The World’s Largest Cellular IoT Operators in 2026

Back in October 2021, I wrote a post on The 3G4G Blog asking Are there 50 Billion IoT Devices yet? The question went back to one of the best-known predictions from the early days of the Internet of Things: that there would be 50 billion IoT devices by 2020. That number referred to the wider IoT universe, not just cellular IoT. The devices could be connected using cellular networks, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, LPWA technologies and many other forms of connectivity.

When I looked at the numbers in 2021, the reality was very different. GSMA estimated 13.1 billion IoT connections in 2020, of which around 1.9 billion were cellular. Ericsson estimated 12.4 billion IoT devices, including around 1.6 billion cellular IoT connections, while Transforma Insights put cellular IoT at around 1.55 billion connections in mid-2021. Five years later, the picture is clearer, although IoT counting remains anything but simple. 

Transforma Insights estimates that there were 21 billion active IoT devices globally at the end of 2025, rising to 48 billion by 2035. So, interestingly, the market may eventually get very close to that famous 50 billion figure, just around 15 years later than originally expected. Transforma Insights The accompanying Transforma forecast presentation shows the same progression from 21.0 billion in 2025 to 48.0 billion in 2035.

Most of those devices are not cellular. Transforma estimates that short-range technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee account for around 79–80% of IoT connections. Cellular represents 11.3% of the total in 2025, or about 2.4 billion devices, increasing to 14.1%, or 6.8 billion, by 2035. The remainder includes non-cellular LPWA, satellite and other technologies. Transforma Insights The presentation also breaks the cellular component down across 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G mMTC and 5G non-mMTC technologies.

There is, however, an important complication. Berg Insight estimates that there were 4.2 billion cellular IoT connections at the end of 2025, significantly higher than Transforma's 2.4 billion figure. Berg forecasts this reaching 6.5 billion in 2030. 

This is a good reminder that IoT numbers depend heavily on what is being counted and how. Transforma builds its forecasts from active devices and individual applications, whereas mobile operators commonly report IoT SIMs, cards, terminals, managed connections or M2M accesses. These measures are not necessarily equivalent. That distinction becomes particularly obvious when looking at individual operators. The three Chinese operators alone currently report more than 3 billion IoT connections, already more than Transforma's 2.4 billion estimate for the entire global active cellular IoT device base at the end of 2025. The numbers therefore should not be mixed as though they measure precisely the same thing.

With that caveat, it is nevertheless fascinating to see the scale of IoT connectivity being managed by the world's largest mobile operators. Based on the latest available operator reporting and estimates, this is how the largest cellular IoT and M2M connectivity providers currently compare:

Rank	Operator	Reported/estimated cellular IoT / M2M connections
1	China Mobile	1,511 million
2	China Telecom	806 million
3	China Unicom	772.6 million
4	Vodafone	244 million
5	AT&T	~150–160 million
6	Bharti Airtel India	86.06 million
7–9	Verizon	~62–69 million
7–9	Deutsche Telekom	~62–69 million
7–9	Telefónica	64.74 million
10=	KDDI	~60.6 million
10=	Orange	60.49 million

Approximate figures based on latest available operator reporting and estimates, 2025–2026. Definitions vary by operator.

China Mobile is in a completely different league from most operators. At the end of June 2026 it reported 1.511 billion IoT card connections, alongside 1.011 billion conventional mobile customers. In other words, China Mobile now has roughly half a billion more IoT card connections than mobile customers.

There is also a nice connection back to my 2021 post. Transforma Insights told me at the time that there were around 1.55 billion cellular IoT connections globally. China Mobile alone now reports 1.511 billion IoT card connections, almost the same number. Again, the definitions are not directly comparable, but it gives some indication of just how dramatically the scale of operator IoT connectivity has changed.

China Telecom is second. Its first-half 2026 results show 806 million IoT connected devices, up from 746 million at the end of 2025. That means it added around 60 million connected devices in just six months.

China Unicom follows closely with 772.608 million IoT terminal connections at the end of June 2026. 

Together, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom now report approximately 3.09 billion IoT connections. There is then an enormous gap to the largest operator outside China.

Vodafone reports 244 million IoT connections, making it comfortably the largest Western cellular IoT connectivity provider. Vodafone's scale is particularly notable because its IoT business is international and extends well beyond the countries in which Vodafone operates its own mobile networks.

