Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel has now become the fourth largest telecom operator in world in terms of subscribers. The telco has left Spain’s Telefonica behind to achieve the forth position in global standings.
Wireless Intelligence, an analyst firm said that the company had more than 250 million mobile subscribers at the end of the last quarter, which ended in June 2012.
This number is the highest subscriber growth among the top five global operators. The analyst firm said in the report that Bharti Airtel of India was the only member in the top ten to move up the ranking. The firm added that it recorded a 13 percent year-on-year rise in terms of connections and left behind Telefonica to become the world’s fourth largest operator group in Q2.
On the other hand, the report also added that Airtel’s $3.4 billion in mobile revenue in Q2 2012 was lower than four other operators in the top five. This also reflected Airtel’s presence in the ultra low cost, low margin Indian and African market. Reports revealed that there were three other Indian telecom operators in top 20 list apart from Bharti Airtel. The 8th position in the ranking was held by Reliance Communications.
