Bharti Airtel Limited India’s top telecom operator with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, becomes the world’s fourth largest telecom operator in terms of subscribers according to report from Wireless Intelligence.
At the end of the quarter ended June 2012, Bharti Airtel recorded a 13 percent year-on-year rise in connections heading towards 250 million mobile subscribers. Bharti Airtel has taken over the Telefónica to become the world’s fourth-largest operator group in Q2. However, as Bharti Airtel mobile revenue of US$3.04billion in Q2 2012 is significantly lower than the four other operators in the top five, reflecting Bharti’s presence in the ultra low-cost, low-margin Indian and African markets.
India’s second largest telecom operator Vodafone group took the second spot with 386 million mobile subscribers. In the top 20 telecom operators list by Wireless Intelligence, there are three other Indian telecom operators as well. Reliance Communications in the 8th position with 154.60 million mobile subscribers, Idea Cellular in the 14th position with 117.24 million mobile subscribers and BSNL ranking 20th in the list with 98.28 million mobile subscribers.
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL) that nationally operates its telecom services under the MTS brand is also among the top 20 list ranking in 15th position with 114.51 million mobile subscribers. Here the list of top 20 global telecom operators –