AT&T comes next. The operator said in March 2026 that it connects 150 million devices across major industry sectors and connects more than 80% of connected cars in the US. Berg Insight estimated AT&T's cellular IoT base at 160 million at the end of 2025. Given the difference in wording and methodology, showing this as approximately 150–160 million seems more sensible than choosing one supposedly precise number. 

India is another market where M2M connectivity is expanding rapidly. According to TRAI's August 2026 data, India had 140.50 million M2M cellular mobile connections, up from 137.70 million a month earlier. Bharti Airtel accounted for 86.06 million, representing 61.25% of the market. Reliance Jio had 27.10 million, Vodafone Idea 22.57 million and BSNL 4.78 million. That puts Airtel India comfortably in sixth place globally. Berg Insight had estimated Airtel's IoT base at 69 million at the end of 2025, so the growth during 2026 has been substantial.

The next three operators are much harder to order precisely. Berg Insight estimates that Verizon and Deutsche Telekom each had somewhere between 62 and 69 million cellular IoT connections at the end of 2025. Telefónica provides a more recent and precise number. It reported 64.739 million IoT accesses at the end of June 2026, up from 44.052 million a year earlier, an increase of 47%. Much of the increase came from Spain, where new IoT lines associated with connected roadside-assistance beacons drove particularly rapid growth.

Given the overlap between these figures and their differing reporting dates and definitions, I have grouped Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica together as positions 7–9, rather than suggesting that we can confidently distinguish between them.

The final place is effectively a tie between KDDI and Orange. KDDI reports 60.632 million "Connected Solutions" managed connections for FY2025, with a target of 80 million by FY2028. This is a broader managed-connections KPI rather than a perfectly clean cellular IoT SIM count, so again it needs to be treated with some caution. Orange provides one of the clearer definitions. At the end of June 2026 it reported 60.491 million M2M accesses. Orange defines M2M as SIM cards dedicated to exchanging information between machines through one or more communications networks. 

The numerical difference between KDDI and Orange is tiny compared with the difference in definitions, so treating them as joint tenth is more meaningful than declaring one definitively larger than the other.

The technology underneath these connections is changing as well. Transforma Insights estimates that there were 487 million cellular-based IoT device shipments during 2025, rising to around 1.2 billion annually by 2035. In 2025, 4G accounted for 46% of shipments, while 5G mMTC accounted for 48%, mainly reflecting the huge Chinese NB-IoT market. By 2035, Transforma expects 5G mMTC to account for 64% of cellular IoT shipments and 5G non-mMTC for another 27%, while 4G falls to just 9%.

The comparison also highlights why I excluded M2M and IoT when recently looking at the world's largest mobile operators by conventional subscriber numbers. China Mobile's 1.511 billion IoT cards, Vodafone's 244 million IoT connections and Airtel India's 86 million M2M connections would substantially distort any ranking intended to show the number of people subscribing to mobile services.

It also brings us back to the question I asked in 2021. No, we did not have 50 billion IoT devices in 2020. Even today, Transforma Insights estimates the global total at around 21 billion, although it now expects the market to reach approximately 48 billion by 2035. But cellular IoT has nevertheless grown enormously. Depending on which methodology is used, the global cellular IoT base at the end of 2025 was somewhere between Transforma's 2.4 billion active devices and Berg Insight's 4.2 billion cellular connections. That gap is itself an important lesson: whenever somebody quotes an IoT number, it is worth asking exactly what is being counted.

What is beyond doubt is that IoT is now operating at extraordinary scale. China Mobile alone manages more than 1.5 billion reported IoT connections, the three Chinese operators together report more than 3 billion, and operators around the world are supporting tens or hundreds of millions of connected cars, smart meters, trackers, payment terminals and other machines.

The 50 billion prediction may have been far too optimistic on timing, but the IoT market certainly did not disappear. It just took a rather different path to the one many people imagined fifteen years ago.

Related Posts: 

• Operator Watch Blog: The World’s 10 Largest Mobile Operators by Subscriber Numbers in 2026
• Operator Watch Blog: A Billion for China and China Mobile
• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - Q1 2024
• Operator Watch Blog: 8.05 Billion Mobile Subscribers with 5.22 Billion Unique by End of 2020
• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - March 2021 

The World’s 10 Largest Mobile Operators by Subscriber Numbers in 2026

It sounds like a simple question, but subscriber numbers have become increasingly difficult to compare. Some operators include Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) SIMs in their reported mobile totals, while others report them separately. Some include fixed wireless access connections, and multinational groups sometimes quote subscriber numbers from associates in which they own only a minority stake.

