Top 20 Mobile Firms Globally

Ranked by subscribers, rather than revenue, here are the 20 largest mobile service providers, globally, compiled by Wireless Intelligence. 

Rank	Operator-group	Connections (million) 1	YoY growth, connections	YoY change, rank	Mobile revenue (US$ billion)
1	China Mobile	616.8	11%	-	20.3
2	Vodafone Group	367.4	15%	-	15.5
3	América Móvil Group	236.0	12%	-	7.7
4	Telefónica Group	227.3	47%	-	12.5
5	Bharti Airtel Group	221.2	25%	-	3.2
6	VimpelCom Group 2	191.9	115%	+8	4.6
7	China Unicom	181.6	16%	-1	4.0
8	Reliance Communications	143.3	29%	-1	1.0
9	Telenor Group	123.6	36%	+4	2.7
10	MTN Group	119.4	18%	-	3.5
11	Sistema Group 3	110.8	8%	-2	2.5
12	China Telecom	108.4	45%	+7	2.4
13	Verizon Wireless	106.3	7%	-2	14.7
14	Deutsche Telekom Group	105.9	-2%	-6	9.4
15	Telkomsel	102.3	16%	+1	1.4
16	AT&T	98.6	10%	-	14.2
17	Idea Cellular	95.1	38%	+5	1.0
18	BSNL	93.7	29%	+2	-
19	Tata DOCOMO (TTSL)	91.0	25%	+2	-
20	Telecom Italia Group	86.8	16%	-2	4.8

Mobile operator group global ranking by connections, Q2 2011
Source: Wireless Intelligence, company reports

U.S. Smart Phone Penetration Now 44%

Apple’s iPhone 4 was the leading mobile phone in the U.S., despite being a phone launched mid-way through 2010, according to Nielsen. 


Smart phone penetration rose from just 18 percent of mobile phone users in 2009 to  44 percent of U.S. residents in 2011.

Credit: Nielsen

Underdogs Tend to Innovate, Will T-Mobile USA Do So?

If Cole Brodman, Chief Marketing Officer, T-Mobile USA had his way, mobile service providers would not offer, or need to support, device subsidies. Most mobile executives probably would agree, as the growing wholesale cost of the latest smart phones has begun to impose a big penalty on operating income and profit margins.


Consumers obviously like paying $200 for devices that actually cost $500 to $600 each. But the device subsidies obviously represent a sort of inventory cost for the mobile service providers who are subsidizing the devices. 


T-Mobile USA would prefer to operate the way prepaid mobile service providers do, namely by eschewing subsidies. The downside for consumers is the potentially steep cost of their favored devices. 


Unlike the dominant mobile providers in the U.S. market, T-Mobile does support "bring your own device" plans, where consumers have financial incentives to forego the subsidies.


Underdogs tend to drive innovation in most markets, because they have to. The issue now is what else T-Mobile USA might be able to do in that regard