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: 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 - Q1 2024

Last year, India became the most populous country in the world. India's population stood at slightly over 1.428 billion, edging past China's population of 1.425 billion people. India and China's combined population is one third that of the whole world. As a result it won't come as a surprise that the operators with most data consumption in their networks are the ones from India and China.

At the end of Q1 2024, Reliance Jio was the operator with largest mobile data traffic flow through its network. China Mobile was just behind. 

Here's an interesting stat too: The monthly usage per AirFibre (FWA) subscription is 390 GB, 30% *higher* than for a JioFiber subscription. https://t.co/MGamLJE6xm

— Tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) April 22, 2024

As Tefficient reported, Jio says that 5G's share of traffic is 28%, the rest being 4G as it doesn't have 2G/3G network. Another interesting stat was that the monthly usage per AirFibre (FWA) subscription was 390 GB, 30% higher than for a JioFiber subscription.

You can do a comparison with Q4 2022 numbers available here.

5G Network Sharing using MOCN for Rural South Korea

South Korea may have been the first country where all the networks switched on their 5G but that does not mean they have been having an easy ride. 

누구나, 전국 어디서든 5G로 연결됩니다. 통신사 간 망 공동이용으로 ’24년 상반기까지 농어촌 #5G 완성! 😆 자세한 내용은 ▶ https://t.co/TC0dNrrq5h #한국판뉴딜 #디지털뉴딜 pic.twitter.com/9fGBPdmij5

— 과학기술정보통신부 (@withmsit) April 16, 2021

Back in April, the ICT ministry announced that the three major mobile carriers will share their 5G networks in remote coastal and farm towns in a move to accelerate the rollout of the latest generation networks. The Korea Herald reported: 

The carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- signed an agreement so that 5G users can have access to the high-speed network regardless of the carrier they are subscribed to in 131 remote locations across the country, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Under the plan, a 5G user would be able to use other carrier networks in such regions that are not serviced by his or her carrier.

The ministry said telecom operators will test the network sharing system before the end of this year and aim for complete commercialization in phases by 2024.

The ministry said the selected remote regions are sparsely populated, with a population density of 92 people per square kilometer, compared with those without network sharing at 3,490 people per square kilometer.

The move comes as the country races to establish nationwide 5G coverage, with network equipment currently installed in major cities.

South Korea's MNOs will power up its joint rural 5G network 25 November. The present 5G coverage (here KT) was realised without sharing. KT used 67,000 sites & 130,000 base stations to reach the 5G coverage shown in the map. Interesting to see how the rural network changes this. pic.twitter.com/niHPTZuLoR

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) November 9, 2021

In another article back in September, The Korea Herald reported:

The number of 5G network base stations in South Korea accounted for just 11 percent of the total in the second quarter, data showed Monday, amid continued user complaints against the latest generation networks.

As of the April-June period, there were 162,099 5G base stations in the country, compared with a total of 1.47 million mobile network base stations, according to data from the Korea Communications Agency.

The number of 5G base stations was far outnumbered by around 1 million 4G base stations and over 300,000 3G base stations.

In comparison, the number of 5G users accounted for 23.8 percent of the total in July at just over 17 million, while there were 50.5 million 4G users and 20.2 million 3G users.

The latest data comes as local mobile carriers have faced complaints from 5G users over spotty connection and slower-than-expected speeds since the networks' launch in April 2019.

At a recent GSMA conference, Daehun Lim, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships, LG Uplus shared the 5G Rural Network Sharing plans in more details. The picture on the top shows the timelines and the areas that are planned to be covered by each operator.

The network sharing will be based on MOCN which we have explained in our tutorial here.

Since the 5G spectrum allocation for all the operators is very similar, we don't expect any issues with the network sharing plan going forward. We will have to wait a couple of years before is becomes commercially available though.

Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: Quick tutorial on Mobile Network Sharing Options
• Operator Watch Blog: All three mobile network operators in South Korea launched 5G on Dec 1, 2018
• Operator Watch Blog: Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in South Korea
• Operator Watch Blog: LG Uplus Tests 5G in 28GHz band using 800MHz Bandwidth. Sees AR as 5G Killer App 

8.05 Billion Mobile Subscribers with 5.22 Billion Unique by End of 2020

Telegeography reported that the number of mobile subscribers reached 8.05 billion at the end of 2020. The article reported: 

Figures from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database show that the global wireless subscriber total has passed 8 billion. User numbers were up 1% in 2020, ending the year at 8.05 billion.

The cellular market showed year-on-year growth despite the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to downturns in user take-up in a number of countries.