With IoT connections now running into billions globally, simply taking the headline numbers can produce a rather misleading league table.

We have therefore attempted a slightly different comparison: the world's largest mobile operators and operator groups by mobile subscriber numbers, excluding M2M and IoT connections as far as the published data allows.

The figures use the latest information available at the end of August 2026, generally June or July 2026. They should be treated as approximate because reporting methodologies are not standardised between operators.

Rank Operator / Group Mobile subscribers excluding M2M/IoT

1         China Mobile         ~1.011 billion

2         Bharti Airtel            ~594 million

3         Reliance Jio            ~479 million

4         China Telecom        442 million

5         China Unicom         >357 million

6         MTN Group         318 million

7         América Móvil       ~300 million

8         Vodafone Group      279 million

9         Orange Group        ~261 million

10         e&                         ~245 million

China Mobile remains in a league of its own. At the end of June 2026, the operator had approximately 1.011 billion mobile customers. What makes the distinction particularly important is that China Mobile also had 1.511 billion IoT card connections. Those IoT connections are reported separately and are therefore not included in the figure above.

The scale difference is remarkable. China Mobile has more IoT connections than it has human mobile subscribers, and its mobile customer base alone is almost twice the size of the next operator group.

Bharti Airtel takes second place when its Indian and African businesses are combined. The latest TRAI figures show Airtel with around 489.5 million wireless connections in India, but approximately 84.45 million of these are M2M connections. Removing these gives just over 405 million Indian consumer mobile subscriptions. Airtel Africa reported another 189 million customers at the end of June 2026, producing a combined figure of roughly 594 million.

This illustrates why simply using operator headline subscriber numbers can be problematic. India now has 137.7 million cellular M2M connections, and TRAI explicitly states that its wireless subscriber figures include M2M connections.

The same adjustment changes the picture for Reliance Jio. TRAI reported around 506 million wireless connections for Jio at the end of July, but 26.56 million were M2M connections. That leaves approximately 479 million conventional mobile subscriptions, putting Jio comfortably in third place rather than above Airtel when Airtel's African operations are included.

Jio itself reports a much larger overall customer base of more than 533 million because its broader digital services reporting also reflects the rapid expansion of its fixed broadband and JioAirFiber businesses. This is another reason why company-level customer numbers cannot always be compared directly with mobile subscriber numbers.

The next two positions belong to China's other major state-owned operators.

China Telecom reported 442.43 million mobile subscribers at the end of June 2026, including 322.5 million 5G network subscribers. China's enormous mobile IoT population is counted separately from conventional mobile telephone users in national statistics.

China Unicom is slightly more difficult. Its 2025 annual report said that the number of mobile billing subscribers had exceeded 357 million. More recent reporting increasingly uses a much broader "connectivity subscribers" measure combining mobile, broadband, IoT and other connections, so I have retained the latest clean mobile-only figure rather than trying to derive a misleading number from the new KPI.

Africa's largest operator group, MTN, comes next. MTN reported 317.7 million active subscribers across 19 markets at the end of June 2026. More than 179 million of these were active data users.

América Móvil, owner of brands including Claro, Telcel and A1, reported 334.3 million wireless lines at the end of June. The difficulty is that this figure includes M2M subscriptions in several operations. For example, its Austria and Eastern Europe total alone includes 11.28 million A1 Digital M2M subscriptions, while Claro Brazil also reports substantial M2M additions. Once these are removed, I estimate the conventional mobile base to be around 300 million.

This estimate is necessarily less precise than the China Mobile or Vodafone figures because América Móvil does not publish a single group-wide mobile total excluding M2M.

Vodafone Group is much cleaner. Its 2026 annual report gives 279 million mobile customers while separately reporting 244 million IoT connections. This makes Vodafone one of the easiest multinational operators to compare for this exercise.

Orange reported 321.3 million mobile accesses at the end of June 2026, boosted significantly by the full consolidation of MasOrange in Spain. Its detailed KPI reporting includes M2M within parts of the mobile base, and removing those connections brings the conventional mobile total to roughly 261 million. Orange's Africa and Middle East business alone now serves around 180 million mobile customers, showing how important that region has become to the Group.

Finally comes e&, formerly Etisalat Group. Its aggregate subscriber base reached 251.5 million at the end of June 2026 following the consolidation of businesses including Telenor Pakistan and its expanded international portfolio. The headline figure contains a relatively small number of fixed subscribers as well as mobile connections, so a reasonable mobile-only estimate is around 245 million.

