Bharti Airtel fourth largest mobile operator globally
22 Oct 2012
Analyst firm Wireless Intelligence had placed Bharti Airtel, with over 250 million subscribers, at the fourth spot among the largest mobile operators in the world
China Mobile retained the top spot with 683.08 million connections. Vodafone Group (386.88 million) and America Movil Group (251.83 million) came in next in the pecking order.
Bharti Airtel (250.04) and Telefonica Group (243.51) were at the fourth and fifth position, respectively, Wireless Intelligence said in its 'Mobile operator worldwide group global ranking by connections (Q2, 2012)'.
Besides China Unicom (sixth largest), the report said Bharati Airtel was the only member of the top 10 to move up the ranking, with a 13 per cent year-on-year rise in connections to overtake Telefonica.
The telco 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, the operator said in a statement.
Wireless Intelligence however added that Bharti's mobile revenue at $3.04 billion in the second quarter of FY12 was significantly lower than the other operators in the top five, "reflecting Bharti's presence in the ultra low-cost, low-margin Indian and African markets."