Of the end-2020 wireless user total, 55% were located in Asia; China and India alone accounted for 34% of the global base.

Asia saw year-on-year growth of 1%, with Pakistan registering the biggest jump in percentage terms. Customer numbers increased 6% in 2020 to 177 million. And there’s still room for expansion in Pakistan. The country’s wireless population penetration was around 80% at the end of 2020, compared to a regional average of 104%.

As for other regions, the U.S. & Canada also saw a 1% increase in customers, while overall user numbers in the Middle East and Latin America remained virtually static during 2020.

In Latin America’s largest market by subscribers, Brazil, the year finally saw an end to a long-running decline in user numbers. The customer total had fallen from over 280 million in 2014 to below 200 million as of June 2020. But the second half of 2020 brought a turnaround as the country ended the year with 205 million cellular subscribers. However, Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay all experienced annual decreases of 5% or more in 2020.

The fastest-growing region was Africa, which saw a 6% increase in subscribers during 2020 to 1.16 billion. This annual growth is on a par with the previous year’s figure.

Of the top 40 fastest growing markets globally in 2020, Africa was home to 29. It was led by South Sudan, which recorded an annual subscriber increase of more than 23%, while larger markets such as Kenya and Nigeria also recorded double-digit growth (up 13% and 12% respectively).

At the other end of the scale, the number of wireless subscribers in Europe has been in decline for the last six years. Of the 41 countries in Europe with a population above 200,000, 27 witnessed a drop in their wireless subscriber bases between December 2019 and December 2020.

Eastern and southeastern Europe saw some of the region’s biggest customer losses, with countries such as Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece all registering annual declines of more than 5%.

You can read the complete article here.

Hootsuite / We are social also publish annual numbers on Data Reportal. The embedded deck below provides numbers for 2020.

Digital 2021 Global Overview Report (January 2021) v03 from DataReportal

Related Posts: 

• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - March 2021
• Operator Watch Blog: How many 5G Cell Towers & Base Stations Worldwide? 

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 Telecom's 5G and IoT Progress

China Telecom's 2020 results were published this week. The PDF of that is available here. Capacity Media reported:

China Telecom has reported 2020 revenues up by 4.7% on the year with earnings up 1.4%.

The company said its revenues were 393.6 billion renminbi in 2020 — equivalent to US$60.7 billion. EBITDA was 118.9 billion renminbi, said the company, equivalent to $18.3 billion.

Meanwhile the company said that “5G achieved a promising start, with 86.5 million people now subscribing to 5G packages, 24.6% of the company’s mobile customers. “The number of mobile subscribers reached 351 million with net addition of 15.45 million, and the market share expanded to 22.0%.”

The small print of the company’s revenue breakdown show that 5G customers are spending on average 65.6 renminbi ($10.11) each, compared with 44.1 renminbi ($6.79) for mobile customers as a whole.

RCR Wireless said: 

China Telecom expects to increase investments in 5G infrastructure this year with the aim of almost doubling the number of base stations in the country, the company said in its annual report.

The Chinese carrier said it has earmarked a total of CNY39.7 billion ($6.1 billion) for 5G capex, slightly up from CNY39.2 billion in 2020.

Last year, China Telecom, together with rival operator China Unicom deployed 300,000 5G sites across China and ended 2020 with a combined 380,000.

For 2021, China Telecom said it expects to reach a total of 700,000, offering full 5G coverage in all counties and in certain developed towns, rural areas, railway lines and highways.

At the end of 2020, the telco had a total mobile base of 351 million mobile subscribers, up 4.6% year-on-year. The operator added an average of 6.83 million 5G subscribers a month to end 2020 with a total of 86.5 million. China Telecom had commercially launched 5G services in late October 2019 and closed that year with 4.6 million subscribers.

In 2020, 5G subscribers generated ARPU of CNY65.60 compared with CNY44.10 for its overall user base, which experienced a decline of 3.7% year-on-year.

But the most interesting bit was on IoT as can be seen from this Tweet

China Telecom’s IoT division has (roughly) twice as many connections as Vodafone, and generates (less than) half the revenue.

— Tom Rebbeck (@tomrebbeck) March 9, 2021

Ibraheem Kasujee, IoT Analyst at Analysys Mason noted that, IoT connections reached 237.6m (+50.9% on 2019), but IoT revenue was 'only' CNY2.2 billion (USD338 million), +16.9% on 2019. Implies a monthly ARPC of < USD0.15. Tom Rebbeck, Partner at Analysys Mason noted that China Telecom’s IoT division has (roughly) twice as many connections as Vodafone, and generates (less than) half the revenue.