The bottom of the table is the least certain. Deutsche Telekom is very close to the top-ten boundary, but producing a comparable 2026 group mobile subscriber figure is now difficult. T-Mobile US changed its reporting in the first quarter of 2026 and now emphasises postpaid accounts rather than total customers. At the end of 2025 it had 142.4 million US customers, while Deutsche Telekom currently reports another 123.7 million mobile customers across Germany and its other European operations. However, the German figure explicitly includes substantial M2M SIMs, particularly automotive connections.

Depending on exactly how M2M, broadband and other non-phone connections are treated, Deutsche Telekom and e& could therefore exchange places around the tenth position.

Another operator group that can appear much larger in some rankings is Singtel. This is largely because Singtel has major investments in operators including Bharti Airtel, Telkomsel, AIS and Globe. Adding all of their subscribers to Singtel's total while also ranking those operators or groups separately would effectively count the same subscribers more than once. For this comparison, I have therefore concentrated on controlled operator businesses rather than attributing 100% of associate subscribers to their shareholders.

The exercise also highlights how dramatically the meaning of a "mobile connection" is changing.

China Mobile alone has more than 1.5 billion IoT connections. Vodafone has 244 million IoT connections, while India's M2M base has already reached almost 138 million. In many cases, an operator's total number of network connections is therefore substantially larger than the number of people actually using its mobile services.

For traditional mobile subscriber scale, however, the picture remains clear. China and India dominate the top of the global rankings, followed by large multi-country groups across Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

And China Mobile, with more than one billion conventional mobile customers before its enormous IoT business is even counted, remains comfortably the largest mobile operator in the world.

Related Posts: 

• Operator Watch Blog: The World’s Largest Cellular IoT Operators in 2026
• Operator Watch Blog: A Billion for China and China Mobile
• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - Q1 2024
• Operator Watch Blog: 8.05 Billion Mobile Subscribers with 5.22 Billion Unique by End of 2020
• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - March 2021 

A Billion for China and China Mobile

As of September 2023 (last year), China had an estimated 750 million active 5G subscriptions. The share of the four operators, all of which have the Chinese government as a majority shareholder, is as shown in the picture above.

China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, surpassed the 1 billion subscriber mark at the end of July, according to the carrier’s latest available data. In the 5G segment, the Chinese carrier ended July with 527.9 million network customers, with a net addition of 13.7 million during the month. It ended the first half of the year with a total of 2.3 million 5G base stations, after adding 351,000 base stations in the period.

5G subscriptions explain an unproportionally low share of mobile data traffic - except for South Korea, Austria, Saudi Arabia, and China https://t.co/dJO6QUwOAx pic.twitter.com/8qelUhaplF

— Tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) July 8, 2024

According to their latest monthly subscriber stats, China’s ‘big three’ telcos – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – between them chalked up more than 20 million 5G net adds in July alone.

China Mobile is the country’s 5G growth engine, notching an additional 13.7 million subs during July. It took the operator’s 5G customer base to just under 528 million, which accounts for more than half of its total mobile subscriptions of just over 1 billion: China Mobile snagged its one billionth mobile subscriber in June.

China Telecom and China Unicom report the number of ‘5G packages’ rather than active 5G subscribers (which is the statistic that China Mobile now reports). This skews upwards China’s 5G number since those signed up to a 5G package (data bundle) can’t necessarily access 5G services, either due to insufficient network coverage or the lack of a suitable smartphone.

Putting that quibble to one side, China Telecom and China Unicom reported 5G package gains of 3.1 million and 2.9 million subscribers respectively during July. At the end of the month, China Telecom had nearly 340 million on 5G packages, accounting for 81% of its total mobile subscriber base. China Unicom had 279 million 5G package subscribers at that time, which, like China Telecom, represents around 81% of all its mobile subscriptions.

Related Posts: 

• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - Q1 2024
• Operator Watch Blog: China Mobile Talks About Orchestration and Automation
• Operator Watch Blog: China Mobile on The Next Phase of 5G: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities
• Free 6G Training: Summary of 6G Activities from China
• Free 6G Training: China Mobile's view of how to define a 6G Network
• Free 6G Training: China Mobile on the 5G/6G Connectivity Transformation for Sustainability 

World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - March 2021

The analysis firm Tefficient, posted this chart in one of their Tweets. As you can see that China Mobile is the leader, followed by Reliance Jio and then China Unicom, China Telecom, Airtel and Vi (Vodafone Idea). 

