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