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.
<!-- List should be limited to the 25 largest carriers. Any carriers beyond the top 25 largest will be removed from this list. -->
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; font-size:95%;"
|-
! Rank !! Company !! Main markets !! Technology !! data-sort-type=number|Total<br />subscriptions<br />(in millions) !! Ownership<br />(100% ownership unless stated otherwise)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 1
|| China Mobile<br />Communications Corporation
|| (China Mobile)<br /> (CMHK)<br /> (Zong)
||
|| 1003.9<br />(September 2024)
|| Government of the People's Republic of China (74.25%)<br />Public stock (25.75%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 2
|| Bharti Airtel Limited
||
||
|650<br /> (April 2026)
||Bharti Enterprises (66.57%)<br>Singtel (32.15%)<br>Google (1.28%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 3
| Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited
|
||
|517.56<br /> (March 2026)
|Jio Platforms
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 4
|| China Telecom Corp., Ltd
|| <br />
||
|423.4<br />(September 2024)
||China Telecommunications Corporation (State Owned) (70.89%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 5
|| China Unicom Limited
||
||
||345.0<br />(September 2024)
||China Unicom Limited (40.92%)<br />China Netcom Group (29.49%)<br />
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 6
|| Vodafone Group plc
||
||
|| 310.0<br />(May 2024)
|
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 7
|| América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V
||
||
|| 315.8<br />(September 2024)
||Helu Slim (36.50%)<br />Carlos Slim (6.84%)<br />Public stock (56.66%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 8
|| Orange S.A.
||
||
|| 256.4<br />(February 2026)
|| Public stock (68.1%)<br />Government of France (13.4%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 9
|| Telefónica S.A.
||
||
|| 249.3<br />(February 2025)
|| Public stock (62.2%)<br />Government of Spain (10%)<br />Saudi Telecom (5%)<br />BBVA (5%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 10
|| MTN Group Limited
||
||
|| 288.0<br />(September 2024)
|| Public stock (60.02%)<br />Government Employees Pension Fund (25.33%)<br /> M1 (10.05%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 11
|| Deutsche Telekom AG
||
||
|| 258.8<br />(September 2024)
||Free float (62.3%)<br />Federal Republic of Germany (27.5%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 12
|| Vodafone Idea Ltd
|
|
|| 192.9<br />(December 2025)
|Government of India (49%)<br />Vodafone Group Plc (15.4%)<br />Aditya Birla Group (9.85%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 13
|| Axiata Group Berhad
||
||
|| 162.5 <br />(December 2023)
|| Public stock (54.91%)<br />Government of Malaysia (45.09%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 14
|| PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel)
|| Indonesia<br /> East Timor
||
|| 159.3<br />(December 2023)
||Telkom Indonesia (65%)<br />Singtel (35%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" |15
|| Emirates Telecommunication<br />Group Company PJSC (Etisalat)
||
||
|| 159<br />(2021)
|| Emirates Investment Authority (60.03%)<br />Public stock (39.97%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 16
|| VEON Ltd.
||
||
|| 153.9<br />(December 2024)
||Letterone Investment Holdings S.A. (45.5%)<br />The Stichting Administratiekantoor Mobile Telecommunications Investor (7.9%)<br />Lingotto Investment Management LLP (7.8%) <br />Shah Capital Management Inc. (6.7%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 17
| Ooredoo QSC
||
||
|| 149.4<br />(Q3 2024)
|| Government of Qatar
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 18
|| Verizon Communications
|| United States<br /> United States Virgin Islands<br /> Puerto Rico
||
|| 146<br />(December 2024)
||Verizon Communications
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 19
|| AT&T Inc.
|| United States (AT&T Mobility LLC)<br /> Mexico (AT&T Mexico)
||
|| 139.0<br />(September 2024)
|| Institutional Shares (59.28%)<br />Vanguard Group Inc (14.12%)<br />Blackrock Inc (11.49%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 20
|| Telenor ASA
||
||
|| 138.31<br />(Q3 2024)
||Government of Norway (53.97%)<br />Public stock (41.74%)<br />The Government Pension Fund of Norway (4.79%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 21
|| Viettel Group
||
||
|| 110.0<br />(Q1 2022)
|| Government of Vietnam
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 22
|| BSNL Mobile
|
|
|91.74
|Government of India
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 23
| NTT Docomo Inc.
|| Japan
|
||91.4<br />(Q3 2025)
|| Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 24
|| Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)
|| Russia<br /> Belarus
||
|| 87.60<br />(Q3 2024)
|| Sistema (50.8%)
|-
| style="text-align:right" | 25
|| MegaFon
|| Russia<br /> Tajikistan
||
|| 77.26<br />(Q2 2024)
|| AF Telecom Holding LLC (56.32%)<br />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.
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Rank !! Operator !! Technology !! data-sort-type=number|Subscribers<br />(in millions) !! Ownership
|-
|style="text-align:right"| 1 || Iridium || Proprietary TDMA || 0.824 (June 2016)||
|-
|style="text-align:right"| 2 || Globalstar || Proprietary CDMA || 0.638 (March 2015)||
|-
|style="text-align:right"| 3 || Thuraya || Proprietary FDMA/GSM ||0.260 (December 2007)||Etisalat (28%)
|-
|style="text-align:right"| 4 || Inmarsat || Proprietary GSM ||0.254 (September 2009)||
|-
|style="text-align:right"| 5 || ACeS || Dual-mode Satellite/GSM || 0.020 (December 2007)||
|}
See also
- General
- Comparison of mobile phone standards
- Operators
- List of mobile network operators in Europe
- List of mobile network operators in Asia and Oceania
- List of mobile network operators in the Middle East and Africa
- List of mobile network operators of the Americas
- List of mobile network operators of the Caribbean
- Country lists
- 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 telecommunications companies
- List of telecommunications companies in the Americas
- List of telecommunications companies in Asia and Oceania
- List of telecommunications companies in Europe
- List of telecommunications companies in the Middle East and Africa
References
External links
- 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/
For a more comprehensive list of mobile phone operators, see Mobile country codes.