The largest operators in the world when it comes to data traffic: China Mobile in solid lead, Airtel India with fastest y-o-y growth (52%), China Unicom with the slowest (9%) - overtaken by China Telecom (47%). pic.twitter.com/aVDN4FLN6Y

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) March 25, 2021

As you can see, Bharti Airtel, India and China Telecom are also enjoying huge traffic growth.

Last year, Tefficient had also reported the absolute number up to 1H 2020. Vodafone Group (excluding vi) is the next highest carrier of the data traffic followed by Telkomsel Indonesia, Telenor group, MTS Russia, AIS Thailand, 3 Group Europe, Zain Group, XL Indonesia, Indosat and 3 Indonesia.

Of course not everyone agrees with all the numbers

If I read the TRAI report correctly Indian operators carried 76,319 PB in 2019. See chart below. If I add the Jio, Airtel & Vodafone Idea volumes shown in your chart I get 76,285 PB. Do the 120 million BSNL subs have zero data usage? Jio's 44,560 PB number is probably wrong. pic.twitter.com/SZmefBxLi9

— Antonios Drossos (@AntoniosDrossos) September 8, 2020

We will provide updated ranking when it is available. 

China Allocates Shared Spectrum for Indoor Use, CBN gets Third Spectrum for 5G Network

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has granted licenses to China Telecom, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Network (CBN) to share 5G spectrum for indoor coverage in the latest push to commercialise the new mobile technology. The 3 operators will share the 3.3GHz to 3.4GHz band for indoor coverage. The intention is that this will reduce China Mobile's monopoly as it has already got a a big chunk of spectrum in 2.6GHz as well as 100 MHz in 4.9 GHz band.

A report in International Finance states:

China Broadcasting Network (CBN) has received approval to deploy a 5G network across 16 cities using a spectrum in 4.9GHz band. It plans to have a nationwide coverage by 2021 after it signed a deal with State Grid last year. 

CBN is a broadcasting company headquartered in China. The telecom provider’s initial deployment will cover major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen among 12 others. 

In last October, CNB started trialling standalone technology on the 700MHz band in Shanghai. The telecom provider is working on an investment worth $35.8 million for its 5G network. 

CBN received its commercial 5G licence in June when the country’s big three telecom operators also received the licence. The operators are China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. 

China Mobile received a licence for 260MHz of spectrum across 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands. China Telecom and China Unicom each received 100MHz in 3.5MHz band — and they operate jointly for their 5G deployments. 

Mobile World Live reported yesterday that China Mobile is reaching 7 million 5G subscribers soon. Joseph Waring reported:

China Mobile, the largest operator in the world, signed up 6.7 million 5G users in the space of three months, with 74,000 base stations deployed in 50 cities by end-January, C114.net reported.

It reportedly installed 24,000 5G base stations in January.

The subscriber numbers quoted would place China Mobile as the largest 5G player in the world. In November 2019 it set the aggressive target of signing up 70 million 5G users by end-2020.

This report contains this nice picture of spectrum allocation to the operators in China, it's not up to date but still quite detailed.

(click to enlarge)

Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: China's Synchronized 5G Launch
• Operator Watch Blog: Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China

China's Synchronized 5G Launch

As reported by Mobile World Live:

China’s three major mobile operators officially launched 5G services in parts of 50 cities, claiming the largest rollout in the world just six months after the government issued licences.

The three operations deployed about 86,000 5G base stations and expect to have more than 130,000 by year-end. Market leader China Mobile aims to install 50,000 sites by end-December, while China Unicom and China Telecom each target about 40,000.

China Unicom claimed ubiquitous 5G coverage in 14 cities and 28,000 base stations.

All three operators announced similar packages with different speed tiers. Users without a 5G device can still subscribe to the 5G plans to take advantage of the larger data allowances.

China Mobile, for example, offers five plans with two speed tiers: speed limits of 500Mb/s and 1Gb/s. Monthly prices range from CYN128 ($18.10) for 30GB (low tier) to CNY598 for 300GB (high tier).

It’s giving 30 per cent discounts to existing customers, who have subscribed for three to five years. The company said it already registered 10 million customers to 5G packages.

China Unicom, the third largest operator in the country, claimed ubiquitous coverage in 14 cities, with plans to have service in 40 cities by the end of the year.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology (centre), kicked off the launch with representatives from the three operators at PT Expo China in Beijing today (31 October).

