Talk:List of mobile network operators

"World's Largest" Table: Number Of Subscribers
I would just like to point out that the current table adopted from the previous format is a tad misleading or even inaccurate. Vodafone's 120.53 million subscribers actually does include that in companies in which the company holds a minority stake. It is the number of proportionate subscribers, a measure more widely used in the industry to measure true size. This is the reason why I drew up the table with a column each for total and proportionate subscribers. In fact, the entire table's entries needs to be verified to find out if the figure is for total subscribers or proportionate ones. What do the rest of you think? --Huaiwei 17:37, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Go for it. (By the way, I was converting to tables last week but went away and didn't have time to finish up, which I'll now do later) --Joolz 18:02, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
 * For somebody who has not helped create the table with total and proportional users, I don't know what you mean. Could somebody please add a single sentence explaining what the different columns are supposed to mean and how they differ? Thanks ...
 * Think the global operator ranking needs to be updated.

Yup i agree that this should be the method - but for telenor and telesonara and some of the others - it seems like the number of minority owned customers were included wholesale into the number of proportionate customers. And so telenor's and telesonara's rankings should be far below their current rankings - out of the top 10 league i believe.

Surely Proportionate Subscribers Should Be The Sort Order?
That seems more meaningful than total subscribers. --ciphergoth 16:29, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * What does "proportionate subscribers" mean? Proportional to what? Brian Shaposky (talk) 17:42, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Consistency Problems: Column "Technology"
I think the Technology columns really need a fix for consistency. For example: In the US networks, GPRS is counted as "Technology" but in the Irish column, it is not (even though all 3 GSM networks have it). I also have failed to notice any other list which counts GPRS as "Technology" but I may have missed them. So should it be or shouldn't it be? -- RHe odt  18:29, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, this column mixes up 2 categories: I suggest removing the TDMA vs. CDMA info from this column, and just discuss standards. --68.6.44.232 06:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * GSM is a standard, a counterpart would be IS-95 (cdmaOne)
 * CDMA is a MA principle, a counterpart would be TDMA

MVNO's
Do MVNO's count as a Network Operator? Tracfone has been listed on the United States potion of the list for a long time and is currently listed as the 6th largest Operator, though it doesn't operate a network it just uses another companies network. If MVNO's are used in the ranking, then Virgin Mobile should also be placed in there. Does that mean Boost Mobile, which is owned by Sprint Nextel get to be in the ranking too with its 1.7 million subscribers? Or are those 1.7 million subscribers already counted under the Sprint Nextel subscribers?

Should there just be a separate column that lists the MVNO's and what network operator they use with their subscriber numbers listed? Or should MVNO's be places in the ranking?

This might be applicable then to the discussion below about moving the page to List of mobile phone companies.

New Table: Countries By Penetration Rate
Country according to penetration rate. As is, the penetration rate is listed for each country's entry if listed at all. The tables could be improved by listing this info in a separate table. --bjelleklang 10:18, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Great Article
One of the best on wikipedia IMO. thx whoever wrote it... I wonder any reason the list cuts off w/o smaller operators? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.140.5.249 (talk) 03:44, 29 March 2007 (UTC).

Who Owns Whom?
The lists of mobile network operators is just marvelous. thanks for all who have contributed.

What I now look for is a list that point out which operator is owned by whom and what stakes they have. does such a relationship/network description already exist? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 15.203.137.74 (talk) 11:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC).
 * A related issue: Are Verizon Wireless subscribers listed twice? Vodafone lists "USA" in the "Main Markets" column, but I don't think they operate directly in the US.  Any US "subscribers" they have would be thru their ownership stake in VZW. Jason McHuff (talk) 14:30, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

LowCall and Simyo Netherlands
Under the list of Netherlands-based networks, LowCall is mentioned as a network owned by Telfort, but actually it is not. LowCall is owned by debitel, and is using the Telfort GSM network. Maybe someone can take a look at this? Also both LowCall and Simyo aren't physical networks, but are virtual networks. Simyo is using KPN's network.