The annual report points out that, "IoT includes mobile data traffic, SMS, value-added services & applications related to IoT, other IoT Projects, etc."

We will have to wait and see how many of these are 2G/3G IoT vs 4G NB-IoT/LTE-M.

Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: Top 20 Telcos Worldwide in Q3 2020, Based on Capex by MTN Consulting
• Operator Watch Blog: China Allocates Shared Spectrum for Indoor Use, CBN gets Third Spectrum for 5G Network
• Operator Watch Blog: China's Synchronized 5G Launch
• Operator Watch Blog: How many 5G Cell Towers & Base Stations Worldwide?
• The 3G4G Blog: China Telecom: An examination of the current industrial trends and an outlook of 6G
• The 3G4G Blog: Real-life 5G Use Cases for Verticals from China 

How many 5G Cell Towers & Base Stations Worldwide?

A question I often see people ask is how many cell towers / base stations are there worldwide? Surprisingly this information is not as easy to obtain as you may think initially. We can use this chart from a Light Reading webinar as a starting point:

Many years back someone explained a rule of thumb to me. There is on an average 1 site for every 1000 subscribers. With roughly 8 billion subscribers, this will amount to 8 million sites.

Omdia statistics from above says that there are 7 million physical sites and 10 million logical sites. As there are many sites hosting infrastructure from multiple operators, the number of logical sites are more than the number of physical sites.

In addition there will be small cells mounted on lamp posts, side of the buildings, indoors, etc. that generally may not be included in the count mainly.

When it comes to base stations, there is a debate on what is included. For example on a tower hosting multiple operators, each of them will have their own Baseband Unit (BBU), so this is multiple base stations. If for an operator, there are multiple generations of technologies and within each of these generation, multiple frequencies, sectors, etc. Do they count as a single base station or multiple?

Then there are towers and masts. Wikipedia nicely explains that "The terms "mast" and "tower" are often used interchangeably. However, in structural engineering terms, a tower is a self-supporting or cantilevered structure, while a mast is held up by stays or guys."

So coming back to 5G, how many base stations have been rolled out in the major markets?

Japan

In an earlier post on NTT Docomo, we pointed out that Docomo coverage is forecast to increase from 500 base stations in 150 locations to 10,000 sites (in about 500 cities) by June 2021 and 20,000 by March 2022.

According to Tefficient, Rakuten had 5739 LTE base stations on air at the end of June. The three incumbent operators have roughly 200000 LTE base stations each.

.@Rakuten_Mobile had 5739 LTE base stations on air at the end of June. Within that coverage area, Rakuten's UN-LIMIT customers have unlimited mobile data, outside of it limited data over au's network. The three incumbent operators have roughly 200000 base stations each. pic.twitter.com/ZpZBh7pH3q

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) August 11, 2020

South Korea

South Korea were the first to launch commercial 5G by all operators in the country. As of July 2020, they had 121,000 5G base stations

This should be compared to 121k 5G sites in South Korea and how many 5G sites in the US, @CTIA? #5Gleadership https://t.co/1sN8Ne2mDQ

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) August 13, 2020

China

Back in December last year, Global Times reported, there are currently approximately 6 million 4G base stations worldwide, more than half of which are in China and about 300,000 in the US. Why does China have so many base stations? This is because of a nation-level project in China in 2003. The project required that more than 95 percent of remote mountainous areas should be covered with communication signals and the fees must not be higher than those in urban areas.

In an earlier post we reported, the total number of 4G base stations in the first half of 2019 was 2.71 million including a net addition of 300,000, providing robust support for the development of large volumes of data traffic business.

European 5G observatory reported that China intends to have 600,000 5G base stations by the end of 2020. According to RCR wireless, Chinese telcos have already deployed over 20,000 5G base stations in Shanghai.

According to Tefficient, China Mobile had 188k 5G base stations in June 2020. So China then had a total of 398k 5G base stations

China Mobile had 188k 5G base stations in June 2020. So China then had a total of 398k 5G base stations - assuming that China Broadcasting Network hasn't yet built any (anyhow to partner with China Mobile). https://t.co/S1KYNHgWRf

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) August 13, 2020

This video from CGTN a few months back gives some good info on the Chinese 5G deployments.




There isn't information available from other countries. If available in the next few months, I may add them here.