They’re also offering a solid 1000 yuan ($142) discount on the #Samsung Note 10+ 5G. It is one of the only high end 5G phones on the market. Could be a chance for Samsung to regain some share in a market it has pretty much lost. pic.twitter.com/gCx6nI2DCL

— Arjun Kharpal (@ArjunKharpal) October 31, 2019

Arjun Kharpal, China Technology Correspondent at CNBC pointed out in the tweet above that China Telecom has changed its app logo to “Hello 5G”.

China Mobile is selling 5G at a 30% discount to 4G – and that's just one of the reasons that #5G in China could expand far more quickly than in the US and elsewhere. https://t.co/ZRYCF1n7zM? pic.twitter.com/2A1fbBM3T3

— Mike Dano (@mikeddano) October 31, 2019

Mike Dano from Light Reading points out in his tweet that China mobile is selling 5G 30% cheaper as compared to 4G, which will simulate demand for 5G networks.

Picture Source: Dean Bubley on Twitter

The picture above shows summary of 5G Spectrum that has been allocated to the operators. Both China Telecom and China Unicom has 100MHz in the 3.5MHz band (C-band), while market leader China Mobile has 160MHz of spectrum in the 2.6GHz and another 100 MHz in 4.8GHz band. China Broadcasting Network (CBN), which was established in 2014 by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) to consolidate the country’s fragmented cable-TV industry also has 100 MHz in 3.3GHz band.

Related News:

• CNBC: Race for 5G heats up: China’s next-generation networks go online for as low as $18
• Light Reading: Chinese Operators Start Selling 5G at a Big Discount
• Reuters: China's state telecoms to launch 5G services on Friday
• SCMP: China’s 5G mobile service debuts to lack of applause from customers
• Mobile World Live: China releases 5G spectrum to state-run operators

Related Posts:

• Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China
• Tutorial on 5G Spectrum
• Non millimeter Wave (mmWave) 5G

Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China

A nice slide summarising IMT spectrum allocation in China can be seen below.

Presentation Source


According to Mobile World Live back in December,

China’s government allocated 5G spectrum in the mid-band frequency range to the three state-owned mobile operators, preparing the way for large-scale network testing in 2019 and the launch of commercial 5G services in 2020, China Daily reported.

Both China Telecom and China Unicom received 100MHz in the 3.5MHz band (also known as the C-band), while market leader China Mobile obtained 260MHz of spectrum in the 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed.

China Unicom connects a remote village Duogai in Qinghai Province for #CaseForChange

The Qinghai Province of China is vast and daily life is defined by struggles like extreme isolation, widespread poverty and harsh climate. In the remote village Duogai, winters can last up to 8 months, and many young children at the local boarding school only see their parents twice a year.
Getting an area so inaccessible onto the digital map seems like an impossible task. In 2017, China Unicom rose to the challenge and, despite the countless problems caused by the punishing weather, successfully installed 17.5km of optical cable and constructed multiple base stations.

Xuemei Sun bravely accepts #CaseForChange’s mission to visit the school in Duogai and learn how life has changed for the teachers and students there and experiences first hand just how severe Qinghai’s climate can be. Video below.



More details here.

World's largest mobile networks by subscriber numbers - Jan 2019

Here is a list of top 10 mobile networks by subscribers. The list is very dynamic as some operators grow while others shrink. The best example of operator that has been growing rapidly, overtaking others is Reliance Jio.

1. China Mobile, China, 925 million [1]

2. Vodafone Group, UK, 536 million [6]
Note: Vodafone Idea, India has 422 million subscribers [2]

3. Bharti Airtel Group, India, 413 million [4]
Note: Airtel India has 329 million subscribers [3]

4. China Unicom, Hong Kong, 315 million [1]

5. China Telecom, China, 303 million [1]

6. Reliance Jio, India, 280 million [6]

7. América Móvil Group, Mexico, 279 million [5]

8. Telefónica Group, Spain, 272 million [7]

9. MTN Group, South Africa, 221 million [9]

10. Veon Group, Netherlands, 211 million [8]
10. Orange Group, France, 211 million [10]*

* = added later

[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/china-telecom-narrows-subs-gap-to-unicom/
[2] https://discover.vodafone.in/about-us/home?section=consumer
[3] https://www.airtel.in/about-bharti/equity
[4] https://www.airtel.in/about-bharti/about-bharti-airtel?icid=footer
[5] http://q4live.s22.clientfiles.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/604986553/files/doc_financials/quarterly/2018/3Q18.pdf
[6] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/jio-profit-surges-on-continued-subs-gains/
[7] https://www.telefonica.com/en/web/shareholders-investors/financial_reports
[8] https://veon.com/Global/Files/Reports/3Q18/Q3%202018-Full%20announcement.pdf
[9] https://www.mtn.com/MTN%20Service%20Detail%20Quarterly%20Quarterly%20Trading%20Upd/MTN_Q12018_Results.pdf
[10] https://rai2017.orange.com/orange2017-content/uploads/2018/05/orag_1802135_ra_150x210_gb_mel.pdf