Proportionate?
I'm a bit unsure about how to interpret the different numbers.. I just put in updated figures for Telenor (90.0 and 142.7M), but from their spreadsheet it looks like the 90M are "wholly owned" subscribers, and the remaining 52.7M are given as "Associated companies: No. of mobile subscriptions (100%)". So is 142.7M then the real "proportionate" figure, and the "total" unknown, or is it correct as it stands? - BsL (talk) 09:26, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Standard name
Right now, when this article refers to the United States of America, sometimes "USA" is used, and other times "United States" is used. I propose that these be standardized for easy searching across the entire article. Ahlfi006 (talk) 17:21, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Incomplete Data
"Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGX: T48, ASX: SGT), commonly abbreviated as SingTel, is a telecommunications company, with a combined mobile subscriber base of 249.4 million customers from its own operations and regional associates at the end of March 2009" and yet is astoundingly absent from this list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.165.88.165 (talk) 15:25, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Prefer the older way of sort order based on proportionate data
I'd think using the old template with proportionate subscribers represent a better picture.Just added SingTel and surprisingly it's the third largest mobile network, excluding the indirect stakes gained in Zain via Bharti.

srikrishnak (talk)07:49, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Table rendering issues
The table looks awful and needs serious cleanup, its barely readable on my laptop. -- Eraserhead1 &lt;talk&gt; 22:09, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Vodafone vs China Mobile
China Mobile is first on the list, however if you press 'show' in the main market column for Vodafone (2nd) China mobile is there too. Does this mean that Vodafone has a minority stake in China mobile or vice versa? Dylan (talk) 16:05, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Prefer proportional data. Also wonder why SingTel removed again from the list
Added SingTel again to the list (4th time if i remember correctly. Also propose to remove 'technologies filed' and add 'revenue' to the table. srikrishnak (talk)02:02, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

SingTel is still missing. According to their media release, they have 157 million proportionate subscribers as of 31 March 2012 (http://info.singtel.com/node/11960). This would put them at number 13 on the list, between TeliaSonera and Telenor.


 * I second adding a Revenue column Brian Shaposky (talk) 17:44, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Misleading and incorrect subscriber numbers
The information in the 'Total subscribers' column needs to be more clearly defined as the current position is misleading and inaccurate, with different methods of measurement used for different companies. In my view there should be two columns for number of subscribers: (1) the number of subscribers in wholly or majority owned networks; and (2) the number of proportionate customers (i.e. also including minority-owned networks, but with subscriber numbers in both majority and minority owned networks adjusted for ownership percentage).

To take one example of how the present infomration is misleading, the total subscriber numbers quoted for SingTel at present is 382,814,000. However this number refers to the total number of subscribers in all majority and minority owned networks, not adjusted for shareholding i.e. even if the shareholding is 1% the number of subscribers is still counted in total (the comparable figure for Vodafone would be well over 500 million, and third-party sources never describe SingTel as being the second-largest mobile phone company measured by subscribers).

This is clearly meaningless, and makes comparison with other companies in the list where the 'Total number' refers to something very much more meaningful impossible. 'Total subscribers' should be defined both clearly and precisely, and not so widely as to be completely meaningless. The present approach satifies neither requirement.Rangoon11 (talk) 11:45, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

VIVO IS PART OF TELEFONICA Brazil´s "Vivo" company is now owned by Telefonica, adding more than 50 million suscribers to the Telefonica group.--81.35.237.47 (talk) 05:05, 7 May 2011 (UTC)Apart from that Telefónica is the more profitable Mobile company in the World.--81.35.237.47 (talk) 05:10, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorting Bug
Not sure if this is an issue with the text used in the columns but it doesn't seems to sort right when clicking on the various columns. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.131.177.17 (talk) 21:22, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Ranking does not correspond to "Total subscribers", and table is not sortable by total subscribers
For example: T-Mobile is ranked 17 in this list "measured by number of subscribers" (first line of article) with 328 million subscribers, while TeliaSonera is ranked 12 with 160 million subscribers in this list "measured by number of subscribers". The first step to a real factual base would be to move out the references from the numbers columns into a column by itself, so that the table could become really sortable by subscriber number. The column "rank" could then be dropped. --L.Willms (talk) 20:38, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

Proportional vs. Total
I have a problem editing the article for the telcos do not provide separate data for "total" and "proportional" subscribers. For example, China Mobile only states that it has 667 million subscribers, but it does not state if their subscribers in Hong Kong and Pakistan is included in this number.

