Chinese firms climb global operator rankings

Brought to you by Wireless Intelligence

Chinese mobile operators were among the best performers in Wireless Intelligence’s latest research service, which ranks the world’s largest mobile operator groups based on connections and revenue data.

Based on Q2 2010 figures, China Mobile continues to be ranked as the world’s #1 operator, reporting the highest mobile subscriber connections count (556.3 million) and mobile revenue (US$17.7 billion). However, its two domestic rivals – China Unicom and China Telecom – also improved their respective standings in the list from a year ago. China Unicom (#8) rose one place in our ranking, while China Telecom (#20) entered the top 20 for the first time.

China remains the world’s single largest mobile market in terms of connections, and operator revenues have been boosted over the last year as the country has ramped up rollout of 3G networks. This is particularly true of China Telecom, which had managed to migrate almost 10 percent of its customer base to 3G by the second quarter – a higher proportion than either of its two rivals. This partly explains why China Telecom made the most gains of any operator in today’s list, rising sixteen places from a year ago.

Vodafone remained in the number two position, yet notably Verizon Wireless (#5) – in which the group owns a minority stake – generates nearly as much revenue from a customer base which is just 30 percent of the size of Vodafone’s majority-owned subsidiaries. Meanwhile, America Movil jumped two places in our ranking to overtake Telefonica for third place on the back of strong growth in its Latin American markets. This meant that T-Mobile-owner Deutsche Telekom (#5) dropped two positions year-on-year. Two other European operator groups – France Telecom (#10) and Norway’s Telenor (#17) – also fell down the rankings compared to a year ago. In the case of both Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, their figures excluded for the first time their respective UK operations (T-Mobile UK and Orange UK), which were spun-off into a new 50-50 joint venture, Everything Everywhere, in April.

Two other major M&A deals made over the last year had an impact on the rankings. Bharti’s acquisition of Zain Africa – which closed during Q2 2010 – saw the Indian market-leader swell its customer base by around 40 million to 177 million in total, becoming the fourth-largest operator group in terms of mobile connections. However, the group has relatively low turnover for its size – partly due to the economics of the low-cost Indian market – which places it at #12 in our overall rankings (level with Telecom Italia), up four places from a year ago. Meanwhile, the newly-formed VimpelCom Ltd – a product of the recent merger between Russia’s VimpelCom and Kyivstar of the Ukraine – saw the group rise four places year-on-year to rank at #16.

The sale of the majority of its African networks meant that Zain – ranked #18 last year – dropped out of the list in Q2 2010. The other operator group to drop out was France’s Vivendi Group, which had been ranked at #19 a year ago. These were replaced in the latest rankings by Brazil’s Vivo (#19) and China Telecom (#20).

This research was prepared using the group analysis tools available in Wireless Intelligence which tracks the ownership portfolios of over 50 global mobile operator groups. To book a demonstration of the service or to find out more about how Wireless Intelligence can help your business, please contact us.

Global Operator Rankings (Connections & Revenue), Q2 2010
Source: Company data, Wireless Intelligence

¹ Connections are aggregated as the sum of each group’s subsidiaries where a minimum of 50% plus one share economic interest is held
² Revenue weighted by connections to adjust for fixed-line operations
³ Revenue includes fixed-line operations

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Ranking Methodology

Wireless Intelligence tracks all operator groups worldwide, including the percentage holding in every mobile subsidiary. We then allocate majority-owned subsidiaries to each group’s total connections and revenue; the group must hold a minimum of 50% plus one share economic interest to be considered a majority owner. Joint-ventures (an exact 50-50 holding) are excluded on this basis as per standard accounting practice. After filtering the ownership, operators that do not form part of a group (including those that may be minority-owned) are then included in the ranking on an individual basis and their connections and revenue is considered in its own right (e.g. China Unicom).

When considering the financial performance of each operator or group, service revenue is always taken in preference to total revenue so that the ranking reflects an accurate measure of direct earnings from its subscribers. Fixed-line connections and revenue are always excluded, unless it is not possible to do so due to the reported figures provided. This is clearly indicated in the footnotes in the minority of cases it occurs.

Entries in the list are then separately ranked both by connections and revenue. The final position in the table is calculated as a sum of these two rankings. For example, China Mobile is ranked #1 in both connections and revenue, giving it a combined sum of 2 (this is the lowest achievable overall score and is therefore ranked first). The individual rankings for connections and revenue are shown for reference to the right of the respective data.

In the event when the sum of both ranks is the same for any two operators (producing jointly-placed entries), the final placement is determined by connections rank rather than revenue.