Leading Telecom Inc Bharti Airtel becomes fourth major mobile operator in the world with over 250 million connections worldwide, according to analyst firm Wireless Intelligence. China Mobile maintains their position at top spot with 683.08 million connections gone after by Vodafone Group (386.88 million) and America Movil Group (251.83 million).
Bharti Airtel (250.04) and Telefonica Group (243.51) are at placed at fourth and fifth spot, in that order, Wireless Intelligence said in its 'Mobile operator worldwide group overall ranking by connections (Q2, 2012)'.
Besides China Unicom (which is at the sixth place), the report said Bharti Airtel is the only other part of the top ten to go up the ranking, recording a 13 per cent year-on-year rise in connections to pass Telefonica.
Bharti Airtel had turn into the fifth largest mobile operator in the world following its attainment of Zain Group's mobile operations all over 15 African nations in June 2010, the operator said in a testimonial.
It, though, added that Bharti's mobile income at $3.04 billion in the second quarter of FY12 is noticeably lesser than the other operators in the top five, "reflecting Bharti's attendance in the very economical, low-margin Indian and African markets."
The further Indian telecom operators in the report are Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and BSNL at eigth, fourteenth and twentieth position, correspondingly. While Reliance Communications has sustained its global ranking, Idea Cellular has moved up three places. State-run BSNL's ranking dropped by two places.
Telenor and Sistema, foreign firms with a subordinate in India were at the ninth and fifteenth spot, in that order. Russia's Sistema Group has gone down four positions in the ranking, according to the report.
