---
title: Bharti Airtel is the world’s second-largest operator, says GSMA Intelligence - Developing Telecoms
description: India-headquartered Bharti Airtel is now the world’s second-largest operator, according to data from GSMA Intelligence, a source of data and analysis covering the full mobile industry and owned by industry association the GSMA.
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India-headquartered Bharti Airtel is now the world’s second-largest operator, according to data from GSMA Intelligence, a source of data and analysis covering the full mobile industry and owned by industry association the GSMA.

Bharti Airtel’s total of 650 million subscribers includes more than 368 million mobile subscribers in India, where it was the first operator to launch commercial 5G services.

Its Indian operations also include FWA, IPTV, a significant business unit, subsea cable and data centres, not to mention a strategic partnership with Eutelsat OneWeb and SpaceX utilising low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband to remote maritime, aviation and rural areas.

Its true that its subscriber numbers in India put it second behind market rival Reliance Jio, which [last year passed](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-investment-mergers/18999-reliance-jio-ipo-could-be-india-s-biggest-ever.html?highlight=WzUwMCwibWlsbGlvbiIsImppbyIsImppb3MiXQ==) the milestone of 500 million subscribers.

However, Airtel has a significant presence in Africa too, where Airtel Africa has a base of over 179 million customers across 14 countries. It also offers Airtel Money, a mobile financial platform with over 52 million customers.

Quoted in India’s Economic Times news service, Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement: “Achieving the milestone of 650 million customers to be the second-largest operator globally is a great responsibility for us to serve our customers better every day. This is why we invest in state-of-the-art technologies to not only provide connectivity but to also deliver a safe network.”

China Mobile International Limited remains the biggest player in the world with over a billion subscribers. Reliance Jio, China Telecom and China Unicom are also in the top five.

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