Also, for T-Mobile, their Q1 2012 data only showed that they only have 129 million subcribers, dropping them to #17 in the list.

I have an issue for NTT Docomo, too. It is estimated that they have "60 million subscribers" in Japan, but if we'll include their stake in PLDT and Tata Docomo, the numbers would sure to inflate, placing them somewhere in the Top 30.

I don't really know, but maybe we can drop having 2 columns and instead just post here what number the telcos say? Most telcos report only the "proportional" number, I believe.

I just ask for clarification, as a reference to future wikipedia contributors who will edit this article.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Ppby (talk • contribs) 06:36, 1 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I was also finding it very difficult in getting the proportionate subscribers. I believe the strategy followed by most of the telcos is that the total subscribers of a majority ownership is taken as their own. For eg: Vodafone's total subscribers from their site includes numbers from Vodafone India in full, in which they have a majority stake. But does not include those from Airtel India, in which they have a minority stake. Machinist 88 (talk) 18:30, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

What about Leap Wireless?
…who own and operate Cricket Wireless? --Jerome Potts (talk) 17:18, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

New listing
Kindly update the list as per latest ranking brought out by a sister associate of GSM Association, one of the most reputed data analyzing organization, or by other reliable sources, as there are lot of variations in these rankings. for example Reliance Mobile is ranked 16 on Wiki list while, it is ranked 8th by GSM Association. --Wiki.Gunjan (talk) 19:29, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Airtel is missing from the rankings.
Airtel is listed under Singtel's entry. But if you see, Singtel just owns 35% of Airtel and still is a minority shareholder. The bulk of the shares lie with the public and the Mittal family which runs the company. Thus I think it's only fair to make Airtel a new entry, like it was a few months ago. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.91.78.234 (talk) 00:53, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Wikidata: Number of Subscribers property
Thanks for this great collection! I added the facts to wikidata (see e.g. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q741618) using the newly created number of subscribers property

In case you're interested, you may want to use could add the number of subscribers (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P3744) to further telecommunication companies. Givegivetake (talk) 20:41, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Vodafone and MTS
Vodafone Ukraine and MTS Ukraine is the same operator (MTS Ukraine was rebranded to Vodafone in 2015). Here it is listed twice: for Vodafone and for MTS. In operator's annual reports MTS includes 20.9 mln Ukrainian customers, but Vodafone does not list Ukraine as opration country.-- Anatoliy  ( Talk ) 19:52, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

Regarding Vodafone India's merger with Idea
Vodafone Idea Limited is not a company where Vodafone group has a majority stake. As per the merger conditions, Vodafone has to equalize it’s shareholding with Aditya Birla group in 5 years, which means a further reduction in the share percentage that Vodafone group has in the merged entity. So, I believe Vodafone Idea should not be mentioned in the list along with all the other subsidiaries of Vodafone group. As per March 2018 TRAI’s Telecom Subscription Data (check page 14), Vodafone India had approximately 222.7 million users. That number should be subtracted from the listed 535.8 million subscribers of Vodafone group because same number of users are being counted twice i.e. in the listing of both Vodafone group and Vodafone India limited. Thanks & Regards - Jayadevp  13  11:59, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Since I didn't get any negative response towards what I told, I have gone ahead and done the changes. Please discuss here before reverting.
 * Thanks & Regards. - Jayadevp  13  13:14, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

Removing of Tim from the table without any referenced motivation
Dear users, Good morrow everyone,

recently the unregistered user has deleted Tim from the table together with its datas and information provided with references/sources. If that user, "s/he" retains that Tim was wrongly reported in that list, s/he do - at least - should demonstrate why it's incorrect with equally valid references (actually datas seem demonstrate it was legitimately in tha table; moreover in analogue wiki pages in other languages it is present), otherwise s/he was committing vandalism and/or revisions based only on her/his own opinion. --BOSS.mattia (talk) 11:01, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

removed mci
mobile company of iran was removed i guess it has 80 million subs.5.75.38.85 (talk) 18:08, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Lost phone
I lost my free government snap benefit cell phone that I purchased. Wh can I do? 2600:1702:3CC0:4880:A0AC:95F4:727E:367F (talk) 10:11, 11 July 2022 (UTC)