication Group Company PJSC (Etisalat)			159^[17] (2021)	Emirates Investment Authority (60.03%) Public stock (39.97%)
17	Netherlands	VEON Ltd.			157 (2022)	Letterone Investment Holdings S.A. (47.9%) Public stock (43.8%) Stichting Administratiekantoor Mobile Telecommunications Investor (8.3%)
18	South Africa	Vodacom			154.9^[18] (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%)
19	USA				143.3^[19] (January 2023)	Verizon Communications
20	Qatar	Ooredoo QSC			121^[20] (2021)	Government of Qatar
21	HKG	CK Hutchison Holdings – Telecom Division			120^[21] (2022)	CK Hutchison Holdings
22	Vietnam	Viettel Group			110.0^[22] (December 2018)
23	Norway	Telenor ASA			93.0^[23] ^[24] (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^[25] (April 2020)	TCI (94.09%) Sukuk (5.91%)
25	India	BSNL Mobile			88.94^[26] (April 2024)^[27]	Government of India
26	Russia	Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)			83.85^[28] (Q3 2021)	Sistema (50.8%)
27	Japan	NTT Docomo Inc.			82.63^[29] (May 2021)	Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
28	Russia	MegaFon			70.5^[30] (Q1 2021)	AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%) USM Telecom LLC (43.68%)
29	Philippines	Globe Telecom Inc.			53.73^[31] (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.			52.5^[32] (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

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

Rank	Operator	Technology	data-sort-type=number	Subscribers (in millions) !	Ownership
1			0.824 (June 2016)^[33]
2			0.638 (March 2015)^[34]
3			0.260 (December 2007)^[35]	Etisalat (28%)
4			0.254 (September 2009)^[36]
5			0.020 (December 2007)

By region

• List of mobile network operators of the Americas
• List of mobile network operators in Asia and Oceania
• List of mobile network operators in Europe
• List of mobile network operators in the Middle East and Africa

See also

• Comparison of mobile phone standards
• List of sovereign states by number of broadband Internet subscriptions
• List of countries by number of Internet users
• List of countries by number of telephone lines in use
• List of countries by smartphone penetration
• List of multiple-system operators
• List of telephone operating companies

External links

• List of all mobile network operators in the World divided by country

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Monthly Customer Data . 30 April 2024.
2. Web site: Quarterly Highlights Report . 31 March 2024.
3. Web site: Trai Press Release 23/2024 . 31 March 2024.
4. Web site: China Telecom Corporation . China Telecom Monthly Reports . 30 April 2024.
5. Web site: Annual Report 2023 . 31 December 2023.
6. Web site: Annual Report 2023 . 31 December 2023.
7. Web site: 1Q 2024 Reports . 31 March 2024.
8. Web site: 1Q Results 2024 . 31 March 2024.
9. Web site: Q1 Results 2024 . 31 March 2024.
10. Web site: Interim Group Report 1Q 2024 . 31 March 2024.
11. Web site: Q1 Press Release 2024 . 31 March 2024.
12. Web site: Trai Press Release 23/2024 . 3 May 2024.
13. Web site: AT&T Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results . 2023-09-19 . about.att.com . en-US.
14. Web site: AT&T INC. Ownership summary NASDAQ. nasdaq.com. en. 2019-05-27.
15. Web site: Axiata Integrated 2019 Annual Report 2023.
16. Web site: Annual Report 2023 . December 2023.
17. Web site: Etisalat 2Q Report 2020 . 2020-07-21. 4.
18. Web site: Group Results 24 .
19. Web site: 2023-01-24 . Strong wireless service revenue growth highlights Verizon's 4Q and 2022 results . 2023-09-19 . verizon.com . en.
20. Web site: April 2021. Q1 2021 Results. Ooredoo. 12.
21. Web site: Customer base, 2019 . CK Hutchison Holdings Limited. 19 March 2020.
22. Web site: Viettel to become a digital service provider this year . Viettel Group . 14 December 2019.
23. Web site: Telenor Group’s Results 1Q 2024 . 31 March 2024.
24. Web site: PTCL acquires 100% shares of Telenor Pakistan for Rs108 billion . 15 December 2023.
25. Web site: https://www.rond.ir/News/2602/ . fa:سهم بازار اپراتورهای همراه در سه ماهه نخست سال جاری . Mobile operators' market share in the first quarter of this year . fa . rond.ir . 2021-06-17.
26. Web site: April 2022. TRAI subscription data.
27. After adding subscribers of MTNL to BSNL, because MTNL will merge with BSNL.
28. Web site: 18 May 2021. Q1 2021 Results. MTS. 2.
29. Web site: 12 May 2021. NTT FY2020.
30. Web site: KPI Q1 2020 . MegaFon . 28 May 2020.
31. Web site: 7 May 2021. Report 1Q 2021. 4.
32. Web site: 6 May 2021. Financial highlights 1Q 2021.
33. Web site: Iridium Q2 2016 Results . 2016-06-30.
34. Web site: Globestar Announces Q1 2015 Results . Globalstar.com . 2015-03-31.
35. Thuraya Launches SMS Info Service with CNN. 27 November 2007. Thuraya. https://web.archive.org/web/20100103101754/http://www.thuraya.com/en/article/thuraya-launches-sms-info-service-with-cnn-1.html. 3 January 2010.
36. Web site: INMARSAT HOLDINGS LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS For the three and nine months ended 30 September 2009 (unaudited). https://web.archive.org/web/20121106213550/http://www.inmarsat.com/Downloads/English/Investors/IHL_Q_3_2009.pdf?language=EN&textonly=False. 6 November 2012.