Related Posts:

• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Some Pictures of Macrocells (and Small Cells) from Rakuten, Japan
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• The 3G4G Blog: Different types of Mobile Masts
• The 3G4G Blog: The Art of Disguising Cellular Antennas
• The 3G4G Blog - AT&T Blog: "Providing Connectivity from Inside a Cactus"
• The 3G4G Blog: Base Station Antenna Considerations for 5G
• The 3G4G Blog - Antenna evolution: From 4G to 5G

NTT Docomo's Aggressive 5G Expansion Plan

Source: NTT Docomo

NTT Docomo, maybe the largest operator in Japan, however they recently announced a drop in profit and revenue for the past financial year but in response, detailed for the first time a plan to grow their 5G network. There 5G expansion plans are both aggressive and ambitious.

The operator, which launched 5G service last month, said it signed up 14,000 5G users at end-March and targets 2.5 million subs by March 2021 and 20 million three years later.

What a beauty - breaking out 5G subs base after seven days of operation https://t.co/qcr9TA80AQ pic.twitter.com/YP9qXpDxAG

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) April 28, 2020

Coverage is forecast to increase from 500 base stations in 150 locations to 10,000 sites (in about 500 cities) by June 2021 and 20,000 by March 2022. Despite lagging behind the United States and South Korea, which introduced their versions in April last year, the new wireless service  available in the 150 locations in Japan covers 29 of the nation's 47 prefectures.

Their 5G plans for its next fiscal year ending 30 March 2021 include promoting Open RAN technology and deploying millimeter wave, as well as expanding the range of 5G smartphones, which stood at six devices at launch. It also mentioned pursuit of new experience and sensory services, e.g., music, gaming, video, sports, etc and value creation suited to remote‐work society  (medical / education / manufacturing, etc.)

Docomo's 5G plans for current financial year include O-RAN and mmWave on the network side. pic.twitter.com/weW48oD9wU

— Phil Kendall (@philkendall_SA) April 28, 2020

Docomo's 5G plans for its next fiscal year ending 30 March 2021 include promoting O-RAN (see Open RAN terminology) technology and deploying mmWave, as well as expanding the range of 5G smartphones, which stood at six devices at launch.

Source: NTT Docomo

NTT Docomo has delivered Japan's fastest speeds for both downloads and uploads for the last two years. Operators in Japan have received an ideal amount of spectrum for 5G services. NTT Docomo 5G service is achieving a maximum data rate of 3.4 Gbps in downlink currently which is expected to increase to 4.1 Gbps in June. Of course these are theoretical maximum values and no individual user can expect to receive this.

Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: NTT Docomo presentation on 5G Launch Plans and Use Cases Solutions Partnership
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Docomo 5G Open Innovation Cloud
• The 3G4G Blog: NTT Docomo's Vision on 5G Evolution and 6G
• Operator Watch Blog: NTT Docomo's 5G Launch on 25 March 2020
• Operator Watch Blog: 5G Officially Makes a Debut in Japan
• Operator Watch Blog: Japan allocates 5G Spectrum in 3.7GHz, 4.5GHz and 28GHz bands

China Mobile Establishing "5G+" Competitive Advantages

China Mobile is the world's largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers. There is roughly a difference of around 400 million subscribers between them and Vodafone Group, next on the list. According to the latest numbers published in the Interim 2019 report that covers a period of up till June 2019, they had 935 million, of which, the total number of 4G customers reached 734 million. Tefficient reported a total of 942 million subscribers at the end of Feb 2020.

The total number of 4G base stations in the first half of 2019 was 2.71 million including a net addition of 300,000, providing robust support for the development of large volumes of data traffic business. By the end of 2019, China Mobile planned to set up more than 50,000 5G base stations in China and launch 5G commercial services in more than 50 cities.

According to the report, China Mobile is working on implementing the following comprehensive “5G+” plans:

5G+4G. We will drive 5G and 4G technology and resource-sharing, and nurture synergies between the 5G and 4G network coverage and business operations. We will leverage the 4G base station sites and transmission facilities to build out our 5G network in a cost-effective manner. Our plan for this year is to set up more than 50,000 5G base stations in China and launch 5G commercial services in more than 50 cities. At the same time, we will play a more significant role in the next phase of setting international standards for 5G (Release 16). We will coordinate industry efforts to carry out research on fundamental 5G technology in order to ensure the continued advancement of this technology.


5G+AICDE. We will assimilate emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, cloud computing, big data and edge computing into 5G in order to combine connectivity with digital services. In addition, we will build out our service capability in areas including industrial IoT designated network slicing, one-stop cloud network convergence, secure and reliable big data services and telecommunications-grade edge computing. Centred around 5G, we will build a ubiquitous digital infrastructure, launch new capabilities and applications, develop new use cases and nurture more new businesses. Our goal is to become a leading new smart city operator.

