largest mobile phone companies

World

These are the world's largest mobile phone companies, by number of subscribers. The primary cellular technology used by each carrier is shown in parentheses.

China Mobile (GSM) - 158.6 million
Vodafone^* (GSM, UMTS) - 151.8 million
China Unicom (IS-2000, GSM) - 100.1 million
T-Mobile¹ (GSM, UMTS) - 65 million
Cingular (IS-136, GSM, UMTS²) - 49.1 million
Orange (GSM, UMTS) - 49 million
NTT DoCoMo (PDC, FOMA) - 45.9 million
Verizon Wireless (IS-2000) - 42.1 million
Mobile TeleSystems - MTS (GSM) - 34.22 million
Vivo (IS-2000, IS-136) - 26 million
Turkcell (GSM) - 23.4 million
Sprint PCS (IS-2000) - 22.2 million
mmO2 (GSM) - 21.3 million
TIM (GSM, UMTS)

¹ 109 million including subscribers to companies where T-Mobile has a minority stake. ² UMTS network currently being tested in six U.S. cities ^* 350 million including subscriers to companies where Vodafone has a minority stake.

Americas

Canada

Rogers Wireless - 4.2 million (5.5 million with Fido)

Fido (Microcell) 1.3 million

Bell Mobility - 4.5 million
TELUS - 3.9 million
Virgin Mobile - too early to determine

United States

These are the largest mobile phone companies in the United States, by number of subscribers. The primary cellular technology used by each carrier is shown in parentheses.

Cingular (IS-136, GSM, UMTS)(Joint venture: 60% owned by SBC, 40% owned by BellSouth) - 50.0 million
Verizon Wireless (IS-2000) (44% owned by Vodafone, 56% owned by Verizon Communications) - 44 million
Sprint PCS³ (IS-2000) - 22.2 million
T-Mobile (GSM) - 17.3 million
Nextel³ (iDEN) - 15.3 million
ALLTEL⁴ (IS-2000) - 8 million
US Cellular (IS-136, IS-2000) - 4.8 million
Virgin Mobile USA (IS-2000) - 3 million
Dobson Communications (IS-136, GSM) - 1.6 million
Cricket Communications (IS-2000) - 1.5 million
Western Wireless⁴ (IS-136, IS-2000, GSM) - 1.2 million
Centennial Wireless (IS-136, GSM) - 0.5 million

³Sprint PCS and Nextel have agreed to merge. Together they will have nearly 37.5 million subscribers. ⁴As of Jan 2005, ALLTEL is buying Western Wireless. Together they would have 9.2 million subscribers. In North America, IS-2000 is commonly known as CDMA. IS-136 is known as TDMA. However, CDMA and TDMA are general terms that can refer to several different technologies.

Brazil

Vivo (IS-2000, IS-136) - 26 million
Claro (GSM, IS-136) - 11.1 million
TIM Brazil (GSM) - 8 million

Argentina

Movicom-Bellsouth (GSM)
Personal (GSM) Owned by Telecom Argentina.
Unifn (GSM) Owned by Telefonica
CTI Movil (GSM)
Nextel (iDEN)

Asia Pacific

Australia

Vodafone (GSM) - 2.57 million
Optus (GSM)
Orange Australia (GSM)
Telstra (GSM)
3 (UMTS)

Hong Kong

CSL (CSL, 1O1O and One2Free) (owned by Telstra, previously by PCCW) (GSM-900, GSM-1800, IS-136, UMTS)
3 (previous Orange Hong Kong, Xin Gan Xian, Everyday PCS, owned by Hutchison Whampoa Telecommunications) (GSM-900, GSM-1800, IS-95, UMTS)
Smartone and eXtra (owned by Sun Hung Kai and British Telecom) (GSM-900, GSM-1800, UMTS)
Sunday (GSM-1800)
Peoples (GSM-1800)
New World Mobility (GSM-1800)

India

Europe

Austria

T-Mobile - 2 million
Orange - 1.5 million

Czech Republic

T-Mobile - 4 million

France

Orange (GSM)- 20.4 million
SFR (GSM)
Bouygues (GSM)

Germany

These are the largest mobile phone companies in Germany. The present telecommunication standard in Germany is GSM, called "D-Netz" (900 MHz) and "E-Netz" (1800 MHz). It is the successor of the analogous "C-Netz".

Vodafone (GSM, UMTS) - 26.9 million subscribers (12/2004)
T-Mobile (GSM, UMTS) - 26.7 million subscribers (3/2004)
E-Plus¹ (GSM) - 8.5 million subscribers (5/2004)
O2 (GSM) - 6 million subscribers (3/2004)

¹ Owned by KPN.

Greece

In September 2003 there were 10.88 million active lines, which makes 99% market penetration.

Cosmote (GSM) - 4.05 million
Vodafone (GSM) - 3.8 million
TIM¹ (GSM) - 2.75 million
Q-Telekom² (GSM) - 0.29 million

¹ Was Telestet until February 2004. ² The newest mobile telecom in Greece uses Vodafone's infrastructure until it builds its own network.

Hungary

T-Mobile (GSM) - 3.8 million
Pannon GSM (GSM) - 2.6 million
Vodafone (GSM) - 1.6 million

Ireland

Together Vodafone and O2 dominate, with a combined market share of 94%.

Vodafone (GSM, UMTS) - 1.9 million
O2 (GSM) - 1.27 million
3 (UMTS)
Meteor (GSM)

Italy

TIM (GSM, UMTS) -
Vodafone (GSM) - 17 million
Wind (GSM) - 7.7 million
3 (UMTS)

Netherlands

Vodafone (GSM) - 3.6 million
T-Mobile (GSM) - 2 million
Orange (GSM) - 1.65 million
KPN (GSM)
Telfort (GSM)

Poland

Poland has 15,100,000 mobile phone subscribers, or 39.09% penetration rate.

Polkomtel Plus GSM Brand- 33.1% Market Share/ 4.5 million
Centertel Owned by TPSA and Orange. Service under the IDEA GSM brand- 32.6% Market Share/ 4.4 million .
PTC-Era GSM Brand. 6.2 Million subscribers/ 40% Market Share

Romania

These are the largest mobile phone companies in Romania. Romania has 10,275,482 subscribers in total (December 2004), or 47.35% penetration rate.

Orange Romania (GSM) - 5,000,000* subscribers (48.43% market share)
Connex GSM Romania (GSM) - 4,910,312 subscribers (48.41% market share)
Zapp Mobile (IS-2000) - 280,000 subscribers (2.22% market share)
Cosmorom, a division of Romtelecom (GSM) - 85,170 subscribers (0.94% market share)

*Figure as of 18 January 2005

Russian Federation

These are the largest mobile phone companies in Russia, by number of subscribers. The primary cellular technology used by each carrier is shown in parentheses.