{"id":26289,"date":"2012-11-14T00:54:13","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T22:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=26289"},"modified":"2012-11-14T09:08:55","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T07:08:55","slug":"the-worlds-largest-mobile-networks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/26289\/the-worlds-largest-mobile-networks\/","title":{"rendered":"The world’s largest mobile networks"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the GSM Association<\/a>, global mobile connections are expected to exceed 6.8 billion by the end of 2012 – and 43% of these connections will be carried by the world’s 10 largest mobile networks.<\/p>\n

With a combined connection base of 2.92 billion subscribers the 10 largest mobile networks in the world carry the bulk of mobile users, filtered across continents, through partners and subsidiaries.<\/p>\n

The GSMA makes a distinction between “connections” (number of SIM cards on a network) and “subscriptions” (number of individual people on a network); however, the United Nation’s telecommunications arm, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU<\/a>) does not make this distinction, and counts a SIM card as a subscription.<\/p>\n

The GSMA expects real “subscription” figures to be closer to 3.2 billion by the end of 2012. For the basis of this article, the ITU’s defintion of a subscription (GSMA: connection) is used.<\/p>\n

Asian domination<\/h3>\n

When looking at mobile subscriptions, globally, it comes as no surprise that Asia dominates the networks. With a population exceeding 4.1 billion out of the global population of over 7 billion people, Asia has by far the largest base of mobile users.<\/p>\n

This is echoed by the largest mobile networks on the continent sporting massive subscriber numbers.<\/p>\n

The largest mobile network, globally, is China Mobile<\/a>, which holds almost 700 million subscribers on its network. Competing network, China Unicom<\/a>, by comparison is the 6th largest network, overall, with 230 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

According to figures from the ITU, China has over one billion mobile subscribers.<\/p>\n

Another Asian powerhouse network is India’s largest network operator, Bharti Airtel<\/a>, which is the third largest network, globally, with over 260 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

Russia’s <\/strong>VimpelCom<\/a>, with 209 million subscribers, is the 8th largest network in the world.<\/p>\n

Global leaders<\/h3>\n

In Europe, Vodafone<\/a> – the parent company of South Africa’s Vodacom<\/a> network – is the second largest mobile network globally, with a figure of 446.5 million subscribers attached to its name.<\/p>\n

This includes Vodacom’s 58.2 million subscribers from all its operations inside and outside South Africa.<\/p>\n

Other European networks such as Spanish mobile operator, Telefonica<\/a>, and France’s Orange<\/a> network are 5th and 7th largest, overall, with 245.6 million and 227.2 million subscribers, respectively.<\/p>\n

The USA’s Verizon<\/a> and AT&T<\/a> networks don’t crack the top 10 largest networks in the world, but do hold 109 million and 101 million subscribers,\u00a0respectively.<\/p>\n

The largest network representing the Americas, is Mexican operator, America Movil<\/a>, which is the 4th largest network, overall, with close to 252 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

The largest network in Africa, and the 9th largest overall, is South Africa’s MTN Group<\/a>. MTN has operations across Africa, totalling 21 countries in total, and has close to 183 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

The UAE’s Etisalat<\/a> rounds off the top 10 biggest networks with 167 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

The 10 biggest mobile networks in the world<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/strong><\/td>\nOperator<\/strong><\/td>\nCountry<\/strong><\/td>\nAs of
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		\n
Subscribers (millions)*
\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nChina Mobile<\/td>\nChina<\/td>\nSeptember 2012<\/td>\n698.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nVodafone<\/td>\nUK<\/td>\nJune 2012<\/td>\n446.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nAirtel<\/td>\nIndia<\/td>\nOctober 2012<\/td>\n260.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nAm\u00e9rica M\u00f3vil<\/td>\nMexico<\/td>\nJune 2012<\/td>\n251.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nTelef\u00f3nica<\/td>\nSpain<\/td>\nSeptember 2012<\/td>\n245.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nChina Unicom<\/td>\nChina<\/td>\nOctober 2012<\/td>\n229.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nOrange<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\nSeptember 2012<\/td>\n227.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nVimpelCom Ltd.<\/td>\nRussia<\/td>\nMarch 2012<\/td>\n209.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nMTN Group<\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/td>\nSeptember 2012<\/td>\n182.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nEtisalat<\/td>\nUAE<\/td>\nDecember 2011<\/td>\n167.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

* Numbers taken from financial reports<\/small><\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

SA’s real mobile penetration revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mobile Internet trends in emerging markets<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

App stores gaining ground in emerging markets<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA\u2019s slide towards the wrong side of the digital divide<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

F&S alludes to mobile data war<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mobile broadband can boost SA economy: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA\u2019s mobile broadband speeds poor: Akamai<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mobile connections are expected to exceed 6.8 billion by the end of 2012, but which networks are carrying the biggest load?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2555,4596,1874,4593,26,4594,28,653,2634,4595,27,737],"class_list":["post-26289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-airtel","tag-america-movil","tag-china-mobile","tag-china-unciom","tag-headline","tag-mobile-network","tag-mtn","tag-orange","tag-subscriber-numbers","tag-telefonica","tag-vodacom","tag-vodafone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26289"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26403,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26289\/revisions\/26403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}