5G+Ecology. We will establish an all-encompassing 5G open ecology that nurtures a 5G system by connecting partners throughout the information and communications industry chain, key verticals, innovative powers in society, high-performing technology and research institutes, and other telecommunications operators. Through our 5G Innovation Centre, 5G Device Forerunner Initiative, 5G Industry Digital Alliance and 5G Multi-media Innovation Initiative, we will drive, with our partners, the development of 5G devices, the innovation of 5G applications and the creation of 5G premium content. In addition, we will launch the BEST commercial plan, which aims to reinforce the “Basic service”, provide premium “Enabling services” and strengthen “Specialised services” so that we can march into the “Time of 5G” with our partners.

5G+X. Building on the foundation of the three “5G+” initiatives above, we will develop a “5G+X” strategy, where “X” stands for the wider application of 5G in a plethora of industry sectors and the mass market. On the one hand, we will launch innovative and integrated 5G applications to promote digitisation across sectors such as agriculture, industry, transport, healthcare, city administration, finance and education. On the other hand, for general customers, we will launch 5G ultra high definition videos, games and ring videos to satisfy customers’ appetite for a better digital life. We have accumulated more than 60 use cases of 5G across verticals, such as smart power grids, smart factories, smart ports, autonomous driving in certain designated areas, emergency rescue missions, remote medical treatment, smart campuses and high-definition cloud-based games. The 4G era has already improved people’s lives, and the 5G era will transform our society, bringing opportunities for development that have never been possible before. 5G will become the foundation for all-encompassing smart connections. In this historic moment, we will strive to maintain our competitive advantage and set the benchmark for the global telecommunications industry. We will continue to enhance the value of China Mobile surrounding “5G+”

Dr. Chih-Lin I, China Mobile, presented '5G++ the Journey Continues' at 5G World Forum Dresden, 2019 where she paints an immersive picture of what the network looks like from 4G changing lives to 5G changing society. She further discusses the timeline and trials beyond today’s 5G environment, including China’s spectrum status, licensing, standards and the all-encompassing capabilities from entertainment to medical services to open-source architecture, that the cutting edge 5G has to offer. Some of these things may be a bit outdated but there are a lot of insights in the talk




Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: China Allocates Shared Spectrum for Indoor Use, CBN gets Third Spectrum for 5G Network
• Operator Watch Blog: China's Synchronized 5G Launch
• The 3G4G Blog: Real-life 5G Use Cases for Verticals from China
• Operator Watch Blog: World's largest mobile networks by subscriber numbers - Jan 2019

AT&T: Winning the Connected Car market in the USA

AT&T has trumpeted their connected car achievements in a recent news article on their website. Their main achievements:

• Added more than 2 million cars in Q3 2018
• Bringing the total number of connected cars to nearly 24 million
• Connect more than 3 million fleet vehicles
• Relationships with 29 top global brands 
• Over a million customers on unlimited data plans where they can convert their connected cars into Wi-Fi hotspots
• Since the introduction of unlimited plans in 2017, subscribers have used 45 million Gigabytes (GB) or 45 Petabytes (PB) of data
• AT&T global SIM provides IoT connectivity across 500 carriers and 200+ countries and territories. 
• AT&T connects cars in 57 countries, including 12 where infotainment is enabled through Wi-Fi hotspots.

According to Fierce Wireless:

A number of those automotive companies physically install an AT&T LTE modem into their cars, thus giving customers an option to pay AT&T $20 per month (or $10 per month for existing customers) in order to create a bubble of Wi-Fi connectivity using AT&T’s LTE network for backhaul. (AT&T said it may slow network speeds for customers who use more than 22 GB per month.)

For those motorists who don’t have a car equipped with an AT&T modem, the company recently introduced the Harman “Spark” device that plugs into the on-board diagnostics port (OBD II) in most vehicles built after 1996 and provides Wi-Fi connections alongside vehicle diagnostics and security. (AT&T’s Spark arrived on the market years after Verizon launched its similar Hum device and T-Mobile began selling its SyncUp Drive device.)

In addition to the above achievements, AT&T are very active in V2X standardisation and implementation. Here is what they say:

We’re serving in leadership positions across the industry, joining with other tech leaders to resolve key standards issues. This includes 5GAA, a cross-industry association between the cellular and automotive industries, the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium  of automotive, information technology, telecommunications, and cloud computing sectors, and the Auto-ISAC for automotive cybersecurity information sharing.

