Devina Joshi, London
Indian telecom company Bharti Airtel has become the fourth largest mobile operator in the world with over 250 million connections globally, according to analyst firm Wireless Intelligence.
China Mobile continues to reign at the top with 683.08 million connections, followed by Vodafone Group (386.88 million) and America Movil Group (251.83 million), according to the Wireless Intelligence report: Mobile operator worldwide group global ranking by connections (Q2, 2012).
Following Bharti Airtel is Telefonica Group (243.51 million connections) ranked fifth globally. Besides China Unicom (which is at the sixth position), Bharti Airtel is the only other member of the top ten to move up the ranking, recording a 13% year-on-year rise in connections to overtake the Spanish operator Telefonica.
Bharti Airtel became the fifth largest mobile operator in the world following its acquisition of Zain Group's mobile operations across 15 African nations in June 2010.
Airtel’s mobile revenue at $3.04bn in the second quarter of this year is lower than the other operators in the top five, reflecting its presence in the ultra low-cost, low-margin Indian and African markets.
France Telecom was ranked 12 in the report, marking its return to the top 20 after dropping out of the list a year ago. Russia’s Sistema Group at the 15thposition recorded the biggest slip in the ranking, dropping four places from a year ago.
US market-leader Verizon Wireless was ranked 16, falling three positions from last year. Its competitor AT&T fell by two places, at the 18th position. Similar to the mature European operators, mobile revenues for the US operators were higher than their emerging market counterparts.
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