For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.
Terrestrial[edit | edit source]
This is a list of the world's 25 largest terrestrial mobile phone network operators measured by number of subscriptions.
| Rank | Company | Main markets | Technology | Total subscriptions (in millions) |
Ownership (100% ownership unless stated otherwise) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  China MobileCommunications Corporation |
China (China Mobile) Hong Kong (CMHK) Pakistan (Zong)
|
1003.9[1] (September 2024) |
Government of the People's Republic of China (74.25%) Public stock (25.75%) | |
| 2 |  Bharti Airtel Limited
|
List
|
600[2] (September 2025) |
Bharti Enterprises (66.57%) Singtel (32.15%) Google (1.28%) | |
| 3 | Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited
|
India
|
List
|
517.56[3] (March 2026) |
Jio Platforms |
| 4 | China Telecom Corp., Ltd
|
China Macau
|
423.4[4] (September 2024) |
China Telecommunications Corporation (State Owned) (70.89%) | |
| 5 | China Unicom Limited
|
China
|
345.0[5] (September 2024) |
China Unicom Limited (40.92%) China Netcom Group (29.49%) | |
| 6 |  Vodafone Group plc
|
List
|
310.0[6] (May 2024) |
||
| 7 |  América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V
|
List
|
315.8[7] (September 2024) |
Helu Slim (36.50%) Carlos Slim (6.84%) Public stock (56.66%) | |
| 8 |  Orange S.A.
|
List
|
256.4[8] (February 2026) |
Public stock (68.1%) Government of France (13.4%) | |
| 9 |  Telefónica S.A.
|
249.3[9] (February 2025) |
Public stock (62.2%) Government of Spain (10%) Saudi Telecom (5%) BBVA (5%) | ||
| 10 |  MTN Group Limited
|
List
|
List
|
288.0[10] (September 2024) |
Public stock (60.02%) Government Employees Pension Fund (25.33%) M1 (10.05%) |
| 11 |  Deutsche Telekom AG
|
List
|
258.8[11] (September 2024) |
Free float (62.3%) Federal Republic of Germany (27.5%) | |
| 12 | Vodafone Idea Ltd
|
India
|
192.9[12] (December 2025) |
Government of India (49%) Vodafone Group Plc (15.4%) Aditya Birla Group (9.85%) | |
| 13 |  Axiata Group Berhad
|
List
|
162.5[13] (December 2023) |
Public stock (54.91%) Government of Malaysia (45.09%) | |
| 14 |  PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel)
|
Indonesia East Timor
|
159.3[14] (December 2023) |
Telkom Indonesia (65%) Singtel (35%) | |
| 15 |  Emirates TelecommunicationGroup Company PJSC (Etisalat) |
List
|
159[15] (2021) |
Emirates Investment Authority (60.03%) Public stock (39.97%) | |
| 16 | VEON Ltd.
|
List
|
153.9[16] (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 QSC
|
149.4[18] (Q3 2024) |
Government of Qatar | ||
| 18 |  Verizon Communications
|
United States Template:Country data United States Virgin IslandsScript error: The function "pwarning" does not exist. United States Virgin Islands  Puerto Rico
|
146[19] (December 2024) |
Verizon Communications | |
| 19 | AT&T Inc.
|
United States (AT&T Mobility LLC) Mexico (AT&T Mexico)
|
139.0[20] (September 2024) |
Institutional Shares (59.28%) Vanguard Group Inc (14.12%) Blackrock Inc (11.49%)[21] | |
| 20 |  Telenor ASA
|
138.31[22] (Q3 2024) |
Government of Norway (53.97%) Public stock (41.74%) The Government Pension Fund of Norway (4.79%) | ||
| 21 |  Viettel Group
|
110.0[23] (Q1 2022) |
Government of Vietnam | ||
| 22 | BSNL Mobile
|
India
|
91.74[24] | Government of India | |
| 23 |  NTT Docomo Inc.
|
Japan
|
91.4[25] (Q3 2025) |
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone | |
| 24 |  Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)
|
Russia Belarus
|
87.60[26] (Q3 2024) |
Sistema (50.8%) | |
| 25 | MegaFon
|
Russia Tajikistan
|
77.26[27] (Q2 2024) |
AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%) USM Telecom LLC (43.68%) |
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Satellite based[edit | edit source]
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)[28] | |
| 2 | Globalstar | Proprietary CDMA | 0.638 (March 2015)[29] | |
| 3 | Thuraya | Proprietary FDMA/GSM | 0.260 (December 2007)[30] | Etisalat (28%) |
| 4 | Inmarsat | Proprietary GSM | 0.254 (September 2009)[31] | |
| 5 | ACeS | Dual-mode Satellite/GSM | 0.020 (December 2007) |
See also[edit | edit source]
- General
- Operators
- Country lists
- List of telecommunications companies
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Monthly Customer Data". 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "Airtel partners with Google to establish India's first mega AI hub and data center in Visakhapatnam". Airtel.
- ↑ "Reliance Jio Q2 Results: ARPU rises to ₹211.40, subscriber base tops 500 million - CNBC TV18". CNBCTV18. 17 October 2025. Retrieved 20 October 2025.
- ↑ "China Telecom Monthly Reports". China Telecom Corporation. 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "Key Financial and Performance Indicators for the First Three Quarters of 2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "Annual Report 2024". 24 May 2024.
- ↑ "3Q 2024 Reports" (PDF). 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "Strategic Plan 2026". 18 February 2026.
- ↑ "Q4 Results 2025". 24 February 2026.
- ↑ "Q3 Results 2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "Interim Group Report 3Q 2024" (PDF). 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "Vi FY Results 2025" (PDF). December 2025.
- ↑ "Axiata Integrated 2019 Annual Report 2023" (PDF).
- ↑ "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). December 2023.
- ↑ "Etisalat 2Q Report 2020" (PDF). p. 4. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ↑ "Q1 2025 Results". VEON. May 2025.
- ↑ "VEON Ltd. Ownership Structure, as of 31 December 2024 (after completing delisting from Euronext Amsterdam on 25 November 2024)". Retrieved 20 May 2025.
- ↑ "Q3 2024 Results" (PDF). Ooredoo. October 2024. p. 12.
- ↑ "Financial and Operating Information". Verizon. 24 January 2025. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025.
- ↑ "AT&T Financial and Operational Schedules 3Q 2024" (PDF). Retrieved 30 September 2024.
- ↑ "AT&T INC. Ownership summary". NASDAQ. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
- ↑ "Telenor Group's Results Q3 2024" (PDF). 30 October 2024.
- ↑ "Viettel Global network Q1 2022". Viettel Group. 29 March 2022.
- ↑ "Telecom Subscriptions Reports | Telecom Regulatory Authority of India". trai.gov.in. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
- ↑ "Number of Subscribers". group.ntt. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
- ↑ "Финансовые и операционные результаты Группы МТС за 3 квартал 2024". mts.ru. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
- ↑ "МегаФон подвёл финансовые итоги первого полугодия 2024 года". MegaFon. 16 August 2024.
- ↑ "Iridium Q2 2016 Results" (PDF). 30 June 2016.
- ↑ "Globestar Announces Q1 2015 Results". Globalstar.com. 31 March 2015.
- ↑ "Thuraya Launches SMS Info Service with CNN" (Press release). Thuraya. 27 November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010.
- ↑ "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.
External links[edit | edit source]
- List of all mobile network operators in the World divided by country
- correct link (via archive.org): https://web.archive.org/web/20190430054352/https://travelem.com/en-us/list-of-all-mobile-operators-divided-by-country-for-travelers/
Template:Telecommunications Template:Mobile phones
For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.