We expect vehicle-to-anything (V2X) connectivity technologies will help driverless vehicles to make virtually real-time decisions based on information that goes beyond the individual sensors onboard the vehicle itself.

Vehicles will be able to “see” around corners, in front and behind other vehicles – and at greater distances. This will eventually allow vehicles to quickly make sense of their surrounding environment as well as road ahead to help guide safe and efficient operations on the road.

For self-driving cars to interoperate with their environment and surrounding areas, it will be critical to have connectivity between vehicles, roadside units, pedestrians, and other infrastructure elements while navigating the roadways. Data analysis and decision capabilities will be largely processed onboard the vehicle utilizing various data sources from the vehicles and the surrounding intelligent transportation system.

But one of the most exciting aspects of automated vehicles is their ability to learn from other vehicles’ driving experiences in ways that human drivers simply cannot. This is where our 5G network comes into play. 5G will eventually allow for the necessary distribution of processed data to meet and exceed the needs of the automated vehicle.

The algorithms that govern AV operation can be continually improved as automated vehicles encounter new driving situations. For those improvements to be made, data must be collected, analyzed, and synthesized into improved algorithms to then be distributed to other vehicles. 5G will ultimately help create faster and more efficient exchange of this data, allowing these automated vehicles to distribute and receive data and function even better.

5G multi-gigabit speeds, distributed edge networks, and low latency services can help these capabilities to become a reality in years to come.

And self-driving cars and 5G will ultimately usher new opportunities for in-vehicle entertainment and engagement when drivers have more time on their hands.

The Rise of Reliance Jio Continues as it Acquires Over 250 Million Subscribers

Reliance Jio announced last week that it has crossed 250,000,000 subscribers. The following are some of the highlights from the announcement (emphasis mine):

• Jio has accelerated its pace of subscriber additions further with net addition during the quarter of 37.0 million (as against 28.7 million in the previous quarter), highest in any quarter since the launch of commercial services
• Gross adds at 41.7 million and churn of 4.7 million implying the lowest industry churn rate at 0.66% per month
• Customer engagement continued to grow with average data consumption per user per month of 11.0 GB and average voice consumption of 761 minutes per user per month
• Video consumption drove most of the usage, increasing to 410 crore hours per month on the network; average video consumption of 17.5 hours per subscriber per month
• Further deepening of all-IP 4G LTE network in existing areas along with coverage expansion to 99% of population is on track to be completed in FY19
• Only network to deploy tri-band (800MHz/ 1800MHz/ 2300MHz) pan-India 4G
• World’s largest mobile data consumption network which is 5G ready
• World’s largest VOLTE network, with voice traffic growing consistently
• JioTV is the best rated live and catch-up TV app; JioCinema is the most popular video-ondemand app; JioMusic and Saavn together is music powerhouse with over 40 million songs; JioMags and JioNews are other highly popular customer offerings
• Strengthened the KaiOS app-store for JioPhone users with customised versions of popular social media applications like YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook
• Reliance Retail Ltd launched the ‘Monsoon Hungama’ offer for JioPhone with upfront security deposit of only ₹ 501 for a new JioPhone during the quarter. The offer works in conjunction with return of an old feature phone. Also, JioPhone 2, which offers a larger screen and full QWERTY keyboard for a price of ₹ 2,999 has been offered through limited period flash sales. Most used social media applications like YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp are now available for Jio Phone users

I blogged about Jio phone 2 earlier here. JioPhone (1) and JioPhone2 are both feature phones based on KaiOS. In fact I tweeted back in May that Jio has become a leader in feature phones.

In just 10 months, Reliance Jio’s become the world leader in feature phones https://t.co/bNP0X5qiO2 via @qzindia #4G #FeaturePhones pic.twitter.com/SBkmWo4m0X

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) May 31, 2018

According to Telecomtalk, it is widely expected that my March 2020, Reliance Jio will have over 400 million subscribers and over 150 million JioPhone users.

Finally, Communications Today has some interesting charts from Bloomberg. I am going to use one chart below to show how data prices have plummeted in India which is responsible for major uptake of data services.

Related Posts:

• Reliance Jio getting ready for LTE-Broadcast (eMBMS) rollout
• India: Disruption and Competition
• Disruptive Reliance Jio on the road to 4G leadership
• The changing and challenging telecom landscape of India

South Korea: KT ready to roll-out 5G in 2019

According to Mobile World Live, KT, the second largest mobile operator in South Korea, announced plans to start commercial 5G service in March 2019, which will make it one of the first operators in the world to launch the next generation mobile technology, Yonhap News Agency reported.

