World’s largest mobile networks
Indian telecoms giant, Bharti Airtel has passed the 300 million customer mark, the group reported on Monday (28 July).
The landmark comes only two years after the group hits the 200 million mark in 2012, following the 100 million mark in 2009.
The company provides telecommunications services in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, with 17 of those countries found on the latter continent, covering 70 million customers.
This makes Bharti Airtel one of the largest telecoms providers in the world.
However, looking at mobile-only figures – at 208 million subscribers – it still ranks below its international competitors, including South Africa’s MTN group.
Global mobile leaders
The title of world’s biggest mobile operator still belongs to China Mobile, which as of its latest reporting, serves almost 800 million customers.
The Chinese giant far outstrips any other telecoms operator, with the UK’s Vodafone Group – parent to South Africa’s Vodacom – coming the closest with over 434 million customers across the 21 countries it operates in.
Africa’s mobile success story, MTN, operates in over 20 countries across the African continent and carried over 210 million subscribers on its network.
Top 15 Mobile operators by total mobile subscribers
| # | Operator | Total subscribers (latest reporting) |
| 1 | China Mobile | 790 million |
| 2 | Vodafone Group | 434 million |
| 3 | America Movil | 343 million |
| 4 | Telefonica | 323 million |
| 5 | China Unicom | 284 million |
| 6 | Orange | 239 million |
| 7 | Vimplecom | 218 million |
| 8 | MTN Group | 210 million |
| 9 | Bharti Airtel | 208 million |
| 10 | China Telecom | 186 million |
| 11 | Deutsche Telekom | 145 million |
| 12 | Etisalat | 145 million |
| 13 | AT&T | 116 million |
| 14 | Verizon | 105 million |
| 15 | Telecom Italia | 105 million |
In South Africa, Vodacom remains the largest network operator on the country with 32.5 million subscribers, while it has 59.6 million in total as it operators in several other African countries.
In April, MTN reported that its South African operation reduced subscriber numbers by 824,768, bringing total subscribers to 24.9 million for the period ended March 2014.
Cell C revealed on Friday (28 July) that it has added 1.5 million subscribers to its network, carrying a total of 18.1 million.
Telkom’s mobile business has 1.8 million subscribers, as reported in June.
BMI Subscriber numbers
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Cell C reveals new subscriber numbers
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