APAC's 32 largest operators ranked by revenue

Source: Austin County News Online

You have probably seen the map above. It shows there are more people in this circle than outside. Its also where many huge telecom operators are located. Well, Asia-Pacific or APAC is much bigger than what you see above. See this pic below.

Source: Wirawan Winarto on Quora

Total Telecom just published a list of 32 top operators in this region by revenue. Here is the list.

Mobile In Tokyo makes a good point (tweet below) that even though Japan is roughly 1/10th of China by population, the 3 Japanese operators generate 37% of revenue in Asia.

According to this report, three Japan telcos generate 37% of revenues in Asia, just ahead of China - considering 1/10 compared population = 10x ARPU. See 'on the Road to 5G' via @totaltelecom https://t.co/S0CMSfDlPb

— Mobile in Tokyo (@Wireless_Watch) June 26, 2018

In other interesting analysis in the article:

India contributes the most operators to the Asia 32 table with five representatives, but its revenue share is just over 5%, down slightly on the previous report. As detailed in the full Global 100 report, India's telcos are experiencing more than their fair share of difficulties, with Reliance Communications and Tata Communications both pulling out of retail telecoms on the back of fierce competition from newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm. Jio will also be a newcomer to the Global 100 in the next report. It generated revenues of 239.16 billion rupees in the year to the end of March 2018, which equates to around €3 billion and would afford it 22nd place in the current Asia-Pacific ranking and 65th in the full Global 100.

There was a newcomer to the current Asia 32 table in the form of Malaysia-based Axiata, which ranks 17th in the Asia-Pacific and 51st in the overall Global 100. There were previously just 31 representatives of the Asia-Pacific region in the Global 100.

The region's overall revenue total came in around €1 billion higher than in the previous ranking, with the Asia 32 together generating €502.3 billion. The Asia-Pacific accounted for 36% of total Global 100 revenues, down from 38% two years earlier.

You can read the complete article here.

Total Telecom's Global 100 report is available here.

In related news, according to Telecom TV:

Asia Pacific is on track to become the world’s largest 5G region by 2025, led by pioneering 5G markets such as Australia, China, Japan and South Korea, according to the latest edition of the GSMA’s Mobile Economy report. Launches of commercial 5G networks in these markets beginning next year will see the Asia region reach 675 million 5G connections by 2025, more than half of the global 5G total expected by that point. Asia’s move to state-of-the-art mobile broadband networks reflects the mobile ecosystem’s growing value to the region’s economy. According to the report, Asia’s mobile industry added $1.5 trillion in economic value last year, equivalent to 5.4 per cent of regional GDP.

The latest GSMA Mobile Economy report is available here.

The 4G explosion in China

The popularity of 4G mobile services in China continues to increase and subscriber growth shows no signs of slowing down. In fact China has built the world's largest 4G network within just four years and is aiming to add 2 million 4G base stations, mainly for townships and villages, by 2018. China began a campaign aimed at faster and more affordable Internet connection in 2015 resulting in a total of 950 million 4G network users as of the end of September 2017, according to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Served principally by three mobile network operators, China’s mobile sectors are largely divided along technological lines. China Mobile - currently the largest operator by subscribers focuses on the locally-developed TD-LTE 4G standard.  While rivals China Unicom and China Telecom have gone for a mix of TD-LTE and frequency division duplex LTE (FDD-LTE). 

According to Shang Bing, chairman of China Mobile the operator has pursued a strategy of 'Big Connectivity' and invested about CNY450 billion ($66 billion) over the last three years to build  the world’s largest 4G network. Its 4G user base reached 583 million in May 2017, with 4G penetration at 67.5 per cent. “One in four 4G users in the world is a China Mobile user.” It has deployed 1.6 million 4G base stations, or about 30 per cent of the global total, Shang said. Its 4G coverage will reach 99 per cent of the population by the end of the year, when its LTE base station count rises to 1.77 million.