KT’s announcement comes despite the head of its 5G business unit, Lee Yong-gyoo, stating at Mobile World Congress last month it is not yet ploughing ahead with large-scale investment in the technology.


They also recently released a 5G video, explaining their vision




In a recent ITU conference KT also talked about their 5G service implementation at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter olympics. Samsung & Intel had partnered with KT over this event.

According to Fierce Wireless report, 22 5G links at 10 different sites—delivered 3,800 terabytes of data during the two-week event. A prestandard 5G network running in 28 GHz with vendors including Samsung and Ericsson used only line-of-site connections for communications in the millimeter-wave spectrum. KT recorded peak speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps on a 5G Samsung tablet using the network.

According to a report in Netmanias, KT is developing Five network solutions for 5G commercialization in 2019. These are technologies for expanding service coverage and maximizing 5G network performance. The solution development has been completed to 80% level, and it is planned to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

5G slot-integrated structure - LTE has a delay of 4 ms for transmitting Ack signal after receiving data due to difference of upload and download frequency channels. The 5G integrated slot structure transmits the Ack signal at the same time as the data reception in the TDD scheme, so that the delay can be minimized.

5G-LTE interworking structure - In case of shadow area due to discontinuous coverage in initial 5G network, it automatically switches to LTE network and provides seamless service.

Intelligent multi-beam tracking solution - When the user terminal is disconnected from the main base station, the user can access the auxiliary base station and use 5G service seamlessly by grabbing the signal of the peripheral auxiliary base station in addition to the main base station.

In building solutions - 5G frequency is very high in transmission loss due to high frequency band frequency characteristics. KT secures 5G quality by using 5G repeater in offices, premises, underground parking lots, and other buildings.

AI-based network optimization solution - 5G network optimization technology with remote and automation functions. For example, when performing antenna optimization, an engineer is stationed on the LTE site. In 5G, antenna direction and angle are optimized remotely.


Finally, some videos of KT booth and 5G equipment from Mobile World Congress 2018.

Overview: Indonesia Mobile Operators and 4G development

Mobile Operators in the sprawling archipelago nation of Indonesia are transitioning their networks  to meet the demands of the latest technologies and an increasingly connected population.

Indonesia, a country with nearly 410 million mobile connections, experienced rapid uptake of 4G services over the past year, with connections increasing 2.5-times and LTE penetration hitting 21 per cent.

The country’s 4G connections jumped from 34 million in Q3 2016 to 85.5 million in Q3 2017, according to data from GSMA Intelligence (GSMAi). LTE penetration in Q3 2016 stood 7.9 per cent.

To support the growth, mobile operators almost doubled the number of 4G base stations deployed in the opening six months of 2017, with 55,700 sites at end-July compared with 26,000 at end-2016.

In developed countries, the internet is everywhere. In homes, if not then readily available in schools, coffee shops and libraries. In developing countries this is not the case, if it were not for mobile phones, millions of people would be left on the losing side of the divide. As we can see in this chart, the vast of majority of people in Indonesia (and other countries) use the internet exclusively on mobile devices

The country’s mobile market was characterised for many years by the large number of players licensed by the local regulator. Seven mobile operators are competing for revenues in the Indonesian market: Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata, 3 Indonesia, SmartFren, Bolt and Bakrie Telecom (BTel). Market leader Telkomsel continues to maintain a huge presence but is under increased threat from the competition.

Telkomsel has a market share of about 44% in Indonesia and is the only operator which is active in all provinces. It had 180 million users in late 2017 making it the 6th largest cellular provider in the world. It is 65% owned by the state through Telekom Indonesia, the remainder owned by Singapore Telecom.

The operator, with a 44 per cent market share, sourced network equipment for the deployment from Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE. It is using 20MHz of 1.8GHz spectrum combined with 4×4 MIMO technology in the country’s capital city Jakarta and also Medan, Bandung, Denpasar, Mataram, Pontianak, Makassar, Manado and Ambon.

Telkomsel paid Rp 1.01 trillion ($74.7 million) to secure a license for a 30-megahertz band on the 2.3 gigahertz spectrum, which will enhance its capacity to offer wireless broadband services across the country.The new license means that Telkomsel now has a total band of 77.5 MHz on the 2.3 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 1.8 GHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz spectrums.