China Telecom’s 4G user base doubled last year to 122 million, with LTE subscribers accounting for 57 per cent of its mobile connections and deploying 1.05 million base stations, while China Unicom’s 4G subs rose from 44.1 million at end-2015 to 104.5 million, representing 40 per cent of its customer base, with 770,000 base stations.

So why is 4G so important? Probably because it is a vital foundation for all that is to come:

"Future technologies, including 5G, the internet of things and AI (artificial intelligence) will drive society into the era of the internet of everything. The development of 4G has brought about the prosperity of mobile internet and changed people's lives," 

says  Li Zhengmao, vice-president of China Mobile. Industry pundits insist that 4G has been the greatest achievement in the national information technology sector during the past five years in rural and urban areas.But then the benefits of 4G are not limited to urban areas. Rural regions in China have also been opened up by the service. In Huanggang, Hubei province, farmers can sell their produce online through e-commerce sites, and buy crucial equipment safer and quicker through the network. China Telecom has spent 200 million yuan ($29.46 million) to roll out 1,300 base stations in Huanggang.

The decision has increased 4G coverage rates from 35 percent to 93 percent. It has also helped local farmers with vital agricultural information, as well as alleviating poverty through online education.

Even after all this progress, VoLTE is still long way away. According to a report in summer, China Mobile targets 17% VoLTE penetration this year. China Mobile group vice-president Mr.Liu Aili had said back in 2015, "VoLTE network deployment is the one of the most difficult project ever, the implementation complexity and workload is unparalleled in history"

Its not unreasonable to think that since China has the world's largest 4G market it is the  country that will lead the world in the development and utilization of 5G. 

Chinese carriers dominate global operator ranking as M&A deals shake up US market

All three Chinese mobile operators feature in the top ten in GSMA Intelligence’s latest ranking of mobile operator groups, underlying China’s status as the world’s largest mobile market.

The study ranks global operators using a model based on reported mobile connections and mobile revenue (see methodology below). China Mobile was comfortably the largest group by both measures, reaching 790.6 million mobile connections and recording annualised revenue of £66.4 billion for the period to Q2 2014. China Mobile’s two domestic rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom, are ranked third and tenth, respectively.

The remaining positions in the top ten were filled predominantly by operator groups with substantial global footprints across multiple markets, including Vodafone, Telefónica, América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and VimpelCom.

Notes on methodology
Subsidiaries are included within a parent group as per reported consolidation. Minority holdings (less than 50 percent plus one share) are included where a group does so within its audited financial statements.

Data for connections is shown as the period-ending value, excluding customers from any subsidiaries that have been divested over the course of the year. Revenue data is annualised, such that revenue attributed to any qualifying subsidiary is included on a quarterly basis over the four quarters provided the subsidiary meets the rules for consolidation in the respective quarter.

The ranking gives equal weighting to period-ending connections and annualised mobile revenue in determining final positions. The ranking by connections and revenue is combined to give an overall ‘score’, with a lower combined score ranking higher. For example, Vodafone is ranked second by connections and fifth by revenue, giving it a combined score of 7 (2+5). This ranks the group second behind China Mobile, which scores 2 (1+1), as it the largest group by both connections and revenue. Where scores are tied, the rank by connections is used as the deciding factor.

Source

China Mobile massively increases 4G growth rate

Chinese telco drives TD-LTE market as customer numbers exceed 8 million; China Telecom still reporting subscriber losses.
China Mobile had a 4G customer base of 8.11 million at the end of May having added over 3 million new users in just one month.

The telco, the world's biggest mobile operator and a key driver of the TD-LTE 4G standard, recorded 3.31 million 4G net additions last month, 
compared with just over 2 million in April. China Mobile launched its 4G service in December.

According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association, there are 300 LTE networks in commercial operation worldwide, of which 36 run on the TDD variant.

14 of those 36 are in the Asia-Pacific region, nine in the Middle East and Africa, and eight in Europe (see chart).

"Dozens more" LTE TDD networks are either in deployment or in the planning stages, the GSA notes.

In total, China Mobile had 787.3 million customers at the end of May, up by 2.7 million on the previous month and by just over 20 million since the start of the year.

It's a different story for China Telecom though, which is still suffering customer losses.

The smallest of the three Chinese operators saw its overall customer base decline by 950,000 in May to 181.2 million; 
it has lost 4.36 million since the start of the year. The telco has had a statement on its Website for the past few months attributing the decline to increased competition as a result of the launch of LTE services in China as well as strong marketing from its rivals.

China Unicom, meanwhile, added 2.7 million customers in May to take its total base to 293.3 million.
Source.