The operator said they have deployed at least 5,200 4G base stations in 180 cities across the country to date. It had about 12 million 4G subscribers in Q3 2017 and expects to have 15 million by the end of the year, accounting for nearly 9 per cent  of its mobile users, according to GSMA Intelligence.

According to Open Signal Telkomsel was well ahead of its rivals in 4G speed, averaging downloads of 14.6 Mbps in their tests. However 4G availability was where they fell behind their rivals. 

         

Indosat, Indonesia's second-largest telecommunications operator had about 82 million mobile subscribers last year, compared with Telkomsel's 180 million.  It has a good coverage on the main islands of Java, Bali, Kalimatan, Sulawesi and Sumatra, at low prices. 4G/LTE has started in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali and is available in about 94 cities at the end of 2016 on 900 and 1800 MHz with speeds up to 185 Mbps: 4G coverage map. In 2017 they bid for further spectrum on 2100 MHz.

XL Axiata is the 3rd provider in Indonesia. According to its website they have 46.5 million subscribers.  It is owned by Axiata Ltd. and has about a 90% coverage on these islands: Java, Bali and Lombok. Furthermore, it covers cities on Sumatra, Kalimatan, Sulawesi and a very limited coverage on Papua. Where it has 3G, speeds are often faster then Telkomsel. 4G/LTE has started in Jakarta, Medan, Yogyakarta and is spread to other regions like Bali, Lombok, Surabaya and East Kalimatan and Sulawesi on 900 and 1800 MHz.

As at 31 October 2017, XL Axiata says it had  rolled out 4G LTE services to around 100 towns and cities in Indonesia and had more than 20 million 4G subscribers nationwide, using a network comprising 16,000 BTS. At the same date, its total number of ‘on-air’ base stations had reached nearly 100,000, of which more than 44,000 were 3G-equipped.

3 called Tri in Indonesia is now the 4th provider with approximately 21 million  subscribers  previously with the lowest coverage, but the cheapest rates. However the mobile operator controlled by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, has revealed that its in-deployment 4G LTE network is now available in 227 cities and districts, including 1,769 sub-districts and 7,296 villages in 25 provinces. Their coverage extends from Lhokseumawe to Manado, and includes the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java and Bali. Commenting on the development, Tri Indonesia President Director Randeep Sing Sekhon said: 

‘Digital and multimedia services are expected to experience rapid growth this year. And in future the success of these services is reliant on [Tri rolling out] mobile internet infrastructure to support growth, as it is expected to become the main channel to carry such services’.

People wishing to sign up to the Tri 4G LTE network will need to buy a suitable 4G LTE SIM card and handset. Customers can exchange their old Tri 3G to 4G SIM card without extra charge at any 3Store.

Tri currently has a total capacity of 25 MHz -- 10 MHz in 1,800 MHz frequency and 15 MHz in 2.1 GHz frequency.

Smartfren owned by Indonesian PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk is a major player in the country. It had around 13 million customers in 2016 and has now migrated entirely to LTE. In 2016 Smartfren started the most widespread andfastest LTE in the country so far. It employs LTE Advanced that reaches higher speeds through carrier aggregation. But two rare frequencies are used: 850 MHz FDD (Band 5) and 2300 MHz TDD (Band 40). Already 5 million customers have been migrated to LTE. 

Smartfren's coverage is on the islands of Java and Bali, parts of Sumatra, Sulawesi, Lombok and Kalimantan. It started 4G/LTE in 25 centers so far and reaches 188 cities in 2016.

Since Smartfren phased out its 3G network, it has an impressive 4G network in terms of reach for those 2G and 3G customers to migrate to. According to Open Signal Smartfren testers were able to find an LTE signal more than 90% of the time, winning Smartfren their 4G availability award.

Bolt! owned by Internux is an Indonesian wireless broadband provider based on TD-LTE. It started in 2014 and has already 3 million customers in 2017. It uses the rare 2300 MHz TD-LTE (band 40) that is not covered by usual devices. That's why you are likely to buy new hardware for them. It only operates so far in the cities of Jakarta and Medan. Therefore it's more like a substitute for a landline ADSL-provider than a travel option.

The smallest and troubled mobile operator owes the government millions of dollars in licence and frequency rights fees. It originally launched CDMA service in 2003 in Jakarta, West Java and Banten and started to offer fixed wireless service in 2007. It had about eight million subscribers at its peak. Last year the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology revoked its fixed wireless access (FWA) and fixed licences. Huawei have recently acquired a near 17 per cent stake in Bakrie Telecom. 

Questions for the future: Can the Indonesian market sustain this number of mobile operators? Who will win the 4G and subsequent 5G race?